The Hooligan was the name given to a device that enabled people to talk to the dead. It was named after a janitor, Francis Iron-7 Hooligan, who one day placed his lunchpail as well as a length of clay pipe two meters long and twenty centimeters in diameter atop a steel cabinet which contained the controls to an out of use particle-accelerator. This caused voices to come from the pipe.[1] Hooligan sought out Dr. Felix Bauxite-13 von Peterswald, who formerly operated the particle-accelerator, but then could not reproduce the effect. It was Dr. von Peterswald who realized that both the pipe and lunchpail were necessary to produce the voices, which identified themselves as being in the afterlife. They largely complained about their boredom, leading Dr. von Peterswald to comment that the place sounded like "a badly run turkey farm".[2]
He made this discovery shortly before his death and never taught the technique to anyone else. His widow, Wilma Pachysandra-17 von Peterswald, did not know how to use the device herself, or even know of its existence, until taught by a Chinese visitor who came to study her husband's journals. She and her son, David Daffodil-11 von Peterswald, kept it a secret, since the information it provided about what awaits everyone after death was "very demoralizing, to say the least." Like her husband, she began referring to the afterlife as "The Turkey Farm".[3] The Chinese, who determined how to do it, were themselves disappointed by the discovery, saying it could only be of interest "to participants in what is left of Western Civilization".[4] This visit constituted the first contact of the Chinese with Americans in over two decades.[5] She was able to use the device many times, including to allow then-United States President Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain to talk with his deceased sister, Eliza.[6]
See Also[]
- "Between Timid and Timbuktu", in which the main character attempts a near-death experience to relive the past
- God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, fictional accounts of near-death experiences during which Vonnegut interviews the dead
- ↑ Slapstick, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1976-1985, pg. 153.
- ↑ Slapstick, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1976-1985, pg. 154.
- ↑ Slapstick, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1976-1985, pg. 129.
- ↑ Slapstick, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1976-1985, pg. 130.
- ↑ Slapstick, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1976-1985, pg. 116.
- ↑ Slapstick, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1976-1985, pp. 155-157.