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‘Fargo’s’ Noah Hawley to Adapt Vonnegut’s Science/Religion Satire ‘Cat’s Cradle’ for FX

‘Fargo’s’ Noah Hawley to Adapt Vonnegut’s Science/Religion Satire ‘Cat’s Cradle’ for FX

Last updated on: November 18, 2015 at 11:34 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Fargo’s’ Noah Hawley to Adapt Vonnegut’s Science/Religion Satire ‘Cat’s Cradle’ for FX 2015-11-18T23:34:35-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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FX’s adaptation of “Fargo,” currently in its second season on Mondays, has turned out to be both a critical and ratings hit. Hoping lightning strikes twice, the network has turned to Noah Hawley — “Fargo’s” executive producer and writer — to adapt Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical novel, “Cat’s Cradle.”

From Deadline.com:

Published in 1963, Cat’s Cradle takes a satirical view of war, religion and scientific advances. It was among the projects on the maiden development slate of IM Global Television, the TV arm of feature-film financing, production and sales companyIM Global — a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance ADA — which was unveiled in April. Another sci-fi literary adaptation from that slate, Darkwater, recently was set up at Amazon.

After comparing Amazon Prime Video’s version of “Man in the High Castle” with the original Philip K. Dick novel — there are great similarities, but also profound differences — there’s no telling how much of Vonnegut will translate directly to the screen.

Click here to read a summary of the whole novel.

Concerning religion, “Cat’s Cradle” features Bokononism, based on books writing by Bokonon (real name Lionel Boyd Johnson), a black British Espiscopalian living on the small Caribbean island of San Lorenzo in the 1920s. It’s based on s0-called “harmless untruths,” called “fomas.”

One Website describes it thus:

Bokononism finds its roots on the Caribbean island of San Lorenzo in the 1920s. It was there and then that Bokonon first preached on the folly of understanding and the hollowness of truth with which he won the people over.

He encapsulated his teachings in a series of books, now called the Books of Bokonon, which form the gospel so to speak of Bokononism. Many of his teachings were perhaps best summarised when he said:

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”

From Wikipedia:

Bokononism is based on the concept of foma, which are defined as harmless untruths. A foundation of Bokononism is that the religion, including its texts, is formed entirely of lies; however, one who believes and adheres to these lies will have peace of mind, and perhaps live a good life. The primary tenet of Bokononism is to “Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”

From a Website devoted to collecting the bits and pieces of the books from “Cat’s Cradle”:

The First Book

Warning from title page: Don’t be a fool! Close this book at once! It is nothing but foma!
[ 118 ]

Verse 1: All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies. [ 4 ]

Verses 2-4 (?): In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.

And God said, “Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.” And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. “What is the purpose of all this?” he asked politely.

“Everything must have a purpose?” asked God.

“Certainly,” said man.

“Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,” said God.

And He went away. [ 118 ]

Verse 5: Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy. [ frontispiece ]

And, lest you think the Catholic Church is left out of this, here are a few more passages from Bokonon’s “scriptures”:

On the Natives of San Lorenzo:[ 56 ]

Oh, a very sorry people, yes,
Did I find here.
Oh, they had no music,
And they had no beer.
And, oh, everywhere
Where they tried to perch
Belonged to Castle Sugar, Incorporated,
Or the Catholic church.

And:

The Fourteenth Calypso[ 48 ]

When I was young
I was so gay and mean,
And I drank and chased the girls
Just like young St. Augustine.
Saint Augustine,
He got to be a saint.
So, if I get to be one, also,
Please. Mama, don’t you faint.

Lastly, per Wikipedia:

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that San Lorenzo society is more bizarre and cryptic than originally revealed. In observing the interconnected lives of some of the island’s most influential residents, John learns that Bokonon himself was at one point a de facto ruler of the island, along with a US Marine deserter. The two men created Bokononism as part of a utopian project to control the population. The ban was an attempt to give the religion a sense of forbidden glamour, and it is found that almost all of the residents of San Lorenzo, including the dictator, practice the faith, and executions are rare.

Good old “Religion is the opium of the people” quasi-Marxist stuff. But, Hawley has so far shown himself to be a perceptive and thoughtful writer, so we’ll see what he comes up with.

Image: Wikipedia — first edition cover from Holt, Rinehart and Winston

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