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Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus, & other Vonnegut works
mipadi
post Mar 17 2009, 01:32 PM
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I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus a couple days ago, and it was, in a word, amazing -- so good that I read it in a week. It was really eye-opening, too, and put a lot of things in perspective. Vonnegut writes in a definitively post-modern style, so it's hard to nail down what the book is really about, or what the plot is, but the work, as a whole, is really delicious fodder for thought.

One of the major points of the novel is the dehumanizing aspect of war. Vonnegut was, of course, a prisoner of war in World War II, and was held at a prison in Dresden (Slaughterhouse-Five). In short, he survived the fire-bombing of Dresden, which clearly shaped his outlook on war. The main character of Hocus Pocus is a Vietnam War veteran. There's a great line in the book in which the character says that he would've given anything to have died in a war as meaningful as World War II. In light of the two wars we're fighting right now, I think this line brings our current conflicts into a different light.

The book also provides a haunting critique of the American "ruling class" which is even more profound given our current economic problems, and the follies that brought us where we are.

Anyway, the only other Vonnegut work I've read is Timequake, and that was eight years ago, before I could really appreciate Vonnegut's work fully. I'd like to read his other works now, though, since Hocus Pocus was so amazing.
 
 
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CrotchetTheLeper
post Mar 17 2009, 03:28 PM
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I just read Slaughterhouse-Five. Soooo good. He's brilliant.
 
karmakiller
post Mar 17 2009, 06:28 PM
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QUOTE(CrotchetTheLeper @ Mar 17 2009, 03:28 PM) *
I just read Slaughterhouse-Five. Soooo good. He's brilliant.
When I was in high school we had to read two books a quarter for "Read For Pleasure", and there was a kid in my class who always complained and goofed off. Then the teacher gave him Slaughterhouse Five and that was the only book he ever read for that class.

"It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."

Breakfast for Champions (which I borrowed forever off my grandfather's bookself) and Cat's Cradle are also really good books. But now I need to go find Hocus Pocus.
 

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