Monday, May 27, 2013

The History of Tralfamadorians - Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is a satirical mad genius. Every time that I pick up one of his books, I find (with startling regularity) passages that sum up the insane structures we take for granted without a second thought. To use someone else's words; we have no choice, but to laugh in self-defense.


Once upon a time on Tralfamadore there were creatures who weren't anything like machines. They weren't dependable. They weren't efficient. They weren't predictable. They weren't durable. And these poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others. 

These creatures spent most of their time trying to find out what their purpose was. And every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame. 

And, rather than serve such a low purpose, the creatures would make a machine to serve it. This left the creatures free to serve higher purposes. But whenever they found a higher purpose, the purpose still wasn't high enough. 

So machines were made to serve higher purposes, too. 

And the machines did everything so expertly that they were finally given the job of finding out what the highest purpose of the creatures could be. 

The machines reported in all honesty that the creatures couldn't really be said to have any purpose at all. 

The creatures thereupon began slaying each other, because they hated purposeless things above all else. 

And they discovered that they weren't even very good at slaying. So they turned that job over to the machines, too. And the machines finished up the job in less time than it takes to say, "Tralfamadore."
- Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan (Ch. 12)

3 comments:

  1. Sirens was my favorite book for the longest time. The whole thing with Boaz and the Harmoniums fed my soul.

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    1. Sirens of Titan is definitely my favorite Vonnegut. The part when Boaz decides to stay on Mercury also has one of my favorite lines, "I found me a place where I can do good without doing any harm." Makes you think that living a fulfilling life isn't actually all that complicated.

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  2. totes. Also check out 'Deadeye Dick' by Vonnegut. I think that became my favorite when I re-read it recently.

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