And we’re off.
Let’s meet up next Monday at the end of Chapter 43 of Cat’s Cradle, where we’ll learn that “he hadn’t murdered his son after all.”
Here’s some music to march by:
The Rabo Karabekian Memorial Deathmarch: Week 1
by bill | Sep 4, 2016 | The Rabo Karabekian Memorial Deathmarch | 14 comments
Partway through — many things struck me so far, including the different kinds of Vonnegut comedy (punchline first, then delivery; the big kaboom at the end of a chapter; set up (yes, yes!) then droll-flogging it, etc.), “I dunno, I dunno, I dunno” at the end of chapter 15, which prefigures “yup, yup, yup” from Steve Martin’s “the day the dopes came over.”
But mostly, so far, I was up-ended, I tell you, by the title of Chapter 28 — “Mayonanaise,” which coincidentally or not is a power word in Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America. I’m always looking for Vonnegut/Brautigan connections, trout-related and otherwise. But this one takes the mayonnaise cake.
http://quoteaddicts.com/510562
The wife and I read aloud on the drive from South Lake Tahoe back to Humboldt, and it was an act of will to stop at the appointed page. If anything, “Cat’s Cradle” is better than I remember, and that’s saying something.
Another author would have turned the ideas in this book into some kind of 900-page doorstopper; KV cuts out absolutely everything extraneous, leaving behind word sculptures that seem effortless but must have been a lot of work.
A few random notes:
Bokononism is on my short list of religions potentially worth practicing, along with Bowieism.
Francine Pefko will turn up again in “Breakfast of Champions.”
I found myself wondering whether the Coen Brothers grew up on Vonnegut. Did Lyman Enders Knowles inspire Brandt in “The Big Lebowski,” who says “Yes, yes” all the time? Did Sherman Krebbs to some degree inspire the nihilists in that same movie? When I think about it, it’s hard for me to imagine them *not* being Vonnegut fans. The sensibility just fits too precisely.
The “Address to the American Physical Society” that appears starting on p. 781 of the American Library book is well worth reading vis-a-vis “Cat’s Cradle”–though if you don’t already know the story, you might prefer to wait till we finish CC in Week 3.
Coen Bros, yes. John Irving kept popping into my head, too. Garp, Hotel New Hampshire.
Actually read this first section twice to get my bearings. Lots of story tendrils.
Favorite line so far: “Ransacking her mind for something to say, finding nothing but used Kleenex and costume jewelry.”
Takeaway so far: “Too many people in high places who are stone cold dead” – Marvin Breed
Is this what the infantile savant Hoenikker symbolizes? Is the cat’s cradle the equivalent of Nero’s fiddle? I dunno, I dunno, I dunno.
First, I’d like to thank you for organizing this march. Already I can see that an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is my life has been missing in never having read any Vonnegut stuff!
Second, I loved the Bokononist adage: “Anyone unable to understand how useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.” I think ol’ L. Ron Hubbard subscribed to this idea, along with Jospeh Smith, Mohammed (as far as I know he wrote his own stuff, didn’t he?), and the writers, editors & redactors of the Hebrew & Christian scriptures, among a host of others. Anyone who thinks he or she knows what is fact from what has been imagined in matters metaphysical is deluded in my humble opinion. But it doesn’t matter, since usefulness rests on results, not what is true or imagined.
Finally, I like that Kurt’s chapters are short. I tend to do most of my reading in short spurts during time not otherwise occupied, & I always prefer to resume reading at the start of a new chapter.
Just wrapped march-stage-one — enjoying the comments. 🙂 Here are a few more thoughts from the last section…
* “Krebbs was a bearded man, a platinum blond Jesus with spaniel eyes” reminds me of when you see a realistic Picasso and you think, oh he could do that too.
* “the unchallenged barracuda capital of the world” is a description that really sticks.
* a duprass harkened to Mother Night’s beautiful “nation of two”…
Onward!
-Cecil
I actually got to this landmark on like Wednesday, and it was hard to keep from continuing ahead. So hard, in fact, that I think I may have gone ahead a wee chapter or two. But:
The last time I read this (or any of these) was over 20 years ago as an admittedly pedantic teen. Suffice to say it’s different this time around.
I am immediately reminded that I’m correct in my reverence of Mr. Vonnegut’s writing, but the “whys” are more clear now. I particularly love that the short chapter thing is not a gimmick; there is an arc to every chapter, but Vonnegut is so, so good at getting to the damn point in exactly as many words as he needs, which goes in stark contrast to, say, George R.R. Martin.
I also still have Bokononism on my short list of potential religions, though it very slightly loses out to the Church of God The Utterly Indifferent from Sirens of Titan.
Nobody names characters like Kurt Vonnegut.
When I was younger, I think I enjoyed his narrative methods like jumping in time, joke deconstruction, or holding back certain bits of information to keep us in the dark alongside the characters as shtick (like the short chapters), but it’s all very deliberate, and I just love it.
Hello, fellow arthropoids and lily pads and paddlewheels.
I guess I have forgotten the traditions of my people. I was waiting for another post to put my first-stage comment. Duh.
I had also forgotten how smoothly Kurt V goes down. If I’m not careful I can read three or four pages without thinking. The short-chapter structure (which I *did* remember) is easy to mistake for choppiness; but it’s not, and a chapter break is where I remind myself ‘go back and reread that’.
Bill’s “word sculptures”: we went to the Legion of Honor last week, the room of Rodin bronzes (which is just a little bit too small for the collection that’s in it) is a fine match for V: everything meaningful, themes repeated, clean without being antiseptic, and above all real. They have muscle and blemish and hair yet are angels nonetheless. We read here of verbal tics or family trees or skin color yet they are Plato’s children nonetheless.
I also liked the image of ransacking one’s mind as if it were a purse.
A fiddle smashed, a sculptor in Rome.
The “useful religion can be founded on lies” reminded me of another V: “artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.” Kurt V probably approved.
Joined late, not quite done with this first leg, but almost!
I was thinking a lot about structure last night, and the comments here, especially Bill’s “word sculpture” idea, are totally on point. I found myself wondering what this book would feel like without this structure–if it was, say, one long wall of prose. Would it change the effectiveness of the storytelling, or our perceptions and enjoyment of the story? It’s crucial, right? The chapter titles are just as intrinsic to the text as everything else, and I can’t really think of another author in which that is true.
Anyway, the book is just as funny and angry as I remember.
And while we’re sharing favorite lines, mine was one that isn’t so much on its own, out of context, but I loved that Chapter 25 starts with: “So much, for now, for the wampeter of my karass.” Only Vonnegut could effectively start a chapter with complete gibberish….and have us totally get it.
Hello fellow “karassers,”
I am struck by the lightness of tone and atmosphere conveyed by Dr H.’s playing with string in pajamas the day of. Same goes for the narrator’s visit to his office where the dime store toys exude carefree playfulness. Wonder what Kim Jong-un’s “real”scientists were doing during the latest round of nuclear testing? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose… V’s so on the mark, gives me goosebumps, and then he makes me laugh again.
Vonnegut is a new read for me, so I can only share some first impressions. And I will admit to having overshot the end of this leg of the march by a few chapters before I realized it.
I had, of course, heard about Vonnegut’s writing, but not being an avid reader of fiction, had the vague impression that he wrote primarily science fiction. Now, sixty-some pages into the Cat’s Cradle, I’ve decided that this is not science fiction as I understand it.
So I have been wondering how to categorize this work. It’s humor, obviously, and fantasy. Also social commentary that cuts sharply through our contemporary religious, political and economic prejudices. But I wouldn’t yet describe Vonnegut as a critic; you can easily see what he despises, but so far, at least, I find it difficult to guess what he admires.
Perhaps ideals and heros remain to be revealed. But I rather hope not. I do like dark humor and enjoy the broad scope of his sarcasm. I’m sure the Coen Brothers must be Vonnegut fans.
One thing that strikes me is the pell-mell pace of the story. The plot turns and twists like an freshly impaled snake. Characters appear briefly, disappear and then miraculously reappear without warning. They are profiled so swiftly that you sometimes have to look back to find out how you got your strong impressions of them.
The pace of the story, together with its frequent detours into absurdity, leave the impression that it might have been written as a stream-of-mad-consciousness. But it wasn’t…characters and details are planted along the way to be harvested later. There must at some point have been at least an outline of the full plot that became elaborated later. It would be interesting to know what his creative process was. Did he ever describe it?
To avoid becoming just another Vonnegut worshiper, I will say that I don’t enjoy the creation of a new language to express the concepts of Bokononism and quotes from the Books of Bokonon. I already refuse to go to Starbucks because customers have to learn a pseudo-italian commercial language just to order a cup of coffee with milk. PLEASE don’t make me study a new language, even learn a few new words, just to follow a tall tale.
I recently struggled through a personal Deathmarch with Karen Armstrong’s A History of God. The most difficult part of the read was her insistence on consistently using original terms from the source language for the core concepts of many different religions. The book comes with a eight-page Glossary behind the text to help one decipher her commentaries. If a glossary for Bokononism exists, I don’t even want to know about it.
And now, Onward!
That’s why I never read “Dune” – though in that case there really is a whole language to learn. Vonnegut is very benign in comparison.
Starting and finishing the reading the day before the deathmarch began started a Vonnegut itch that had to be quickly scratched…so i’m mid-way through Sirens of Titan…which could get a bit confusing…
Favorite line from CC so far “peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God”…
I haven’t read this book for forty years. But Chapter Two brought it all back for me–not the plot, since I forget those immediately. But the feeling. “Nice, nice, very nice;/ Nice, nice, very nice–/So many different people/ In the same device.”
Hello all, sorry for the lateness on this one. I moved ahead and for some reason thought I couldn’t comment until the next week and then got behind again. So my only thought is the quote I highlighted in my kindle for this section:
“What is the secret of life?” I asked. “I forget,” said Sandra. “Protein,” the bartender declared. “They found out something about protein.” “Yeah,” said Sandra, “that’s it.”