Posted on 04/11/2007 10:25:32 PM PDT by LouD
NEW YORK -- Kurt Vonnegut, the novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday at age 84, his wife said.
Mr. Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, according to his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Sympathies to his family.
Will his euylogy be delivered by Kilgore Trout?
An original mind, no doubt. RIP, Kurt.
NOW, now I can try to write a novel with semicolons! RIP Kurt, we’re all not far behind you.
Perhaps one of the greatest character names in literary history, Montana Wildhack...
I went to high school with a Vonnegut whose father, a drama teacher, local theater director, and one-time stage actor, was first cousin to Kurt Vonnegut. I knew quite a bit about him long before I ever read one of his books. I still see the cousin from time to time, must be well into his eighties himself.
Vonnegut, like many fictional authors, was clearly mentally disturbed. I’m not one of the kooks who likes to call any kind of popular literature anti-Christian, etc. I loved Vonnegut’s literature, but he clearly wasn’t completely right in the head. He truly hope he finds peace in the afterlife.
Whatever you might think of his politics, he was his own man. I would recommend “Harrison Bergeron,” a scathing attack on political correctness that was way ahead of its time, to today’s high school and college students as required reading.
His brother was on the staff at State University of New York at Albany.
I knew him, way back when....
I first heard about Kurt Vonnegut as an 8th grade student in a Catholic school; we read the local Catholic Review on Friday afternoons and I remember scanning the book and film reviews of “what Catholics should NOT be reading”. It wasn’t censorship or a book ban, just a gentle suggestion of things we might care to avoid as they might disturb our spiritual development.
Three or four years later I came across a copy of “Slaughterhouse Five”, I remembered the paper’s gentle suggestion and, of course, I read it.
I love Vonnegut’s stuff. It’s funny and absurd and crabby all at the same time. “Hocus Pocus” was probably my favorite.
When I was younger I always thought that the reason behind placing Vonnegut on the “not quite banned book list” was because of the author’s penchant for inappropriate sexual license. That’s pretty much the mind of a teenager at work. Now I realize that I would probably not want for my own children to be too heavily exposed to such musings at a young age. His work, while being funny, is also very dark and cynical. In fact, I suppose that I found the darkest and most cynical observations to be the points in his books that made me laugh out loud.
The world will make cynics of us soon enough. We need not to be encouraged by cranky atheists.
I hope and pray that Mr. Vonnegut woke up in the arms of our Savior this day. May he finally rest in peace.
God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut
I just loved him. I have known for the better part of my life that I was somehow connected to the author by some spoke of a big cosmic wheel.
Since my first reading of his novel ‘Cat’s Cradle’, I have been a fan — even to parts of my personality and sense of humor having formed by the reading of his works — I was more worth for what his passing waked. As comedian Jon Stewart said “He kept us sane during the 70’s”. (or something like that)
I didn’t always agree with him, his political/religious opinions, but I sure loved to read what he wrote.
My Back Yard
aka — for many many years, Ms. Rosewater
A Sad day indeed.
Tralfamadorian bump
Know anyone who is?
Aye, it was.
And so it goes. . . .
Know anyone who is?
The smiling guy in the “get a bigger penis” commercial on TV seems like he’s pretty much squared away in terms of mental health.
I think Bokonon will run the service.
What was I saying?
I read Slapstick but in 77. I thought it was trash, rambling, and nonense. Everyone on this post claims he has a great mind, yet he claims Hitler was elected and Bush was not. Than makes the claim that FDR was a great president and cared about the people. What a clown!
I don't agree with his politics, but that doesn't mean he doesn't write some darn good books. I've read all of his stuff at one time or another, and while some is better than others, most of it is quite good.
It's unfortunate that he stopped writing fiction ten years ago, as I thought Timequake was one of the better books he had written in some time, but he chose to stop, and it was our loss.
Damn. One of my favorites, obviously.
Read all of his books, with the favorite being Sirens of Titan (Cat’s Cradle coming in a close second).
One my favorite all time lines:
“No matter how hard Stoney tried to get up. He just couldn’t, because he was dead.”
RIP Mr. Vonnegut
...who captured the absurdity of war...
How hip!
And, Mr. Vonnegut, YOUR better solution to mankind’s intractable problems was what exactly?
Which brings me to why I have always liked him, despite disagreeing with him totally on matters of faith or of politics: In Cat's Cradle he made the astute observation that people from Indiana have the tendency to greet fellow Hoosiers when travelling like they are long-lost friends, something people from other states don't do.
I thought this was funny and quite true. Even today, when we are driving through another state and someone with an Indiana license plate honks at us, I always think of Kurt Vonnegut.
May the Divine Mercy of Jesus have given him the opportunity to accept the Savior at the very end.
That would be “Smilin’ Bob,” who is tripped out on Enzyte and whose wife sports as big a smile as his.
I hate those commercials.
I always enjoyed the following:
“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.’”
...unstuck in time...
Are you unable to grasp that something can be both absurd and inevitable?
The Second World War absolutely had to be fought. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. But we never talk about the people we kill. This is never spoken of.
-- Kurt Vonnegut
Mother Night changed me on a fundamental level.
You'll be missed.
“Vonnegut, like many fictional authors, was clearly mentally disturbed.”
I have long thought that the things he saw in WWII as a teenager unbalanced him.
The only reason any of these old leftists feel that way is because Hitler turned on good old Uncle Joe. Otherwise, we would have been in the same situation then that we are in now.
RIP.
Reason to enough to hold a private morning wake with the
“Breakfast of Champions”
“Are you unable to grasp that something can be both absurd and inevitable?”
War is far less absurd than any number of mankind’s foibles, so I disagree with the basic premise.
And the purpose of your condescension is, what exactly? The point can be argued without reference to one’s intellect, can’t it now?
It did it for me, too. You can say what you want about Nick Nolte, but his acting in the movie version was superb, some of the best ever.
Just NetFlixed it---Thanks!
"That's life I guess—twenty Blanches to one Stella."
I met him three times and I have three signed books of his.
no, diane moon glampers
I liked “Malachai Constant”.
[sigh]
Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why. —
Kurt Vonnegut
Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why. —
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut May 10, 2004
An Article titled:
Cold Turkey
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/cold_turkey/
“Which one are you in this country? It’s practically a law of life that you have to be one or the other? If you aren’t one or the other, you might as well be a doughnut.
If some of you still haven’t decided, I’ll make it easy for you.
If you want to take my guns away from me, and you’re all for murdering fetuses, and love it when homosexuals marry each other, and want to give them kitchen appliances at their showers, and you’re for the poor, you’re a liberal.
If you are against those perversions and for the rich, you’re a conservative.
What could be simpler?”
I met him at his house in the Hamptons in July, 1986. I was there with a friend who stopped by to visit his wife. I was on their back porch (they were further out in the back yard) when this guy came out of the house, looked at me and said, “you want some coffee?” I said “sure” and he brought me out a cup and we sat on a picnic table and talked. I had no idea who he was until after I left.
A literary giant, to be sure. Wow, will he be missed!
Tomorrow morning, I’ll have to toast ol’ Kurt by having a Breakfast of Champions.
This man grew up in my old neighborhood. Always thought highly of his writing.
Liberals, for all their faults, were against Hitler long before we entered the war. It was anti-Semites like Ford who tried to keep us out of it.
I’ll drink to that; then promptly steal a mirror. RIP.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.