I’m profoundly saddened to hear that Kurt Vonnegut died today. He was 84.
He had a huge impact in my life, long before I knew who he was. I was attending a science fiction convention in high school, and found that the best part of the con were the movie showings. I watched one bad scifi flick after another (making fun of it was part of the fun)… and then one would pop up that was really good, and we were all surprised. I came in the middle of one such movie, and it was all wonky. Stuff would happen, and in the next scene more stuff would happen that didn’t make any sense, like the editor of the movie was high and edited the scenes together out of order. A woman has a serious car crash, then in the next scene you see her husband giving her the car as a present. I was getting seriously confused, when somebody finally put me out my misery: I was watching "Slaughterhouse-Five", they told me, made from the novel by Vonnegut.
It has a time travel theme, but is not really a time travel story. In it, Vonnegut says that time exists all at once, like a river exists all at once, even though water flows through it. We perceive time as flowing because we are limited in our three dimensions, like someone standing on the bank of the river and sees only the little bit of water flowing past. If we could break free of our limited perceptions, then we would see that something that exists at some point in time always exists, and always has existed, and always will.
That was a deeply profound concept to a naive 15 year old used to reading rocket ship stories. I wound up reading quite a few of this weird guy’s novels. Cat’s Cradle is amazing, and Sirens of Titan takes the concept of the permanence of time to an extreme but logical conclusion. I heartily recommend it.
I had the very distinct pleasure of hearing him speak back in grad school, when he came to UVa for a lecture. My girlfriend (the proto-Mrs. BA) and I laughed ourselves silly listening to him speak. He told a rambling tale of typing up a manuscript on a typewriter, bundling it up into a package to send to his editor, walking to the post office, meeting a wonderfully beautiful woman there with a gem in her nose, and chatting with her as he sent the package (there was quite a bit more detail to his story). There seemed no point to his tale, but then just as he finished it we all realized the point wasn’t the story itself, but the things he saw, the people with whom he interacted along the way. Then he punctuated this by saying, in his typically pithy way, "Life is farting around."
Life isn’t all farting around, but what I brought home from his talk is that sometimes you have to take your eyes off the goal and notice what’s happening all around you. The story of life may be profound, or dramatic, or deep, but the details are what give it flavor. You need to take a moment to taste them.
84 years is a pretty good run for a curmudgeonly cynic who loved life and its quirky weirdness so much. But then, he always existed, and always did, and always will.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
This is a sad day.
We can take some consolation in the fact that KV lived longer than he should have. 84 years is a good age, especially for someone who survived WWII and manic-depression.
I miss Douglas Adams, because he had so much more to give when he died, but I think KV gave us his best and over a period of many many years.
Reading KV changed how I view the world. It also made me appreciate the power of a giant imagination.
One of KV’s trademarks was composing epitaphs for various people:
“Everything is beautiful and nothing hurt”
But, for us, his epitaph will surely be
“So it goes”
April 11th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
“We’re here to fart around and don’t let anyone tell you any different”
Beautiful.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
He smiled at me in a restaurant in NYC. I think the place was “Grass”. I being young and not knowing any better, went up to talk to him. Also being young and not knowing,, you know the song, I told him I wanted to write. He told me the best advice he ever got was write everything down, then go through it and everything that doesn’t establish character, set mood, advance the plot, or get a laugh, cut out.
Yes, and so it goes.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I dunno,
“Kurt Vonnegut, farted around 1922-2007″ sounds like not a bad epitaph either.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
One of the funniest things he ever did was a cameo in Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School” where he played himself.
I, too, found “Slaughterhouse 5″ to be life-changing, both the book and the film (plus giving me a life-long crush on Valerie Perrine…).
BTW, I want to add my congratulations to your decision (the previous entry got too stuffed with posts). I got tired of getting LOW (lack of work) layoffs every couple of years, so in 1986 I decided to become a contract engineer. It hasn’t been easy, but it does give you the flexibility needed for writing.
- Jack
April 12th, 2007 at 12:17 am
This is ugly, but it bothers me that Slaughterhouse 5 relied in part on holocaust-denier David Irving’s work on the bombing of Dresden. I wish KV had issued a correction in later editions.
I love, love that novel. I’m just uneasy with that one bit.
And, oh dear, let’s forget the recent radio interview where KV expressed support for learning about creationism in schools.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:55 am
It was my late hip father, 25 years my senior who introduced me to Kurt Vonnegut’s writing. Dad pointed out that there were a lot of things in Slaughterhouse 5 that were akin to his own weird war experiences. Vonnegut was one of the bright lights in American literature.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Hey folks. I’m preparing a short video clip to show in my high school Physics class (I’m the teacher) and I’d really like a few sound clips of mike chatter during the prelaunch sequence, especially from about T-20 seconds. I’ve looked through the NASA site and through Google-MP3 and can’t really find anything. Can anyone help me out?
April 12th, 2007 at 2:05 am
To Crux Australis: I don’t know how you record it, but try here:
http://spacesounds.com/missions/index.html
April 12th, 2007 at 4:54 am
I liked several of his books, but I didn’t like Sirens of Titan. I don’t really know why, I just couldn’t get into the story.
I thought Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions were excellent. Never read Slaughterhouse 5 or Cat’s cradle
He was indeed an odd writer IMHO
Pete
April 12th, 2007 at 5:07 am
Back in the early ’80s, there were films shown every night in the bigger lecture halls all over campus at The University of Michigan. It was at one such showing that I discovered Slaughterhouse Five. I had never seen such a film! I made a point to see it frequently at subsequent campus showings. I think the campus cinema died out with the increasing popularity of VHS and DVD. And that’s too bad. Few experiences could match seeing The Shining in Angell C surrounded by appropriately enthusiastic college students. You can’t get that kind of audience participation in the comfort of your living room.
Something about Pulp Fiction tells me Quentin Tarantino liked Slaughterhouse Five, too.
April 12th, 2007 at 6:27 am
Everything Was Beautiful…
. . . and nothing hurt.
I do feel that evolution is being controlled by some sort of divine engineer. I can’t help thinking that. And this engineer knows exactly what he or she is doing and why, and where evolution is headed. That’s why we&…
April 12th, 2007 at 7:09 am
I heard this last night. Sad. We lost a great one. His books were very good. But I saw one of his lectures once at Williams College a couple of years ago. In person he was …. the most hilarious lecture I have ever seen. It was informative and substantive, but better than the best standup commic I had ever seen. I left with my ribs hurting from laughing. But he had much to say that was very stimulating as well.
oh wait… er… actually it was the second most hilarious lecture I have ever seen… after Phill’s at the Amazing Meeting. They can’t delete these posts can they?
April 12th, 2007 at 7:13 am
as wonderful as his novels are, i’ve read some amazing essays by KV over the last several years. here’s one of my favorite polemics, published in 2004:
http://www.ohkeepa.net/~amandab/politics.html#vonnegut
April 12th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Dang it, the trackback cut off the punchline of the Vonnegut quote I used to start my post.
Oh, these perfidious machines. . . .
April 12th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Wow, I had no idea he was that popular. His death has been noted across the blogosphere and the news media. Apparently there’s still some hope left.
I’ve read only the Sirens of Titan. Time to fix that oversight…
April 12th, 2007 at 9:21 am
There was a great version of Mother Night done about 10 years ago with Nick Nolte as Howard Campbell. A fantastic movie that doesn’t seem to have gotten much notice at all. Which is just too bad.
April 12th, 2007 at 9:47 am
I first read Vonnegut at 21….thus started my road to being a skeptic.
I have Kurt to thank as much as anyone for my journey to becoming a skeptical atheistic humanist. Even more so, I have Kurt to thank for enjoying life and laughter.
We’ll miss him, but we can always re-read him. I think he would have liked that.
April 12th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Re: Burnham
You are aware, are you not, that Vonnegut was in Dresden at the time of the bombing, in an underground bunker?
I don’t know what details you’re referring to that allegedly came from a Holocaust denier (keep in mind that even a broken clock is right twice a day), but what he writes about that happened afterword on the ground came from his own experience.
April 12th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Thanny, do a search for ‘David Irving’ and ‘Kurt Vonnegut’.
And I agree with the rest of what you wrote.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
[...] blog posts on Vonnegut’s passing then I could possibly link to, but here’s a few links: Bad Astronomy, Pandagon, Chris Abraham has but together a brief biography, Because I Say So, Critical Mass, Lisa [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
A very sad day.
He wrote his own epitath many times, but I always liked this one, from Man Without A Country:
“I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, “Isaac is up in heaven now.” It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, “Kurt is up in heaven now.” That’s my favorite joke.”
And so, Kurt is up in heaven now.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
[...] of the hat to the Bad Astronomer for the [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Oh a sleeping drunkard Up in Central Park
Or the lion hunter In the jungle dark
Or the Chinese dentist Or the British Queen
They all fit together In the same machine
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
Oh a whirling dervish And a dancing bear
Or a Ginger Rogers and a Fred Astaire
Or a teenage rocker Or the girls in France
Yes, we all are partners in this cosmic dance
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
I wanted all things to make sense
So we’d be happy instead of tense
Oh a sleeping drunkard Up in Central Park
Or the lion hunter In the jungle dark
Or the Chinese dentist Or the British Queen
They all fit together In the same machine
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
So many people in the same device
Kilgore Trout, you will be missed…….
April 13th, 2007 at 6:18 am
great post.
thought you might like this short video tribute to Vonnegut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9QvC9vE9uI
more info @ http://www.thehermitwithdavisfleetwood.com
April 13th, 2007 at 6:31 am
“Same as it ever was.”
Talking Heads
April 13th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
So it goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atABhlMLYvU
April 15th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
For more on Kurt Vonnegut’s battle with depression, visit http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/kurt-vonnegut.html.
Leaders from the mental health community pay tribute to Vonnegut, and discuss the profound social impact of Kurt Vonnegut’s writing and the significance of public figures opening up about depression.