I started to really get into reading Kurt Vonnegut either towards the end of my college days or right after. This would have been 2001 or so. Over the next few years, I was trying to obtain any books from him as I could. Probably by 2004 or so, I had read pretty much every book that he had written. Even got to see him when he gave the commencement speech at Lehigh University in 2004, and then saw him again at the Connecticut Forum in 2006.
Again, I would qualify as a big fan of Vonnegut and his works.
However, my memory, while strong in some ways, can be less than overwhelming at other times. In rereading certain books in recent years, it has felt astonishing at seeing all of the things which I could not recall from my first reading.
So it felt like rereading some Vonnegut books was a must. I reread some of the classics, like Slaughterhouse-5, Player Piano and Sirens of Titan, although surprisingly, I have not reread Salughterhouse-5 in recent years. Maybe it's time to get on that, eh?
Anyway, one of the books which I remember particularly enjoying was Galapagos. Having always been fascinated by Charles Darwin since focusing on him and his works for a college paper many years ago, the Galapagos Islands always seemed fascinating. Plus, it felt to me that Vonnegut did some very clever things in this book, which I feel is well-written.
Vonnegut has a strange style. He wrote in ways which might have come across as overly simplified, perhaps even not serious. Yet, he often would make some quite profound thoughts in the process. He was quite the humanitarian. There is a reason why he became so popular and celebrated, after all. But I guess that you can say that his writings are...well, unorthodox, to say the least. Bizarre, perhaps. At least to the extent that he is not for everybody. While I really like his style and sentiments, there is a clear awareness that not everybody would. Some people would dismiss him as simple or even vulgar, which he could certainly be at times.
Still, it always feels like a joy to me to return to his works. And Galapagos was one of the works which I was particularly looking forward to reading again. March felt like a good time to get back into it, being spring and such. Usually, I see some turtles when I walk at parks with lakes or canals near me, and turtles also remind me of the Galapagos. It seemed fitting.
One thing that struck me with this one was that, unlike so many other books where I was astonished by how much had slipped my mind and been forgotten, I remembered this book quite well. Perhaps it was because it was quite enjoyable to me to read. Again, there were a lot of things that he did in this book which I appreciated during my first reading. Somehow, though, I actually appreciated them even more during this more recent second reading.
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this story already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning.
In typical Vonnegut style, this story seems to make serious points while also being done in an almost comically ridiculous manner. When you think about the story itself, it could seem quite serious. A group of people arrive at Guayaquil, Ecuador, to take what has been billed as the 'Nature Cruise of the Century" to the Galapagos Islands. It is supposed to consist almost exclusively of rich and famous people, billionaires and rock stars and movie stars and such.
Yet, all of this transpires while the world is in pretty bad shape. The economy for most countries - except the very wealthiest nations - has largely collapsed. With that, world order seems to have collapsed along with it, as chaos and riots are taking over the streets, including in tiny Ecuador. Still despite all of this, the "Nature Cruise of the Century"
While Ecuador may be suffering - in fact, most of the largely poor people there are starving - they were nonetheless making an effort to keep things peaceful by the hotel where all of the guests for the "Nature Cruise of the Century" were staying. But this peace begins to disintegrate. The crowds of protesters and would be rioters is growing, and the area around the hotel has been cordoned off. Somehow, not all of the passengers for the cruise fully appreciate the gravity of the situation. In fact, some of them seem to feel immune to the dangers in the world, including right there in downtown Guayaquil. Also, almost shockingly, the cruise has not been cancelled, although almost everyone in the know figures that it really is just a matter of time. The economic crisis has largely put at least a temporary halt to all frivolous things, like tourism.
There is one thing which I should make a note of before I go on. All of this is being told by a narrator who actually helped to build the Bahia de Darwin, the ship which is to be the host for this "nature cruise of the century," yet which also combines as a military ship, if and when it is needed. But this being a Vonnegut novel, it's not quite as simple as that. You see, the narrator is dead, and was killed in an accident involving the building of the ship. But he refused to go through the tunnel to the afterlife and hung around the ship instead. He stuck around for one million years, and mostly tells the story of the origins of the "new" human race, which has evolved to have strong teeth and flippers. In other words, hardly what we would describe as humans at all.
Oh, and one more thing: that narrator is Leon Trotsky Trout. The last name would be familiar to Vonnegut fans for good reason. He is the son of Vonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout, who is kind of a less successful alter ego of Vonnegut himself.
Back to the passengers for the "Nature Cruise of the Century." They eventually do make their way to the Galapagos Islands. However, it is not anything like what it was meant to be. First of all, because of the emergency situation - an economic crisis which Vonnegut makes clear is purely for imaginary reasons - there are no real celebrities who take the cruise as was originally planned. There may be the possible exception of the Captain Adolf von Kleist, although he largely had become a celebrity because he was to be the captain of the cruise. Yet, we find out that he is in fact a captain in name and official rank only. In reality, his specialty is in socializing with people, leaving the real work of running ships to those underneath him. This proves fateful later on, when he finds himself needing to both run and navigate the ship once they actually do head to the Galapagos Islands.
The other passengers on the ship with him will be considerably less famous. Yet, it winds up that this particular cruise - if that is what it can really even be called - will be fateful to the future of humanity. In fact, this boat ride is, in a sense, similar to Noah's Arc, except that it is the human race which is preserved in a ship that originally had all sorts of fancy luxuries and extras, but is eventually stripped bare by the time that they actually embark on the journey to the Galapagos Islands.
Or rather, to one of the islands in particular: Santa Rosalia. It is the northernmost island of the Galapagos. Intentionally, the Captain ran the ship aground onto rock. For some reason, the boat's engines will never start again. So while the people on board the Bahia de Darwin might not know it at first, they will be stuck on this island for the rest of their lives.
Now for a rundown of who the passengers are. Selena MacIntosh is the daughter of billionaire Andrew MacIntosh, a bizarre and extreme wealth addict, a billionaire, who's inhumanity and lack of empathy leads to one of the key events which will trigger everything to come. In the midst of a global crisis, with many people - including the vast majority in Ecuador itself - Andrew MacIntosh requested for two wonderful steaks to be brought into the room, but then gives it to his dog, and tells the hotel employee who brought it to get out of the room.
Then there is Zenji Hiroguchi and his pregnant wife Hisako Hiroguchi. They have been invited - or perhaps urged would be the better description - to be a part of the "Nature Cruise of the Century" by Andrew MacIntosh, who is impressed with Zenji's invention, the Mandarax. The Mandarax is a brilliant translating device, which also quickly comes up with literary quotes from some of the greatest writers in history. However, the Hiroguchis are traveling under a false name so that Zenji's employer does not find out that he is actively being courted by MacIntosh. However, they begin to suspect that MacIntosh is insane. This itself will lead to another major event, when Zenji tries to get away from Andrew MacIntosh by running outside, with MacIntosh running after him. This proves ill-advised due to the danger from all of the local protesters congregated there. In the end, they are both shot and killed by a soldier who is plundering a local store.
Otherwise, there ius Mary Kaplan and James Wait. Mary is a teacher in New York state who's recently deceased husband had booked two tickets for the "Nature Cruise of the Century." His dying wish was that Mary still go on the cruise, which explains why she is there. As for James Wait, he is a shady man who looks significantly older than he actually is. He preys on vulnerable old women to coax into marrying him, then steals their fortunes and disappears. He too is traveling under a false name. And he is particularly interested in Mary. In the end, the two of them do get married. However, they were married while James was dying on the boat after having suffered a heart attack in the frightful escape from Guyaquil. So even while we learn of how horrible a person Wait actually is, Mary, his wife, never really got to know him, and eventually deifies him, never having discovered just how much of a monster he really is.
Finally, there are six little girls. They are Kanka-bonos, a remote tribe who seem on the verge of extinction, at least at the beginning of this book. However, since there are six of them, they wind up being the majority. When the people stranded on Santa Rosalia become the last real human colony, the Kanka-bono language and culture becomes dominant, while English, Spanish, and Japanese, the language and western culture of the other passengers, for all intents and purposes goes extinct.
Once the group becomes stranded on Santa Rosalia, they mostly break off into their own groups. Mary and the Captain - the only man among them - become a couple. Selena MacIntosh and Hisako Hiroguchi pair off, where they will soon become de facto parents to Akiko, Hisako's daughter. One thing about Akiko that is unique is that she is furry. It is explained that this would put her at a disadvantage in many respects in our modern society. But with this group, stranded on a largely treeless island with little protection against the sun, it is a distinct advantage. In time, it becomes one of the traits passed down to the future of humanity, which will be restricted to this little island, because catastrophe after catastrophe has hit the rest of humanity on the mainland continents. Not least of these is some kind of disease that terminates humanity's ability to reproduce. All, that is, but this tiny colony of human beings on Santa Rosalia.
The rest of the book explains the unfolding drama on the island between the survivors and how, eventually, they came to reproduce in order to continue the existence of humanity. The Captain had botched things badly in the escape from Guayaquil, having been drunk and somehow lost all of his clothes, thus going on the ship and onto Santa Rosalia with nothing but his birthday suit. So any illusions of him being a worldly and sophisticated man based on his official title and status as something of a celebrity is quickly stripped away. In time, we also learn that he is a racist, and so almost everyone else on the island despises him. His relationship with Mary deteriorates until they, also, despise one another. However, before their relationship ends, Mary begins an experiment by taking the Captain's sperm and impregnating the six Kanka-bono girls, albeit without the Captain's knowledge, must less consent. This will be the final straw in the already existing tensions and simmering resentment between them.
The Captain only learns about the Kanka-bono girls being pregnant after the fact. The girls and the Captain cannot stand one another and so they avoid each other. Still, their giving birth to a new generation of human beings becomes the first generation born on Santa Rosalia. Among them is a boy, who eventually impregnates Akiko, who also gives birth to a boy. So the future of this new humanity is assured.
However, they are on a remote island with limited food supply. Increasingly, they have to rely on fishing in the open ocean. The ghost of Leon Trotsky Trout has been observing all of this for a million years. He explains that modern human beings have largely abandoned the technological prowess that were a product of the big brains of ancient humanity in the year 1986. The new humans have evolved in a way that we modern humans would feel would be going backwards. They grow strong jaws with which to catch and bite fish which they catch, and the hands and arms develop into flippers. In short, the new humanity bears little to no resemblance to what we would understand as humanity at all.
There are a number of things beyond that which Vonnegut, in his distinctive writing style, does here which I personally appreciate. In fact, I probably appreciated them more on this second reading, which came maybe two decades after the first time that I read this one. To me, this ranks as one of my favorite Vonnegut books, and my very favorite in terms of his more modern works. Or rather, the works which came after the peak of his popularity in the 1960's.
Of course, Vonnegut employs his trademark sense of humor in this work as well. He juggles a lot of themes in this one, and managed to pack a punch with a humorous story which is richly sprinkled with rather keen observations about the state of modern humanity. A must for any fans of Vonnegut. Even many people who are not necessarily fans of Vonnegut may very well appreciate this one, assuming that they keep an open mind.
This book comes highly recommended.
Kanka-bonos Mary Hepburn
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