Karass
A group of people linked in a cosmically significant manner, even when superficial linkages are not evident.
Coined by Kurt Vonnegut in 1963, as a Bokononist term in the novel Cat’s Cradle. Other karass-related terms:
- duprass – a karass of only two people, who almost always die within a week of each other. The typical example is a loving couple who work together for a great purpose.
- granfalloon – a false karass; i.e., a group of people who imagine they have a connection that does not really exist. An example is “Hoosiers.” Hoosiers are people from Indiana, and Hoosiers have no true spiritual destiny in common. They really share little more than a name.
- wampeter – the central theme or purpose of a karass. Each karass has two wampeters at any given time, one waxing and one waning.
- foma – harmless untruths
- kan-kan – An object or item that brings a person into their karass. The narrator states in the book that his kan-kan was the book he wrote about the Hiroshima bombing.
- sinookas – The intertwining “tendrils” of peoples’ lives.