✨“Somebody to talk to! Somebody who really understands!”✨
The author of “Slaughterhouse-Five”, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Confido” was considered not suitable for publishing in the 1950s. This short story was too far ahead of their time, very radical and has a darkly ironic tone.
The story deals with Henry, who works for the Accousti-gem Corporation, a company that manufactures hearing aids. He accidentally invents a device he thinks is a gateway to fame and money. It’s an earpiece that talks to the listener, like a true companion. Excited about the prosperous future, Ellen names the earpiece- “an appealing combination of confidant and household pet - Confido.”
However, when Ellen tries out Confido on her husband’s request while talking to her neighbour through the window, the earpiece feeds awful things in her ears such as the neighbour’s husband is an infidel and that her orange dress is ugly.
Following this, she warns her husband to not quit yet but he assures her that Confido is “bigger than television and psychoanalysis combined” and will make him a billionaire. Later on, Paul, their son, pushes his sister Susan because Confido remarks that he was adopted. When his mother tries to convince him and say otherwise, he states that Confido says it is true. She realizes that anyone who listens to the device becomes bitter and discontent.
The aftermath of this experience is Ellen burying Confido in the backyard and explaining to her husband his invention is “a direct wire to the worst in us . . . That little voice is loud enough as it is.”
This work is a conventional sci-fi story that showcases how technology is a bane and how humans are affected by it. It also deals with the obsession of fulfilling the American Dream which Vonnegut believed instilled greed and corruption in individuals which can be inferred when Confido convinces Henry that in order to be happy, one has to be successful.
“Confido”, along with thirteen other short stories, was published in the collection, ‘Look at the Birdie’. There is no definitive answer as to why these stories were rejected. Many speculate that they were rejected by popular magazines as they believed that these stories did not have an entertainment value or that anyone would read them because they dealt with themes of scientific inventions.
But now Vonnegut is considered as a crucial writer in modern American Literature. His works, especially his collection of short fiction, are engrossing, well-written and are incredibly enjoyable.
Beautifully written!
Interesting read!