The Tralfamadorians are a fictional alien race that feature prominently in
Kurt Vonnegut's novel
Slaughterhouse Five. The Tralfamadorians abduct
Billy Pilgrim and keep him in a zoo along with
Montana Wildhack, a starlet. The Tralfamadorians are said to resemble
toilet plungers with eyes.
Tralfamadorians are four dimensional beings and hence have a unique sense of time. They live in all moments at the same time. Vonnegut uses this concept to structure the novel, which is presented in fragments as Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time and journeys forwards and backwards in his life. Since Tralfamadorians know their entire life as they live in all its moments, they are inherently fatalistic. Their phrase so it goes encapsulates their philosophy of life. This contrasts with and serves to illuminate the folly of the events depicted in the novel, primarily the firebombing of Dresden by the allies in World War II.
The Tralfamadorians sense of the absurdity of life is present in most of Kurt Vonnegut's writing. His biography by Charles Shields was in fact titled And So It Goes
"Poo-tee-weet?"