Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007

[Who's Wee Dug]

It comes to us all sooner or later and we should appreciate the ones who are left,he did write some fantastic books and will be missed.

 

[Wolfbrother]

"So it goes..."

 

[j d worthington]

There are some fine thoughts here that some of you may appreciate:

Writers praise Kurt Vonnegut - Yahoo! News

Title: "Writers praise Kurt Vonnegut", from AP, by Hillel Italie, datelined Thurs., Apr. 12, 2007.

 

[Allegra]

Thank you J.D. for the link! There's an awesome documentary in which Kurt Vonnegut talked about his writing and books (8 parts):
YouTube - Kurt Vonnegut

I started reading his books a few years ago so I can't say his books changed my life or shaped my views about life and the world, however they have a great impact on me. His humanism, compassion and warmth, sharp wit and dark humour are important nutrients to me. Being pessimistic as he was, he gave you hope nad faith somehow. He'll live on in his books and continue to lift my spirit.

Now I'm re reading his masterpiece short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House. Once again I feel that Vonnegut magic - there's no boundary between the writer and the reader, no boundary between fiction and reality.

Yesterday I read a reader's story on BBC site. This lady had her arm tattooed with Vonnegut's famous word 'so it goes' (he used it when his character dies) only a week ago, as a tribute to her husband who died 10 months earlier, because he introduced Vonnegut's books to her 20 years ago when they were first in love. Now she was shocked to learn that the great man passed away. What a weird story.

 

[The Wanderer]

One of the American Giants

R.I.P.

 

[GOLLUM]

Sad news indeed...

 

[wrave]

I have a special affinity for Vonnegut mostly because I was born in Indiana. I still have relatives living in Indianapolis, his birth place. He hadn't lived there for a long time but it was important to me mostly because I was glad to see someone from the midwest have a real intelligence. I read his work with great joy and respect. He and Heller lit up sixties fiction by combining both humor and pathos for the human condition and our affinity for war.

I gotta reread the "Sirens of Titan" again.

 

[that old guy]

Dunno why he and Philip Jose Farmer couldn't mend fences.

I remember Venus on the Half-Shell as being a complete hoot, right up there with Bored of the Rings, almost as good as the first two Hitchhiker's books.

One of the very few "rare" books I own is a retitled paperbook copy of Player Piano from the late '50s, called of all things Utopia 17. If that wasn't a Kilgore Trout moment, not sure what would be. It even has kind of a "lurid" cover.

I must admit I stopped reading him circa 1990 or so. Mother Night is still a favorite, ditto Cat's Cradle and Sirens of Titan. I'm afraid books like Breakfast of Champions and Slapstick that appealled to me in my younger days would probably too far out there for me nowadays.

 

[that old guy]

Here's a wild interview w/Vonnegut on NPR:

NPR : Kurt Vonnegut Judges Modern Society

He's comes across as being in favor of intelligent design, expands a bit on the where the "tribal groups" in Slapstick came from, he even throws in a Nietzsche quote.

I guess anybody who could author Harrison Bergeron and Slaughterhouse Five is going to be a mite hard to pigeonhole.