On 'The Books Of Bokonon' ....

[Trajan]

The words of Bokonon himself ....

On his own re-birth ...

A fish pitched up
By the angry sea,
I gasped on land,
And I became me.

Be like a baby,
The Bible say,
So I stay like a baby
To this very day

[Trajan]

1. More Bokonon ....

On the ignorance of learned men:

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.

[Ardee]

2. hee

You sneaky devil you...Thanks for the memory jog, I think I may have to re-read that ........

[Trajan]

3. Just be careful of those nasty little ice crystals ....

SEE the cat ? ...

SEE the cradle ? ...

[Philostopher]

5. Me, too.

Soon as I finish Bluebeard.

[Ardee]

13. I'm Backed Up

On book 2 of the Neal Stephenson trilogy, The Baroque Cycle.....Damn he's soooo good. Three books of close to a thousand pages each and I cant put them down!

[Philostopher]

24. I hadn't been reading much ...

I'm trying to lure myself back into the habit with KV. His books are short, and can be read a few minutes at a time. When I read Cryptonomicon, I got so wrapped up in it, I know at least once I read six hours at a stretch. I'll work my way up to Stephenson, I guess!

[Trajan]

4. More Bokonon ....

On history:


History! Read it and weep!

[Trajan]

6. Yet MORE ? ....

A poem on pretending to understand:

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, "Why, why, why?"

Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

[Trajan]

7. THIS is the one ....

Also known as 'Nice Nice Very Nice' ...

The Fifty-third Calypso

Oh, a sleeping drunkard
Up in Central Park,
And a lion-hunter
In the jungle dark,
And a Chinese dentist,
And a British queen--
All fit together
In the same machine.
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice--
So many different people
In the same device.

[Trajan]

8. 'The End of The World' ...

On the end of the world:

Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end,
And our God will take things back that He to us did lend.
And if, on that sad day, you want to scold our God,
Why just go ahead and scold Him. He'll just smile and nod.

[Trajan]

9. Didnt you know ?

YOU were put here for a REASON ; to worship Bokonon ! ...

On the creation of Bokononism:

I wanted all things
To seem to make some sense,
So we could all be happy, yes,
Instead of tense.
And I made up lies
So that they all fit nice,
And I made this sad world
A par-a-dise.

[Trajan]

10. Dynamic Tension ? ...

On Dynamic Tension

"Papa" Monzano, he's so very bad
But without bad "Papa" I would be so sad;
Because without "Papa's" badness,
Tell me, if you would,
How could wicked old Bokonon
Ever, ever look good?

[Trajan]

11. The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon ....

The Fourteenth Book

Title: What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?

Only verse: Nothing.

[stinkeefresh]

12. still, I think, my favorite Vonnegut.

And the first I read.

As my mom says: "I don't know how anyone can understand this world if they haven't read Kurt Vonnegut."

[Trajan]

15. My fave by far ...

Breakfast is also a fave ...

For you:

On a Boulder near the Post-Ice Nine Mass Suicide

To whom it may concern: These people around you are almost all of the survivors on San Lorenzo of the winds that followed the freezing of the sea. These people made a captive of the spurious holy man named Bokonon. They brought him here, placed him at their center, and commanded him to tell them exactly what God Almighty was up to and what they should now do. The mountebank told them that God was surely trying to kill them, possibly because he was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die. This, as you can see, they did.
Bokonon

[Trajan]

14. Another Bokononian Poem ...

A Poem on the Creation of Bokononism

So I said good-bye to government,
And I gave my reason:
That a really good religion
Is a form of treason.

[Trajan]

16. Who would Lie ?

On "the heartbreaking necessity of lying about reality,
and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it:

Midget, midget, midget, how he struts and winks,
For he knows a man's as big as what he hopes and thinks!

[Trajan]

17. The First Book of Bokonon ...

The First Book

Warning from title page: Don't be a fool! Close this book at once! It is nothing but foma! (lies)

Verse 1: All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

Verses 2-4 : In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.

And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.

"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.

"Certainly," said man.

"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.

And He went away.

Verse 5: Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.

[Trajan]

18. The Sixth Book of Bokonon ...

The Sixth Book

If I am ever put to death on the hook, expect a very human performance.

In any case, there's bound to be much crying.

But the oubliette alone will let you think while dying.

[redsoxliberal]

19. ice 9.

[Trajan]

20. Last Rites for Mud ....

The Last Rites of the Bokononism

(Each line is said once by the person giving the rites and then repeated by the dying person.)

God made mud.

God got lonesome.

So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"

"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars."

And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.

Lucky me, lucky mud.

I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.

Nice going, God.

Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn't have.

I feel very unimportant compared to You.

The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around.

I got so much, and most mud got so little.

Thank you for the honor!

Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.

What memories for mud to have!

What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!

I loved everything I saw!

Good night.

I will go to heaven now.

I can hardly wait...

To find out for certain what my wampeter was...

And who was in my karass...

And all the good things our karass did for you.

Amen.

[Trajan]

21. If Bokonon were a younger man ...

The Final Sentence of the Books of Bokonon

If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

[JitterbugPerfume]

22. God, I love that book

time for a re read

[Trajan]

23. Isnt it amazing ? ...

I have such a deep, abiding respect for Vonnegut ... for so long now ...

His newer books dont punch as hard ... but his old books can be read every year for life, and NEVER lose their punch ....

Whenever I see Bush referred to as '*', I always think about Vonnegut's sphincter picture in Breakfast of Champions ...

It is the ideal metaphor for Shrub .... President Asterisk-Ass ....

Long Live Kurt Vonnegut ....