…“He [Dr. Breed] said science was going to discover the
basic secret of life someday,” the bartender put in. He scratched his head and
frowned. “Didn’t I read in the paper the other day where they’d finally found
out what it was?”
“I missed
that,” I murmured.
“I saw
that,” said Sandra. “About two days ago.”
“That’s
right,” said the bartender.
“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.”
*Kurt Vonnegut,
Cat’s Cradle, page 25.
“The basic secret of life.” We all seek the answer to that
question when pondering about our world. We make speculations, doubt common
“truths” and attend college to become “critical thinkers” and learn to analyze
everything that comes our way. Some people even dedicate their entire lives
looking for an answer, apparently hoping to reach some deeper understanding of
their existence as human beings, seeking for meaning. And here, in Vonnegut’s
book Cat’s Cradle, there is an answer,
protein. Simpler and more concise
than what one might expect but still an answer
to what is probably one of the most sought out answers and the presumed basis
to revealing all that is unknown. Yet, the bartender and Sandra mention this
discovery offhandedly, days after they have learned of it, and our protagonist has
not even heard of it.
Not only do the characters disregard this discovery but so
too does Vonnegut. He chose to include the
basic secret of life as a side note in the plot. The bearers of it are a bartender (who’s name we do not
even know) and a prostitute named Sandra, who deliver it at a hotel bar in
Ilium, a secondary checkpoint in the plot. The chapter ends abruptly with this
one-time ‘side note’ and carried by characters who will not reappear in the
novel. Shouldn’t the basic secret of life
be a main piece in the plot line? Shouldn’t it be acknowledged or brought to us
by a main character? Does Vonnegut suggest that we dismiss even the things that
we value, by dismissively uttering this “basic secret of life”?
How can this supposed greatest discovery be disregarded so
easily? It can be presumed that once you find this answer you are able to lay
back and ‘enjoy the ride’, move on. No more questions, no more doubts, no more
research (no more college.) All resolved, so just be present (like the pre-orientation
mantra be here, now). But then, you
might ask, what is next? Does Vonnegut imply that as human beings we are doomed
never to find satisfaction in our lives because if we did we would lose our
purpose and wander around aimlessly? That our nature prohibits us from
acknowledging this “truth”?
I thought this comment was particularly funny. We look to find answers in our lives, and to hear the characters talking about something as simplistic as protein being the basic secret of life shows our desire to find semblances of truth in our lives somehow. (However, this answer does make sense on a biological level.) It might have been disregarded as it seems like one of the trite attempts at answer "the question".
ReplyDelete