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Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died Wednesday night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
Kurt was alive and kicking, and sharp as a tack until the end. I have seen this day coming within the past year or two, but I am indeed sorry to see it come to pass.
It wasn't just the feelings of his generation that he captured. In reading his books, it was the ironic sense of humility and imagination, intertwined, that served to inspire others with the same feelings. To say that his down-to-earth, yet far-away observations were only of his time would be an insult. They could well have been written yesterday. He wrote of different worlds and universes, somehow relating those far off places to our own while giving the reader a sense of intense and intimate familiarity. That was indeed his charm.
It really is a drag to see him go. His literary demeanor and overall presence in this world has always driven me to be optimistic in my views of humanity. Hopefully his death (and the response/coverage of his death) will only help spread his intellectual and deserving words.
Please, if you haven't read his books, pick up one at the library or your local book store whenever you can. You will not regret it.
Here is to finally meeting him on another plane of existance!
Some of my favorite quotes from the man...
"If you really want to upset your parents, and you are not brave enough to be gay, go into the arts!"
"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured."
"Anyone who cannot understand how a useful religion can be based on lies will not understand this book either."
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."
"All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone.. the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act." -- Marcel Duchamp
Post by blazeaway54 on Apr 12, 2007 1:43:13 GMT -5
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies — 'God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.'
My favorite author for sure. The man who showed me that 'escape' thru science fiction was really not an escape at all, just a deeper embrace. The world will surely miss his wisdom.
My favorite author for sure. The man who showed me that 'escape' thru science fiction was really not an escape at all, just a deeper embrace. The world will surely miss his wisdom.
It wasn't just the feelings of his generation that he captured. In reading his books, it was the ironic sense of humility and imagination, intertwined, that served to inspire others with the same feelings. To say that his down-to-earth, yet far-away observations were only of his time would be an insult. They could well have been written yesterday. He wrote of different worlds and universes, somehow relating those far off places to our own while giving the reader a sense of intense and intimate familiarity. That was indeed his charm.
Indeed the Mark Twain of OUR time.
Right on.
Although I sometimes feel guilty about it, I hardly ever read fiction. I've read nearly everything Vonnegut published though. Do yourself a favor and just pick up anything the guy wrote if you aren't familiar (maybe don't startwith the more recent stuff).
RIP, Kurt, perhaps the greatest author of the last century.
The comments in this thread about him and heaven are pretty funny.
"I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great, spectacularly prolific writer and scientist, Dr. Isaac Asimov in that essentially functionless capacity. At an A.H.A. memorial service for my predecessor I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." That was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. It rolled them in the aisles..." - KV Jr
Post by jambandjohn on Apr 12, 2007 23:27:27 GMT -5
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.
The only difference between [George W.] Bush and [Adolf] Hitler is that Hitler was elected.
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC
Pretty much says it all, eh? One of the greatest pleasures of my life was turning on my daughter (now a freshly-minted English teacher) onto reading Vonnegut's novels...
"When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes'."
"...well yeah the guitar is good accompaniment but you can't like compose with it; I mean you can't base a whole song around the guitar." -Bob Dylan 1965
