Rating: 
Summary: Classes
Review: Vonnegut's HOCUS POCUS forces us to clear away the smoke and mirrors we use to deceive ourselves, and to notice the world with our own senses - mostly common sense. The "author" is documenting his experieneces as a college professor and pedagoge at a prison across the lake. He is presently held prisoner for inciting the prison break. From here, according to the "editor's note" (a tool employed by Vonnegut to draw our attention immediatly to the fragmentation, or nuggets of thought of the book) the "author" is writing on small bits of paper that he fills "like little bottles," and then procedes to move to the next sheet, filling it as well. Thus the book is literally pieced together, hence all the unconventional breaks each chapter, and sets up his meditative digressions. This particular novel satirizes American culture, and sets up all sorts of dicotomies and foils; i.e. the prison v. college, underpriveleged class v. priveleged class, the number of people he has superficially "loved" v. the number of people he has killed (incidentally, the number to both of these is 82 - the "author" provides an elaborate equation to figure out this dual number; however, upon inspecting the obvious i.e. the front and back pages containing stick figures of men/women, respectively, one comes up with the same number as the equation. Count them and see what you come up with and see how it ties into the last line of the book.) As usual, the existential Vonnegut points out the lack of objective meaning in the world and the subsequent human implimentation of arbitrary significance. Vonnegut examines the arenas of academia, the military, civil service, government, social convention, business, and personal life. Why is this titled "HOCUS POCUS?" My interpretation is that Hocus Pocus is a phrase that is employed by magicians to conjure the powers of illusion and deception. This book is about various distortions of the truth, and dissolutions of reality. It is all about appearances, superficialities, and subterfuge - the HOCUS POCUS we use to warp our perception of reality, in order to take the sting out of life. A humorous example of this veil of smoke and mirrors is the euphamisms (ribbing the military) the "author" employs, such as "when the excrement hits the air-conditioning." Vonnegut, in his dark satires, attempts to provoke us into thought, and to make us concious of our mindless acceptance of predigested, spoon fed interpretation of reality. Time and again in Hocus Pocus, Vonnegut forces us to look at our assumptions and perceptions, and re-evaluate them. His "light" style is deceptive in itself because it evokes a deeper meditation from the reader, and the little pieces of paper the "editor" declared in the "editor's note" allows the reader to make constant pauses to reflect on these pithy nuggets. By literally framing the "obvious" in new perspectives, he forcibly compels the reader to ask "Yeah, that is silly. Why didn't I see that before?" or "Yeah, why is that so?" It is Vonnegut's way of forcing us to meditate on the assumptions of our ideas, concepts, and perceptions - the foundations of our judgments and interpretions of the world - and to do away with all the Hocus Pocus. One of my criticisms is that the plot is thin, and it would have been better if Vonnegut had developed it further. Although the digressions and the disjointed time are a hallmark of Vonnegut's style, they contribute laterally to the plot, rather than to push it forward. I think Vonnegut enjoyed playing/experimenting with the structure more than developing a "New York Times traditional" plot. However, I think that the frequent shuffling of the chronology forces those aforementioned meditations/pauses. And that may have been Vonnegut's true goal. Ultimately, Vonnegut's drive in HOCUS POCUS is to somehow battle "THE COMPLICATED FUTILITY OF IGNORANCE." With humor, and unconventional structure, he makes the complex seem simple, the futility managable, and the ignorance...well, that is and sometimes we do not see them because we distort them with the . It becomes obscured by all the "Hocus Pocus" we . The HOCUS POCUS is our abilty to assign arbitrary meaning to the world to make us seem more significant. And in that process of assigning significance, we employ smoke and mirrors to distrort, bend, and warp reality. Moreover, ignorance of the methods behind the magic is dangerous, and fatal - and results in futile attempts to understand the simplicity of reality. The answer is in front of us the entire time, but only if we are to ignorant to look. ...and if you remember nothing else at all, remember the lesson of "82."
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a second, third, fourth, fifth read!
Review: Vonnegut's humor is unbeatable. Yet, while you laughing out loud, you are struck by what Vonnegut's poking at. He is a master. Hocus Pocus is definitely more than worth the 2 cups of overpriced coffee i gave up to buy it!! :)
Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut near his pointless best
Review: What bleak existentialism lies at the heart of Vonnegut's work! Ho hum. Having finished this book, I feel as though I have awoken, loosed from my dream of life, to find a reality far more terrifying than the everyday fears I convinced myself were real.
Rating: 
Summary: Cliches, forced humor..
Review: While I am a great fan of Mr. Vonnegut in general, this book seems really bad. He based his entire story on cliches from the 60-s using a style which should be witty but which almost never works on me. When reading his earlier books, I found his wit facinating. But here, he seems to have lost his edge. I guess he is just talking about so much pointless stuff, it is hard to keep reading the book. I cried my way through Slaughter H. 5 and I laughed my way through Cat's Cradle. Those are masterpieces. But, in this case it all seems _so_ boring.... Or maybe I was just expecting to much from Mr Vonnegut because of his excellent earlier books.
Rating:
Summary: Stop reading customer comments and order the darn book
Review: You're wasting your time looking at these usless things. Hocus Pocus is one of the funniest, if one of the more incongruous, of Vonnegut's novels, which alone makes it worth reading. The social commentary is equally mind-blowing, which makes it a must-read. Read it. Now.
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