Lulu/ Lucien recenzis 2 B R 0 2 B de Kurt Vonnegut
Phone number as a title, chilling dystopia or imagined necessity?
5 steloj
This short story by Kurt dating from 1962 already imagined a possible solution to the problem of overpopulation, although less serious than today. I warn you, the subject can be triggering.
No future date is given, but, in this story where the society in which aging has been cured, and where a painter is already 200 years old, we can assume minimum around 2150...
Additionally, individuals have an indefinite lifespan and population control is used to limit the population of the United States to forty million.
Here we come to the chilling part, or imagined necessity... Because this number is maintained thanks to a combination of infanticide and government-assisted suicide - via the dedicated service number of the Federal Bureau of Termination - the Bureau Federal Terminations. This number is 2 B R 0 2 B, to be pronounced 2 B R naught 2 B, a pun on the famous …
This short story by Kurt dating from 1962 already imagined a possible solution to the problem of overpopulation, although less serious than today. I warn you, the subject can be triggering.
No future date is given, but, in this story where the society in which aging has been cured, and where a painter is already 200 years old, we can assume minimum around 2150...
Additionally, individuals have an indefinite lifespan and population control is used to limit the population of the United States to forty million.
Here we come to the chilling part, or imagined necessity... Because this number is maintained thanks to a combination of infanticide and government-assisted suicide - via the dedicated service number of the Federal Bureau of Termination - the Bureau Federal Terminations. This number is 2 B R 0 2 B, to be pronounced 2 B R naught 2 B, a pun on the famous quote from Shakespeare, To be or not to be... to be or not to be... with emphasis about “not”.
For someone to be born, someone else must first die voluntarily. As a result, births are rare and deaths occur mainly by accident - or the service one makes an appointment with.
The narrative style is fluid, but, as stated, the subject can be triggering.