and that's about as far as it goes, said Cricket.
The phrase 'so it goes' jumped out at me. I've always associated it with Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughter House 5 but perhaps he picked it up from somewhere. Or perhaps it's an entirely random connection in my sci-fi/Bogart saturated brain?
Well, "as far as it goes," and "so it goes" are different...
But variations on that are everywhere. "That's just the way it goes". "That's the way it goes". "It's just how things are." And so forth.
I think that was the interesting thing about Vonnegut's use of it. It's a well-worn phrase - almost a cliche - but used with such repetition, and so specifically that one version of the sentiment, that any reader knows it's important and building to something until it's revealed why the narrator uses it and what it means to the Tralfalmadorians.
If it's directly connected, if Vonnegut got that idea from To Have and Have Not, I'd need a quote from Vonnegut or at least his editor that said as much. It's too common a phrase.
I googled "so it goes" and all the references seem to be to Vonnegut - which is fair enough and where I knew it from (and pinched to use on many an email). In the film it's part of a sentence and I caught it because of Vonnegut. But it just made me wonder if the phrase had been in use before Vonnegut made it his own - probably not?
shareIf the phrase is in a movie that was made before Vonnegut used it in a book, it was obviously in use before Vonnegut, and even before the movie.
shareNot sure to be honest. It was part of a sentence, it sounded like it might be a common phrase but it could well be that my ears are attuned to the words by Vonnegut.
shareI don't know enough about Vonnegut to know what his influences were. I love Slaughterhouse-Five, though.
shareI love Slaughterhouse 5 as well but I hadn't realised, or perhaps I'd just forgotten, the significance of 'so it goes' to the Tralfalmadorians. Which is actually a good excuse to dig out a copy and read it again so thanks for that.
shareI gotta read more Vonnegut. I've only read Slaughterhouse-Five and Timequake. Timequake was the first I bought and read, enthralled by the lunacy of the back cover.
share