On November 11 2011 15:25 Mtndrew wrote: I've always loved this video as a way to see what Vonnegut the person acted like. He was just as witty as when he wrote.
Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, Galapagos are my favorites. In fact I liked Bluebeard too (@Kimaker: you gotta appreciate the concept of a famous painter using paint that literally falls apart after some time ). Somehow Player Piano never struck home with me, so if anyone can shed on light on that one I'm interested
I like Vonnegut because of his clever post-modern use of the English language, and his ability to introduce strange new concepts that immediately appeal to the reader. I occasionally spot Karasses and Granfalloons in real life
On November 11 2011 16:16 _fool wrote: Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, Galapagos are my favorites. In fact I liked Bluebeard too (@Kimaker: you gotta appreciate the concept of a famous painter using paint that literally falls apart after some time ). Somehow Player Piano never struck home with me, so if anyone can shed on light on that one I'm interested
I like Vonnegut because of his clever post-modern use of the English language, and his ability to introduce strange new concepts that immediately appeal to the reader. I occasionally spot Karasses and Granfalloons in real life
Ha! Yeah, my wife loves Piano but she is into those style of anti-Utopian, 1984 novels. I think it is okay, just that he really had not found his voice yet at all. I used to have a band called Foma a long time ago...and I always notice things from Bokonism in real life. Don't forget about wrang-wrangs.
On November 11 2011 16:26 Lann555 wrote: Brilliant writer. Seldom found books that were so easy to read, yet had such enormous depth. Wish he was still around
On the death of Vonnegut: I was a huge Vonnegut fan for years before he passed. All my friends knew it and knew he was my hero.
I was at work one night when I get messages from a couple friends on my phone saying "Oh, sorry about Vonnegut" and "Sorry for your loss". I knew right then and there that he must have died...along with my dream of meeting him someday. Oh well. At least we have his body of work.
On November 11 2011 17:06 Omnipresent wrote: This Mural was just added to a building in downtown Indianapolis (off Massachusetts Ave. for anyone familiar with the area). + Show Spoiler +
I'd imagine he'll have feet soon
Yeah, this is epic. I was invited to the opening of the Memorial Library, but unfortunately I could not go (due to living far away and travel and all that) but I am making it a point to head out that way.
His father was an architect and designed many old buildings in the Indy area. I want to see that city.
sirens is one of my top 3 favorite books of all time. i still can't get over how the ending is so merciful despite the novel's frequent jabs at religion. kurt vonnegut blends the best of douglas adams and camus.
On November 11 2011 17:32 intrigue wrote: sirens is one of my top 3 favorite books of all time. i still can't get over how the ending is so merciful despite the novel's frequent jabs at religion. kurt vonnegut blends the best of douglas adams and camus.
Great summation. That is what I love, his brand of humanism which is based on mercy and forgiveness for the sake of mercy and forgiveness, for the futurist ideal that we still have good days for humanity ahead.
On November 11 2011 17:32 iNcontroL wrote: one of my favorite writers... LOVE HIMMMMMMMM
Woot! InControl in the Vonnegut house. =) Thanks for joining us brother.
My favourite novelist. I pretty much agree with the grades in the OP. Didn't really enjoy his 80s stuff that much but then he returned to form with Timequake, which is an absolutely hilarious, autobiographical novel.
So my recommendations are:
1) Slaughterhouse (almost life changing to me and many people I've talked to) 2) Timequake (so funny!) 3) Just work your way through OP's list if you are into those two
Also, if you are not a native speaker I would still recommend reading in english. His english isn't that hard to comprehend and much of his appeal comes from the way he uses the language.
I wear Vonnegut on my name tag at work. I seldom deal with any customers and I've been wearing it so long management doesn't question it. Every once in a while someone recognizes it.
My favorite excerpt, at least off the top of my head, which I think nails the simultaneous humor and depression that defined his writing.
A lot of the nonsense was the innocent result of playfulness on the part of the founding fathers of the nation of Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. The founders were aristocrats, and they wished to show off their useless education, which consisted of the study of hocuspocus from ancient times. They were bum poets as well.
But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crimes. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy:
1492
The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.
Here was another piece of evil nonsense which children were taught: that the sea pirates eventually created a government which became a beacon of freedom to human beings everywhere else. There were pictures and statues of this supposed imaginary beacon for children to see. It was sort of an ice-cream cone on fire.
Actually, the sea pirates who had the most to do with the creation of the new government owned human slaves. They used human beings for machinery, and, even after slavery was eliminated, because it was so embarrassing, they and their descendants continued to think of ordinary human beings as machines.
The sea pirates were white. The people who were already on the continent when the pirates arrived were copper-colored. When slavery was introduced onto the continent, the slaves were black. Color was everything.
Here is how the pirates were able to take whatever they wanted from anybody else: they had the best boats in the world, and they were meaner than anybody else, and they had gunpowder, which was a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur. They touched this seemingly listless powder with fire, and it turned violently into gas. This gas blew projectiles out of metal tubes at terrific velocities. The projectiles cut through meat and bone very easily; so the pirates could wreck the wiring or the bellows or the plumbing of a stubborn human being, even when he was far, far away.
The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was much too late, how heartless and greedy they were.
I've read everything of his except Jailbird and Player Piano. The quality varies a lot. I reread Sirens of Titan every couple of years, while his last five were largely crap with occasional glimmers of wit. Slaughterhouse is overrated but still good IMO.
If you're starting to read him, Sirens > Cat's Cradle > Breakfast of Champions > short stories (consistently great) > Mother Night > Slaughterhouse. The rest can be safely skipped.
On November 11 2011 17:55 defenestrate wrote: I've read everything of his except Jailbird and Player Piano. The quality varies a lot. I reread Sirens of Titan every couple of years, while his last five were largely crap with occasional glimmers of wit. Slaughterhouse is overrated but still good IMO.
If you're starting to read him, Sirens > Cat's Cradle > Breakfast of Champions > short stories (consistently great) > Mother Night > Slaughterhouse. The rest can be safely skipped.
While I disagree with your opinion, I do agree with the idea. There are some of the books and writings that can be skipped. Most notably that 75-85 period. Out of those books I feel Galapagos is a worthy read and Deadeye Dick is decent, but Slapstick and Jailbird can be easily be skipped and you are not missing much in the grand scheme of things.
His short stories are all good. I have not found one that I was disappointed in reading. I love "Next Door" and "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" a ton, and of course, the famous "Harrison Bergeron."
“And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes...
...this book is a failure. It had to be because it was written by a pillar of salt..."
I fell in love with Vonnegut after having Slaughterhouse 5 in a class, his style is delicious, kind of a more refined and subtle Douglas Adams. I love how his works are so layered, so complex in their delivery, while still being very accessible and never a chore to read. Definitely a top 5 author for me.
I read Slaughter House Five for Grade 11 English and after that I immediately got some of Vonnegut's other works. Sirens, Cats Cradle and Welcome to the Monkey House(collection of short stories). By far my favourite author. Glad to see some appreciation for his work!
Absolutely love slaughterhouse 5, haven't read any others but plan to . The opening chapter of slaughterhouse 5 with the 'pillar of salt' passage is probably the most amazing thing I've ever read.