Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally published in 1963, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. follows John, who tells us that he is writing a book called The Day the World Ended, which was likely going to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. He then begins to describe the research that he did for his book, which revolves around Felix Hoenikker, who is one of the “Fathers” of the atomic bomb in Cat’s Cradle. To learn more about the now deceased Felix Hoenikker, he starts his research by heading to Ilium, New York, where he learns of the ice-nine that Felix was working on at the time of his death, which is said to be a unique structure of water that crystallizes upon contact with water and causes the rest of the water to crystallize along with it. Then, as fate would have it, his job working for a magazine takes him to the island of San Lorenzo, an impoverished island ruled by “Papa” Monzano and home to the fictional religion Bokononism. After arriving on the island, the entire world essentially goes into chaos, and John is there to commentate on and take part in all of the madness.

Overall, I found Cat’s Cradle an entertaining read primarily for its variety of themes. Similar to my last post, Cat’s Cradle focuses on religion, but it approaches it in a completely different light compared to Siddhartha. In fact, I’d say it’s the exact opposite of a somewhat pro-religion novel. Bokononism, the fictional religion practiced in the novel, utilizes a special dialect of English that is, while humorous, also used by Vonnegut to further convey his personal opinions in the book. In the epigraph, Bokonon, the founder of Bokononism, states in his “holy text” tells the reader to “Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and happy and healthy.” Underneath this quote, foma (a word from the dialect) is defined as “harmless untruths”, which are what we commonly call lies. This quote pretty much sums up what Bokononism is all about. The religion was made by Bokonon to provide the broke people of San Lorenzo hope and to take solace in the faith when really everything around them is a complete wasteland. Through Bokononism, Vonnegut is essentially portraying his beliefs about religion in general; that it is a harmless lie that people believe in but it makes them “brave and kind and happy and healthy”. This idea also suggests that even though something may not actually be real, humans can still find it useful, sort of like a positive placebo effect. 

Based off of the themes above, I’d recommend Cat’s Cradle to anyone that enjoyed reading the Sapiens book from history, although I doubt there are many of you out there. What Cat’s Cradle calls foma Sapiens essentially calls “imagined realities”, which are according to Sapiens human constructs that help them work together. However, I think there is still value in reading Cat’s Cradle even if you completely disagree with what it says. Of course a book that you agree with will likely resonant with you more strongly, but I also think it’s a good idea to expose yourself to ideas and beliefs that challenge your own, which is one of the many benefits of reading new books.