History Literature / CatsCradle

* FilkSong: California-based rock band Ambrosia had a minor hit in 1975 with "Nice, Nice, Very Nice", with lyrics taken from a Bokonon song. Vonnegut got credited as a co-writer.

** FantasyCounterpartCulture: San Lorenzo is quite obviously based on RealLife Haiti - their dialectal speech, poverty, tyrannical rule, economy based on sugar, and also by their glimpse of history (San Lorenzo had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Christophe a mad Emperor]] who built [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadelle_ Laferrière a gigantic and useless citadel]]).

** FantasyCounterpartCulture: San Lorenzo is quite obviously based on RealLife Haiti - their dialectal speech, poverty, tyrannical rule, economy based on sugar, and also by their glimpse of history (San Lorenzo had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Christophe a mad Emperor]] who built [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadelle Laferrière a gigantic and useless citadel]]).

** FantasyCounterpartCulture: San Lorenzo is quite obviously based on RealLife Haiti - their dialectal speech, poverty, tyrannical rule, economy based on sugar, and also by their glimpse of history (San Lorenzo had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Christophe a mad Emperor]] who built [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadelle_Laferri%C3%A8re a gigantic and useless citadel]]).

** There's no such place, but "Ilium" was another name for "Troy", and there is a Troy, NY.

* TropicalIslandAdventure: The book is set on a fictional tropical island in the Caribbean.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: InUniverse. John admits that he can't decide whether Mona's strange aloofness and deatchment was a sign of a deep serenity making her "[[WomenAreWiser the highest form of female spirituality]]" or whether she was just cold and empty inside.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Mona, after she sees that everything has been or will be destroyed by Ice-Nine. The ending ''very'' strongly implies the state of the world drives the narrator to suicide as well.]]

** And by all accounts, they all DO have it by the time the protagonist arrives in San Lorenzo. The story points out the problem with this kind of Mutually Assured Destruction deterrent scenario: sooner or later somebody nuts (or about to die anyway) can get their hands on the {{doomsday device}}.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The quote at the top of the page provides an example of at least ''one'' scientist feeling this way.

** FantasyCounterpartCulture: San Lorenzo is quite obviously based on RealLife Haiti - their dialectal speech, poverty, tyrannical rule, economy based on sugar, and also by their glimpse of history (San Lorenzo had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Christophe a mad Emperor]] who built [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadelle_Laferri%C3%A8re a gigantic and useless citadel]]).

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Everyone on Earth dies, but at least John finds out his final purpose in life.]]

->''"There are lots of good anecdotes about the bomb and Father ... For instance, do you know the story about Father on the day they first tested a bomb out at Alamagordo? After the things went off, after it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to Father and said, 'Science has now known sin.' And do you know what Father said? He said, 'What is sin?'"''

->''"No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's..."\\

"And?"'\\
\\
''"No damn cat, and no damn cradle."''''

* [[spoiler:ApocalypseHow: Planetary-scale, and is implied to cause the eventual extinction of all life on earth (although this is not depicted). Except for ants, that is.]]

* ArcWords: Bokononism has a lot of them. ThatOtherWiki has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle#Terms_introduced_in_the_novel full list]].

''Cat's Cradle'' is a 1963 novel by Creator/KurtVonnegut. The protagonist, who introduces himself to us in the [[PointOfView first person narration]] as simply "Jonah", begins the story intending to write a book about the atomic bomb. In his research, he comes to learn about the family of one of the chief scientists who created it: Dr. Felix Hoenikker. His research also uncovers the possibility that the man went on to create something else that could wipe out all life on Earth.

''Cat's Cradle'' is a 1963 novel by Creator/KurtVonnegut. The protagonist, who introduces himself to us in the [[PointOfView first person narration]] as simply "John", begins the story intending to write a book about the atomic bomb. In his research, he comes to learn about the family of one of the chief scientists who created it: Dr. Felix Hoenikker. His research also uncovers the possibility that the man went on to create something else that could wipe out all life on Earth.

* AliensInCardiff: Ice-nine is invented in Illium, NY.

* CosmicDeadline: [[spoiler: Deaths only start piling on in the last 12 chapters, and en masse as the world comes to an end. Backstory about how ice-nine is divvied up between the Hoennikers is filled in very late in the book as well.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: The Castles and Newt Hoenniker.

* [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Even The Gays Want Her]]: Mona is just that captivating.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: People don't understand why Emily Hoenniker, who was a very beautiful and popular woman, married Felix, who only cared about science and barely noticed her.

* CosmicDeadline: [[spoiler: Deaths only start piling on in the last 12 chapters, and en masse as the world comes to an end.]]

* DeathWorld: After the release of Ice-Nine.

* [[spoiler:ApocalypseHow: Planetary-scale, and is implied to cause the eventual extinction of all life on earth (although this is not depicted).]]

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Dr. Felix Hoenikker. He was so easily distracted that, at one time, he completely abandoned the development of the atomic bomb to study the skeleton of turtles... his daughter suggested his desperate colleagues to simply remove anything turtle-related from his laboratory, and he'd forget about his fascination with them completely (they did, he did).

-->There are lots of good anecdotes about the bomb and Father ... For instance, do you know the story about Father on the day they first tested a bomb out at Alamagordo? After the things went off, after it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to Father and said, "Science has now known sin." And do you know what Father said? He said, "What is sin?"

-->"No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's..."
-->"And?"
-->''"No damn cat, and no damn cradle."''

''Cat's Cradle'' is a 1963 novel by KurtVonnegut. The protagonist, who introduces himself to us in the [[PointOfView first person narration]] as simply "John", begins the story intending to write a book about the atomic bomb. In his research, he comes to learn about the family of one of the chief scientists who created it: Dr. Felix Hoenikker. His research also uncovers the possibility that the man went on to create something else that could wipe out all life on Earth.

* BecomingTheMask: This happens to President Earl [=McCabe=]. {{Lampshaded}} by Bokonon in "Between Time and Timbuktu" when Bokonon repeats the line, "We are who we pretend to be, so we must be very careful who we pretend to be."

* ParentalNeglect: Felix Hoenniker hardly showed any interest in his children. They were raised by their mother, and after her death, the oldest child, Angela.