From Irregular Orbit
Cat's Cradle. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1963). Another one from the reread stack. I haven't read Vonnegut since my mid-teens in the 70s, and so I tend to think of him as a writer for teens. For embryonic wanna-be hipster teens at least, Vonnegut was a reading list staple... back in the early 70s. So I was curious how his work would come off to me at the present. I have a bad feeling that some of his books might come off as goofily indulgent now, but Cat's Cradle is pretty darned tight, clever and mordantly pessimistic. And threaded throughout its apocalyptic comedy of errors is the philosphy of Bokononism, the jury-rigged religion of the tiny (and imaginary) Caribbean island of San Lorenzo -- often expressed in the form of calypsos. Some of these Bokononist concepts are really pretty interesting, like the karass: the groups that people fall into, without being aware of it, connected together by random fate to carry out destiny's whims. Without even realizing it. Not to be confused with a granfalloon: a false karass, such as political groups, social clubs, corporations or "any nation, anytime, anywhere." The book is structured in very brief chapters with clever titles -- that was kind of the thing, back then. Now it feels a bit choppy. But definitely worth the reread. [Irregular Orbit]
10:18:19 PM 
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