's novel Valley of Day-Glo, a gem of the absurdist tradition, has drawn comparisons to 's writing. In the November-December issue of Philosophy Now DiChario looks at the concept of utopia through the lens of Vonnegut's short story "2 B R 0 2 B".
has been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, and has twice been in our Grant Park store for author events. Below is a brief excerpt from the article, but a link to the full article follows below.
The plot of "2 B R 0 2 B" concerns a man named Wehling whose wife is pregnant with triplets. No newborn is allowed to survive unless the parents find a volunteer to die, and Wehling's grandfather is the only person who has stepped up. So the unhappy couple is faced with the deaths of their grandfather and two children just to ensure the survival of one of their offspring. Quite a pickle. Without spoiling the finale, I will say that the story has a brilliant, appropriately Shakespearean climax, wherein Vonnegut invites readers to reflect on life and death, happiness and despair, human values, over-population, and the sacrifices people might one day need to make for the sake of society.
Today, with the world's population twice what it was in the 1960s and closing in on seven billion, a utopia of any kind seems unlikely. Demands on our diminished resources are expected to double in the next two decades. Even politicians have begun to talk about how climate change and the shortages of food and water will soon become international security issues. What are we willing to sacrifice to solve these problems? Conversely, what will sovereignties do to protect their natural resources or secure what they need? How will our leaders rationalize the decisions they make? How will we? These challenging ethical questions will move out of the theoretical into the very real world in the too near future. At the end of Vonnegut's story we are left wondering if the greatest gift we can offer our descendants is to just plain die.
You can read DiChario's entire article here.
An Interview with Nick DiChario
Valley of Day-Glo by Nick DiChario
A Small and Remarkable Life by Nick DiChario
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