By: Kurt Vonnegut
Intro:
Kurt Vonnegut was once so accurately called “a laughing prophet of doom.” Thus far, Cat’s Cradle is my favorite of his prophecies. It’s about society’s overbearing belief in science and “objective truth,” and where that will ultimately take and leave us.
When I began reading Cat’s Cradle, I had been long wrestling with an article about the shortcomings of objectivity and was shocked to have unintentionally picked up a novel on the subject from 1963. A side-splitting, philosophical journey of apocalypse, midgets, and a Vonnegut invented religion, I recommend it with both great seriousness and hearty laughter.
My 10 Favorite Index Cards:
“Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”
“Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either. ”
“The miracle of Felix — and I sincerely hope you’ll put this in your book somewhere — was that he always approached old puzzles as though they were brand new.”
““Dr. Breed keeps telling me that the main thing with Dr. Hoenikker was truth.”
”You don’t seem to agree.”
”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.””
“As a Bokononist, of course, I would have agreed gaily to go anywhere anyone suggested. As Bokonon says, “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.””
““From the way she talked,” I said, “I thought it was a very happy marriage.”
Little Newt held his hands six inches apart and he spread his fingers. “See the cat? See the cradle?””
““Maturity,” Bokonon tells us, “is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.””
“The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.”
“I was grateful to Newt for calling it to my attention, for the quotation captured in a couplet the cruel paradox of Bokononist thought, the heartbreaking necessity of lying about reality, and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it.
Midget, midget, midget, how he struts and winks,
For he knows a man’s as big as what he hopes and thinks!”
“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”