Dr. Vox Humana was a Christian minister on the island nation of San Lorenzo. His mother named him after an organ stop[1] that struck her during the destruction of the San Lorenzo Cathedral in 1923, while he did not know who his father was.[2] When he was young, he was a caricaturist and considered following that path, but he prayed for "guidance from Above" and decided on a religious vocation. However, he continued this art occasionally, drawing the caricatures of several enemies on the United States that were bombed by the San Lorenzo Air Force during a memorial for the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy.[3]
He received ordination from the Western Hemisphere University of the Bible, which he found through a classified ad in Popular Mechanics. Since Catholicism and Protestantism had been outlawed on the island, he was frequently forced to create new rituals, such as a last rites ceremony that involved a bell and the sacrifice of a chicken.[2] When attempting to administer these rites to "Papa" Monzano, he was thrown out and called a "stinking Christian" when "Papa" revealed himself to be a Bokononist.[4]
- ↑ Meaning "human voice", this is a common stop on organs found, for example, on Billy Pilgrim's organ he carried as a chaplain's assistant, see Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973, pg. 365.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973, pg. 142.
- ↑ Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973, pp. 151-152.
- ↑ Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973, pg. 144.