I’m not exactly sure why or how Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle had been sitting in my bookshelf for a long time, completely untouched, but a few days ago, I decided to pick it up. I wanted to try reading something different from what I usually read (sci-fi isn’t exactly my cup of tea), and I think I watched a Youtube video on “Why You Should Read Kurt Vonnegut” a while back.
I’m glad I gave it a read, but reading Cat’s Cradle confirmed my lack of interest in science fiction. Too many weird, fantastical names and places for me to keep track of. I have to admit I couldn’t bring myself to finish the entire novel — I think I stopped at about page 220 when the book has about 280 pages total.
With that said, I would still agree with the statement that Vonnegut is an inimitable satirist. I enjoyed his commentary on organized religion — Bokononism is a religion based on lies and created for the manipulative upkeep of social harmony — as well as on the dangers of the pursuit of science in the absence of moral conscience.
Dr. Felix Hoenikker is one of the ‘fathers’ of the atomic bomb. The day they first tested a bomb, a scientist told him, ‘Science has now known sin,’ to which Dr. Hoenikker replied, ‘What is sin?’
Written in the margins in my blue ink: “WHY WE NEED CS MAJORS TO LEARN ETHICS!”
Anyway.
I don’t see myself reading more works of science fiction or Vonnegut, but I think people who do enjoy satire and/or sci-fi would enjoy this book.
There was one line from Bokononism that I liked:
“As Bokonon says: “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.””
Not that I think anything is ‘from God’ per se but I love the idea of ‘divine dancing lessons’ manifesting themselves in the form of spontaneous travelling.
