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July 21, 2005
Hocus Pocus
In the midst of several open books, Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut is one that's now finished. Hocus Pocus tells the story of Eugene Debs Hartke who meandered through life as a river flows downhill, ending up wisely travel worn but lower than he started out, at least in some ways.
I had the choice between Hocus Pocus and Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp, since Debra and Matt lent me these books. I've not yet tried the exercises in chapter 1 of the book on Lisp.
Hocus Pocus is one I no doubt read before. Another advantage of having such a bad memory is that you can enjoy stories whose endings you've already heard.
My favorite Vonnegut stories are the ones by Kilgore Trout, the ones Vonnegut only outlines, but then keeps referring to. Vonnegut manages that with science fiction stories as well as Borges ever did without science fiction. In Hocus Pocus, Trout's featured story concerns The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore, "intelligent threads of energy trillions of light years long" who decide to spread life through the universe, and determine the best life to spread would be very tough germs, which could deal with the rough interstellar conditions. So the elders eventually get people on earth to set up hostile conditions for germs, preparing the germs for space travel, easily manipulating humans to do their bidding.
It's residually depressing to notice how Vonnegut, a smart cookie and a good writer, has his protagonists coming gently to the conclusion that we are a bunch of mental basket cases. I should've read the stuff on Lisp instead. At least when you read that book, you get the impression that although you are stupid, somebody out there isn't.
Posted by Mark at July 21, 2005 06:27 AM