“We Bokononists believe that humanity is organized into teams, teams that do God’s Will without ever discovering what they are doing. Such a team is called a karass by Bokonon.”
–Vonnegut, 1963, p. 1
The excerpt above is from Cat’s Cradle, a novel by Kurt Vonnegut in which he describes a fake religion, Bokononism, followed by the people of a small island in the Caribbean Sea, the Republic of San Lorenzo. According to the book, a karass is a group of people who are brought together at any point during their life to collaborate for the greater good—“if you find your life tangled up with somebody else’s life for no very logical reasons… that person may be a member of your karass” (Vonnegut, 1963, p. 2). Vonnegut also explains that a karass does not have any geographical, racial, political, or other surface-level limitations: “a karass ignores national, institutional, occupational, familial, and class boundaries. It is as free form as an amoeba” (Vonnegut, 1963, p. 2). The concept of karass is not isolated to fiction—in nonfiction and academic contributions in the fields of education, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics, there is a similar concept called club or group membership.
Smith (1988) hypothesized that for successful literacy development, children need to consider themselves as potential readers and writers, or potential members of the “literacy club.” Krashen (2008) also described how language acquisition accelerates when language acquirers consider themselves as potential members of the group that uses the target language. When we join a new group and feel accepted by the native or proficient speakers of a language, our affective filter goes down and we acquire the language and its unique features more efficiently (Krashen, 1997). In this paper, we introduce the karass hypothesis or Krashen–Ashtari hypothesis, the idea that individuals with similar life purposes and passions can come together as a group to achieve certain tasks through collaborations that are higher in value than they could individually. These types of life collaborations have been sprinkled across our human history.
As an established biographer, Charlotte Chandler made it her life’s mission to discover the true essence of and motivation behind creative work among the best-known personalities in the world in various professions, such as Tennessee Williams, Federico Fellini, Bette Davis, Woody Allen, Marc Chagall, Golda Meir, and Alfred Hitchcock. Through their extensive conversations, she found that for all of her interviewees, their work and finding those who were true collaborators throughout their lifetimes were the ultimate satisfactions. In her conversation with Pablo Picasso, he mentioned, “The passions that motivate you may change, but it is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction” (Chandler, 1984, p. 3). This extension of self and fascination with work and finding one’s karass can paint some of the most beautiful experiences life has to offer.
In her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert describes creativity as the hallmark of the human species by stating that “the universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them” (Gilbert, 2015, p. 8). These hidden treasures can be unearthed by self-exploration as well as through collaborations with people and ideas that bring out the best versions of ourselves. Similarly, Gilbert in her book tells the story of a poet, Jack Gilbert, who once after teaching a class on poetry asked one of his talented students if she wanted to pursue writing by asking, “Do you have the courage? Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes” (Gilbert, 2015, p. 55).
The courage to create new projects in any area of expertise requires following and trusting our fascinations and passions or solving problems that cause a revolution in our hearts and minds. Finding one’s karassmates or those allies who can help us to accomplish our shared goals and to collaborate on our interests for the greater good is an essential part of the process. Also intertwined with the karass hypothesis (Krashen and Ashtari, 2024b) is the path hypothesis (Ashtari and Krashen, 2024a), stating that each of us has our own path in life that we consciously or subconsciously are drawn to or our circumstances get aligned for us to follow. In the papers “The Path Hypothesis and Becoming Polyglots”and “Vonnegut Meets Rumi: The karass hypothesis,” we the authors, Stephen Krashen and Nooshan Ashtari, tell the detailed stories of our individual second-language acquisition and academic paths, as well as how our professional paths crossed unexpectedly, leading to us co-writing over a dozen scholarly papers and co-presenting at over 40 conferences so far without having any prior plans for any of the collaborations.
Working with like-minded individuals can bring even more strength and beauty to the work and can help pave the way for others to keep building on the sturdy foundation further.
If you happen to come across karassmates during your life who share the same passion for work that causes a revolution in your heart and mind, then one question remains: Do you have the courage to find the creative treasures and visions that are hidden within you and join those in your karass to help others? We all hope that you say yes.
References
Ashtari, N., and Krashen, S. (2024a). “The Path Hypothesis and Becoming Polyglots.” Asian Journal on Perspectives in Education, 4(1), 9–18.
Krashen, S., and Ashtari, N. (2024b). “Vonnegut Meets Rumi: The karass hypothesis.” Asian Journal on Perspectives in Education, 4(1), 1–8.
Chandler, C. (1984). The Ultimate Seduction. Doubleday and Company.
Gilbert, E. (2015). Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Penguin Random House.
Smith, F. (1988). Joining the Literacy Club. Heinemann.
Vonnegut, K. (1963). Cat’s Cradle. Delacorte Press.
Stephen Krashen and Nooshan Ashtari have spent several decades of their lives advocating for second-language acquisition but never planned any of their collaborations.
Their research paths crossed accidentally, and over the last twelve years, they started to slowly work together on projects to help language acquirers, teachers, and other karassmates around the world. They hope that their publications and presentations will help other researchers and educators find the joy of pursuing the creative process and guide their students in their second-language acquisition journeys.
