“Just about every adult human being back then had a brain weighing about three kilograms! There was no end to the evil schemes that a thought machine “Just about every adult human being back then had a brain weighing about three kilograms! There was no end to the evil schemes that a thought machine that oversized couldn’t imagine and execute.”
No “so it goes”, but “and so on” does make the occasional appearances. This quote represents what appears to be the basic theme of Galápagos. The “big brain” is humanity’s downfall. Though I believe Vonnegut means something more subtle than that.
Galápagos is about a group of survivors of an apocalypse after (and before) the rest of humanity is wiped out, thanks to our big brains. Because this is a Kurt Vonnegut book don’t go in expecting a post-apocalypse thriller like The Stand; best not to expect anything and just go on the wild ride. The story is mainly set in 1986 and sometimes fast forward one million years (to 1,001,986?), with multiple flashbacks to the central characters’ back-stories (linear timeline is not Uncle Kurt’s style). Still, the narrative is easy to follow because Vonnegut knows what he is doing and there is method to his madness. Most of the characters are staying at the El Dorado hotel in Guayaquil (the port city in Ecuador) in preparation to board the ship “Bahía de Darwin” for their “Nature Cruise of the Century” on the Galápagos Islands. [image]
After a cataclysmic event destroys most of Ecuador they flee the city and board the “Bahía de Darwin” which becomes a sort of Noah’s Ark for a while until the inept Captain runs it aground on an island called Santa Rosalia where they are marooned for the rest of their lives. The story is narrated by Leon Trotsky Trout, son of Vonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout. Leon never interacts with any of the characters, however, as he died during the construction of the “Bahía de Darwin”, and is narrating as a ghost doing a research on the meaning of life. Fast forward one million years and humanity has evolved, entirely from this group of survivors on Santa Rosalia, into semi-aquatic people with flippers instead of hands; and much smaller brains which prevent them from making the same mistake as their ancestors from the 80s.
As with other Vonnegut’s novels, the humour is front and centre but laid on a foundation of sadness and disapproval of where humanity is heading in spite because of our big brains. According to Leon the narrator the sorrows of humankind were caused by “the oversized human brain”. A point frequently reiterated throughout the book. However, it is important to distinguish between what Leon Trout thinks and what Kurt Vonnegut thinks. I believe Vonnegut’s point is that humanity is blessed with intelligence but we, as a race, have been abusing it, using it to worsen life on this planet since time immemorial. Eventually, such misuse is likely to be the cause of our downfall.
There are numerous subplots and flashbacks, initially, I did not find the narrative particularly compelling because of the jumbled timeline which seems to prevent any kind of momentum from developing. However, as I said, Vonnegut knows what he is doing and the disparate plot strands are gradually woven together into one cohesive story. The book is often very funny, full of whimsical nonsequiturs and sharp satire. However, Vonnegut is not Wodehouse, he wants to do more than tickle your funny bones, sometimes his disgust is made quite plain. For example, the back-story of a character called James Wait features this: “Later, when he was a prostitute on the island of Manhattan, his clients would find those scars, made by cigarettes and coat hangers and belt buckles and so on, very exciting.”
Galápagos made me laugh and feel sad at the same time, I can’t think of any other authors who can accomplish this. [image] Notes: • Vonnegut seems to have foreseen smartphones and PDAs with a device called Mandarax, but as a product of our “big brain”, it is basically useless.
• There is very little dialogue in this book, but there is so much else going on you won’t miss it.
• The blue-footed boobies have an important role to play in the survival of humanity, and they are just so damn cute! [image]
• In spite of the far future setting and the ghost, Galápagos is neither sci-fi nor fantasy. It is a satire about humanity, what we have been doing, what we are still doing to eff up the world we live in. More of a cautionary tale than spec fic, IMO.
• Thank you, Cecily, for nagging me to read recommending this book.
Quotes: “Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people’s actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be.”
“Of what possible use was such emotional volatility, not to say craziness, in the heads of animals who were supposed to stay together long enough, at least, to raise a human child, which took about fourteen years or so?”
“Something is always going wrong with our teeth. They don’t last anything like a lifetime, usually. What chain of events in evolution should we thank for our mouthfuls of rotting crockery?”
“Like so many other pathological personalities in positions of power a million years ago, he might do almost anything on impulse, feeling nothing much. The logical explanations for his actions, invented at leisure, always came afterwards.”...more
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