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By forcing us to consider the absurdity of the government's position, Vonnegut leads us to consider the absurdity of other similarly moral strictures that we might encounter in everyday life. "Welcome to the Monkey House" is a perfect example of Vonnegut's signature style of comic science fiction, a style that digresses from the science fiction tradition. Whereas traditional science fiction is often noted for its seriousness, Vonnegut peppers his descriptions of a bizarre and terrifying world with absurdist humor.
How Kurt Vonnegut Found His Voice and His Themes (Published 2017) - The New York Times
How Kurt Vonnegut Found His Voice and His Themes (Published .
Posted: Mon, 09 Oct 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Essays for Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Stories
These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of various short stories by Kurt Vonnegut. Also seemingly upset over the incident, Billy explains that her experience was much like the wedding night virgins would have experienced a hundred years before, in which they would have been entirely unaccustomed to the act. He argues that she might come to enjoy sex with the passage of time, and the argument resonates with Nancy, who listens quietly. The current President of the World is a Kennedy - "Ma" Kennedy - but her capital is located in the Taj Majal, and she will never be memorialized there since she is not "the real thing" (42). When Nancy sees that Billy has a gang of at least eight people, she decides not to attack him.
About Kurt Vonnegut
He is at large and making his way to Cape Cod, targeting the parlor in Hyannis. Despite the authorities' attempts to catch him, Billy reaches the parlor and abducts hostess Nancy McLuhan at gunpoint, telling her that the numbing drugs were developed by a pharmacist who was disgusted by the sight of a monkey masturbating at the local zoo. Billy is assisted by a gang of fellow nothingheads, including some of his past victims, and he rapes Nancy after her latest dose wears off.
Sexuality and depiction of rape
Much like many traditional science fiction stories, "Welcome to the Monkey House" exploits an ugly possibility born out of a recognizable human quality. Whether or not Vonnegut's use of humor heightens or detracts from that ugliness is a matter of taste, but it is certainly unique. Billy the Poet is a "nothinghead," meaning he has not been taking his ethical birth control pills, and hence enjoys sex (30). Because the world is so overpopulated, the World Government has required all citizens to take the pills - which make sex pleasureless - in order to dissuade unnecessary reproduction. The second part of the government's plan involves ethical, voluntary suicide via Suicide Parlors, where beautiful hostesses like Nancy and Mary use syringes to peacefully kill suicide volunteers. The human quality which Vonnegut exaggerates for this story is sexuality, a particularly taboo topic in 1968, when the story was first published in Playboy.
Overpopulation
Assuming this man is Billy the Poet, Nancy is actually upset that she will not have the chance to fight him. Pete Crocker, the sheriff of Barnstable County, enters the Federal Ethical Suicide Parlor in Hyannis, Massachusetts, to warn its two hostesses - Nancy McLuhan and Mary Kraft - about Billy the Poet. Though Billy the Poet is allegedly moving in their direction, the police do not know what he looks like. Evening the playing field and oppressing natural ability allows the government complete control. The Question and Answer section for Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Stories is a greatresource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. In one of the yacht cabins, Billy the Poet waits with champagne, which is illegal.
Kurt Vonnegut's Short Stories
As she suspects, it is from Billy the Poet; it contains one stanza of the lyrics to a dirty song. Nancy ignores it and attends to her client, whom she calls a "Foxy Grandpa" because he has been taking his time in the booth, unable to decide upon a last meal from the menu of the Howard Johnson's next door (33). Unlike most people, who look twenty-two thanks to anti-aging shots, Foxy Grandpa looks his age. The story "Der Arme Dolmetscher" is listed in the book's copyright notice as being included in this collection, but it was ultimately omitted, and does not appear in any edition of Welcome To The Monkey House.
Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works
In contrast to those good citizens who take the mandated ethical birth control, the nothingheads are described as "bombed out of their skulls with the sex madness that came from taking nothing" (33). The idea of "sex madness" is necessarily absurd, considering that sexuality is so natural. The story was originally published in Playboy in January 1968, and some of the aspects discussed seem to be written right for this very readership. Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut, published by Delacorte in August 1968. The stories range from wartime epics to futuristic thrillers, given with satire and Vonnegut's unique edge.
Afterward, he explains to her that the solution to the overpopulation problem lies not in encouraging suicide and taking all the pleasure out of sex, but rather in the use of birth control pills. He lets her go and leaves her a bottle of the pills, with a label reading "Welcome to the Monkey House." And yet he treats the idea of ethical birth control with the most irony here. Of course, Vonnegut and the reader know that science and morals have not historically gone hand in hand, but have rather almost always worked at odds in most debates. Secondly, Vonnegut expects us to know that sex without pleasure is quite unappealing. Through his use of irony, Vonnegut compels the reader to question whether the government's mandate is, in fact, more "unnatural and immoral" than the birth control itself (31).
At the Zoo, What the Monkey House Accommodated - The New York Times
At the Zoo, What the Monkey House Accommodated.
Posted: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Welcome to the Monkey House (short story)
For example, after describing Nancy and Mary as "at least six feet tall," the omniscient narrator notes that, "America had changed in many ways, but it had yet to adopt the metric system" (32). When Billy the Poet, disguised as the Foxy Grandpa, tells Nancy the story of J. Edgar Nation - the inventor of ethical birth control - he includes the detail that the man had eleven children himself.
Vonnegut suggests here that fake, strict morality denies human nature, and hence cannot be tolerated. Though the story does feel dated in some ways, it remains extremely relevant considering how many forces in America - both in politics and in everyday life - continue to demean open sexuality as sinful. In fact, Vonnegut comments on the real-world nature of the problem through the name J.
Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time, and Carrie Nation, who fought for Prohibition. The sexual strictures in the story are criticized not only for denying human nature, but also for working against human individuality, another central theme in Vonnegut's work. Both Sheriff Crocker and Mary rush out to see what Billy the Poet looks like, and Nancy returns to Foxy Grandpa, who tells her about how ethical birth control was eventually adapted for use on humans. There was a conflict in the United Nations between scientists - some saw population control as the paramount concern, while others "understood morals" (38) and saw a danger in using sex for nothing more than pleasure. Vonnegut exaggerates this type of morality for comic effect, suggesting that the overly-moral set has an unrealistic sense of how sex affects a person.
Realizing that the gang is comprised of ex-hostesses, she insults them and they attack her. Like all hostesses of Ethical Suicide Parlors, Mary and Nancy are virgins, at least six feet tall, and experts in judo and karate. They are annoyed with the sheriff's news, since it implies they would be either afraid of Billy the Poet or the slightest bit interested in having sex with him. They carry her upstairs into one of the museum bedrooms, and inject her with a truth serum that also knocks her unconscious.
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