Time Travel - Vonnegut Style

Anyone ever read Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.? It's a decent book... strange... but decent. It talks about a man named Billy Pilgrim becomming "unstuck in-time" throughout his life. He said he could go back and forth from the time of his birth to his dead randomly. Now, what I don't quite understand is whether or not he is just having very vivid flashbacks and visions of the future, or is he actually going back into time and contiously being able to change things? Of course, in th jist of the book itself this doesnt really matter, because the subliminal theme is, what will be, will be and theres no point or reason to change it, because you can't change what is. The book, more or less, revolves around the allied bombing of the "open" city of Dresden, which arguably claimed the lives of more men, women, and children than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. It also talks about him being abducted by aliens from Trafalmadore and being displayed in a zoo and compelled to mate with a gorgeous earthling movie-star. The Trafalmadorians view time drastically different than us. They view time as a whole, not bit by bit. Where we read on line of a page, they read the whole page simultaniously. It's a confusing concept to me. Any input on the matter?

[edit on 6-2-2005 by spitting_duck]

I've read it, your right it's a very weird book, it's supposed to be an anti war book, but I suspect the guy is a little wacko after having lived through the dresden firestorm, hell I know I would be. Anyway it's a pretty common book for school reports and stuff so you should be able to find a load of info online if you really want to explore its themes in more detail.