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« on: November 13, 2013, 11:26:39 AM »
"..."So Mushari felt swindled as he wallowed through the garish prose, lusted for sex, learned instead about automation. Trout's favorite formula was to describe a perfectly hideous society, not unlike his own, and then, toward the end, the ways in which it could be improved. In 2BRO2B he hypothicated an America in which almost all of the work was done by machines, and the only people who could get work had three or more PhDs. There was a serious overpopulation problem, too.
All serious diseases had been conquered. So death was voluntary, and the government, to encourage volunteers for death, set up a purple-roofed Ethical Suicide Parlor at every major intersection, right next door to the orange-roofed Howard Johnsons. There were pretty hostesses in the parlors, and the Barca-Loungers, and the Muzak, and the choice of fourteen painless ways to die. The suicide parlors were bust places, because so many people felt silly and pointless, and because it was supposed to be an unselfish, patriotic thing to do, to die. The suicides also got a free last meal next door.
And so on. Trout had a wonderful imagination.
One of the characters asked a death stewardess if he would go to Heaven, and she told him that of course he would. He asked if he would see God, and she said, 'Certainly, Honey.'
And he said, 'I sure hope so. I want to ask Him something I was never able to find out down here.'
'What's that?' she said, strapping him in.
'What in the Hell are people for?'""
Extracted from 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (Or, Pearls Before Swine)' by Kurt Vonnegut
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