Slaughterhouse Five and false consolations from the unreality of time
Velleman thinks there is consolation from the understanding that time does not pass (see my previous), but that this consolation is often presented in an incoherent way. In Slaughterhouse Five, the Tralfamadorians are said to derive consolation from their understanding that time is an illusion. Their response to learning of a death is, "So it goes." But they are portrayed as moving freely among times -- time is said to resemble a mountain range that they traverse along paths of their choosing. Billy Pilgrim, when he partly assimilates the Tralfamadorian perspective, is said to "come unstuck in time," and experience himself drifting into different times out of sequence. But, in fact, the notion of moving through time is incoherent, whether the movement happens in temporal order or not. Moving freely outside the normal temporal sequence seems to imply enduring in a higher-order "meta-time," which is just another version of the original illusion.
Time travel is frequently portrayed in a similarly incoherent way. A particularly close cousin is the temporal existence of the aliens from Arrival, which they convey to the character Louise when she learns to think in their language. Louise seems to move through different moments in time, out of sequence. The aliens' reaction to the death of one of theirs, an even-tempered "Abbott is death process," is similar to the Tralfamadorians' "So it goes."
Velleman offers a qualified defense of these incoherent portrayals. The illusion of time passing is deeply ingrained in us and can't be dispelled by mere argument. Because of this, the true consolation of the unreality of time can't be conveyed to us without a difficult process of training and reforming our experiences (as in meditation practice). An artistic portrayal has to reach us where we are, give us something we can grab onto before our conceptual scheme has been radically reordered. If we can attain something that resembles the true consolation by thinking of existing in a meta-time outside of time, this might be the closest to the real thing that's possible for us. It thus serves both an artistic and, potentially, a therapeutic purpose, as a ladder to be kicked away.