Junkyard Quote 1, Week 5

“When I was a child I did childish things, but now I’m a man, and I’ve put away childish things. The only book I read now is the bible.”

This is from a friend of mine’s dad. This friend was trying to convince his father to read Sirens of the Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. His family is very religious, and—being around 18—he’s been branching out of his formerly zealous Christian role, and his parents have been very upset. His father used to read a lot of science fiction, so he was trying to use that to get his father to read this book. All of this aside, what I find most interesting about this response is the fact that his father replies in a worn out cliché in order to assert a kind of wisdom and power over his son and his life. I’m not even going to get into detailing the value and worth of Vonnegut and the need to know other things besides one’s own beliefs in order to live an informed life. Just thought the line interesting and very typical of religious people—my father has used the same line.