"2 B R 0 2 B" is a science fiction short story by American author Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the digest magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction for January 1962 and collected in Vonnegut's Bagombo Snuff Box (1999). The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and references the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the story, the title refers to the telephone number that one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination. Vonnegut's 1965 …
2 B R 0 2 B
Kurt Vonnegut: 2 B R 0 2 B (1962)
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"2 B R 0 2 B" is a science fiction short story by American author Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the digest magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction for January 1962 and collected in Vonnegut's Bagombo Snuff Box (1999). The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and references the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the story, the title refers to the telephone number that one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination. Vonnegut's 1965 novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater describes a story by the name and attributes it to his recurring character Kilgore Trout, but the plot summary given is closer in nature to the eponymous tale from Vonnegut's short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House.
English language
Published January 1962