Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) is a collection of essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s, review

Review

A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...

s, short travel accounts

Travel literature

Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...

, and human interest stories

Human interest story

A human interest story is a feature story that discusses a person or people in an emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest or sympathy in the reader or viewer....

 written by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...

 from c. 1966–1974.

On the title

Vonnegut explains the title in the introduction:

Dear Reader: The title of this book is composed of three words from my novel Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle is the fourth novel by American writer Kurt Vonnegut, first published in 1963. It explores issues of science, technology, and religion, satirizing the arms race and many other targets along the way...

. A "wampeter" is an object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may revolve. The Holy Grail

Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...

 would be a case in point. "Foma

Bokononism

Bokononism is a religion invented by Kurt Vonnegut as a fictional religion, and practiced by many of the characters in his novel Cat's Cradle.It is based on the concept of foma, which are defined as harmless untruths...

" are harmless untruths, intended to comfort simple souls. An example: "Prosperity is just around the corner." A "granfalloon

Granfalloon

A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism , is defined as a "false karass." That is, it is a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless.-Examples:The most commonly purported granfalloons are...

" is a proud and meaningless association of human beings. Taken together, the words form as good an umbrella as any for this collection of some of the reviews and essays I've written, a few of the speeches I made.

Contents

• "Science Fiction" - Vonnegut's reflections on writing science fiction.
• "Brief Encounters on the Inland Waterway" (1966) - This recounts a journey from Massachusetts
  Massachusetts
  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
  
   to Florida
  Florida
  Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
  
   on the Kennedy yacht crewing for their captain, Frank Wirtanen (whose name had been borrowed for the character of an American intelligence officer in Mother Night
  Mother Night
  Mother Night is a novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut, first published in 1961. The title of the book is taken from Goethe's Faust....
  
  ).
• "Hello, Star Vega"
• "Teaching the Unteachable"
• "Yes, We Have No Nirvanas"
• "Fortitude" - The only work of fiction in the book.
• "There's a Maniac Loose Out There"
• "Excelsior! We're Going to the Moon! Excelsior!"
• "Address to the American Physical Society"
• "Good Missiles, Good Manners, Good Night"
• "Why They Read Hesse"
• "Oversexed in Indianapolis"
• "The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky
  Madame Blavatsky
  Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky had gone around the world three times. In 1875, Blavatsky together with Colonel H. S. Olcott established the Theosophical Society...
  
  "
• "Biafra: A People Betrayed" - Vonnegut writes about his experiences in Biafra
  Biafra
  Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...
  
   shortly before the country fell to Nigeria
  Nigeria
  Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
  
  n forces.
• "Address to Graduating Class at Bennington College, 1970"
• "Torture and Blubber"
• "Address to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1971"
• "Reflections on My Own Death"
• "In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself" - Comments on the nature of the U.S.'s two-party system (and the problems these divisions create).
• "Thinking Unthinkable, Speaking Unspeakable"
• "Address at Rededication of Whaton College Library, 1973"
• "Invite Rita Rait to America!"
• "Address to P.E.N. Conference in Stockholm, 1973"
• "A Political Disease"
• "Playboy Interview"

Vonnegut's style

A characteristic of this short nonfiction is that Vonnegut frequently includes himself directly, as he starts to do in his novels from the 1960s. He may write reportage, but he is open about who is reporting and how he feels about what he is reporting. One of the most interesting aspects of this material for the reader is the emergent relationship between observer-writer and subject. By revealing his attitudes to the subject he reveals much of himself. Vonnegut's association with the short story was far from over, however, and he later prepared and introduced a new collection, Welcome to the Monkey House

Welcome to the Monkey House

Welcome to the Monkey House is an assortment of short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut, first published in August 1968. The stories range from war-time epics to futuristic thrillers, given with satire and Vonnegut's unique edge...

(1968), which included eleven of the twelve stories from Canary in a Cathouse

Canary in a Cathouse

Canary in a Cathouse is a collection of twelve short stories by Kurt Vonnegut published in 1961. Eleven of the twelve appear in the later collection Welcome to the Monkey House...

and fourteen others.