Grandpa Ford regularly shouts, "Hell, we did that a hundred years ago!" and every day for the last fifty years he has said he is getting ready for “the Big Trip Up Yonder." One of his family plans to kill him, all of his family are greedily fighting. It could be seen as a kind of prequel to “The Big Trip Yonder,” (original title, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” also Shakespearean) a couple centuries in the future, after the invention of a medicine called Anti-Gerasone, which halts the aging process and prevents people from dying of old age as long as they keep taking it everybody takes it, and as a result, America now suffers from severe overpopulation and food shortages. “2BR02B” is a Vonnegut sci fi short story that imagines a future where aging has been “cured” and population control is mandated by the government. The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. Army and serving in World War II.Īfter the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003. ![]() ![]() ![]() Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. For them, the poignancy of the prospective Big Trip had been dulled somewhat, through having been mentioned by Gramps about once a day for fifty years. "Next one shoots off his big bazoo while the TV's on is gonna find hisself cut off without a dollar-" his voice suddenly softened and sweetened-"when they wave that checkered flag at the Indianapolis Speedway, and old Gramps gets ready for the Big Trip Up Yonder." He sniffed sentimentally, while his heirs concentrated desperately on not making the slightest sound. Gramps looked older because he had already reached 70 when anti-gerasone was invented. All save Gramps, who was somewhat withered and bent, seemed, by pre-anti-gerasone standards, to be about the same age-somewhere in their late twenties or early thirties. rarity-privacy-were obliged to take seats in the back row, behind about a dozen relatives with whom they shared the house. Every thirty seconds or so, Gramps would jab the floor with his cane-tip and shout, "Hell, we did that a hundred years ago!" Emerald and Lou, coming in from the balcony, where they had been seeking that 2185 A.D. On the screen, a news commentator was summarizing the day's happenings. Gramps Ford, his chin resting on his hands, his hands on the crook of his cane, was staring irascibly at the five-foot television screen that dominated the room. With the exception of the very wealthy, most of the population appears to survive on a diet of foods made from processed seaweed and sawdust. Anti-Gerasone halts the aging process and prevents people from dying of old age as long as they keep taking it as a result, America now suffers from severe overpopulation and shortages of food and resources. The story is set in 2158 A.D., after the invention of a medicine called Anti-Gerasone, which is made from mud and dandelions and is thus inexpensive and widely available.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |