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"I identify with the weak person; this is one reason why my fictional protagonists are essentially antiheroes."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Ethical Suicide Parlor | ||
| A comfy environment in which you might commit ethical suicide, and thereby serve society. |
| There was a Howard Johnson's next door to every Ethical Suicide Parlor, and vice versa. The Howard Johnson's had an orange roof and the Suicide Parlor had a purple roof, but they were both the Government. Practically everything was the Government...
All Hostesses were virgins. They also had to hold advanced degrees in psychology and nursing. They also had to be plump and rosy, and at least six feet tall... Their uniforms were white lipstick, heavy eye makeup, purple body stockings with nothing underneath, and black-leather boots... In a really good week, say the one before Christmas, they might put sixty people to sleep. It was done with a hypodermic syringe. |
| Technovelgy from Welcome to the Monkey House,
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Published by Not known in 1958 Additional resources -
|
In 1882, Anthony Trollope wrote a futuristic novel, ''The Fixed Period,'' in which he foresaw retiring large numbers of old men to a place where they would be encouraged to enjoy a year of contemplation, followed by a peaceful chloroforming.
Jack Williamson used this idea in science fiction much earlier; see the Halls of Euthanasia from One Against the Legion (1939).
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More Ideas
and Technology from Welcome to the Monkey House
More Ideas
and Technology by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tech news articles related to Welcome to the Monkey House
Tech news articles related to works by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| A Remarkable Coincidence |
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
