“Even at this late date, I am still full of rage at a natural order which would have permitted the evolution of something as distracting and irrelevant and disruptive as those great big brains of a million years ago. If they had told the truth, then I could see some point in everybody’s having one. But these things lied all the time!” p141

The Galápagos Archipelago in the Eastern Pacific Ocean holds incredible fascination and intrigue when it comes to understanding or contemplating on the origins of humankind. Often called a unique ‘living museum and showcase of evolution’ this group of islands is located at the confluence of three ocean currents, and is a ‘melting pot’ of marine species. The islands inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection following his visit in 1835.

Enter Kurt Vonnegut in 1985 and we find the Galápagos an inspiration for a satirical, somewhat sarcastic and somehow incredibly en pointe reflection on natural selection and the origin and ongoing evolution of species from the standpoint of a million years from now looking back to the 20th century.

Galápagos is pure satire, peppered with morsels of absolute gold that made me sit up, smirk, gasp, shake my head in disbelief at how accurate Vonnegut is, nod my head in acknowledgment and scratch my head in bewilderment.

Vonnegut throws up the whole concept of humanity, natural selection, survival of the fittest and kind of poses the question how far have we really come as a species? If so, then truly is this the true definition of futility? Vonnegut refers to 20th century humans as those with ‘big brains’, the very reason that we’re actually in such bad shape captured so eloquently on p141…

“Even at this late date, I am still full of rage at a natural order which would have permitted the evolution of something distracting and irrelevant and disruptive as those great big brains of a million years ago. If they told the truth, then I could see some point in everybody’s having one. But these things lied all the time!”

The invention of the Mandarax is a curious and ingenious concept throughout the book. Mandarax holds all the knowledge of the human mind and is all that ultimately is left of 20 centuries of knowledge. Intriguingly it seems to spend most of its time spitting out historical quotes focused only on a word that is input but with no relevance to the situation at hand. I’m thinking that AI is an interesting evolution of this concept.

Galápagos is an incredibly clever narrative, unique and actually a complete statement in and of itself. It’s no accident that a novel about the existential quality of life on earth as we have come to know it should be centered around those Ecuadorian islands that hold such intrigue for all of us.

I think an apt Mandarax quote to summarize all this is…

“Evolution cannot avoid bringing intelligent life ultimately to an awareness of one thing above all
else and that one thing is futility.”
Cormac McCarthy

"In the era of big brains, life stories could end up any which way. Look at mine.”

This is my favourite of Kurt Vonnegut’s books. It is a story told through the eyes of Leon Trotsky Trout, son of one of Vonnegut’s recurring characters, Kilgore Trout. Leon has been watching over humanity for around a million years as a ghost, and by watching over I mean he just sits there and watches them, not in any divine form.

Galapagos takes quite a big chunk being about Ecuador in 1986 during the Latin American Debt Crisis, which leads the main characters to flee the country and go of to an island named Santa Rosalia. After this the apocalypse basically happens, as a bacteria making women(except those in the island) infertile spreads, and kills off all of humanity(except those in the island).

Now, the story is basically chronological, expect occasionally it jumps to “future events” that are actually past events, don’t worry, not as confusing as I am making them sound, and you know who is going to die because he has marked their names with an asterisk.

Vonnegut uses this book to show us his view that global finance will cause humanity’s downfall, or something along those lines. He tells us that our brains are the main cause of our problems, because they make us distracted ( I don’t necessary agree with him on this), and that with it we lie to each other, and ignore the basics of life and death. “Thanks to their decreased brainpower, people aren’t diverted from the main business of life by the hobgoblins of opinion anymore.” He brings up that our creation of machines will diminish the size of our brain. He also likes to touch upon the fact that our brains trick us into believing there is a safety net and a god that will help us. Because of this, he says that once stranded in an island, humans are naturally selected to going back to more primitive ways, becoming more animal than man, furry and seal-like, oh so lovely.

“I didn’t know then what a sperm was, and so wouldn’t understand his answer for several years. “My boy,” he said, “you are descended from a long line of determined, resourceful, microscopic tadpoles– champions every one.”

So if you are in search of a book to begin with this iconic author, this is the one you should read first. I mean, what is better that having an author say: “I give p with humanity, we are all a bunch of twisted and stupid creatures that need to go back to eating fish and only focus on surviving, and fornicating, because there is nothing better than that.” Thanks for teaching me that Kurt.

Hayatın Galapagos’ta başlayıp, tersine evrim ile yeniden Galapagos’ta bitmesi fikri bir tık hoş. Topraktan geldik toprağa dönüyoruzun evrimcesi sudan geldik suya gidiyoruz.
Farklı karekterlerle, farklı hayatların bir araya gelmesi fikri de güzel. Anlatımı akıcı, sıkmıyor ve heyecanlı. Ben sevdim kitabı. Yormuyor okurken, çok şey beklemiyor sizden. Akıp gidiyorsunuz o yüzden.
Tek isteğim ada hayatına biraz daha yer verilmesi. Ters evrim geçiren İnsanların biraz daha tasviri, hoş olabilirdi. Hayal gücüne sağlık Kurt amca diyor dört

Kurt Vonnegut is never easy to summarize. Although his novels are a mixture of comedy and error, and some of the best sarcasm around, the reader gets the sense that Vonnegut’s not playing around. In literature truer than non-fiction, he makes you think while laughing. Galápagos is a novel about how human striving is vanity itself, and evolution will even out our folly in the end.

A set of unlikely characters end up in Ecuador on the eve of war. They’re there, in various guises, for a cruise on a ship to the Galapagos islands, where Darwin had his “aha moment” about natural selection. Some are there for business. Some to be seen. And some because they are genuinely interested in what the islands have to offer. When war does break out, the ship, cleared out of all its necessities, heads out to sea for safety and runs aground on the Galapagos island of Santa Rosalia. There a small band of humans survive. And evolve.

Although most of the story occurs in 1986, it is set a million years in the future. This is time enough for people to evolve much healthier lifestyles and, in the moral of the story, smaller brains. Large brains create even larger problems, in Vonnegut’s world. In parts funny, and in parts serious, Galápagos isn’t Vonnegut’s best-known novel, but in many respects one might get the sense that it should be. A wrote a little more about it here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

Tercer libro de Vonnegut que leo, después de "Matadero cinco" y "Barbazul", y me ha gustado menos que el primero, pero más que el segundo. ¡Qué pena que no dejen poner decimales en las puntuaciones! Sería un 4,5.

Es una obra que no defraudará los lectores habituales del autor, ya que presenta muchos rasgos estilísticos característicos de otras de sus obras: narración no lineal, disgresiones caracterizadas por un sentido del humor ácido y pesimista. El narrador elegido para esta obra es muy original, no he leído nada parecido antes, y me parece uno de los grandes aciertos de la novela junto con el uso de los asteriscos como elemento extra textual.

Como biólogo, me resulta interesante que una obra de ficción constituya un homenaje a la teoría de la evolución de Charles Darwin (de hecho, Vonnegut era bioquímico de formación), pero la excesiva insistencia en una visión un tanto teleológica de la selección natural, así como en el tamaño de los cerebros (que poco nada tiene que ver con la inteligencia) hacen que el homenaje quede un tanto deslucido por errores que cabría esperar en un estudiante de Secundaria que no hubiese estudiado todavía el tema de evolución, pero no en un bioquímico. Soy consciente de que es una falta un tanto rebuscada, pero no puedo evitar cierta deformación profesional en este caso. Junto con la reiteración en ciertos chistes, quizás sea el motivo por el que no le pongo las cinco estrellas.

Como cierre, diré que es un libro descacharrante, con el que te puedes echar unas buenas risas y además pensar un poquito sobre la evolución y sobre el escaso favor que la selección natural le ha hecho a la Tierra colocándonos como ¿especie dominante? (tampoco puedo evitar los argumentos sobre cierta direccionalidad del proceso, lo siento).

How can you not love this man who loved humanity as much as he despaired of our wisdom to not make a total mess out of life. I wonder how appalled he was at the popularity of the galapagos now - a popularity that threatens its very existence.

For a first time reading Vonnegut, I can't say it was all that bad. Especially since the book was borrowed.

The core of the story is how a group of people colonise an island of the Galápagos Archipelago, and the evolution that ensues from that. The action takes time in 1986, the actual time is a million years after that, and the narrator is a ghost that refuses to enter the Blue Tunnel of the Afterlife.

Sounds crazy? It is crazy.

Especially because humanity's big problems are derived from our big brains. Oh, and also from our hands with five nimbly fingers each. Add more craziness by introducing some lunatic characters; you will get a mind-boggling, but still interesting, story on the evolution pathway of the human being.

However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wished to. The story became repetitive at times, and it took a lot of pages to describe a single action, what with the narrator going back and forth as he told about the characters' backgrounds.

No, not a book that has found a place in my heart, but not a total fiasco. I really do hope I will read more books by Kurt Vonnegut. 'Galápagos' was just an appetiser.

3.5 stars.

This was not one of my favorite Vonnegut novels to be sure. I liked the concept of humans evolving 1,000,000 years into the future based on a single ancestor. I enjoyed the contemplations of evolution and placing the seminal moment in the Galapagos.

However I did not care one iota for any of the characters. But it is Vonnegut after all and there are sections that are thought provoking. Perhaps the idea would have been better expressed as a short story or novella.

Such a clever book. Started this thinking it was going to be all about Galapagos, some sort non-fiction book, I was well wrong. It's a vision of a future that we might be heading for, with the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer, world hunger still a major concern and us always seeming to be on the edge of WWIII, it seems quite an accurate prediction... time to book a spot on the "Nature cruise of the century".

I was surprised how dark and bitter Vonnegut got at times, at one point he commented what a good idea it would be if humans all got wiped out. And near the end he compares the once beautiful planet with the autopsy of a person who has died from cancer. Dark stuff!

I also learnt some interesting things about the Galapagos islands on the island featured in this book there is a "Vampire finch" which drinks the blood of Blue footed boobies. And the marine iguana that eats algae and seaweed which is impossible to digest so it sits on a hot rock to cook the contents of it's stomach. It's all true, look it up on the Internets.

This was a really good book and I enjoyed it more than slaughterhouse 5. Vonnegut is now one of my fav authors.

This is the second time I’ve read this book (the first being half-my-lifetime ago, at the very tail end of my teenage years) and I have to say, this is Vonnegut at his best. Written in the latter part of his career, this unsung novel should be held in the same esteem as Cat’s Cradle or Slaughterhouse Five. Caustically empathetic, weird, deep, and playful - this book exemplifies everything that is good about Vonnegut’s writing, and reading now for the second time, it has once again reminded me why I refer to him as my “favorite author.” Galapagos is executed with perfection.

W ostatnim czasie mam okazję zachwycać się lekkością pióra i niezwykłym humorem, jakim raczy swoich czytelników Kurt Vonnegut, amerykański pisarza i publicysta, tworzący głównie literaturę postmodernistyczną i science fiction. A to wszystko dzięki wydawnictwu Zysk i S-ka, które zdecydowało się na wznowienie kolejnych powieści autora w rewelacyjnej szacie graficznej. Dzięki czemu po raz kolejny mogłam zachwycać się kunsztem autora, które zaprezentował w swej powieści z 1985 roku pod tytułem Galapagos.

Przyrodnicza Wyprawa Stulecia.
Wszystko rozpoczęło się od chaosu, który w 1986 roku ogarnął Ziemię. Nie dość, że wybuchł wielki kryzys ekonomiczny, to jeszcze świat zaatakował tajemniczy wirus bezpłodności, który doprowadził do wielkiej tragedii. I gdyby nie szczęśliwy zbieg okoliczności, doprowadziłby również do końca ludzkości.

Na szczęście garstka wybrańców, która brała udział w Przyrodniczej Wyprawie Stulecia na kilka wysp archipelagu Galapagos ocalała i dała przyszłość całemu, nowemu rodzajowi ludzkiemu.

Pół żartem o teorii ewolucji.
Po raz kolejny Kurt Vonnegut mnie oczarował.

Wszystko przez to, iż bardzo inteligentnie, acz mocno żartobliwie podszedł do teorii rewolucji. Jego polemika z Charlesem Darwinem była jak żywa, a zaprezentowanie zdarzeń w mocno krzywym zwierciadle dodało tylko pikanterii całej powieści.

Warto zwrócić również uwagę jak autor pięknie wyśmiewa te „wielkie ludzkie mózgi”, które w opinii wielu powodują, iż jesteśmy inteligentniejsi i wręcz doskonali. A jest wręcz odwrotnie — są ona przyczyną najbardziej bzdurnych ludzkich zachowań i otaczającego nas zła.

Podsumowując. Pisząc Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut po raz kolejny udowodnił, iż ma niezwykły warsztat, niepospolity humor, a jego specyficzne podejście do tematu potrafi nieźle zaintrygować. Sięgając jednak po książkę, trzeba mieć świadomość, iż lektura do łatwych nie należy. Charakteryzująca się ona bowiem częstymi przeskokami myślowymi, zagmatwanymi opisami, które mogą nieco utrudnić jej odbiór, szczególnie tym, którzy wybiorą tę pozycją na „pierwszą randkę” z autorem. Polecam gorąco, szczególnie tym, którzy już mieli przyjemność „spotkać się” z autorem i czekam na wznowienie kolejnych książek z dorobku autora. :)

http://unserious.pl/2020/08/galapagos...

"One million years ago, back in 1986 A.D., Guayaquil was the chief seaport of the little South American democracy of Ecuador". This is the opening line of the science fiction book entitled Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut.

Now (year 1,001,986), civilization is existent in one place only: Galapagos. The narrator, Leon Trotsky Trout, who has been a ghost for those one million years, relates to the reader the events that occurred resulting in this new civilization.

The human race died out because of a multitude of factors. Only 10 people survived to start afresh on Santa Rosalia, a fictional island in the Galapagos.

The main story line is told chronologically, but the author frequently mentions the outcome of future events (referring to 1986 as being one million years in the past). The most obvious example of this is the inclusion of an asterisk in front of a character's name if he or she will die before sunset.

A recurrent theme is the worthlessness of a big brain. The novel questions the merit of the human brain from an evolutionary perspective.

The novel contains a large number of quotations from famous authors. They are related to the story itself and are functionally inserted through Mandarax, a fictional voice translator that is also able to provide quotations from literature and history. It is hard for me to identify my favorite, but here is at least one example, written by Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881):

"Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended in Action alone."

I am so glad I read this book. Like The Sellout, reviewed earlier this week, this book provided a respite from overbearingly sad books.

4 stars