Friday, November 6, 2009

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's "The Big Trip Up Yonder" (short story, overpopulation, free): When getting a long jail term was such a desirable luxury!!

Illustration accompanying the online copy at Project Gutenberg of the short story titled The Big Trip Up Yonder by Kurt Vonnegut, JrThis is an overpopulation dystopia - overcrowding brought about by rejuvenation treatments that let people live centuries long without aging; just consume a bit of "anti-gerasone" periodically.

So we have people living in joint families - whole clan spanning several generations living under one roof. Only unlike India's joint families which often have good sized ancestral homes, here the folks live in small flats ("apartments").

This is the story of Gramps Ford, 172 years old in this year 2185 AD, & his large acrimonious clan that shares a 3 room apartment in (I think) New York.

Interesting ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1954.
Rating: A.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, or Feedbooks.
Related: Stories of Kurt Vonnegut.

0 comments: