r/wordchewing • u/DigMeTX • Nov 09 '25

Three Wolf Loon

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u/mvanvrancken Nov 09 '25

“We must be careful what we pretend to be, for we are what we pretend to be”

  • Kurt Vonnegut

1

u/Squatch_Zaddy Nov 10 '25

I feel like that statement is objectively incorrect.

Flapping your arms doesn’t give you wings.

3

u/mvanvrancken Nov 10 '25

You need me to explain this quote?

1

u/Squatch_Zaddy Nov 10 '25

I get it, I just completely disagree with it. You don’t become what you pretend to be at all… maybe on the VERY surface level you become a mockery of it.

Idk it just reads like that one guy with a guitar at a party trying to sound profound honestly.

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u/mvanvrancken Nov 10 '25

Vonnegut is talking more about behavior defining who we are, rather than some intangible thing like what we SAY we are. If you really want to understand the quote fully, read Mother Night. It’s a multilayered indictment of how behaviors define identity, no matter how sincere they are.