A Work of Art

Vonnegut argues that religion and science are both needed to maintain “dynamic tension” in the world.  He uses the image of the child’s game cat’s cradle to illustrate this concept.  In class we talked a lot about the word “tension” and how vital it is to keep the strings tight to keep the game alive (and the world together).  But for me, the key word is “dynamic.”

To play cat’s cradle, there needs to be two hands.  Continuing the parallel, there needs to be both science and religion to create balance in our world.  Science is often associated with the truth (and most people take it to be true), and according to Vonnegut, religion is harmless lies.  In cat’s cradle, since each hand relies on the other, that then suggests that truth depends on lies, and vice versa.  This creates a paradox.  How can a truth be based on a lie and still be true?  For the other side, if we lie about the truth, what is the point of knowing the truth in the first place?

This leads to the question of what it means to find the truth.  Vonnegut writes a book that starts with declaring itself untrue, and then tells a story about Hoenikker—a man who dedicates his life to the truth.  What does this say about the quest for truth?  That it is not only unnecessary, but also futile.  After all, if we are going to lie to ourselves about the truth eventually anyway, why know it?  Because we have to have something on which to base our lies.  There’s the paradox.

This is why “dynamic” is the key word.  What is true and what false is not clearly defined, and our fleeting definitions are always changing.  The tension comes naturally when we have two such opposing forces.  As Jonah puts it, “life [becomes] a work of art” (175) as we as individuals create our own realities to cope with the dynamic uncertainty.