Short story on inequality by Vonnegut

[Bud Struggle]

Interesting short story about Equality by Kurt Vonnegut from Welcome to the Monkey House.

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

[534634634265]

that was intense. i thoroughly enjoy his work.

[Holden Caulfield]

my GF is in the middle of a phase of loving this guy,

she just read the Cats Cradle today,

i shall forwards her the link, thanks TomK

[IcarusAngel]

Yes, and if we can point out that Chomsky said that America is the greatest country on earth in a talk he gave about his linguistics (which is true he said that, although I'll have further comment later), then we should also note that Vonnegut was a DEDICATED socialist and humanist.

I've read Slaughterhouse-Five several times. He clearly has an aversion to war, and I think the flashbacks were to show how absurd it is to put young men (or "children") according to the book, in a situation of war.

In his book "A Man Without a Country," he speaks on a more personal level, autobiographical level and notes that some of his heroes, on his "team," were socialists like Debs, Carl Sandburg, Powers Hapgood and a few other early American socialists who didn't just pussyfoot around but actually accomplished something, and fought for justice.

His book "Player Piano" is about a totalitarian hierarchical society run by corporations and divisions of the government, managed by engineers and scientists, where everybody else is about the equivalent of a transit or maintenance worker. The book has a vistory from another country who can't tell the difference between a system such as this and hierarchical communism.

So, it's important to note the framework under which Vonnegut was writing. He clearly was not sympathetic to totalitarian capitalism in anyway.

[Comrade B]

"Mother Night" is one of the greatest novels ever made.
I am about to start reading "God bless you Mr. Rosewater"
the book previous to that, "Breakfast of Champions" has a lot of mockery of the United States, especially when mocking the US concept of bombing communist ideology out of Vietnam.

[Chapter 24]

Kurt Vonnegut was a true and utter genius. I've only read one of his books, though I'm ashamed to say only one. Slaughterhouse-Five. One of the greatest pieces of literature I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I loved it.

[Bud Struggle]

Yes, and if we can point out that Chomsky said that America is the greatest country on earth in a talk he gave about his linguistics (which is true he said that, although I'll have further comment later), then we should also note that Vonnegut was a DEDICATED socialist and humanist......He clearly was not sympathetic to totalitarian capitalism in anyway.

I agree--BUT his writing is more complex than that. What the short story above is about is the problem of equality, when streached to it's farthest extreme, it detracts from liberty. A lot of his novels have rather than pure "socialistic" propaganda, a real common sense approach to life. KV was deeply against any sort of "mass organizations" of political will. If anything his writing was rooted deeply in the illogicality of modern society in any situation.

His writing was deeply humanist as you say, though--probably Jailbird is his most thoughtful novel on that subject where the hero's only motivation are the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ.

And Comrade B--Mother Night is my favorite Novel of KV. "You are what you pretend to be."

[Lost In Translation]

Harrison Bergeron was part of my English curriculum this year, and my English teacher (with great relish), said how this was a mockery of communism :mad:

[Bud Struggle]

Harrison Bergeron was part of my English curriculum this year, and my English teacher (with great relish), said how this was a mockery of communism :mad:

Hmmmm. I don't see it as making fun of Communism, it was more about taking equality to it's illogical ends. (One could equally take "liberty" to it's illigical ends, also.) As long as Communism recognises that people have different needs and wants (each according to his need...however that goes,) there is no problem, it's only when the rules of Society take precidence over the needs of humanity that KV presses the points of absurdity.

KV is a humanist above all political ideology.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Harrison Bergeron was part of my English curriculum this year, and my English teacher (with great relish), said how this was a mockery of communism :mad:

Seeing as how he was a socialist, that would be a ludicrous conclusion.