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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A re-read but in audiobook form, just as good if not better than reading the book
what a busy, busy, busy book. a meaningless story about meaninglessness. so absurd and whimsical it can make camus giggle.
Bokononism (the first self-aware religion) teaches that to invent and sustain a religion you need:
1. foma: harmless untruths
2. a martyr: Bokonon -"So I said good-bye to government, / And I gave my reason: / That a really good religion / Is a form of treason."
3. dynamic tension: eg muscles being built by pitting one against the other
4. a creation story of life & the universe: Borasisi (sun) and Pabu (moon) & God made mud
5. a ritual to connect spirits: a pair of souls, sole-to-sole
this book denies itself. if sinookas (the tendrils of one's life) connecting karass (a team which unknowingly executes God's Will) as the strings to a cat's cradle, but since cat's cradle is a symbol of meaninglessness ("no damn cat, and no damn cradle"), then so are the relationships connecting us to a purpose (ie god is will-less?), simultaneously undermining the Bokononist belief of the karass and supporting the Bokononist foundation of foma.
more Bokononist views:
"if you wish to study a granfalloon, / just remove the skin of a toy balloon."
"I had a Bokononist vision of the unity in every second of all time and all wandering mankind, all wandering womankind, all wandering children." - borderline buddhism
"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."
'"I just have trouble understanding how truth, all by itself, could be enough for a person." Miss Faust was ripe for Bokononism.'
"truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies."
"They were all employed full time as actors in a play they understood, that any human being anywhere could understand and applaud. So life became a work of art"
"God never wrote a good play in His Life."
"God was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die."
"the cruel paradox of Bokononist thought: the heartbreaking necessity of lying about reality, and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it."
truth & science:
"This here’s a re-search laboratory. Re-search means look again, don’t it? Means they’re looking for something they found once and it got away somehow, and now they got to re-search for it? How come they got to build a building like this, with mayonnaise elevators and all, and fill it with all these crazy people? What is it they’re trying to find again? Who lost what?”
"The trouble with the world was...that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn't be all the trouble there was." Irony: truth (bomb & ice-nine) killed more than lies. Is science a religion, and is it too based on foma (harmless untruths?) - the only certainty is the fatality of the atomic bomb and ice-nine
pretty quotes:
"Pretty? Mister, when I see my first lady angel, if God ever sees fit to show me one, it'll be her wings and not her face that will make my mouth fall open. I've already seen the prettiest face that ever could be."
"to imagine that behind her marvelous eyes lurked mysteries as old as Eve."
"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."'
criticisms: confused about commentary on fate & war & was disappointed with the ending. I don't think the word "stupid" encapsulates the complexity of the human conditions explored, but maybe I'm just stupid to think that we deserve grander adjectives than that.
Bokononism (the first self-aware religion) teaches that to invent and sustain a religion you need:
1. foma: harmless untruths
2. a martyr: Bokonon -"So I said good-bye to government, / And I gave my reason: / That a really good religion / Is a form of treason."
3. dynamic tension: eg muscles being built by pitting one against the other
4. a creation story of life & the universe: Borasisi (sun) and Pabu (moon) & God made mud
5. a ritual to connect spirits: a pair of souls, sole-to-sole
this book denies itself. if sinookas (the tendrils of one's life) connecting karass (a team which unknowingly executes God's Will) as the strings to a cat's cradle, but since cat's cradle is a symbol of meaninglessness ("no damn cat, and no damn cradle"), then so are the relationships connecting us to a purpose (ie god is will-less?), simultaneously undermining the Bokononist belief of the karass and supporting the Bokononist foundation of foma.
more Bokononist views:
"if you wish to study a granfalloon, / just remove the skin of a toy balloon."
"I had a Bokononist vision of the unity in every second of all time and all wandering mankind, all wandering womankind, all wandering children." - borderline buddhism
"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."
'"I just have trouble understanding how truth, all by itself, could be enough for a person." Miss Faust was ripe for Bokononism.'
"truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies."
"They were all employed full time as actors in a play they understood, that any human being anywhere could understand and applaud. So life became a work of art"
"God never wrote a good play in His Life."
"God was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die."
"the cruel paradox of Bokononist thought: the heartbreaking necessity of lying about reality, and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it."
truth & science:
"This here’s a re-search laboratory. Re-search means look again, don’t it? Means they’re looking for something they found once and it got away somehow, and now they got to re-search for it? How come they got to build a building like this, with mayonnaise elevators and all, and fill it with all these crazy people? What is it they’re trying to find again? Who lost what?”
"The trouble with the world was...that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn't be all the trouble there was." Irony: truth (bomb & ice-nine) killed more than lies. Is science a religion, and is it too based on foma (harmless untruths?) - the only certainty is the fatality of the atomic bomb and ice-nine
pretty quotes:
"Pretty? Mister, when I see my first lady angel, if God ever sees fit to show me one, it'll be her wings and not her face that will make my mouth fall open. I've already seen the prettiest face that ever could be."
"to imagine that behind her marvelous eyes lurked mysteries as old as Eve."
"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."'
criticisms: confused about commentary on fate & war & was disappointed with the ending. I don't think the word "stupid" encapsulates the complexity of the human conditions explored, but maybe I'm just stupid to think that we deserve grander adjectives than that.
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Good book. It’s an odd one, and it’s no slaughterhouse five, but it’s a good book.
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the weirdest books I’ve read in a good way. Fully intend to re-read again and again. The ending was perfect.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Another great novel from Kurt Vonnegut! I especially enjoyed the sci-fi aspect of this one.
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated