posted
Longtime lurker / OSC fan... though this has nothing to do with him.
I am an associate editor for a Milford Magazine, a regional publication in NE Pennsylvania. As some of you may know, Milford, PA is the home of the Virginia Kidd Literary Agency and once the site of a SF Writers Conference... Asimov, Ellison, LeGuin, McCaffery, Blish, Wolfe... the list goes on. In Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You Mr. Rosewater(1965) the namesake character, Eliot Rosewater, crashes a science-fiction writers' convention being held in Milford, Pa. motel and interrupts their meeting to say
"I love you sons of bitches. You're all I read any more. You're the only ones who'll talk about the really terrific changes going on, the only ones crazy enough to know that life is a space voyage, and not a short one either, but one that will last for billions of years. You're the only ones with guts enough to really care about the future, who really care about the future, who really know what machines do to us, what cities do to us, what big, simple ideas do to us, what tremendous mistakes, accidents, and catastrophies do to us. You're the only ones zany enough to agonize over time and distance without limit, over mysteries that will never die, over the fact that we are right now determining whether the space voyage for the next billion years or so is going to Heaven or Hell."
Bearing that in mind, the kind folks over at the Virginia Kidd agency have arranged for Mr. Vonnegut to call me sometime this week for an interview... I'm a bit nervous about speaking to him, as he is purported to be a bit ornery, a bit cranky, a bit wild. I'd like to be armed with some good questions.
So I pose the question to you folks... if given the opportunity to talk to Kurt Vonnegut, what would you ask him?
Posts: 2 | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
You might want to read his most recent book, Man Without A Country, beforehand. I felt like it gave me a bit of insight into his character, even though it's actually the only book of his I've read.
Added: It's pretty short, it only takes a few hours to read.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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"Where do you get your ideas?" I bet he's never been asked that before.
(I am, of course, kidding. And very jealous, while at the same time glad I don't have to come up with interesting interview questions. Because it's hard.)
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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If I were interviewing him I'd probably ask him what he's been reading lately, both because I'd find the answer interesting and because it could lead to some good jumping off points for spontaneous questions.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Thanks for all the quick responses... I'm starting to get a pretty good list together, will let you all know how the interview went.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Jul 2006
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:: laugh :: See, I was feeling bad because I felt like we hadn't really given you much, and were taking our own sweet time about giving you what little we had.
I'd be interested in seeing what questions you're already planning on asking, although I could understand if you didn't want to post them online.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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"If you weren't a full-time writer, what could you see youself doing?"
"Is there anything that you haven't yet done that you are hoping to yet accomplish or experience?"
"If you were able to go back and change anything in your life, what would you do differently?"
"You are world-renowned for your fiction. What do YOU consider to be your greatest work or accomplishment?"
"If you were stranded on a deserted island, what special things, besides basic survival gear, would you want to have with you?"
"If you were given the opportunity to sit down to dinner with anyone at all, from contemporary times or from any time in history, who would you choose, and why?"
"Your fiction famously skewers the modern world. What do you find to be most dismaying about the current state of the world?"
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I like the last one. Get him to rant about what he thinks is wrong with the world. Crotchety old people love that. Hell, everyone loves that. Plus it should make for an entertaining answer.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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He is indeed ornery, but you needn't be nervous about that. He's a good and entertaining speakers, so I expect you'll get some useful quotes out of your conversation no matter what you ask.
I think it's a good idea to ask what he's reading now and what he thinks of it.
You could ask him what his favorite book is. Last I heard, it's _Something Happened_ by Joe Heller. I'd read it and didn't like it nearly as much as Catch-22, so I called Vonnegut on it and gave a reasonably informed opinion on why _Something Happened_ is inferior.
Ask if he's read any Neal Stephenson and what he thinks of his books.
If he won a billion dollars, what would he do with it?
Is the human race heading inexorably toward self-anhiliation?
Posts: 1785 | Registered: May 1999
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Did you do the interview yet? 'Cause I thought of the BEST question to ask him:
"Mr. Vonnegut, I am sure that you have been interviewed more times than you can recall. What is the question that you are always secretly hoping that the interviewer will ask you?"
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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"Well, Ms. Shvester, that question would be 'What is the question that you are always secretly hoping that the interviewer will ask you?' Congratulations, you win the Kewpie doll!"
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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