Comments on: Attention authors: please stop dying

By: Edward

Edward — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 13:45:36 +0000

I was on vacation in Washington DC, relaxing and reading Breakfast of Champions, when my mom handed me the obituaries – Kurt Vonnegut had died. What an awesomely strange guy! I hope the next generation find Vonnegut as refreshing as I did.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 22:12:21 +0000

By: Thursday

Thursday — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 00:39:09 +0000

J Carson -

Beat me to it, curse you!

Him and Issac. And, I suppose, Johnny…

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:54:08 +0000

I’ll never forget his discussion of, and rendition of, an a*hole in his introduction to Cat’s Cradle. This was my introduction to his sense of humor in a dark world combined with his stellar story-telling ability. My favorite author of all time.

By: Bill T.

Bill T. — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:58:42 +0000

So it goes.

Player Piano is still one of my favorite books.

By: J Carson

J Carson — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:49:48 +0000

Goodbye to Kurt Vonnegut.
He is in Heaven now.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:14:56 +0000

Being an English major, I’m embarassed to say this, but until about a month ago I was not familiar with Vonnegut’s work. The Special Collections at my school’s library has a fairly large holding on him in their manuscript collection and had a bunch of them on display last year, which admittedly did not pay much attention to.

I work at said Special Collections (nerd heaven) and was asked to photocopy a bunch of his letters for an author writing a biography. I thought he was hilarious. In one letter, he wrote about going on vacation and not getting laid. Plus, there were some copies of contracts and reviews and various things, and that was just nifty to look at. Seemed like a phenomenal guy.

By: Buzz

Buzz — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:38:06 +0000

The name of the movie was called “Back to Class” which starred Rodney Dangerfield. The pretense was that Dangerfield was a very wealthy entrepreneur who ‘helps’ his son in College. At one point, Vonnegut is hired to help out with a Literature paper. It wasn’t appreciated, but I would have loved it.

By: Higgins

Higgins — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:23:32 +0000

I was also sad to hear Vonnegut’s death — I saw him on a roundtable (including Heller) at FSU about ten years ago. I asked him if he were starting out, would he write for the movies? His response was, more or less: “If I wanted to make a living I would.”

And one nitpick — Kilgore Trout was apparently based on the sci-fi short story author Theodore Sturgeon, and I think his status as an alter-ego came later, as Vonnegut himself became more like Sturgeon (though a heck of a lot more successful). Sturgeon is a great writer as well — I’ve been working my way through his (many) short story collections.

By: Memory470

Memory470 — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:05:25 +0000

I discovered Kurt Vonnegut at the age of 10 (more years ago than I care to count) when I first read Harrison Bergeron in the Welcome to the Monkey House anthology of short stories. I immediately felt less alone, less odd, less different and I fell in love with the man responsible for those wonderful words. I suppose I’ve been in love with him ever since, this person I’ve never met who knew me so well.

Vonnegut’s eloquence, both on the written page and through the spoken word, have always provided a spark of rationalism and a humanitarian point of view that is so lacking in today’s world. I will truly miss his sense of humor, biting satire, and pointed criticism. I disagree with the writer who claimed Vonnegut’s work was too dark and down; his words merely served to shed light upon and bring sense to a dark world.

Humanists unite! And thank God that we shared the planet with such a unique being. Good night Mr. Rosewater.

And so it goes…