Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Donald E. Morse: The Joyful Celebration oflJfe. Kurt Vonnegut's Affirmative Vision in Galapagos and Bluebeard

happened when that Peruvian rocket put the tip of its nose, that part of its body most richly supplied with exposed nerve endings, into that Ecuadorian radar dish." Instead of completing the sexual image, Trout breaks the narration to insert an apparently irrelevant comment about art in the far future: "No one is interested in sculpture these days. Who could handle a chisel or a welding torch with their flippers or their mouths?" This violent wrenching away from the sexual imagery used to describe the rocket about to hit its target to the objective statement of the lack of sculpture in the future breaks the narrative flow while pointing to the loss of creativity through violence and sets up the next comic effect by suspending but not abandoning the imagery of sexual consummation. Such imagery contrasts sharply with the rocket's destructive function: Into the lava plinth beneath it these words might be incised, expressing the sentiments of all who had had a hand in the design and manufacture and sale and purchase and launch of the rocket, and of all of whom high explosives were a branch of the entertainment industry: .. /Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. William Shakespeare (1564—1616) (189—90) Throughout Galápagos similar quotations from poets, dramatists and novelists, statesmen and philosophers appear juxtaposed to the picture of the downward slide of humanity into the sea caused by its failure to listen to the wisdom contained in such quotations or to find value in the creations of its artists. Humans have failed to protect those who love from the effects of war, and worst of all have insisted on following the path of destruction as exemplified in the rocket's explosive power. Vonnegut's comedy reflects human shortcomings and failures, warns humanity against approaching disaster, yet does so without either moralizing, preaching, or declaiming. 116