[Parmenidea]

My hot take is that this story is highly overrated. It’s boring, poorly written, and lacks nuance. The reason people remember it fondly is (1) everyone loves Vonnegut because he’s funny, so they don’t want to criticize it and (2) everyone read this story in middle school and are blinded by nostalgia.

[dkarl]

I think it has a special place in the hearts of people who are especially affected by interruptions, more because of what is concretely inflicted on the title character than because of the abstract argument about equality and inequality. There was no language for talking about being sensitive to interruptions back then, and there isn't really now unless you have some kind of diagnosis. My wife does not understand that speaking to me every ten or fifteen minutes affects my ability to concentrate and do my job. As an adult with a high-paying job, I'm able to rent space at a coworker space so that we don't have constant fights about it that affect our marriage. For children living in loud homes where people constantly yell and blare the TV, and trapped in classrooms with other children who scream and disrupt simply because they can't stand quiet, they have no ability to escape, but at least they have some validation in the form of this story, proof that a famous and successful person recognized their experience as real.

[MockObject]

I always thought that the interruption theme was not at all the point of the story, but simply the most disturbing handicap from the perspective of an author.

[davidw]

I had to read it in high school, and hated it for those reasons as well as just being a pretty literal minded person. My mind is wired such that I would much rather read an opinion piece stating your actual opinion rather than some lame bit of allegory where the actual story and characters are weak and the whole thing is about Conveying The Author's Message. And that message tends to be some extreme version of something with no nuance or real debate.

[mmmpop]

As mentioned in this thread already, it's almost certainly a parody of what an unsophisticated person thinks government forced "equity" measures would look like in a dystopian future. But in my opinion, if Vonnegut were alive today, he may find a little less humor in it seeing how far we've come in making his silly fiction closer to reality.

[dusted]

I've been called an excitable simpleton in many different ways, but this one is new ;)

I read it the first time today, In my opinion it was a pleasurable read, well written, witty and, clearly demonstrating a certain idea.

[yamtaddle]

I'm with you. I think it's one of Vonnegut's weaker works. The only reason I'd recommend someone read it is because it comes up a lot.

[sooheon]

Vonnegut is probably my favorite author, and this is maybe the thing he's written that I like the least.