The Neurotic Monkey's Guide to Survival

"These STILL aren't my pants!"

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut, Amazing Man and Personal Hero, dead at 84

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. has passed away. And so it goes.





I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is one of my personal heroes and true inspirations in my life. He told tales of morality, of lunacy, of passion, of life, of death, of heroic freaks and freakish heroes. His novels were daring and weird, bouncing between genres like ricochet bullets, dangerously blending the fantastic with the utterly mundane.

His science fiction tales were always rooted in the all too human characters, complete with foibles and flaws and funny expressions, that peppered his stories. They were funny and tragic without being caricatures. His words were simple, true and unafraid. He has informed more people with his silly stories than most people do with their solemn lectures. Here is a link to the NY Times article about his passing and his life.


What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

He was the author of many great works that will stand the test of time and forever be staples in the bookbags and shelves of clever, passionate people for generations to come. His novels include Player Piano, Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, Galapagos, The Sirens of Titan, Jailbird, Slapstick, Deadeye Dick, Timequake, Breakfast of Champions, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Bluebeard. He was also incredibly adept at the short story, where he got his start, creating such amazing stories as "Harrison Bergeron" and "All the King's Horses".

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

My favorite book of his was most not his best liked, but to me it was the simplest and truest rumination on war, education, the penal system, families, and America at large. Hocus Pocus tells the tale of Eugene Debs Hartke, a former Vietnam vet, college professor and resident at the new prison. Vonnegut uses his protagonist to muse on the realities of growing older but not necessarily wiser. Eugene contemplates his place in the world amidst the new faces of war and government in increasingly cynical times. His sexual liaisons equal the same amount of people he's killed, and we're talking more than just a few handfuls. He is a sad, tragic figure that manages to still be quite charming and funny and is even allowed a few profound statements throughout the novel. It may not be the best introduction to Vonnegut, but it is an amazing read that has resonated with me since I've read it.

When I moved to Cape Cod halfway through high school, one of the few things that perked me up in my new location was the fact that I wasn't too far from where Vonnegut used to live. It's a nerdy and completely meaningless fact as Vonnegut had already relocated to New York by then, but for some reason the fact that a great man with such a gift had walked the same quiet roads in the nothing towns that I lived in managed to make me think I could escape and my lowly status wouldn't preclude me from attempting to try and bask in the man's shadow.


Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.


Here is an eight part look at the man's work and life available on YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut. And so it goes, and so it goes...

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