BOOK 'EM, BOKONON

Kurt Vonnegut has his own televersion in Toobworld, thanks to his appearances in blipverts for Discover credit card, the Nissan Murano, and for TIAA-CREF. And as a writer, he shares something in common with Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and Stephen King, among others: he exists in the same world as his literary creations - at least the ones adapted for television.

Back in 1972, PBS presented "Between Time And Timbuktu" which combined many of Vonnegut's stories into one dramatic storyline. Jingle contest winner Stony Stephenson was blasted into the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum and wound up in all realities, past and present, at the same time.

At one point, he met the prophet Bokonon, author of "The Books Of Bokonon", on the island of San Lorenzo. Bokonon was a character in the novel "Cat's Cradle", and it was from that book which Detective Eric Delahoy of 'The Unusuals' (episode: "Crime Slut") read several passages, all of them excerpts from "The Books Of Bokonon".

In the real world, Kurt Vonnegut created Bokonon and his spiritual musings for the novel "Cat's Cradle". In Toobworld, Vonnegut recounted the true events of Ice Nine and Bokonon - even if they may have existed in an alternate TV dimension.

So even though Delahoy was reading a novel, the passages from "The Books of Bokonon" were real.

BCnU!
Toby O'B