Welcome to the Monkey House
A Collection of Short Works
by Kurt Vonnegut · first published 1950
64% recommend36% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short stories, often funny and sometimes touching, with sharp social satire. Includes well-known pieces like Harrison Bergeron and The Euphio Question. Suits readers wanting an easy entry point into Vonnegut.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision. Includes the following stories: “Where I Live” “Harrison Bergeron” “Who Am I This Time?” “Welcome to the Monkey House” “Long Walk to Forever” “The Foster Portfolio” “Miss Temptation” “All the King’s Horses” “Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog” “New Dictionary” “Next Door” “More Stately Ma
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…to find one that's right for you. "The C Programming Language" by K&R (I read this very young 12-13, it's life changing aspects probably had a lot to do with my age) "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien "Welcome to the Monkey House" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
on “Ask HN: What books have changed the way you think? ” ↗…them) seems to me to be a good thing. Similarly, on a larger scale, I also find talking about the (often shady) efforts by various governments to control population to be a welcome thing. Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House" touches on both topics; it's worth a read.
on “Euthanasia Coaster” ↗Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a collection of his short stories, often funny, sometimes touching, and always insightful.
on “Ask HN: What book are you reading?” ↗Several months ago I heard about this story and found that it was published in Welcome to the Monkey House. It is a great collection of some of his short stories.
on “Vonnegut: a society without productivity variation has no Edisons.” ↗It might not be the best place, but an easy entry is Welcome to the Monkey House. It's a collection of 25 short stories that were published in magazines in the '50s and '60s.
on “How To Write With Style (1999)” ↗Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of excellent short stories that includes "Harrison Bergeron". "The Euphio Question" haunts me to this day
on “The Rise and Fall of Polywater” ↗Great choices. Welcome to the Monkey House is pretty great, too.
on “Kurt Vonnegut on the “shapes” of stories” ↗…it. It will even be better." RELATED: Jeff Atwood’s blog post “Please Don’t Learn to Code” (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/please-dont-learn-t...). Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” from Welcome to the Monkey House Edit: Fixed whitespace TL;DR: Learn AI Hard. Thrun make class dumb. Now anybody learn AI.
on “Is Sebastian Thrun's Udacity the future of higher education?” ↗This is also the subject of a Kurt Vonnegut short story, "The Euphio Question", from Welcome to the Monkey House.
on “H5N1” ↗…must become. I am six feet two and weigh nearly two hundred pounds and am badly coordinated, except when I swim. All that borrowed meat does the writing. In the water I am beautiful." ― Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House
on “Scientists find molecular-level evidence for two structures in liquid water” ↗…articles!" joke had some truth to it because, for a long while, that could semi-plausibly be true. A quick check finds that, for example, the title story of the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House was first published in Playboy. A little surprising that that was the case, for those who weren't aware of Playboy's role in fiction publishing, but actually not uncommon.
on “The Toynbee Convector” ↗