Ugh! I have never had such a difficult time coming up with something to say… Vonnegut has managed to leave me somewhat speechless (which, if any of you know me, is nearly impossible to do). But after a week of reflection, I can finally put my thoughts into words.
This morning I was Skyping with my best friend who also just read Cat’s Cradle and although she enjoyed it (I mean, how could you not?), she complained that the story was too “fragmented.” I, on the other hand, believe it is very focused and makes its point with near-perfect economy and wit. To me, there are two obvious themes. One is how the irresponsible use of science to construct ever more deadly weapons is probably going to end up destroying the whole world. The other is a wonderfully crazy take on religion. Each of these themes is satisfying in their own right; what’s less clear is what they have to do with each other.
Let’s look at the first theme. Vonnegut’s scarily plausible thesis is that it won't be a question of some madman destroying the world on purpose. I love General Jack T. Ripper in Doctor Strangelove, the obvious movie parallel to this book, but I find him somehow less convincing than the series of deranged, helplessly incompetent people in Cat’s Cradle. Felix Hoenikker invents Ice-9 in response to a casual question from the US military to put an end to mud. His three damaged children get hold of the secret and exploit it for their own petty ends. Plain, charmless Angela sells it to the Americans in exchange for a playboy husband; Newt, the midget, gives it to the Soviets for a dirty weekend on Cape Cod with a tiny Russian dancer; and, fatally, humorless Franklin sells it to “Papa” Monzano, who makes him a Major General in the largely imaginary army of San Lorenzo, a bankrupt state. After that, things just proceed by themselves; nothing works in San Lorenzo, so why would you be able to successfully guard a doomsday device? And, sure enough, it gets used completely by accident and the stuff hits the fan.
The second theme is presented through Bokononism, a kind of Caribbean version of Christianity, and surely the best fictional religion ever devised. Is there any person here who's never tried boku maru? (Unfortunately, in real life it doesn’t have the effect described in the book. Pity.) Bokononism is the one thing that makes life worthwhile for Papa’s miserable subjects. Officially, the religion is outlawed; in practice, everyone is a Bokononist, which makes their lives rich and meaningful. Everything about the religion turns out to be a lie, and there is even a technical term, foma, for the lies that make up its substance. Nonetheless, Vonnegut succeeds admirably in showing what a good religion it is. The scene where Dr. Schlichter von Koenigswald reads the last Bokononist rites to the dying Papa Monzano is funny, but also moving. I love the line “Nice going, God!” which expresses that particular sentiment with unusual clarity and feeling; it’s extremely respectful, while pretending to be the exact opposite.
So, what is the connection between the two themes? Vonnegut tells you straight out, but since he does it at the beginning of the book (a clever ruse of crime writers) you do not quite notice it. He introduces Bokononism, and recounts its creation myth, which is absurd even by the standards of this magic realist genre. Then, he cheerfully tells you that Bokonon himself admits that it’s all lies. Finally, he comments, in one of his better-known quotes: “Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.” As already noted, Bokonon’s wise lies make an excellent religion.
Here’s what I think he means by this. The potential destruction of all life on Earth is not a very appealing subject. It is so dreadful that you can hardly think about it at all. But Vonnegut manages to present most of the book as a comedy, so that you are able to think about it, which we desperately need to do before it is all too late. By making it funny, he is formally lying to us, but these lies are more useful to us than the truth; we are in pretty much the same situation as the hapless San Lorenzans, who could not survive without their mendacious religion.
During the Cold War, people were, with good reason, scared shitless that the world was going to end soon in a nuclear holocaust. We came terrifyingly close during the Cuba Missile Crisis. There were many books and movies intended to help people relate to what was going on. Some of them just presented the threat directly, in as realistic a way as they could manage. But I would say that the mirror-reversed ones, like Cat’s Cradle and Doctor Strangelove, were better. It is amazing how powerful a weapon humor is; I feel they did more to help persuade us not to blow ourselves up.
We need these people badly if we are going to stay sane. Can someone point me to a new Vonnegut, who knows how to make us laugh at global warming, the financial meltdown, and the fact that Justin Bieber has more Twitter followers than our President? I would rather like to read him.
I like what you said about Vonnegut and others using humor to allow the audience to think about harmful societal flaws.
ReplyDeleteIf Cat’s Cradle had been a serious novel about the end of the world, I would not have wanted to finish the book, much less consider the possibility of something like that happening in reality. Satire uses humor to show how ridiculous certain institutions and conventions are. By making us laugh at difficult situations, humor can make them seem less disturbing.
Vonnegut references the importance of literature several times in Cat’s Cradle. The narrator and Philip Castle have a discussion about how people would die if “deprived of the consolations of literature” (p. 232). After the “ice-nine” wipes out most of the planet, Mrs. Crosby comments that the narrator’s important contribution to their little “Swiss Family Robinson” is his writing.
Vonnegut’s characters understand that we need literature to help us deal with the hardships of life.