Just finished reading Vonnegut's novel Gallapagos. Now, if you're like I was until recently,
you've never heard of this novel. You've
got your Slaughterhouse Five, maybe Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of
Champions. But though the title sounds
interesting, since you've never heard of it before, it's probably not worth
reading.
Exactly what I thought.
But I happened to pick it up anyway (it had blue-footed boobies on the front). And I loved it. A real mind-expander.
The premise is this:
one of the welders on a boat bound for Ecuador is accidentally
killed. He is bound for the afterlife
(down a swirling blue tunnel, according to Vonnegut) but still has some
questions about the ways of human beings.
Because of this curiosity, he has to remain a ghost for one million
years.
The boat is meant to be for 'The nature cruise of the
century'- to the Galapagos
Islands. Celebrities are booked, all is well- until
the world economy falls apart at the same time that a mysterious disease makes
most of humanity infertile. So the few
who make it aboard the
ship become the last hope of humanity as they are shipwrecked on Galapagos (a
chain of islands, by the way- not one island).
Where do you picture humanity being in a million years from
now? I would venture that it is nothing
like Vonnegut pictured when he wrote this novel. And if that wasn't enough- the narrator is a
ghostly Vietnam War veteran who really knows how to tell a story in a
surprising, unconventional way. The
narrative jumps back and forth from the initial shipwreck, to a million years
in the future, to the days leading up to the voyage,
constantly. There is even a reason given
why the narrator does this, but you'll have to read the novel to understand it.
Perhaps the biggest point Vonnegut was making through
this novel, though, was that we have such big brains and use them so
poorly. He describes again and again how
the humans of 1986 used their brains for worry, for deceit, and for fantasizing
about things that never would happen, among other things, instead of being
concerned with more important issues including their own health and
survival.Have you ever felt that your intellegence or education did nothing but
get you into trouble or allow you to worry?
Have you ever envied those who were supposedly less 'gifted' but looked
happier? Then this deserves a spot on
your reading list.
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