Kurt Vonnegut by Thomas F. Marvin

Author:Thomas F. Marvin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greenwood Press

In order to explain Dr. Hoenikker's peculiar way of thinking, Dr. Breed tells John the story of "ice-nine." One day a U.S. Marine general visited the lab looking for a simple solution to a problem the marines have wallowed in since their inception—mud. Dr. Hoenikker thought for a moment and proposed the idea of ice-nine, a solid form of water with a much higher melting point than conventional ice. A small chip of icenine would be able to "teach" water molecules how to arrange themselves so that they would be solid at room temperature. The problem is that once ice-nine is released into the world it will solidify not just one particular body of water but all the streams that feed it, and the rivers connected to these streams, and then the oceans, locking up all the world's water and putting an end to life on earth. Dr. Breed declares icenine to be impossible, but John reveals that it already exits. Just before he died, Dr. Hoenikker created a small amount of ice-nine with a melting point of 114.4 degrees Fahrenheit. He told only his three children about it, and after he died, they divided the compound among themselves.

After his visit to the lab, John goes to the Ilium cemetery to see the grave of Dr. Hoenikker. His attention is immediately drawn to an enormous monument marking the grave of Dr. Hoenikker's wife Emily, which was erected by her three children, complete with poems expressing their devotion to her. This touching tribute makes John's cab driver think of his own mother's grave and inspires him to look for a larger stone to mark it. He takes John to a gravestone salesroom where they see a beautiful marble angel that is over one hundred years old. Carved by the present owner's great-grandfather, the stone was ordered by a German immigrant who went west to Indiana without paying for it. The name on the stone is the narrator's. As he looks back on the strange coincidence of finding his own name on the gravestone, he describes it as his first vin-dit—a Bokononist term for a strong push toward the belief that God is guiding the course of one's life. Looking at his own name on the stone, he has a vision of "tunnels" connecting all human beings throughout history and giving their lives meaning and direction.

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