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asmenyak 's review for:
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut
Loved this book from start to finish. Huge fan of Vonnegut’s satirical style - it reads a lot like Dr Strangelove (which also happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time). Also loved the short chapters that just flow right into each-other: something about it just kept me reading for hours at a time.
Speaking of Dr Strangelove, I think satire like this is really some of the most powerful media we have. Hyper-realistic storytelling can be great and moving for sure, but there’s something about stories like Cats Cradle and Strangelove that do more to scare the shit out of you than anything else. Characters bumbling their way to destroying the world (as happens at the end of both) is much more frightening, and possibly much closer to the truth, than less light-hearted forms of storytelling. It’s the blasé way they’re just like “well shit, we just ended life as we know it” that forces you to think about just how many idiots like you hold the power of so much destruction in their hands.
Loved the religious aspects in here too. Bokononism is the pure distillation of religious fervor into a hilariously self-conscious form. It’s the thing that brings all those on San Lorenzo simultaneously hope and fear, all while accepting it’s all a lie. In the end, we all do something similar, choosing to accept hopeful lies instead of a bleak truth.
Speaking of Dr Strangelove, I think satire like this is really some of the most powerful media we have. Hyper-realistic storytelling can be great and moving for sure, but there’s something about stories like Cats Cradle and Strangelove that do more to scare the shit out of you than anything else. Characters bumbling their way to destroying the world (as happens at the end of both) is much more frightening, and possibly much closer to the truth, than less light-hearted forms of storytelling. It’s the blasé way they’re just like “well shit, we just ended life as we know it” that forces you to think about just how many idiots like you hold the power of so much destruction in their hands.
Loved the religious aspects in here too. Bokononism is the pure distillation of religious fervor into a hilariously self-conscious form. It’s the thing that brings all those on San Lorenzo simultaneously hope and fear, all while accepting it’s all a lie. In the end, we all do something similar, choosing to accept hopeful lies instead of a bleak truth.