Cat's Cradle

Postmodernism is a rejection of modernism. In regards to postmodernism architecture in Postmodernism for Beginners, Jim Powell believes that "the new architectural designs should be intelligent, cold and calm-pure creations of the mind-manifestations of men creating their own universe" (Powell). This idea shows the architect should not be limited to the same boring buildings that you see everywhere and instead they should be able to create whatever types of buildings that they want because it is a creation from their minds. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut can be considered a postmodern text because of the way it shows religion. The very first thing that is in the Book of Bokonon says that "all of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies" (Vonnegut 5). Bokononism is the religion on the island of San Lorenzo and it is completely made up of lies. This relates to the postmodern architecture because Bokononism is also just a creation of the mind. They are both saying that there really are no truths and that you can just do whatever you feel is right. This idea allows people to be more creative in their work and lets Bokonon make up more lies to tell people and make them believe. If the people are just listening to what Bokonon says is the truth and they believe him they do not have to search for deeper meanings. Just as the Bokononist religion means nothing the idea of the cat's cradle means nothing because "a cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look at all those X's" (Vonnegut 165-166).