"Oh, this business we've got now--it's been going on for a long time now, not just since the last war. Maybe the actual jobs weren't being taken from the people, but the sense of participation, the sense of importance was. Go to the library sometime and take a look at magazines and newspapers clear back as far as World War II. Even then there was a lot of talk about know-how winning the war of production--know-how, not people, not the mediocre people running most of the machines. And the hell of it was that it was pretty much true. Even then, half the people or more didn't understand much about the machines they worked at or the things they were making. They were participating in the economy all right, but not in a way that was very satisfying to the ego...--Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano (1952)
"Sooner or later someone's going to catch the imagination of these people with some new magic. At the bottom of it will be a promise of regaining the feeling of participation, the feeling of being needed on earth--hell, dignity."
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Feeling of Being Needed on Earth
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Vonnegut! Haven't read this one — how does it stack up against his more famous novels?
ReplyDeleteThe only other book of his I've read is "Cat's Cradle," but I enjoyed both. He's good at the dystopic black-humor. I should probably read "Slaughterhouse 5" someday, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteHow is Dickens coming along this summer?
Great passage.
ReplyDeleteDickens is on hiatus. I didn't get very far and had to return it to the library. Now reading Céline's "Death on the Installment Plan" and enjoying it a lot. I probably could've posted a half-dozen passages already.
ReplyDeleteI like "Cat's Cradle" & "Breakfast of Champions" ahead of "Slaughterhouse-Five," but I should probably give the latter another read. I also recommend "Bluebeard."