What we’re about
"We are healthy to the extent to which our ideas are humane"
Are you a longtime fan or newly interested in the works of Kurt Vonnegut? Are you looking for a dose of humanity and sanity in a crazy world? Maybe you're just interested in reading some good fiction? If any of the above are true, you'd be a great fit for the Kurt Vonnegut Book Club.
Every month, we'll be reading one of his works, starting with his first novel, Player Piano, and eventually working towards classics like Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and my personal favorite, Breakfast of Champions.
Upcoming events (3)
See all- Player PianoBardo Coffeeshop, Wheat Ridge, CO
Details
Our first session starts fittingly enough with Vonnegut's first novel: Player PianoQuote
“The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings, not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems.”Description
Like most great sci-fi, Player Piano (1952) is horrifyingly prescient:"Set in a near-future America where automation has eliminated most jobs, the story follows Paul Proteus, an engineer caught between his privileged position managing the machines and his growing horror at what society has become.
Computers and automated systems handle nearly all production and decision-making, leaving the majority of the population either unemployed or relegated to meaningless busywork.
Paul explores what happens to human dignity, purpose, and connection when efficiency becomes the highest value, and recognizes that a system that treats people as redundant has forgotten what makes life worth living."
- The Sirens of TitanBardo Coffeeshop, Wheat Ridge, CO
Details
Our second book is (surprise surprise) Vonnegut's second novel: Sirens of TitanQuote:
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”Description
In his 1959 novel, Kurt starts to move more in a sci-fi direction that will continue to show up throughout his works:"Set across the solar system, the story follows Malachi Constant, a wealthy but empty man who discovers he's been manipulated his entire life as part of an alien scheme spanning centuries. Through his journey from Earth to Mars to Titan, Constant experiences every extreme of human fortune—from immense privilege to slavery to martyrdom.
He discovers that even in a universe where humanity serves as unwitting tools for alien goals, the small acts of kindness, the capacity to love, and the willingness to take responsibility for one another remain the most genuinely human responses to an absurd existence."
- Mother NightBardo Coffeeshop, Wheat Ridge, CO
Details
Our third entry is one of Kurt's darkest: Mother NightQuote
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”Description
Mother Night is the first novel that dips its toe into Vonnegut's experiences in World War 2 that will be a hallmark of many of his later works:"Set during and after World War II, the story follows Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American playwright living in Nazi Germany who becomes a double agent, broadcasting propaganda while secretly serving Allied intelligence.
Campbell's wartime role leaves him morally compromised and isolated, unable to distinguish between his authentic self and the Nazi persona he performed so convincingly that even he questions what he really believes."
