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Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut
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Subject: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Amos Date: 12 Apr 07 - 12:58 AM 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 last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island. Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz. Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and '70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:11 AM "So it goes." |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Peace Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:17 AM "Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand." |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Lonesome EJ Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:43 AM A true original. One of the authors that was required reading in my college years. Farewell to Kilgore Trout... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: mrdux Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:43 AM ". . . the big trouble with dumb bastards is that they are too dumb to believe there is such a thing as being smart." -- from The Sirens of Titan (1959) |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: catspaw49 Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:45 AM ......wow........One of those you know is always around and now he's not. The only sci-fi I could read and enjoy was his and Adams'. I think jis stories were down my alley as they were tales combining weirdness and great humor. How could you not love that? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Ernest Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:46 AM "This is no disgrace. A lot of good people can`t make it on the outside" (Jailbird) |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Amergin Date: 12 Apr 07 - 02:28 AM Holy shit...he was one of my most favourite authors....I think I will have to reread his stories again... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: mrdux Date: 12 Apr 07 - 02:54 AM I had just reread a couple of them . . . they've aged gracefully. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: s&r Date: 12 Apr 07 - 04:13 AM Harrison Bergeron IV(?) was more predictive than 1984 IMO That was a Doozy Stu |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: alanabit Date: 12 Apr 07 - 06:02 AM He was a compassionate and decent man - a survivor of the war, who used his time well. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: George Papavgeris Date: 12 Apr 07 - 06:18 AM A great mind, a great thinker, a great humanist - and a bloody good writer to boot. I am now so glad that I introduced my daughter to his books 4 months ago and she just finished reading the last one last week. She at least had the chance to see him on some of his interview excerpts on youTube. The bad chemicals got him, or his wiring got faulty, I guess. But at least he's with Kilgore Trout now. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: avrosimones Date: 12 Apr 07 - 06:41 AM he was (and still is!) my favourite writer. A big loss. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: John of the Hill Date: 12 Apr 07 - 08:21 AM God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: dwditty Date: 12 Apr 07 - 08:59 AM I had the great fortune to live next door to the Vonneguts on Cape Cod. This was back when his son, Mark, and I were schoolmates and Kurt was selling a strange new car called a Saab - late 50's. Later, when their family doubled in size overnight, the Vonnegut household was the place for all to congregate. Kurt would be right there, leading a group of 20 or so 5-6th graders on a tromp through the marshes - sinking in mud up to our waist. Other times, he did things like play Santa on Cristmas eve for the 3 or 4 families that gathered. He would often read us poetry (James Tate - The Lost Pilot comes to mind), as we all gathered around the giant round coffee table in the candle lit living room. It wasn't much later that we all found out that Kurt had gone and made himself a famous author. He was not always an easy person for a kid to be around - he did not let "wrong thinking" go by unchallenged. Other times stand out with amazing clarity even now - almost 50 years later. Bee-dubya-ell, got it right above.....and so it goes. dw |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Wesley S Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:05 AM Thanks for the story dwditty. Please feel free to share more of them. He was one of my favorite authors too. He had an amazing life - a survivor of the Dresden bombings. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:14 AM Rest in peace, Kurt. Although I've never really forgiven you for renouncing your origins in Science Fiction once you became famous. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Amos Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:40 AM dwd, thanks for a wonderful, if brief, recitation, What a priveleged accident that was, being his neighbor!! I would be gratified to hear of other memories of his life if any come to mind. Vonnegut was as much of a role model as I ever had among writers. I loved his whackiness, but I loved more his growling insistence on making human thought worthwhile, on popping the granfaloons of life, his sharp nose for the authentic. I loved that he built wild, out-of-bounds, alien fiction that somehow always came home at the end to deeply human issues. I loved that he would put his heart down in the first paragraph. A |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: katlaughing Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:53 AM Farewell, sir. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: katlaughing Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:55 AM An August 2006 article reported: He has stalled finishing his highly anticipated novel If God Were Alive Today - or so he claims. "I've given up on it ... It won't happen. ... The Army kept me on because I could type, so I was typing other people's discharges and stuff. And my feeling was, 'Please, I've done everything I was supposed to do. Can I go home now?' That's what I feel right now. I've written books. Lots of them. Please, I've done everything I'm supposed to do. Can I go home now?" |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: bobad Date: 12 Apr 07 - 10:16 AM If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC * Vonnegut's Blues For America 07 January, 2006 Sunday Herald |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Folk Form # 1 Date: 12 Apr 07 - 10:38 AM One of the few decent men on this planet. I remember in my late teens, he had a profound effect on my life. His book, Slaughtehouse 5, will remain his legacy. Rest in peace, Kurt, you will be missed. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: dwditty Date: 12 Apr 07 - 10:47 AM Yes, Wesley, this is certainly a day of memories. Just before I shipped out to Vietnam, Kurt gave me a galley-proof copy of his then unpublished Slaughterhouse...I read it on the flight over, and I credit the book with helping me get through that next year. dw |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: GUEST,TIA Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:06 AM From 'Spaw up above: "I think jis stories were down my alley..." Boy does that give an unwanted visual. Oh yeah, and Vonnegut: he gave me a line that I must use 20 times a day... "So it goes." |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:15 AM I was going to say something about how much I'd love to see what Vonnegut-in-his-prime would have written about today's world, when I realized he probably wouldn't have said it much differently than he did fifty years ago. "No damned cat. No damned cradle." |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Bill D Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:23 AM and a serious realignment of some karass today....the wampeter is gone. The Final Sentence "If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who" |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: EBarnacle Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:31 AM There was a presentation of one of his antiwar speeches as the opener on the Brian Lehrer show this morning. It will probably be posted shortly. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: dwditty Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:54 AM There is also a great Vonnegut interview on You Tube that was done on Second Life. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Amos Date: 12 Apr 07 - 12:10 PM The Fifty-third Calypso [ 2 ] Oh, a sleeping drunkard Up in Central Park, And a lion-hunter In the jungle dark, And a Chinese dentist, And a British queen-- All fit together In the same machine. Nice, nice, very nice; Nice, nice, very nice; Nice, nice, very nice-- So many different people In the same device. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Big Al Whittle Date: 12 Apr 07 - 02:06 PM Sue you have seen....... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: EBarnacle Date: 12 Apr 07 - 02:32 PM That earlier note should have included at wnyc.org |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: RangerSteve Date: 12 Apr 07 - 03:18 PM A friend of mine in high school recommended "Mr. Rosewater", and after I read it, I was hooked. While I was in the Navy (1969-73), I noticed a lot of people reading his books, and for years after, too. Even people who normally wouldn't read a book if it wasn't assiged in school willing read Vonnegut. I believe he did for adult literature what the Harry Potter books did for kids. I'm trying to think of any other fiction writers whose books I've read over and over, and I can only think of Mr. Vonnegut. Sometimes I'd find myself reading the same passages over and over, just because they were so well written. I don't understand how anyone can have a favorite Vonnegut book. Each one was great in its own way. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 12 Apr 07 - 03:44 PM A favorite line from a thing he wrote called "Between Time And Timbuktu" (a paraphrase--from a dramatized TV version of it.): "Whenever I begin to feel the least bit self important, I think of all the dirt that never did have a chance to sit up and look around." Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Micca Date: 12 Apr 07 - 04:28 PM At a time (40-45 years ago) when one couldnt openly admit to being Wiccan, if I had to fill in a form , under Religion I would put Bokononism, I very much enjoyed Vonneguts writing Thanks to my brother introducing me to him at the beginning of the 60's I will now trawl through the book shelves and see what I still have, but apart from Cats cradle the most memorable was Slaughterhouse 5 RIP Mr V |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: MaineDog Date: 12 Apr 07 - 04:49 PM Great authors never die, they simply move on to the next page. MD |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: open mike Date: 12 Apr 07 - 05:06 PM I seem to recall hearing of a fire that damaged or destroyed his apartment some years ago..perhaps in New York? here are some other links..an NPR story with Renee Montagne: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1426772 a Salon web page which features Kurt reading: http://archive.salon.com/audio/fiction/2001/02/20/vonnegut/index HE WAS HOSPITALIZED IN 2000 WITH SMOKE INHALATION AFTER A CIGARETTE STARTED A FIRE IN HIS APARTMENT (caps lock un-intentional) http://www.vonnegutweb.com/vonnegutia/interviews/int_crimson.html more: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/tuvonnegut.html Author Kurt Vonnegut dies; WWII vet saw absurdity of war NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist and World War II veteran 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 yesterday at age 84, his wife said. 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, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz. The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people. a biography/timeline: http://www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/chronology/vonnegutbio.html in this article it is mentioned how he and his wife adopted several nephews and nieces when their parents died within days of each other..this must be what is meant by the former poster who said the family doubled in size over night... (i thought they had twins or triplets!) http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/LOCAL/704110581 family plans private service: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070412/LOCAL/704120576/0/BUSINESS |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Mrrzy Date: 12 Apr 07 - 05:13 PM What an author. I have to go to a used bookstore now... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: vectis Date: 12 Apr 07 - 05:18 PM I devoured his books for years. He was an original... Sadly missed |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Big Al Whittle Date: 12 Apr 07 - 06:01 PM did they taste different from say......... The Bible or jeffrey Archer? |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Bobert Date: 12 Apr 07 - 08:02 PM Not to fear folks, Kurt has a plan... He, Tim Leary and Carlos Castinada all enetered into a ***freeze pact*** and will be sent up to an asteriod to join Ken Keasey, Jeack Keroack and Jeri Garcia where they will all be thawed and begin work on their debut "The Asteriods" CD entiltled "Ouuta This World" which will be out in in late summer but, hey... ... it get better!!! Woodstock III, August, 2008!!! Get yer tickets early... B;) |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Joybell Date: 12 Apr 07 - 08:16 PM Save me a ticket Bobert. I want to be there. Joy |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Bobert Date: 12 Apr 07 - 08:16 PM Yer on, Joy... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Joe_F Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:59 PM I read his first novel, _Player Piano_, when I was in high school and it was new. I think it has worn well, all the more so for being out of date. The computer revolution as GE would have done it! I am also grateful for _Mother Night_ (especially the quotation from Goethe), Slaughterhouse Five, and (I also have a lot of bad chemicals) Breakfast of Champions. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:11 PM his books were immense influence in my mid teens back in the 70's.. cant remember much about them now.. but in one of the books.. something about freezing water maybe ???? was a description of an old married couple on an aeroplane.. cant remember why.. but at that time.. something about the way he wrote about them affected and amused me deeply.. now i guess in all possibility.. me and the mrs may have become that couple .. weird old world !!!?? |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: RangerSteve Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:45 PM The freezing water was probably Ice Nine - a form of ice that never thaws and freezes anything it touches. I believe that was "Cats Cradle", but I could be wrong. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Wilfried Schaum Date: 13 Apr 07 - 04:22 AM MESSAGE to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr Infantryman, Scout, POW in Germany Listen So it goes An on and on Imagine that! Peace 252053 A dec 87 written on a Xmas evening after having read some of his works again ... and again ... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: clueless don Date: 13 Apr 07 - 08:26 AM Something he said in an article has stayed with me. I can't remember the exact words, but a close paraphrase is: I write about the things that are of concern to a college sophomore. College sophomores are concerned about things like "Is there a God?" and "Do we have free will?" But older people always act as if these questions have been resolved. To my mind, those questions are still of interest. Rest in peace, Mr. Vonnegut. Don |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Donuel Date: 13 Apr 07 - 08:28 AM Kurt's freezing weapon was something the DID was fascinated with at one time. one drop would freeze any body of water...ad infinitum which eneded up freeaing all water on Earth. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Greg F. Date: 13 Apr 07 - 09:56 AM from A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut, 2005:
Many years ago I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.
Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now give up on people, too. I am a veteran of the SecOnd World War and I have to say this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.
The crucified planet Earth,
The irony would be
When the last living thing |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: katlaughing Date: 14 Apr 07 - 07:01 PM There's a neat article at Salon about him. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Donuel Date: 14 Apr 07 - 09:47 PM HE IS STILL ALIVE !!!!!!!!!!!! in a way I just heard him read his interviews that he did from beyond the grave. In this work... What he did was hire Kevorkian to send him into the light, somehere between the blue light and the Pearly Gates and interviewed people who had already died. He interviewed people like Eugene Debs. The interviews are priceless. I heard them read by Kurt himself just today on NPR. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: robomatic Date: 14 Apr 07 - 11:32 PM When I was very young and determined to read all the science fiction books in the Needham Public Library I happened upon Player Piano which was a real mind stretcher because while it was very readable it was thoroughly unconventional. I admire Kurt Vonnegut the man, what he stood for, what he would not stand for, and for those he admired and to some extent resembled(Mark Twain). I was also moved by his son Mark's book Eden Express. And So It Goes |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: BK Lick Date: 15 Apr 07 - 12:57 AM Many links to audio and video archival material about Vonnegut can be found on this NPR page Click me!. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Amos Date: 15 Apr 07 - 12:32 PM The man was a master of BS of the most humane sort. A brief example from an interview: ONNEGUT Yes. The Shortridge Daily Echo. There was a print shop right in the school. Students wrote the paper. Students set the type. I've always found it easy to write. Also, I learned to write for peers rather than for teachers. Most beginning writers don't get to write for peers - to catch hell from peers. INTERVIEWER So every afternoon you would go to the Echo office - VONNEGUT Yeah. And one time, while I was writing, I happened to sniff my armpits absentmindedly. Several people saw me do it, and thought it was funny - and ever after that I was given the name "Snarf". In the annual for my graduating class, the class of 1940, I'm listed as "Kurt Snarfield Vonnegut, Jr." Technically, I wasn't really a snarf. A snarf was a person who went around sniffing girls' bicycle saddles. I didn't do that. Twerp also had a very specific meaning, which few people know now. Through careless usage, twerp is a pretty formless insult now. INTERVIEWER What is a twerp in the strictest sense, in the original sense? VONNEGUT It's a person who inserts a set of false teeth between the cheeks of his ass. INTERVIEWER I see. VONNEGUT I beg your pardon; between the cheeks of his or her ass. I'm always offending feminists that way. INTERVIEWER I don't quite understand why someone would do that with false teeth. VONNEGUT In order to bite the buttons off the backseats of taxicabs. That's the only reason twerps do it. It's all that turns them on. ... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Bill D Date: 15 Apr 07 - 01:39 PM Saw an edited set of interviews with Vonnegut on the Charley Rose show. He was interesting in that when Rose asked him about a new book, he explained that he had really said all he had to say. He said "all my books are still in print" and that he saw no need to just 'write for the sake of writing'. He was quite willing to explain and reminisce about his writings...but just laughed when urged to produce more. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 18 Apr 07 - 08:39 PM "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." - KURT VONNEGUT, 1922-2007 |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Wordsmith Date: 19 Apr 07 - 04:30 AM I adore Vonnegut. I feel blessed for having had the ability to read and, then, to have been privileged, as all above in this thread, to have read his books. He was a man of true wisdom, who had no qualms about sharing it. I just came from what's left of the Virginia Tech thread. The juxtaposition is mind-blowing. What would Vonnegut have thought of that? Actually, it's all in his work already. Rest, peacefully! |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: 282RA Date: 19 Apr 07 - 10:34 AM Did you know that his brother invented the process of seeding clouds with silver iodide to induce rain? That's why he says his brother invented rain in Breakfast of Champions. That was my first Vonnegut novel. I've since read most of them. My fave is Sirens of Titan. Him and Burroughs were my favorite authors. Between them all of the great American novels were produced. Rented a tent a tent a tent. Rented a tent a tent a tent. Rented a tent, rented a tent. Rented a rented a tent. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Farewell, Kurt Vonnegut From: Wilfried Schaum Date: 20 Apr 07 - 02:03 AM ... and his uncle invented the panic bars |
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