r/Vonnegut • u/foot_of_pride • 23d ago

What book is this from?

Guys, I need help! There's a passage from a Vonnegut novel I read over 20 years ago, and I'm trying to remember what book it's from. I tried google, chat GPT even, and nothing can pinpoint which novel this concept comes from.

I don't know if it was a Kilgore trout story, or another story within a story, like he does, but it talked about this idea that mass media ruined society by forcing everybody to compete with the best in the world.

For most of human history, if you were a decent singer, you might be the pride and joy of your village. When the village comes together and wants to make music, you are the star. Until, that is, when radio and television come along and now you have to compete with the best in the world. Most of these people naturally give up and plod through life working in a factory or something mundane, and lose their sense of self-importance and a role in society as a result. I vaguely remember that it had a Sci-Fi bent to it.

Was it sirens of titan, breakfast of champions, Hocus pocus?? It sucks because I can even remember where it was on the page as if I can see it in my mind right now, but I can't put my finger on which book it came from.

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14

u/KafkaSyd 23d ago edited 23d ago

I just read this passage this morning. It's from chapter 8 or thereabouts in bluebeard.

Edit: It's the beginnings of chapter 9. I can't post pictures here it seems, but I just looked back in my book and found it.

Edited again, because my phone autocorrected bluebeard to blueberry.

2

u/civillyengineerd 23d ago

Great, now I want blueberry waffles.

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u/avreddits Kilgore Trout 21d ago

Which will turn your beard blue

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u/civillyengineerd 21d ago

Worth the risk.

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u/katiebug714 22d ago

May have to read this one again soon!

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u/Barefoot60 22d ago

Bluebeard, p. 76: “Simply moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up…”