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Wow. I caught a rare wiki-hack on my first view, there. Some crazy guy hijacked the wiki and was rejoicing Kurt's death...that's just weak.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Terribly sad. At least his work will live on to affect countless generations. I know it did mine.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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Let's not go too far here. Kurt Vonnegut wasn't an angel. He was what I would call a "magnificent bastard". Rough around the edges, but with jelly center. The guy was divorced, and lived with his second wife for years before getting the divorce; he raised his sister's three children as his own; he battled with depression; he was an inveterate smoker; he was an unapologetic pessimist; he was an idealist; by all accounts he was ornery, difficult, and decent.
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It was in this morning's Indianapolis paper that because of an ilness he would not be coming to speak in Indy about them choosing one of his books for "One Book, One Town." His son was to speak instead.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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aiua, I recommend that you read the following 5 books of his:
1) Player Piano -- His first, and most conventional, novel 2) Cat's Cradle -- Because it is my favorite 3) Mother Night -- Just an excellent story, and less sci-fi than the others, which will prepare you for some of his other books 4) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater -- Probably my second favorite of his 5) Slaughterhouse-Five -- I consider this one, his most famous, as overrated... Or maybe I just don't like how experimental he got with the narrative, or can't appreciate the author writing his life story into a novel. Still, this worth reading to see what the hype is about
Others I have liked: His short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House; Sirens of Titan, Bluebeard.
quote:Originally posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion:
quote:Originally posted by aiua: I've never read him, but your testimonials here are quite persuasive.
You HAVE to read Breakfast of Champions.
I strongly recommend you DO NOT read Breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse-Five first, unless you enjoy non-traditional narrative structure. They are worth reading though.
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Odd. I read SF first and that was what convinced me to read his other works, all of which I have enjoyed tremendously.
---
"I got so much, and most mud got so little. Thank you for the honor! Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep. What memories for mud to have!"
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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I read it first as well (as required summer reading in high school), but find that unless you have a tolerance for weird narrative form, you may ask what the fuss is all about. I read Cat's Cradle next, the next summer, I believe, and that novel was what really hooked me (obviously )
Ironically, when I first saw this thread it was adjacent to the thread "again" and as I was quickly scanning down the page I read "Kurt Vonnegut dies again". That seemed oddly like something I might have read in one of his novels.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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He got me into reading books, I never really read anything until a teacher had us read Mothernight and I loved it. So I read Welcome to the Monkey House and just didn't stop reading from there. I owe alot of my reading enjoyment to him.
Posts: 160 | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Sterling: I always kind've felt that if reincarnation was real, Samuel Clemmens came back as Kurt Vonnegut.
Damn. Spot on.
He's one of my very favorite writers. My top five:
Slaughterhouse-Five
Breakfast of Champions
Sirens of Titan
God Bless You, Mister Rosewater
Welcome to the Monkeyhouse
Cat's Cradle was the first of his books that I read. It's not among my favorites, but it was good enough to keep me reading his works. Player Piano was the only book of his I did not enjoy. I disagree with Bok's suggestion, because I don't think you tiptoe into Vonnegut; you dive on in. Reading the book that is least Vonnegut-like won't tell you anything about whether or not you enjoy Vonnegut.
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I really am getting old. I am of an age where one did not cast aside a person's strength of character because they smoked cigarettes.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Given Bok's username, I think it's safe to say he has a lot of admiration for Vonnegut regardless.
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Nonetheless, I still don't judge people's character by whether or not they smoke cigarettes, and I do think it is something that marks me as being from a different generation.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Icarus, I think some people drive in, and others take a walking tour. It's rather amazing how you can see his craft change/improve with every novel.
It's not so much that I care, but as the man himself said (and I paraphrase), "It's the classy way to commit suicide." He smoked a ton, knew it was bad for him, but was unrepentant. I don't think you can construe that as anything but a negative, if not the man himself, than in other's opinions. He probably didn't find anything wrong with separating from his wife, shacking up with a younger woman, but waiting almost a decade to finalize the divorce.
I just wanted to provide a little grounding, that's all. To do a mini-Speaking, as it were.
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Wow. Just ... wow. I've never actually felt loss at the death of a author before, but I really do right now. So many memories ... I remember first discussing Harrison Bergeron with my sister when she read it for ENC1102. I remember reading it when I took the class and writing my paper on dystopic literature, with an emphasis on Vonnegut. I remember being pissed off at "Slaughterhouse 5" and loving "Player Piano" to the extent that I still recommend it today (I'm with Bok on this one). "Welcome to the Monkey House" is the only book I've ever not given back to the library. It's sitting by my toilet right now. The look on my mom's face when I described to her the meaning of the title was priceless. And most recently, when I was staying in the psych ward at the hospital I picked up a raggedy copy of Breakfast of Champions next to the DSM-IV in the reading room. Someone had a delicious sense of irony.
Dang it, I'm sitting here getting kind of misty eyed over my memories of some old coot I've never met. *sigh*. For the record ...
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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This cheap shot obit really makes me mad and disgusted with Fox News and the reporter, James Rosen. It's the most disrespectful obit I have ever seen. Some highlights:
quote: continued in his [ ] despondent leftism "left-wing screeds and random musings" “rich and irrelevant,” a “sacred cow,” “sci-fi mumbo-jumbo,”
Ahh, but here's the big finish:
quote: Vonnegut, who attempted suicide a number of years ago, said he hoped his children wouldn't say of him when he was gone "He made wonderful jokes but he was such an unhappy man." So I'll say it for them.
quote:Wow. Just ... wow. I've never actually felt loss at the death of a author before, but I really do right now
I still routinely get choked up when I see a video of, or an interview with, Douglas Adams. And I still am routinely saddened by the fact that I will never be able to read a new work by the man.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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