خوب بود ولی برایِ من کتابِ گیرا و جذابی نبود، البته سلیقۀ دوستانِ عزیز برام محترمه
مدام از عقایدِ « باکونون» دینی خیالی صحبت میکنه و اعتقاداتِ آنارشیست رو میتوان در جای جایِ داستان احساس کرد... « باکونون» مثلِ تمامی ادیان و مذاهب بر پایۀ دروغ ساخته شده و پیروانش به مانندِ تمامی پیروانِ ادیانِ دیگه، این دروغها رو پذیرفته و با اونها زندگی میکنن
البته در داستان « باکونون» رو پیامبر میدونه، پیامبری که مثلِ تمامِ پیامبرانِ ادیان و بخصوص ادیانِ سامی دروغگو و جنایتکاره و افکارش فاسد هستش
ونه گات در داستان به عنوان خبرنگار به زندگیِ سازندۀ «بمب اتم » و خانوادۀ اون میپردازه
میگه: در اسفارِ باکونون آمده هر کسی که فکر کند میتواند از کارِ خدا سر دربیاورد احمق است... همانطور که در همۀ آموزه هایِ دینی این رو شنیدیم و از بچگی گفتن که به خدا فکر کنی دیوانه میشی! ولی این رو نمیدونستن که انسانِ بیخردی که به یک موجوداتِ خیالی اعتقاد داره متوهم و دیوانه است
البته همانطور که گفتم، در داستان بیان کرده که همۀ راستی هایِ باکونون چیزی جز یک دروغِ شرم آور نیست
دوستانِ خردگرا، اینجا، جایی برایِ توضیح و تفسیر جنگ جهانی و یا چگونگیِ کشف و ساختِ بمبِ اتم نیست ... «ونه گات» در موردِ انداختنِ بمب اتم در هیروشیما سخن گفته بدونِ اینکه از دلایلِ انداختن اون بمب صحبت کنه و پرده از جنایتی که ژاپنی هایِ مغرور و بی فکر برایِ انسان و انسانیت زیرِ سر داشتن برداره، اما همانطور که گفتم نه جایِ بحث است و نه قصدِ توجیهِ اون کار رو دارم و همه میدونیم که جنگ و کشتار به هر دلیل حتی به نام خدا و دین کثیف و غیرِ انسانی هستش
ونه گات یک مسیحی هستش... مدام به جنایت در جنگ و بمب هسته ای پرداخته... در صورتیکه اگر کمی خردِ خودش رو بکار بندازه و یک نگاه به تاریخ بکنه متوجه میشه که هیچ بمب و گلوله ای کشنده تر و مرگبارتر از دین و مذهب نیست و نادان هایی که به دین تعصب دارن از هر حیوانِ وحشی خطرناکترن... عزیزانم، به محض اینکه انسان گام به سویِ خردمندی برداره، اولین هیولایی که ذهنِ اون رو ترک میکنه تعصب هستش
البته در این کتاب «ونه گات » اشاره هایی به انسان هایی که بازیچۀ دستِ دین هستن میکنه و این مجودات از این که بازیچه باشن رضایت دارن
همیشه حاکمان و سرپرستانِ دینی از هوشیاری و خردمند شدنِ انسان ها هراسان هستن، و هرچه انسان احمقتر باشه در نتیجه بهتر خام میشه
ونه گات میگه: یکی از اسفارِ باکونون این است که،پختگی،سرخوردگیِ تلخی است که هیچ دوایی ندارد
دوستانِ خوبم، «ونه گات» در این داستان به درستی به آسیب ها و نا امنی هایِ زندگی در این دنیا اشاره کرده ولی عزیزانم این رو باید بدونید که تنها با چسبیدن به خردمندی و دانایی، توانِ امنیتِ شما و هر انسانِ دیگری در این دنیایِ هولناک بالا میره

دوستانِ گرانقدر، امیدوارم به این کتاب تنها به چشمِ یک داستان نگاه نکنید و به تمامی زوایایِ این کتاب با دقت اندیشه کنید

پیروز باشید و ایرانی

Health Warning: Truths Kill Better Than Cigarettes

I have a theory that only adolescents and geriatrics can appreciate Vonnegut. The first because he confirms what they fear and despise about the adult world they’re about to enter; the latter because they equally have learned to fear and despise the world they’ve left behind. Those between the extremes literally cannot afford to take Vonnegut seriously. The cost of doing so would be severe depression or social (or bodily) suicide. But for those who engage in therapeutic despair, Vonnegut is strangely comforting, a Christ-like figure who takes on the world’s absurdity so that the rest of us don’t have to.

Like it or not we live as a matter of faith. St. Paul had it right after all about that. Except he had the object of faith wrong. It’s not Jesus, who had as little clue as the rest of us about what was going on. No, his faith and ours is in the God behind it all, the deus absconditus, the divine puller of strings who is executing a clever plan that he hasn’t let us in on. The only important doctrine of this faith is that anyone who thinks he knows the plan is a knucklehead. For a religion, this is about as simple as it gets.

So the only thing to do when you have faith is to keep on truckin’. ‘It is what it is,’ as they say. Head down, pencil scribbling, keyboard clacking, socket-wrench turning, as the case may be. Thinking about the end-result - a solid bolt, an airworthy plane, a hydrogen bomb, millions dead and dying - will drive you mad. Making a living is what it’s about. Getting ahead, getting a name in the business, being top dog. Even if you don’t make it, you tried your best, you kept the faith.

Best thing is to pull your head in like a turtle and lay low about things not relevant to getting ahead. That’s part of the faith really and saves immensely on headache medication. And so is science, part of the faith that is. Scientists are the most faithful, something like priests really, and they generally keep low, really low, except when something big happens like a new model Chevrolet or an atom bomb. Then they come out of their shells and bask, hoping someone will throw a prize or a promotion their way. Afterwards they pull their necks back in and disappear.

Scientists value life. That doesn’t mean they care too much about living people or other biological forms. They just find life mysterious and like to study it. Don’t get me wrong. Some scientists have wives and friends and children whom they might care about but the lives of hundreds or thousands or millions of people are just statistics. So if your wife dies in a road traffic accident it’s a tragedy, but if a whole city vanishes under a mushroom cloud that’s a sign of progress… scientifically speaking. Sometimes the truth hurts. It’s called being objective and is the most important virtue of the scientist. Essentially it means they aren’t allowed to cry at work.

So all you scientists out there, young and old, just keep on doing what you’re paid to do. Truth is too precious to lose. And new patents don’t register themselves, do they? Corporate teamwork is what it’s all about. Remember that corporate loyalty is how you show your faith most clearly. Nihilism is out. Without faith, where would we be? In the crapper, that’s where we’d be. And by the way, whatever you’ve heard about this stuff called ice-nine that can freeze all the water in the world, it’s a lie. And anyhow, it’s top secret.

Postscript: my daughter-in-law happened to post me this today. https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/h... Kurt, where are we when we need you most?

In this book Vonnegut presents caricatures of religion, the hubris of scientists, and the dangers of technology. Jonah, the storyteller of "Cat's Cradle", is writing a book about what some people were doing when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He focuses on the eccentric Dr. Felix Hoenikker - "father of the atomic bomb" - and his three children.



He's told that Dr. Hoenikker was playing "Cat's Cradle" with a piece of string when the bomb went off.



Jonah also learns that, when the Marines asked Dr. Hoenikker to 'do something' about mud (which was difficult to wade through while fighting), he invented a substance called Ice-Nine - which causes water to instantly crystallize and harden.



Moreover, the effect rapidly spreads, solidifying all water far and wide - a very dangerous phenomenon.



Upon Dr. Hoenikker's death his children divide his stockpile of Ice-Nine to safeguard it. The children then go their own way. After a time, Frank, the oldest child, becomes the assistant of the President of a Caribbean island called San Lorenzo.



When Frank plans to marry, his sister Angela and his brother Newt - along with Jonah - travel to the island to attend the wedding.



Jonah finds that San Lorenzo is a very odd place whose residents practice a forbidden religion called Bokononism, which has some strange customs (e.g. people press their feet together in lieu of sex).



He also discovers that each of the siblings has given away a bit of their Ice-Nine to garner some advantage for themselves. With Ice-Nine on the loose all over the place can disaster be far behind? The book has an eclectic variety of weird, often funny, characters involved in a mildly engaging story.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

4.5 stars
Rather funny and biting satire on religion, politics and the possibility of humanity managing to destroy the world; written at about the time of the Cuban missile crisis. It is narrated by John, who is also the main protagonist. There is a Moby Dick reference right at the beginning when John says “Call me Jonah”.
John is writing a book about what famous Americans did on the day the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He is interested in Dr Felix Hoenikker who had been involved in the development of the bomb. As he is deceased John contacts his three rather odd children. The journey moves to a Caribbean island with a dictator. The whole encompasses a substance called ice nine, which makes water solidify at room temperature. It was invented by Hoenikker and his children appropriated it after his death. By various nefarious means the Americans and Soviets have it, as does the dictator of the Caribbean island of San Lorenzo (loosely based on Haiti). San Lorenzo also has its own religion Bokononism. This has been outlawed at the suggestion of its founder; thus making it more attractive. As does the fact that, as its founder says, it’s all “shameful lies” anyway.
The plot is about as far-fetched as it can be; but it is funny. The title of the novel refers of course to the children’s game of the same name and sums up Vonnegut’s approach to religion and politics (as expressed by one of the characters)
“No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's . . . No damn cat, no damn cradle.”
Vonnegut seems to think the whole world is a bit of a mess and that fact in itself is actually rather funny. The whole is a bit disjointed, but there are some wonderful quotes and comments on modern life, Vonnegut never forgets he is an entertainer and there is none of the wordiness and complexity of some of his contemporaries.
It’s great fun and very readable with some satisfying pokes at the pomposity of religion, science and politics and we continue to need to be reminded how vital that is.

“Chamem-me Jonah. Os meus pais chamaram, ou quase. Chamaram-me John.
Jonah, John – mesmo que fosse um Sam, continuava a ser Jonah -, não porque tenha dado azar aos outros, mas porque alguém ou alguma coisa me impeliu a estar em certos lugares em determinados momentos, sem falha. Foram providenciados meios e motivos, tanto convencionais como bizarros. E, segundo o plano, a cada dado instante, em cada lugar, lá estava este Jonah aqui.”

“As pessoas têm de dizer alguma coisa, senão as caixas vocais deixam de funcionar bem, senão as caixas vocais podem não estar boas se por acaso alguma vez houver alguma coisa realmente com sentido a dizer.”

“Ando a pensar em convocar uma greve geral de escritores até que a humanidade ganhe juízo.
(…)
- Mas não consigo deixar de pensar que seria um grande abanão para as pessoas se, de repente, não houvesse livros, novas peças, novas histórias, novos poemas…
(…)
- Diga-me o senhor: como morre um homem quando privado do consolo da literatura?
- De uma de duas maneiras – disse ele -, putrefação do coração ou atrofia do sistema nervoso.”

- Às vezes pergunto-me se ele não nasceu morto. Nunca conheci homem nenhum que se interessasse tão pouco pelos vivos. Às vezes, acho que o problema do mundo é esse: tantas pessoas em lugares de destaque que estão mortas e frias como a pedra.”

“É uma cama de gato.
(…)
- É um dos jogos mais antigos que existe, a cama de gato. Até os esquimós o conhecem.
- Não me diga.
- Há uns cem mil anos ou mais que os adultos entrelaçam fios de corda à frente da cara dos filhos.
- Hum.
Newt continuava enroscado na cadeira. Estendeu as mãos pintadas como se houvesse uma cama de gato entre elas.
- Não admira que os miúdos cresçam malucos. A cama de gato não passa de um monte de xis entre as mãos de alguém, e as crianças olham, olham e veem aqueles xis todos…”

“«Sem registos exatos do passado, como se pode esperar que os homens e as mulheres evitem cometer erros graves no futuro?», pergunta ele ironicamente.”

Cat's Cradle: Vonnegut's String Game



Cat's Cradle, First Edition,Holt, Rinehart and Winston

Published in 1963, "Cat's Cradle" is Kurt Vonnegut's fourth novel. I consider it one of the great satirical works of the 20th Century. Often referred to as a modern Mark Twain, Vonnegut's view of American society more fully embraces a society and its group values, while Twain's targets for his biting wit were more specifically aimed, although with the same verve and joy in the revelation of the foibles of life.


Kurt Vonnegut circa 1963

Placing the central character in a supporting role, Vonnegut opens "Cat's Cradle" with the narrative statement of an otherwise anonymous observer of life. "Call me Jonah," he writes, echoing Melville's opening to Moby Dick, "Call me Ishmael.

Jonah, as the biblical character was, would prefer to be a neutral observer of life. Jonah's goal is to write a history of the day America dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not what it was like in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but what it was like to be an American.

It's been a tenet of the rules of human behavior that it's easier to drop a bomb on somebody.


Paul Tibbets gives a wave from the B-29 he named for his mother."Hey, Mom! You're never gonna guess what I'm about to do."

You're not down there to see the damage you did. It's in that dirty, gritty face to face business when you see the face of an enemy disappear in a cloud of red mist, after you've pulled the trigger you may have some problems.


What Tibbets and his crew didn't see.


To capture the essence of what it was like to be alive on that day, Jonah searches for and finds the children of Felix Hoenekker, a co-inventor of the atomic bomb.

Hoenekker has been dead for years. However,his children, Frank, Angela, and Newt are very much alive. Newt, the youngest Hoenekker is a whimsical character, an oddity, not only on the basis of his parentage, but also that he is a midget.

Newt offers information that is critical to one of the central themes of "Cat's Cradle." He informs Jonah that he did not ask about the most significant response his father had to the successful test of the atomic bomb. When fellow scientist, a stand in for Robert Oppenheimer,whom Vonnegut does not name, speaks of the sin he and his fellow scientists have created, Professor Hoenekker's response is stunning. "What is a sin?"


Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos, NM, 1945, quoted from the Bhagava Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

During the test, Hoenekker is playing the children's game "Cat's Cradle." Hence, the title, and the degree of Hoenekker's detachment from the consequences of his contribution to the nuclear age.

Vonnegut, following his service in World War II, was employed by General Electric. His job was to write about the smartest guys in the room and put a human face on them. The company was known for allowing its scientists free rein in theoretical research. And, remember that wonderful slogan of GE once upon a time. "GE--We bring good things to life!

Vonnegut realized that science was capable of wreaking catastrophic results when research led to the development of products capable of being put to destructive use if allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Hoenekker is modeled on a scientist working for GE at the time Vonnegut was earning his paycheck there. In fact, the man, who shall remain nameless here, joked about creating the very substance which would be the genie let out of the bottle in "Cat's Cradle."

Not only did Hoenekker help build the atomic bomb, it seems he developed a substance Ice-9. For Hoenekker it was an amusement resulting from an exercise of the intellect. However, Ice-9, if allowed to come into contact with moisture of any sort, turned any object into solid ice. The implications are obvious.

Jonah accompanies Angela and Newt Hoenekker to the Island of San Lorenzo. Oldest brother, Frank is the small country's Major General, serving dictatorial leader Papa Monzano. Frank is next in line to become President of the Island. Monzano is quite ill.

Throughout the novel, expounding on the indifference towards the actual results of scientific results, Jonah learns that each Hoenekker heir carries a piece of the deadly Ice-9.

Possibly good might triumph over evil. Perhaps some divine intervention might prevent the release of this deadly substance. Where is God when life hangs in the balance?

Why, God is nowhere to be found. Vonnegut's expressions of his opinion of religion have changed throughout his life. He has gone from believer, to agnostic, to atheist, depending which interview you read and the mood in which Vonnegut was found by the particular interviewer at the time.

But in "Cat's Cradle," religion is represented by a mischievous character named Bokonon who turns religion on its head. Bokonon doesn't hesitate to include in his teachings that all religions are lies.

However, Vonnegut does not allow Bokonon to leave the matter as simply as that. The question is decidedly more complex. It is not that God does not exist, he is merely indifferent. God paid his dues. He made man out of mud, gave him a planet with everything he needed in it. A little worship would be nice, but, hey! Job's done. Time to retire. You're on your own.

Perhaps that is Vonnegut's most terrifying premise. Who needs God, when Man is perfectly capable of making an absolute mess out of a world that was working just fine when Man was given it?

The government of San Lorenzo is ostensibly Christian in its religious belief. The practice of Bokonism is an offense punishable by death. The implement of execution is called the Hook. You get caught practicing Bokonism, you get the Hook. Papa Monzano has made it clear, the HOOK is especially reserved for the man himself, Bokonon.

Papa Monzano turns a blind eye to the fact that all San Lorenzoans practice Bokonism. The Book Of Bokonon may not be printed or published. However, those books are everywhere, carefully copied down by hand. Each book is a personal treasure of the owner. The Book Of Bokanon is against the law for it contains the most basic truths of life. In summary, don't take anything seriously, because at it's most basic level the reason behind a social convention is ridiculous.

But it's a joke. One huge Cosmic Joke. Bokanon, the God of San Lorenzo is off the Hook. Always.

Only Man ever ends up on the HOOK. No God or Devil is necessary to hang him there. Left to our own devises, we're perfectly capable of hanging ourselves.

On San Lorenzo, or anywhere else, there's no need for a sermon of the likes of "Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God." Neither, would it be necessary for Uncle Screwtape to instruct Nephew Wormwood on the finer arts of temptation in obtaining the souls of men. Jonathan Edwards and C.S. Lewis may be on a library shelf, but they aren't required reading.

Those guys, the scientists? Aren't they the whiz kids we really turn to when we're looking for a better life? Maybe they are the new Man made Gods. Vonnegut doesn't condemn science, or religion, or government, although his depiction of those entities are wickedly presented in satirical fashion. This is a very cautionary tale that reminds humanity to be careful of what it wishes for--that's the message, at least for me.

I first read "Cat's Cradle" as a very young man. I found everything in it profoundly hilarious. In "Cat's Cradle" I found a way to reinforce my rebellious beliefs against practically everything, remarkably reinforced by a writer who was almost as smart as I was. As Mark Twain said about his father, when Twain was 15, he thought his father was the dumbest man he'd ever known. When Twain was 20, he was amazed at how much the old man had learned.


My first copy of "Cat's Cradle"

Yesterday, a friend told me "Cat's Cradle" has become her daughter's favorite book. She just celebrated her Sweet 16. I'd love to be around to get her take on it when she's 59 going on 60, as I am.

I probably won't be around to find that out. So it goes.




Update, June 13, 2013: Cat's Cradle has been chosen as a group read by goodreads group "Literary Exploration" for its July read.

کتاب از زبان یک نویسنده از گذشته تا امروز رو روایت می‌کنه. نویسنده‌ای که میخواد کتابی بنویسه در مورد روزی که آمریکا بمب اتم رو استفاده کرده و اینکه سران و دست اندرکاران این اتفاق در اون روز چه کاری کردند. در همین راستا نامه‌ای به یکی از فرزندان فلیکس هونیکر دانشمندی که نقش اساسی در تولید بمب اتم داشته می‌نویسه تا در مورد اون روز به خصوص پدرش سوال کنه. همین نامه شروع ماجرای این نویسنده و آقای دانشمنده، دانشمندی که به جز بمب اتم یک اختراع عجیب دیگه هم داشته که کسی ازش خبر نداره. داستان طنز، کنایی و حتی سیاسی و انتقادی نوشته شده، روان هست اما برای من در رده‌ی رمان‌های خیلی جذاب قرار نمیگیره. از اون کتابهایی هست که با توجه به کنایه‌ها تمثیل‌های زیادش برداشت‌های جالب زیادی ازش شده و به نظرم بعد از اینکه خوندید و برداشت خودتون رو داشتید به نقد بقیه هم سر بزنید و مقایسه کنید، تفاوت‌ها جالبه.ه

Remember that game we played with strings when we were kids? That game with no purpose and neverending mindlessness until you are caught in a trap that you cannot escape? A scattered web of XXXs with no form or fancy? So here we begin...

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Vonnegut's writing because of how bizarrely masterful his writing can be, making me want to pull my hair out but also laughing at his black, off-color humor and sideway insights about the truth of human beings. So here we go into the twisted mind that is Vonnegut as he creates his own religion - Bokononism - as the absurd mocking mirror of what humans seek as he also nearly sidesteps falling into true nihilism.

Vonnegut's protagonist John is researching a book that he calls "The Day the World Ended" - when the first atomic bomb developed by a fictional character (I actually had to look this up) Dr. Felix Hoenikker was dropped on Japan. Such begins the quirky, satirical tale of John's interviews with Hoenikker's three children (one being a midget), his supervisor, the elevator operator, cab drivers, the cemetarian in Ilium, New York where the actual Manhattan Project was located, the island of San Lorenzo (where coincidentally Bokoronon grew up, and where John becomes President). His thread of meandering from one person to the next - which actually gives him a dearth of information for his book - is shake-your-head comically fun. The cast of characters is so imaginatively mind-boggling that I can't help but marvel at Vonnegut's creativity. Don't forget, too, the innocent superweapon Ice-Nine (a bit of a farce against the atomic bomb).

Vonnegut himself tells the truth as he sees it: Man is vile, and man makes nothing worth making, knows nothing worth knowing. Truth is the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies. Vonnegut's sense of priceless equilibrium between good and evil is seen through his idea of Dynamic Tension in that good societies could be built only by pitting good against evil, and by keeping the tension between the two high at all times.

Vonnegut best exemplifies his feelings towards religion in his Bokonon poem "Calypso":

"Papa" Monzano, he's very bad,
But without bad "Papa" I would be so sad;
Because without "Papa's" badness,
Tell me, if you would,
How could wicked old Bokonon
Ever, ever look so good?

And of course, some of Bokononists ' best doctrine with a bit of nomenclature thrown in:

"Busy, busy, busy is what we Bokononists whisper whenever we think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is."

"Humanity is organized into teams, teams that do God's will without ever discovering what they are doing. Such a team is called a karass."

"The folly of pretending to discover, to understand... She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is doing."

"I don't know whether I agree or not. I just have trouble understanding how truth, all by itself, could be enough for a person."

"Vin dit - a sudden, very personal shove in the direction of believing that God Almighty knew all about me, after all, and that God Almighty had some pretty elaborate plans for me."

"Wrang-wrang - a person who steers people away from anyone of speculation by reducing that line to an absurdity."

And there you have it. This is Vonnegut, a man who survived the horrible Dresden bombing in WWII and now enlightens us with his fractured mind and satiric commentary on humanity and its need for religion. I can't say I love it, I can't say I hate it. But I will always, always remember it.

There are two voices inside my head. Let's call them Lore and Enzo. At the moment L & E are quarreling on Cat's Cradle.

(...)
L) Oh come on! This book is wonderful. Perhaps it's the best novel Vonnegut has ever written.
E) Are you kidding me? Have you read the whole of it?
L) Of course I've read it from its first word to the very last one.
E) And haven't you noticed anything strange?
L) What are you talking about?
E) I mean, you know, it's a discontinuous novel. I can't deny it has a great beginning, but it gradually loses its brightness reaching the end.
L) What?! Are you telling me you haven't appreciated the marvellous description of San Lorenzo island and so on?
E) No, no. The Banana Republic part is ok...but look at the plot!
L) What's wrong with the plot?
E) Well..at first the narrator wants to write a book about this eccentric scientist who has planned the atomic bomb.
L) Yeah. Go on.
E) And then he decides to interview one of the scientist sons. But as soon as he meets Frank Hoenikker in San Lorenzo he seems to lose all his interest for him.
L) I disagree! Have you forgotten Ice-Nine?
E) No, but...
L) And what about Bokononism? You can't deny that the concept and the teachings of this fake religion link every single chapter of the novel. You can't say it's discontinuous while everything in it is so closely-knit!
E) That's a point of view. Besides I haven't liked the structure of the novel. More than one hundred chapters..
L) They're not "chapters" they're more like episodes.
E) Mmmh...
L) I think you're not in my karass.
E) Karass? Actually all that you join are granfalloons.
L) Foma! Lies! A pack of foma!

Shut up voices! I need a boko-maru right now. Is there anyone who wants to share the soles of her feet? Busy, busy, busy.

When he embarks on a project to write a book about the creators of the atomic bomb, Jonah has no idea what he's going to unearth: Dr Felix Hoenikker and Ice-Nine, a substance that will instantly freeze any water it comes into contact with into more Ice-Nine, a substance capable of destroying all life on earth. Can Jonah find the missing Hoenikker children and secure their chips of Ice-Nine to safeguard the world?

Here we are, my second experience with Kurt Vonnegut and one of his Big Important Books. This time, he takes on science, religion, politics, and man's ability to destroy himself.

I didn't enjoy Cat's Cradle as much as Slaughterhouse-Five but they probably shouldn't be compared since they aren't the same kind of book. Slaughterhouse is experimental and timey-wimey and Cat's Cradle is much more straight-forward and easy to digest.

Jonah's project leads him to Felix Hoenikker and his three odd children, and eventually, to San Lorenzo and Bokononism, a new religion. Having been through 12 years of parochial school and a couple decades of weekly doses of church, fiction with a religious bend doesn't need much effort to hook me so I was engaged right away. Bokononism is Vonnegut's way of showing how full of shit most religions are, since Bokonon is pretty open about his religion being a pack of lies.

I don't have much else to say about Cat's Cradle. It was a piece of funny yet thought-provoking satire about science, religion, and mankind destroying itself. Four out of five stars.

Hilarante y absurdo. A veces incluso demasiado absurdo para mi xD
Disfruté bastante más de la primera parte que de la segunda, pero he soltado unas buenas carcajadas y tiene una sordidez y crítica de fondo que congela la risa a veces.

"Dünyanın sonu, insanların bilime inanmak yerine hâlâ batıl inanışlara sahip olmasıymış. Daha fazla sayıda insan bilim alanında çalışacak olursa, şu an yaşanan bütün sorunların hiçbiri olmazmış.'

"Meslek sorusuna cevabı şuydu: Yaşamak.
Başlıca uğraş sorusunaysa 'Ölmek' diye cevap vermişti."

Spoiler!

Ortak bir düşman olsun ki tek yürek olunsun diye kötü adamın Bokonon olması ama aslında herkesin Bokononcu olması çok manidar. (Uydurma olduğunu bildikleri halde)