FOREVER PURSUING GENESIS: THE MYTH OF EDEN IN THE NOVELS OF KURT VONNEGUT

Leonard Mustazza
Penn State University

The title of this book, Forever Pursuing Genesis, derives from a statement that Vonnegut once made about the nature of the universe and humankind's place in it. This study applies that statement to the narrative themes that Vonnegut has treated in his career. Contents:

1. Mythic Vonnegut: An Overview
2. The Machine Within: Mechanization, Human Discontent, and the Genre of Player Piano
3. The Sirens of Titan and the "Paradise Within"
4. Das Reich der Zwei: Art and Love as Miscreations in Mother Night
5. Playful Genesis and Dark Revelation in Cat's Cradle
6. Divine Folly and the Miracle of Money in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
7. Adam and Eve in the Golden Depths: Edenic Madness in Slaughterhouse-Five
8. Of Gods and Machines: Free Will in Breakfast of Champions
9. Idiots Were Lovely Things to Be: Knowledge and the Fall in Slapstick
10. Pursuing Innocence: Jailbird and the Sermon on the Mount
11. Nobody Dies in Shangri-La: Chance, Will, and the Loss of Innocence in Deadeye Dick
12. Nature's Eden: Re-Formation and Reformation in Galapagos
13. The Genesis Gang: Art and Re-Creation in Bluebeard
14. 14. So It Goes . . .

220 pages + Index Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1990. ISBN: 0ö8387ö5176ö8 $37.50