[Book Review] Cat's Cradle / Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Translated by Norio Ito)

“Cat's Cradle” was briefly touched upon in Richard Flanagan's “Question 7”.
It described how the author, Kurt Vonnegut, came up with the idea for this novel. I am not at all well-versed in Vonnegut, so everything was new to me. Oh, so that's how it was. Thanks to Flanagan.

H.G. Wells, an important character in “Question 7”, visits a General Electric research facility in the early 1930s. The guide for the tour was Irving Langmuir, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist affiliated with the company. At that time, this exchange took place.

〈Langmuir pitched an idea for a story to Wells about a tiny piece of ice that could freeze the entire ocean, but Wells declined.〉 (From “Question 7”)

It was Vonnegut who received this terrifying ice idea instead of Wells. His brother had been an assistant to Langmuir at General Electric, and that is how he learned of it.
And so, written across the era of World War II, “Cat's Cradle” was published in 1963.
In this novel, there appears an “ice” called “Ice-nine” that instantly freezes everything it touches. Flanagan writes in “Question 7” that the inventor, Dr. Felix Hoenikker, is a character modeled after Langmuir.

And so, I re-read “Cat's Cradle” for the first time in decades.

The protagonist, “I”, is a man, and is quite young at the beginning of the story. He is a writer who was researching what important Americans were doing on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, intending to write a book titled “The Day the World Ended”.
In Japan, there is a book by Futaro Yamada called “The Same Day, The Same Time,” which summarizes what politicians, military personnel, and writers did on the day the Pacific War began and in the few days leading up to its end, and I was reminded of that. I am sure there are other books in reality that deal with similar themes, even if I am not aware of them.

So,
The first thing “I” did for “The Day the World Ended” was to send a letter to Newt, the son of Dr. Hoenikker, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. Newt was a graduate of the same Cornell University as “I”, and was a relatively easy person to contact. Eventually, a reply arrived, and from there, “I” became involved with Dr. Hoenikker's three children (at this point, Dr. Hoenikker himself is already deceased).
“I” does not yet know it, but the three of them had received Ice-nine from Dr. Hoenikker. A bluish-white “ice” with a high melting point of 45.8°C. It was 〈the last gift that Felix Hoenikker left to humanity as he departed this world, receiving his just deserts〉. (From “Cat's Cradle”)

And in the climax of “Cat's Cradle”, Ice-nine fully demonstrates its power.
In “Question 7”, Flanagan writes:
〈Vonnegut begins by having the narrator plan to write a book called “The Day the World Ended,” which records what “important Americans” did on the day Thomas Fearby pressed the switch on the automatic device to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and ends it six months later when the world has more or less ended for all living things, leaving only a few ants and a few humans.〉

In other words, “Cat's Cradle” is one of the apocalyptic novels that depicts the twilight of humanity, and come to think of it, I remembered reading and watching various works of fiction that depicted the end of the world as the end of the 20th century approached.

Now, there is another important factor in “Cat's Cradle” that Flanagan does not touch upon, and that is the fictional religion of “Bokononism”.

Bokononism is a religion born on a Caribbean island called San Lorenzo. Bokonon, who was born in the late 19th century on the island of Tobago (written as “Tobago” in the work), which is also in the Caribbean, is the founder. There is a holy book called “The Books of Bokonon”, which states that 〈all of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies〉. Also, Bokononist hymns are called “Calypsos”. As many people know, Calypso is a popular music genre born in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a real musical genre that is bright, poignant, and includes political statements, with the fun sound of steel pans made from oil drums. In Bokononism, it becomes a religious song.

“I” travels to San Lorenzo in the story and eventually becomes a Bokononist.
Since “Cat's Cradle” is a novel written looking back at the past from the point when all events have ended, the perspective of “I” as a Bokononist permeates the entire work.
The contents of “The Books of Bokonon” and the lyrics of “Calypsos” are quoted many times, and while they are all wild, they strike at the truth of human beings, and even though it says all the doctrines are lies, it makes one think that Bokononism might be a religion that is on a very good track.

In the end, due to Ice-nine, the future arrives just as it is sung in Calypso No. 119, “Everyone has gone far away”...

After everyone had gone far away, what “I” suddenly remembered was the story of the Tasmanian aborigines that I had read a long time ago.
〈To the eyes of white people, they were so ignorant that they did not appear human, and the early colonists sent from England as prisoners hunted them for amusement. Because of this, the natives lost interest in living and stopped bearing children.〉

Of course, there is no way Flanagan would overlook this description.
“Question 7” writes that 〈whenever anyone faces the end of the world, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people seem to be inevitably cited as an example〉.
This, too, must be what they call a “chain reaction”.

Cat's Cradle is said to mean “string figure” in English. Just as the illustration on the cover of the paperback book shows.