I listen to all this, i'm belgian so i speak fench, my english is good but not that good enough to read an english book. But this help me a bit to improve my english. I didn't have understood the entire audio but like that story. I'm a huge fan of Sci-fi. glad to listen to this.
Sounds like a Utopia. Compromises must be made. if allowances are made for some (in the relation to birth) then in all fairness they should be made for all, which isn't a feasible idea for this scenario.
It's ideas like these that create hell on earth. Only lunatics believe in Utopias. Even Kurt Vonnegut and Orwell didn't believe in such things. Thus, the creation of stories like these.
I get slightly irritated by the pronunciation of NOUGHT (OR NAUGHT). I truly do not believe Vonnegut meant the title of this clever story to be pronounced exactly as Shakespeare wrote it: "To be, or not to be........" I just think its simply "2 B R nought 2 B" Just repeat aloud a few times with no inflection/accents and it sounds right. In the Play Hamlet is alone and thinking aloud. He is considering whether it is fitting to fight & kill his Father's murderer, his uncle, or to die. It is a brilliant soliloquy. Kurt Vonnegut was probably the first writer, or individual, to consider this quote in a lateral way. Does anyone know whether he was interested in puzzles?
I'm pretty sure Kurt Vonnegut Jr. didn't much care how people pronounced the title, or that they even spoke it aloud, because the whole point of the story title is not how it sounds but how it appears as written. The irony of Hamlet's speculation of the value of life vs. death expressed in an alphanumeric acronym that symbolizes the story's cold, calculating world (1 birth + 1 death = stability) is the entire point of the title. The nice touch of the title being a phone number in the style of the 1940s - 1950s, mixing numbers with letters (cf. the movie Butterfield 8, Calling Northside 777, etc.) is a little bonus.
He was an American, and back then some people had pronounced zeroes before other numbers as "ought". Like when pronouncing .30-06, you would say "thirty ought six". Or maybe he thought it a little too on the nose to use naught, wanted to add subtlety.
@Evan Bynum I’m going to chime in on this. So basically the numeral zero, “0”, can be said as both aught/ought and naught. Edward Malc and Paul Zink were discussing the reader’s choice on the correct way to pronounce “0” when reading the story’s title and the phone number. The Shakespeare quote from Hamlet is “To be or not to be...” and the phone number in the story is 2 B R 0 2 B. Personally, I’ve always read it as “two be or naught two be.” It sounds just Hamlet’s quote. The “r” sounds kinda like “or” and that point was made in Edward’s original comment. But the confusing and interesting aspect of this story’s title/phone number is how to pronounce that dang “0”. If we say “naught/nought” then it sounds just like “not” and it sounds just like the Shakespeare quote. If we say “aught/ought” like the reader in this video does, there is now a new double meaning. The Hamlet quote changes into “to be or ‘ought’ to be. As in, “to live or should/have a reason to continue to live.” Both pronunciations give the title/phone number significant meanings. And it is fun to think about the different possible meanings and intentions of the author. I personally have no idea Vonnegut’s preferred way to pronounce the “0” and I wonder what his opinion would be about a group of strangers pondering this detail over text through the internet and over the span of years (and a global pandemic to top things off.) I also found an article that discusses the confusing history of ought, aught, naught, and nought. Each has its own meaning ,while also all meaning the same thing. All or nothing. Yup yup. archives.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_072814.php
Thank you 🥺❤️
Out of all things that I could have guessed, that ending was not one of them.
oh wow...
Reminds me of current day hospice
Lol
(^`-`)^ boi wdym
PEE POO POO STAIN POO POO POO PEE
Slightly disturbing. I like it.
The singing was hilarious😂
i feel like the melody is from an elvis presley song it sounds so familiar
came in clutch
This comment will predict the future...
life is cruel
I listen to all this, i'm belgian so i speak fench, my english is good but not that good enough to read an english book. But this help me a bit to improve my english. I didn't have understood the entire audio but like that story. I'm a huge fan of Sci-fi. glad to listen to this.
You should read Slaughterhouse Five by K. Vonnegut. I learnt to love English after reading that novel.
Oui!
Try The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Brilliant story, simply written
naught
“Why is there something instead of nothing?”
“There isn’t.”
You're supposed to pronounce the N in nought
Amazing audiobook! Thankyou.
Sounds like a Utopia. Compromises must be made. if allowances are made for some (in the relation to birth) then in all fairness they should be made for all, which isn't a feasible idea for this scenario.
It's ideas like these that create hell on earth. Only lunatics believe in Utopias. Even Kurt Vonnegut and Orwell didn't believe in such things. Thus, the creation of stories like these.
Thank you
I get slightly irritated by the pronunciation of NOUGHT (OR NAUGHT). I truly do not believe Vonnegut meant the title of this clever story to be pronounced exactly as Shakespeare wrote it: "To be, or not to be........" I just think its simply "2 B R nought 2 B" Just repeat aloud a few times with no inflection/accents and it sounds right. In the Play Hamlet is alone and thinking aloud. He is considering whether it is fitting to fight & kill his Father's murderer, his uncle, or to die. It is a brilliant soliloquy. Kurt Vonnegut was probably the first writer, or individual, to consider this quote in a lateral way. Does anyone know whether he was interested in puzzles?
I'm pretty sure Kurt Vonnegut Jr. didn't much care how people pronounced the title, or that they even spoke it aloud, because the whole point of the story title is not how it sounds but how it appears as written. The irony of Hamlet's speculation of the value of life vs. death expressed in an alphanumeric acronym that symbolizes the story's cold, calculating world (1 birth + 1 death = stability) is the entire point of the title.
The nice touch of the title being a phone number in the style of the 1940s - 1950s, mixing numbers with letters (cf. the movie Butterfield 8, Calling Northside 777, etc.) is a little bonus.
He was an American, and back then some people had pronounced zeroes before other numbers as "ought". Like when pronouncing .30-06, you would say "thirty ought six".
Or maybe he thought it a little too on the nose to use naught, wanted to add subtlety.
Agree
@Evan Bynum Explain what part?
@Evan Bynum I’m going to chime in on this. So basically the numeral zero, “0”, can be said as both aught/ought and naught. Edward Malc and Paul Zink were discussing the reader’s choice on the correct way to pronounce “0” when reading the story’s title and the phone number. The Shakespeare quote from Hamlet is “To be or not to be...” and the phone number in the story is 2 B R 0 2 B. Personally, I’ve always read it as “two be or naught two be.” It sounds just Hamlet’s quote. The “r” sounds kinda like “or” and that point was made in Edward’s original comment.
But the confusing and interesting aspect of this story’s title/phone number is how to pronounce that dang “0”.
If we say “naught/nought” then it sounds just like “not” and it sounds just like the Shakespeare quote.
If we say “aught/ought” like the reader in this video does, there is now a new double meaning. The Hamlet quote changes into “to be or ‘ought’ to be. As in, “to live or should/have a reason to continue to live.”
Both pronunciations give the title/phone number significant meanings. And it is fun to think about the different possible meanings and intentions of the author. I personally have no idea Vonnegut’s preferred way to pronounce the “0” and I wonder what his opinion would be about a group of strangers pondering this detail over text through the internet and over the span of years (and a global pandemic to top things off.)
I also found an article that discusses the confusing history of ought, aught, naught, and nought. Each has its own meaning ,while also all meaning the same thing. All or nothing. Yup yup.
archives.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_072814.php
Very good!