Arts, Food & Wine

By Dr Ann Coward
Editor: Imogen Coward – January-February 2014

The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA

The recent sermon for the Sunday after Epiphany was one of hope; a reminder that even in our darkest times, God never deserts us. I’ve been contemplating this, and the importance and necessity of growing up familiar with our Christian beliefs, in light of the story for a film project in which my youngest son, Leon, is involved. A friend, Artin Tsambazis (‘Artin John’), who with Leon served as an altar boy at St George Greek Orthodox Church, Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia assisting Father Miltiades Chrys-savgis, is producing a short film, of which Leon is Art Di-rector. The film, an adaptation of a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, is totally devoid of hope. Vonnegut, a third generation German-American, en-listed in 1944 to fight against the Germans, only to be captured and imprisoned in Dresden just before British and American bombs razed the city. Around 60,000 lost their life in the non-militarised city.

Vonnegut’s life was saved due to the fact that he and his fellow POWs were housed sixty feet underground during the raids, in a slaughterhouse meat locker. As a POW, he was required to help collect the re-mains of bodies destroyed in the Dresden firestorm. The sheer extent of the destruction, and the wide-spread mounds of remains led the Germans to eventu-ally go in with flamethrowers to reduce them to ash. As Vonnegut wryly notes in his famous book, ‘Slaughter-house 5′, modern Dresden is built on bonemeal. If you are unfamiliar with Vonnegut’s name, chances are you will have heard of `Slaughterhouse 5′, published in 1969. It is, however, a short story, written in 1962 and then republished as part of a collection (Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction) in 1999, of which Artin’s film (currently in preproduction phase) is an adaptation. The film, entitled 2B RO 2B (pronounced `to be or naught/ not to be’), produced by Artin John and Canadian Derek Ryan, directed by Marco Checa Garcia, and starring Os-car Nominated Paul Giamatti, is to be filmed in Vancou-ver.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in the dramatic monologue beginning “To be, or not to be, that is the question,” Hamlet contemplates death as the alternative to life, and concludes that it is the “dread of something after death” that makes people willing to “bear those ills we have”. In Vonnegut’s short story, death (or ‘termina-tion’) is entered into voluntarily to make way for new-born babies, in order to keep the population numbers stable. Population control is the foundation upon which this fictitious society functions. The one overriding be-lief is that to maintain a society,free of gaols, sickness, ageing, etc. there needs to be in place a policy of volun-tary and willing extermination by members of its popu-lation. Vonnegut’s characters in 2BRO2B are a fascinating mix; all products of their society, all subject to the same propaganda, all not only aware of but actively responsi-ble in various ways for carrying out and maintaining their society’s inhuman policies. Yet each reacts differ-ently.

There is fanatical adherence, blind willing accept-ance, cynicism and even open rebelliousness. Despite this, all the characters’ words and their actions are ulti-mately guided by their society’s foundational beliefs. It’s a toss-up as to which of two characters readers might sympathise with initially: the cynical painter, an observer of people who sees through the false façade of his society, or the young father who, while intent on saving the life of his newborn babies, struggles with his society’s expectations. Both appear to offer hope in this world subject to strict population control at any cost. Yet, in the end, both fail to deliver. The cynic turns out to view his impending death as meaningless as he does his own life; the young father falls into line (albeit in his own fashion) with his society’s rule that, in order for a newborn to be allowed to survive, another person must die. There is no message of hope here.

Through the story’s characters, Vonnegut demon-strates not only the dreadful state into which people must descend in order to so willingly terminate others’ (and their own) life, but also the tragedy of such mis-guided beliefs (and the policies they give rise to) when viewed at the level of individuals. The Nazis cast a long shadow over the twentieth century. Vonnegut’s upbringing was, to all intents and purpos-es, devoid of any religious affiliation. Yet, although he was not conscious of any specific time in his life when his parents actively encouraged him to view life through a singularly humanist lens, he accepted that, somehow, eventually his parents’ ideas did become his own. Even his brief foray into Unitarianism reflected the spiritual trajectory of his family’s circle of friends and associates.

Fascinatingly, his early values – of a belief in the human-ity of each person, and the importance of governments to uphold constitutional freedoms – remained a touch-stone throughout his life, influencing his writing and his community work, despite what he witnessed and suf-fered during the War. Not surprisingly, Vonnegut be-came a pacifist following his wartime experiences. The characters depicted in 2BRO2B stand in complete contrast to Vonnegut’s own values. Yet all reveal that regardless of what we experience, our responses, our understanding, our commitment even against all odds and in spite of the outcomes for ourselves or for those around us, are dependant upon the beliefs we bring to those experiences. In Vonnegut’s case, this was a firm belief in the intrinsic value of each individual person. It appears that, to him, it was incomprehensible people could ever be reduced to mere numbers alone.

References ‘About Kurt Vonnegut’ from the website of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, www.vonnegutlibrary.org Kurt Vonnegut in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Kurt_Vonn The Project Gutenberg eBook of 2BRO2B, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Google this to find a free download of the short story.

Source:
Independent