2 B R 0 2 B -

Kurt Vonnegut

CreateSpace

2013

24 páginas

48m

ISBN-13: 9781482324105

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a prolific and genre-bending American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions. 2 B R 0 2 B is a satiric short story written in 1962 that imagines life (and death) in a future world where aging has been "cured" and population control is mandated and administered by the government.

Resenhas (1)

3 (Bom)

Interesting utopian/dystopian (?) short story.

Vonnegut's 2 B R 0 2 B, written in 1962, describes a similar dystopian world to Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, with the added twist that, upon finishing, one is not sure if Vonnegut's world is dystopian or utopian! In it, he forecasts a future where old age is "cured" and, as he puts it in the first line of the story, "Everything was perfectly swell." No prisons, no wars, no poverty, no diseases. How could anyone not like it? As you read on, however, the tone becomes increasingly gloomy, making the reader question his/her ideas about what is life and what is death, and think about what we need to do if we are to maintain our freedom of choice and not destroy our planet.

Having recently read "As Intermitências da Morte" (not so aptly translated to English as "Death with Interruptions"), I can see in this short story kind of the same message as in Saramago's novel: CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!! Is living forever the key to happiness? Both stories seem to think not. Both are tragic, but, as the title would suggest, Vonnegut's is Shakespearean in his tragedy, while Saramago is a romantic, though arguably more realistic. Vonnegut, on the other hand, demonstrates quite the environmental conscience for 1962!

The story is very short (22 pages), shocking, and entertaining, making you think about how demanding, unappeasable, insatiable human beings really are. How can one be unhappy, and lonely when they can live forever, not be hungry, and always have their loved ones with them? But we are never satisfied; we crave change and always want more!!! We SUCCEED in not being happy!!! This is the reason I could not tell whether the story is utopian or dystopian. We could argue that it is utopian, because in it human beings attain everything they desire. But, since we are never happy, it becomes dystopian!!