I think this book typifies what I like about Vonnegut beyond his cynical nature. It took me reading part of a Wikipedia entry (warning, spoilers) on this book to realize that the big things that get me---why I keep coming back to his books---are his non-linear plots which tend to imply events rather than state them directly and his character descriptions, which are mostly done through the actions of the characters themselves rather than through formal descriptions. I guess I like to have room for my imagination to fill in the details of both the plot and character descriptions. I feel more invested in the book this way.
In this book, the narrator is a ghost explaining how the human race ends and, more importantly, how it is saved by a group shipwrecked on the Galapagos Islands. The ghost follows the group and their descendants for 1,000,000 years (not much of the middle is described, more the before and the after). The humans end up evolving much like their animal counterparts on the Galapagos, to a stasis point. Humans no longer have big brains. They live only to eat fish and lay in the sun and procreate. They still laugh when some one farts.
Definitely Vonnegut is questioning our modern society (the main portion of the book is set around 1986), showing us that so much of it is there merely to occupy our big brains, which have little to do since we are regularly safe from danger, hunger and cold. The resulting humanoids are safe, full and warm as well, but have lost what we consider a fundamental human quality: curiosity. The curious ones get eaten by sharks. They have reached a point where evolution stops (much like with the animals currently on the Galapagos), maybe similar to our current time with our big brains. But, the humanoids of Vonnegut's future have no charge to make things better. They have become a perfect fit for their geographic location. They are in their heaven and could imagine nothing further.
9/10
Sounds like sound satire and parody of the current human condition among the most satisfied -- we who have climbed the limbs of those mighty oaks, our forebears, to stand upon their ears, shoulders, and crowns -- peering about at all we might survey and, unlike the metaphorical form Christ might take at this stage of the story, instead of saying "Get thee behind me, Satan!" would and DO say, "Hey! that's neat/cute/fancy/fast -- I'll take THAT! and that...and that, too!" Yummy.
ReplyDeleteAlmost any potential moment of discomfort, not even the actual instant, cause whining and cursing, and pawing, clawing at the door to be let back in. Curse in the darkness eternal, the tremendum, and know the truth of one's miserableness of meaning null.
Galapagos is probably one of my favorite Vonnegut books, perhaps together with The Sirens of Titan. I don't know if I can count his more mainstream titles, since I've heard them overanalyzed so many times. I think I'll back up your score.
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