so, i just got home from a night of ice skating and teazer's tea. definitely got pulled over by the cops. scary. but yeah, this post is due in less than five minutes and i just started, sadly. the best i can do is present you with this analysis of postmodernism of Cat's Cradle i found online. i did not want to simply disregard the assignment, and this is the best i can do considering the time i have to complete this. sorry i didn't do it yesterday, but at least i didnt lie and plagarize? heh :)
When talking about Bokonon, the whole Bokononism is a kind of postmodernist religion. The ending - ism itself refers to the thesis, which all these -isms claim, (capitalism, communism, socialism?) and that is: that only their -ism is the right one for the world. The founder of Bokononism was Lionel Boyd Johnson, whose name was corrupted by the island dialect. Bokononism contains the postmodernist misreading, combination and anarchy at once. Even the first verse in the Book of Bokonons says: "All of the true things that I am to tell you are shameless lies." Here we can see Vonnegut's opinion about religion. He tells us, that people always look for something to what they can believe. "Truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies." The religion just covers the horrible truths out there. Bokononism is like a play. All the people are actors, which are fed with lies and like in a Christianity or other religions, they don't question it, they just blindly follow it. They believe in their made up religion, they believe in something which is not. Like Cat's Cradle, which for some people is just a bunch of strings, for some a real image of a Cradle. The crisis of Christianity (religion) is according to Vonnegut: "The adults can not regard themselves as God's little sheep anymore." In another interview he says: "We can not believe in Christianity anymore, we know too much about the world." (Zelenka, 87) This a postmodernist feature, which is typical for many postmodernist books. The main faith is not based in some religion, but in man himself. Vonnegut states a very original opinion about God's creation: "Whoever writes about other humans, and creates their pains, loves, sorrows and passions, he tastes personally the process of God's creation and for these characters he becomes a God himself." (Zelenka, 89) Even Felix Hoenikker was described as person so innocent, that he was pract ically a Jesus. The essay "Understanding Religion Through Cat's Cradle" presents further analysis of Jesus and Christianity. "Once the comparison is made it is surprisingly relevant in that Jesus created a religion that would, over time, cause hundreds of thousands of deaths also." (3)
