Vonnegut’s Nuclear Bow-tie

Lisa Dusenbery bio ↓  ·  September 27th, 2011  ·  filed under Other

Twenty years before Slaughterhouse-Five, a broke Kurt Vonnegut came up with an idea for an atomic bow-tie. While he became known for his environmentalism later in life, in 1950, Vonnegut—like America at large—seemed ready to cash-in on the atomic.

“By the the mid-twentieth century, Americans had waded through the muck of the Great Depression and then World War II. In the early Fifties, a desire to be done with self-sacrifice and world war released a sense of fantastic acceleration.  The word “super” captured the promise of technology ushering in a better life.”

(Via Maud Newton)

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Lisa Dusenbery is the assistant editor at The Rumpus. Besides writing, her interests include dancing, practicing winking, and the smell of basements. She is a recent convert to San Francisco, CA. More from this author →

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