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Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (short story)

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut written in 1953, and first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine in January 1954. The title comes from Shakespeare's famous line from the play Macbeth "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow." The name "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" appears in Vonnegut's collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House. The story was originally titled "The Big Trip Up Yonder" when published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

Setting

The story is set in 2158 A.D., after the invention of a medicine called Anti-Gerasone, which is made from sawdust and dandelions and is thus inexpensive and widely available. Anti-Gerasone halts the aging process and prevents people from dying of old age as long as they keep taking it; as a result, America now suffers from severe overpopulation and shortages of food and resources. With the exception of the very wealthy, most of the population appears to survive on a diet of foods made from processed seaweed and sawdust.

Plot

The Schwartz family, headed by 172-year-old Harold ("Gramps"), lives in a three-room New York City apartment located in what once was southern Connecticut. Gramps' grandson Louis, his wife Emerald, and 22 other descendants are crowded into the space, perpetually jockeying for Gramps' favor. Gramps gets the best food and the only private bedroom, and controls everyone's life by constantly revising his will to disinherit anyone who earns his dislike.

Emerald thinks about killing Gramps by diluting his Anti-Gerasone, but Louis talks her out of it. An offhand remark by him prompts Gramps to disinherit the couple and exile them to the worst sleeping space in the apartment. Louis then catches another family member diluting Gramps' Anti-Gerasone; fearing Gramps' reaction to such a scheme, he tries to empty the bottle and refill it with the full-strength mixture. He breaks the bottle and is caught by Gramps, who only tells him to clean up the mess. The next day, the family finds Gramps' bed empty, with a note informing them that he is dead and a newly rewritten will that bequeaths his estate to his descendants without dividing it.

A riot breaks out as the family members start fighting over who gets the bedroom, leading to everyone being arrested and jailed at the police station. Louis and Emerald find the cells to be comfortable and spacious compared to the apartment, and hope that they will be sentenced to prison so they can keep these living arrangements. Meanwhile, Gramps has returned to the apartment, having spent the day at a nearby tavern, and hired a lawyer to get everyone convicted. He sees a television commercial for the new product Super-Anti-Gerasone, which can reverse the aging process instead of just halting it, and starts thinking about being able to enjoy life again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_and_Tomorrow_and_Tomorrow_%28short_story%29

See also:

Capitalists and Other Psychopaths .. excerpt ..

MOST important, neither entrepreneurs nor the rich have a monopoly on brains, sweat or risk. There are scientists — and artists and scholars — who are just as smart as any entrepreneur, only they are interested in different rewards. A single mother holding down a job and putting herself through community college works just as hard as any hedge fund manager. A person who takes out a mortgage — or a student loan, or who conceives a child — on the strength of a job she knows she could lose at any moment (thanks, perhaps, to one of those job creators) assumes as much risk as someone who starts a business.

Enormous matters of policy depend on these perceptions: what we’re going to tax, and how much; what we’re going to spend, and on whom. But while “job creators” may be a new term, the adulation it expresses — and the contempt that it so clearly signals — are not. “Poor Americans are urged to hate themselves,” Kurt Vonnegut wrote in “Slaughterhouse-Five.” And so, “they mock themselves and glorify their betters.” Our most destructive lie, he added, “is that it is very easy for any American to make money.” The lie goes on. The poor are lazy, stupid and evil. The rich are brilliant, courageous and good. They shower their beneficence upon the rest of us. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76576427