I actually missed the pre-text of Cat’s Cradle (even though it was not hidden on the copyright page in my book). I feel like the way I looked at things in the first half of the novel would have been a little different if I hadn’t originally missed the line “Nothing in this book is true.” At this point I feel like the line is referring to the Book of Bokonon, but I can’t really be sure. What if Cat’s Cradle really is the Book of Bokonon? What if the line itself is a lie?
Under the statement that nothing in the book is true is a quote from The Books of Bokonon that states “Live by the foma (harmless untruths) that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.” So what if the first line stating that nothing in the book is true is just a “harmless untruth” because maybe the book would make us unhappy if we believed that all of it was true. So maybe everything in the book is actually true, but the line “Nothing in this book is true” was just placed in the beginning of the text to help us live by the “foma” that will make us happy. I haven’t read the whole book yet so I can’t say for sure whether something horrible will happen (though it is certainly foreshadowed), but if something horrible does happen, the line “Nothing in this book is true” could serve to comfort us from the harsh reality that everything that happens in the novel actually is true. The pre-text may just serve as a way to help us follow Bokononism ourselves.
To reiterate, this idea may be farfetched, but maybe by putting that line in the beginning of the novel Vonnegut was trying to show us that, the readers who believe that line and take everything that happens in the book as false, are just living by the untruths that make them happy. Depending on the events that take place later in the novel, it may be a comfort to believe that everything that is described as happening, is a lie. If for example someone were to tell you that everything I say is a lie, and then I proceeded to tell you a story about how we are all just a figment of someone’s imagination with absolutely no free will of our own, who would you believe? My crazy story (even if it was actually true) or the person telling you that what I was saying was a lie. I’m guessing most people would prefer to believe that what I was saying was a lie because it would be much more pleasant that way.
Nothing in the following sentence is true.
By the way, we are all figments of someone’s imagination and we have no free will.
What do you believe? Live by the “foma” that makes you happy.
I cannot even begin to count the number of times in my childhood when my mother has said some phrase along the lines of: “After you finish eating everything on your plate, you can get your dessert.” All I would ever hear was: “You can get your dessert” at which point I would dash to the cookie jar. Naturally, she would get irritated. If this situation were to happen nowadays, (it probably has; I most likely was not listening enough to realize this), I would simply explain to my mother that it is human nature for people to only hear what they want to hear.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your post. I believe that all people participate in wishful thinking; they hear the details and facts they want to hear, and then tune out the rest of the information. I think there are many different reasons for wishful thinking, from just wanting a reason to eat cookies to needing that element of comfort in life, as you discussed. Reality can be harsh. Wishful thinking can act as a shield of protection.
Looking deeper at the issue of wishful thinking, I find myself wondering whether this kind of thinking is good or bad. On one hand, I believe there are certain issues in life that are too hard to directly confront. It might be better for a woman to tell herself stories she knows to be untrue, in order to just get through a situation. This telling of “harmless untruths” in order to think a certain way is generally harmless (it is even in the name), especially when no good solution exists to the problem anyways. For example, when I hear of a death of a family member, I always tell myself that that person is now in a better place. He or she is happier. I do not know the actual validity of that statement, but I know that it never fails to make me feel better. I think you are definitely on to something about why Vonnegut put that phrase in the beginning of the book; people sometimes need to hear that certain stories or events are not true in order to comfort themselves.
On the other hand, I worry that when a person constantly tells himself untruths, he may fall under the trap of a slippery slope, where he continues to shield himself from the truth so often that he begins to lose control of any actual vision of life. At this point, I think wishful thinking transforms from what was once a harmless way to handle a situation into a form of denial. Often, people suffer from denial instead of accepting the hard truth and moving on with their lives. It is important, when allowing ourselves to be shielded from the truth, to know when to start facing reality again.
Keeping this caveat in mind, I still believe that, as long as it is kept in moderation, wishful thinking is relatively benign.