Bokononism in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle
A Dictionary of Bokononist terms
- foma = harmless untruths, lies.
- boko-maru = a Bokononist ritual during which two people press the soles of their bare feet together;
* it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving that person;
* the feet of both persons must be clean and nicely tended.
- busy, busy, busy = what Bokononists whisper when they think of how complicated and
unpredictable life really is
- karass = a team which executes God's Will; Bokononists believe that all humanity is divided into
such teams.
- wampeter: the pivot of a karass
- duprass = a karass composed of only two persons.
- granfalloon = a group of people who have gotten together because they wrongly think they know
what God is doing
- zah-mah-ki-bo = Fate, inevitable destiny
Essential beliefs of Bokononism
- it promotes acceptance and ignores class, gender and social boundaries
- encouragement to focus only on what is comfortable
- no absolute evil or absolute good – people have to have knowledge about both
- oddly straightforward and honest in its foma (harmless lies): All of the true things I am about to tell
you are shameless lies. [4]
- The Books of Bokonon - people should live by foma that make them brave, kind, healthy and
happy
- Bokononism provides better and better lies because the terrible truth is the enemy of people
* Bokononists must go through a process of double thinking:
- they are meant to understand that what they believe in is completely false
- they must believe in the Bokononist doctrine if they want to belong to this religion.
Therefore, they believe the lies, although they know their beliefs are false.