2BR02B

By Kurt Vonnegut

2BR02B is a satiric short story that imagines life & death in a future world where aging has been "cured" & population control is mandated and administered by the government.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Mar 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781625587459

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American Literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Siren's of Titan in 1959 and established him as ""a true artist"" with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene has declared, ""one of the best living American writers.""

Book preview

2

B

R

0

2

B

by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Start Publishing LLC

Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012

Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

Manufactured in the United States of America

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

ISBN 978-1-62558-745-9

Everything was perfectly swell.

There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars.

All diseases were conquered. So was old age.

Death, barring accidents, was an adventure

Reviews for 2BR02B

[bravenewbks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very short story, set in a future world that I'll call "dystopian utopia." Vonnegut sets the stage succinctly: Everything was perfectly swell. There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars. All diseases were conquered. So was old age. Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers.

Sounds utopian, right? But there is, of course, a catch. Do yourself a favor and spend twenty minutes reading this story, and think about what makes some lives more valuable than others, and how we make the same kinds of decisions today, just in more subtle ways, on more macroscopic levels.

[marty76-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Grabbed this in audio version for a long car trip and really enjoyed it. Only complaint was that it is a short story and I definitely wanted more. Love Vonnegut so I wasn't surprised at how good it was but continued to be amazed at how he can drill down to the nuances of where our society is going and the crazy "logic" that we continue to apply to justify where we go as a society. As we look at modern medicine and the desire to prolong life this book really hits a chord on the philosophical questions of what it means to be entitled to a long life. Loved it!

[sturmer-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Nice short story, nothing we can't live without, but that's probably my fault --- I rarely like short stories.

[Carmine Shannon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

nothing lasts nothing lasts, equilibrium will always be ended by the cycle

[untraveller · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sharp Teeth Press; 44/80; Nice story w/ a typical KV moral overtone....too many people!

[mreed61 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Definitely Vonnegut! It was a quick read. I almost feel I can't call this reading a book, but it's classified as such, so there you go. I'll do a review on accidentallymars.wordpress.com sometime in the month of March.

[tabascofromgudreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant little story, with a surprising depth.

[peppuzzo_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sci-Fi is fantastic. Through Sci-Fi, writers can explore the consequences of strong hypothesis and bring them to their limits.

What if ageing will be "cured"? How would society look like? What would it mean to be human? What would time be? And above all, to be or not to be?

[wonderperson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It''s as dark as hell and paints a frightening vision of Scientists laying down the law of population control by compulsory suicide.

[phlll_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

These days you hear a lot about how people born today will likely live to 150 or later. Aside from the bummer of the notion that you will go to work every day for over 120 years of your life, this little story considers some other very important issues with "immortality".

Namely, population control.

At under 20 pages this can be read in one sitting, if you get my drift. And it's free on Kindle, so download away!

[jessiqa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The "0" in the title is pronounced "naught," of course, and is the number that people dial when they are ready for an assisted suicide. This is common in this future earth since people pretty much live indefinitely and that means terrible overpopulation. To control this population problem, anytime a child is born, the parents must secure someone to dial the number or the child cannot live. In this story, the father-to-be is having triplets but has only one person to dial 2BR02B. In the vein of so many other science fiction stories, science and technology has advanced beyond our wildest dreams (humans are nearly immortal), but it comes at a great cost (people must be killed in order to make room for new births) and society in general accepts this as okay and doesn't at all question the morality of the situation. It's an overly practical resolution to a serious problem: if the earth reaches its human saturation point and people no longer die natural deaths, what can be done? This story is extremely short but nevertheless contains classic Vonnegut dry humor and weary outlook on the fate of humanity with just a trace of hope. If you're a fan of Vonnegut, look this story up.

[senorag163 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have to say this was interesting. It was my first read by Vonnegut and I do understand now why my son loves him.It's a short story about population control. For every child born that is going to live, a volunteer must die. Imagine what goes through a father's head when his wife is about to have triplets! I enjoyed it and it really makes me stop and think. I didn't think I would enjoy it and I was pleasantly surprised. I think I will give something else by this author a try.

[irunsjh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting premise. I am glad we do not have to live a society similar to the one presented here. Not quite what i expected, but very happy I read the book.

[wilsonknut · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Short and dark. Typical Vonnegut fare.