The February book club book was yet another science fiction tale - or at least, it seemed that way on the surface. Kurt Vonnegut uses ideas about space travel, beautiful extraterrestrial women on foreign planets, travel through space and time, and the development of the human race in a future society to grab the readers attention. Without realizing it, the underlying themes and subconscious messages make the reader start examining the meaning of life, the purpose of religion, and the possibility of more.
...
Winston Niles Rumfoord was at one time one of the richest men on the planet when he and his dog, Kazak, took their private space ship out to explore the solar system. On their voyage, they are sucked into a "Chrono-synclastic infundibulum" which is a ripple in the solar system that exists between Betelgeuse and the sun. As a result of this, he and Kazak materialize in various places and times throughout the solar system in 59 day cycles. Being as such, he has the ability to for tell the future, and in one materialization on earth he tells the richest man in America, Malachai Constant, that he will impregnate Rumfoord's wife (Beatrice), live on Mars with their son Chrono, and eventually live on a planet called Titan. Determined not to allow this vision come to pass, Beatrice and Malachai take every precaution necessary to avoid one another. This, of course, does not change a thing.
Throughout the book, all characters in this book do things that they THINK are according to their own will. No matter how hard they try, they inevitably end up right where they are "supposed to" be. As readers, we are introduced to the concept of the "Universal Will to Become", which is something that all forms of existence in this solar system and many others outside of it possess. We do not know where it came from or how we came to posses it, all we know is that every living being has this embedded into their being. To me, I believe that Vonnegut believes in the theory of choas, and the idea that no matter what you do, no matter where you go, it's all for nothing. You have no control over your life or your actions.
Throughout the greater portion of the book Winston Niles Rumfoord devotes every last ounce of his being into convincing every single being on planet earth that there is no "great eye in the sky", that luck is something that should be earned and not just to be had, and that all good acts of fortune are not in fact an act of God, the Universe, or fate. People accept this idea and carry on their lives taking care of each other because they should, not because they think someone is watching them. At the same time, they don't live their lives, because they believe it was all for nothing. I think the ending is a very clear depiction of why we, as humans want to believe in a higher power and a meaning to life. We do not know for certain what comes after death, nor do we understand why undeserving people possess fortune and luck while humble, honest people do not. We crave a comfort in "knowing" what life is all about and what the purpose of our existence is. Instead of dying alone, frightened and scared of the unknown, Unk passes peacefully in believing that he knows what is to be.
I can't claim to know for certain about a higher power or life after death, but I believe that Beatrice was correct when she observed the following:
"A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved....The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody."
No comments:
Post a Comment