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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. has passed away.
"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations,"
I know the feeling, but not right now.
I don't know what to say about one of if not my favorite author passing on. Here is what some others have said.
C&L, EB, Salon*, BC, NPR he loved NPR....
Here is his official website.
This might be my favorite interview on The Daily Show, Obviously it's with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Thank you to Crooks and Liars for the vid. (if that link doesn't work go here, scroll down)
And Big Hat Tip to my friend Justin at Blog 4 Brains for being the first spot I saw announcing this, and it was dedicated to me. So that was cool too. Thank you Justin.
But most of all thank you Kurt, without your works I may never have realized what joy can be found in words.
Goodbye Blue Mondays *
UPDATE: After reading a few other fans posts about this man I feel I have not done justice. I don't think I have the literary skills to do justice, but I could have done better. One little problem I have always had was that as soon as I read my first Vonnegut book I found almost every other book he had and read them as rapidly as possible. I was terrible at english but I had to choose a modern american author for class, we were given a list and the only ones I had heard of were immediately chosen. It was a friday afternoon so I decided I needed to pick one that I would remember on monday. I ran through the list and saw one with a Jr. at the end. The teacher looked at me and said I think you'll like him. On monday I had completely forgotten who I had chosen and franticly ran through the list again until I spotted that trusty jr. I went to the library and picked one out, for the life of me I can't remember which. The assignment was to read 3 books by the author, if memory serves me I read 7. As someone who didn't read I suddenly had out read every student in the class, even the future valedictorian looked at me and wondered why I was putting so much effort into this. I just didn't see it as work for the first time in my school life.
The problem as I was alluding to is that if you read seven books very quickly by the same author, who recycles name and places and who books are anything but linear it gets very hard to remember which book is which. Thats why last night I had just grabbed a bunch of novels off my shelf including two Vonneguts and an Adams. I started reading Adams because I thought it was the one I bought and never read, it wasn't, but I was too lazy to switch. But there is something strange about the fact that I had intended on reading one of his books last night then find out this morning that he has died, or as Deborah put it (and I wish I had thought of it),
Kurt Vonnegut has come unstuck from time.
I will have to make sure I read his book again, space them out a little so I can keep them straight this time.
So It Goes...
4 comments:
Kilgore, this is a great piece! It was fine before you came back to add your more personal memory, but the way you came to like Vonnegut's work is a gem of a tale. I'm glad I followed your linked name from Shakesville to read it!
Thanks!
Shakesville is a great site, I don't comment there much but I visit fairly often.
But I must confess, I like the old name, Shakespeare's Sister better.
oh man, i was so sad when i heard about his death. not that he hadn't lived a good, full life. but still, sad to lose such a great author and contributor to american culture. i greatly appreciated your post. :)
Thanks. He had a full life but not an entirely good one. He suffered depression his whole life. His mother killed herself, I know what the suicide of a child can do to a mother, I can't imagine what it would do to the child. He sat in a bunker while his army devastated the civilian population around him, while a POW.
I hope he enjoyed his life as much as I enjoyed his writing but I don't think its true, I think he brought far more joy to the world than the world brought to him. And theres something very noble about that. He will be missed.
*
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