Review: Cat's Cradle

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Reading the book, I couldn’t help but feel for the family of Hoenikkers. For their talents and for their dysfunctions.

Further, dysfunction is on display when we moved to the island of San Lorenzo. The description of a banana republic supported by a fake outlawed religion worshiping untruths (“foma”) is quite fantastic. Are Earl McCabe and Bokonon evil geniuses for outlawing Bokononism and maintaining control over the residents of San Lorenzo or are they just trying to make the best out of a poor and restless island country?

Tying all of these together is the concept of technology as faceless foe in the form of ice-nine (asinine?). This stupid technology eventually caused the destruction of most of the earth’s lifeforms after it was casually created.

Reading this book was a bit frustrating as the plot is moved by jumping around. My biggest takeaway is the careless way we’ve created and used technology without a thought to its consequences. Cases in point: burning fossil fuel leading to global warming, facebook and other social media leading to fake news.

Busy, busy, busy.