Kurt Vonnegut's Prescient Novel About Economic Inequality
Worldwide income disparity got you down? Massive corruption at the highest seats of power ruining your day? Think you could do a lot better to change the world if your bank account got a yearly deposit of 3.5 million dollars?
Good. Kurt Vonnegut agrees with you. His 1965 novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, follows the story of the fictional heir to a Vanderbilt or Carnegie-like fortune who snaps and decides to give it all, and all of himself, away to help the less fortunate in any way he can.
The Kurt Vonneguys are back to analyze the themes of greed, charity and what it actually means to be a good person in Vonnegut's fifth novel that tackled the idea of income disparity decades before 'Occupy Wall St.' became part of the modern lexicon.
Sections
From the Group! (01:00)
Plot Time! (06:45)
Kurt Blurt! (01:34:45)
Recurring Characters Update! (01:52:00)
Kurt Cameo! (01:59:30)
VonneWHAT! (02:00:30)
The Meat! (02:08:10)
Altruism Olympics! (02:11:50)
Vonnegrades! (02:15:15)
Movie Time! (02:17:10)
Related Reading! (02:21:00)
Vonnegut News! (02:28:20)
Related Reading:
Book: Theodore Sturgeon: Microcosmic God
Short Story: Ray Bradbury: The Taxpayer (in The Martian Chronicles)
Short Story: Harlan Ellison: On the Slab (in Angry Candy)
Short Story: David Brin: "The Giving Plague"
Book: David Brin: The Practice Effect
