2 B R 0 2 B
In a future where death has been conquered, the government faces an impossible problem: too many people, not enough room. The solution is elegant in its horror. For every child born, someone must voluntarily die. Edward K. Wehling Jr. sits in a hospital waiting room, his wife in labor with triplets. By law, he must find two people willing to give up their lives so his three children can live. The hospital serves double duty as a maternity ward and a termination facility, and the phone number to schedule your own ending is 2 B R 0 2 B. Vonnegut turns Hamlet's existential question into a dial tone. A painter wanders through the corridors observing the quiet horrors, eventually making his own choice. Dark, bitter, and devastatingly funny, this is Vonnegut at his most merciless, exposing the cold logic we might apply to mortality if we had forever to think about it.
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“The painter pondered the mournful puzzle of life demanding to be born and, once born, demanding to be fruitful ... to multiply and to live as long as possible”
— Kurt Vonnegut
“The world could do with a good deal more mess, if you ask me," he said.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“Thank you, sir," said the hostess. "Your city thanks you; your country thanks you; your planet thanks you. But the deepest thanks of all is from future generations.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“To be or not to be" was the telephone number of the municipal gas chambers of the Federal Bureau of Termination.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“The painter's face curdled with scorn "You think I'm proud of this daub?" he said. "You think this is my idea of what life looks like?""What's your idea of what life looks like?" said the orderly. The painter gestured at a foul dropcloth. "There's a good picture of it," he said. "Frame that, and you'll have a picture a damn sight more honest than this one.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“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. The population of the United States was stabilized at forty-million souls.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“And then he shot himself, making room for all three of his children.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“The number was: "2 B R 0 2 B.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
“The population of the United States was stabilized at forty-million souls.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
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Vonnegut, Kurt. 2 B R 0 2 B. Lex, lex-books.com/book/2-b-r-0-2-b-2752a445-af49-416d-ba96-5c6081ca0736.Vonnegut, K. (n.d.). 2 B R 0 2 B. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/2-b-r-0-2-b-2752a445-af49-416d-ba96-5c6081ca0736Vonnegut, Kurt. 2 B R 0 2 B. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/2-b-r-0-2-b-2752a445-af49-416d-ba96-5c6081ca0736.
