02.05.2005, 15:54
Granfalloon
is a group of people who believe they work together, claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but is actually meaningless in terms of fulfilling God's design. As examples, Vonnegut cites: "the Communist Party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company, the International Order of Odd Fellows, the United States of America or any other nation." plink, 3 comments    praise or blame!
 

02.05.2005, 15:52
Karass
Yet another important Bokononist concept - a group of people that really work together as opposed to granfalloon, a group of people that believe they work together

Oh a sleeping drunkard up in Central Park
And a lion hunter in the jungle dark
And a Chinese dentist and the British queen
All fit together in the same machine
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many different people in the same device plink, nix    praise or blame!
 

04.07.2003, 15:37
What a wampeter is
A wampeter is the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us, just as no wheel is without a hub.
Anything can be a wampeter: a tree, a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever it is, them members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos of a spiral of nebula. the orbits of the members of a karass about their common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:

    Around and around and around we spin,
    with feet of lead and wings of tin.

And wampeters come and wampeters go, Bokonon tells us. At any given time a karass actually has two wampeters - one waxing in importance, one waning. plink, 4 comments    praise or blame!