Mother Night
“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—Time
Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.
“A great artist.”—Cincinnati Enquirer
“A shaking up in the kaleidoscope of laughter . . . Reading Vonnegut is addictive!”—Commonweal
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Community Reviews
I thought this was a re-read but it turns out that I was mistaken. It's a very good book though probably the least like what you'd think of as Vonnegut of any of his books. There are some funny moments, but it never really gets a rythm of jokes. It is still however very ironic in tone. It's about (as Vonnegut says in his introduction) how "we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." This is in the context of a propagandist for the Nazis who is secretly an American agent. But his propaganda is extremely successful. So if he did that much bad, then does the good he did really cancel out or justify it? No.
The book's really good. You should read it. But I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the relevance for today: if you're an edgelord posting morally dubious "jokes" online that you "don't really mean" - you're intentions are meaningless. If you're constantly telling jokes or making hyperbolic comments at the expense of vulnerable people, minorities, etc., you're not only de-sensitizing yourself to that rhetoric, you're doing it to other people. So if you think "well I know where I stand" and/or "my friends know I am not serious" then just be aware that everyone can totally know that and it will still push the envelope towards and past the moral line. Look at the fanatics in our culture today and tell me that the rhetoric of the anonymous poster on the internet didn't create the hell hole we are stuck with now. It's 4chan culture. It's fox news. It's porn. It's all around us. Every facet of life has been degrading by people constantly pushing the Overton window until the only view out that window is of the 5th circle of hell.
Any way, that's what the book is about. More people should read Vonnegut.
The book's really good. You should read it. But I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the relevance for today: if you're an edgelord posting morally dubious "jokes" online that you "don't really mean" - you're intentions are meaningless. If you're constantly telling jokes or making hyperbolic comments at the expense of vulnerable people, minorities, etc., you're not only de-sensitizing yourself to that rhetoric, you're doing it to other people. So if you think "well I know where I stand" and/or "my friends know I am not serious" then just be aware that everyone can totally know that and it will still push the envelope towards and past the moral line. Look at the fanatics in our culture today and tell me that the rhetoric of the anonymous poster on the internet didn't create the hell hole we are stuck with now. It's 4chan culture. It's fox news. It's porn. It's all around us. Every facet of life has been degrading by people constantly pushing the Overton window until the only view out that window is of the 5th circle of hell.
Any way, that's what the book is about. More people should read Vonnegut.
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