| Author |
Message |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 - 9:34 am: | |
Mr. Kurt - he dead:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2007/04/12/AR2007041200062.html |
arturo
Username: arturo
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 - 9:28 pm: | |
A couple of months ago I read A man without a Country when it came out in paperback. Sligth but the razor wit was still there. He said that Bush saw God and quit drinking other drunks see pink elephants but we donīt put them in charge of countries.
He will be missed. |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 15, 2007 - 5:32 pm: | |
And so it goes.
I was quite sad when I read the news. I have some very fond memories of reading his books during formative years. I was even in a band in high school that wrote a song called Ice 9.
Did you guys read his self-written epitaph: "...if I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: 'The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.'" |
arturo
Username: arturo
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 2:59 pm: | |
Yes. It is in his last book and it is somewhat missleading: it points out his love of music not his belief in God.
He tells how he said in Isaac Asimov memorial service " Isacc watches us now from heaven" and that had the mostly humanist audience in stiches. |
al
Username: al
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 3:07 pm: | |
Hmm, didn't know his work too well. I read 'Sirens of Titan' while off my box in Essaouira, which seemed very right somehow. I too was only coinciding with the earth every so often.
Oh and - yo Dave! Back to virtual engagement again, alas... how's the whole band situation coming along? |
mjp
Username: mjp
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 3:54 pm: | |
>>> had the mostly humanist audience in stitches.
Very funny. I tend to find Vonnegut a bit dry but that makes me like him. Perhaps like Asimov he is an acquired taste, worth persisting with. |
arturo
Username: arturo
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 6:10 pm: | |
Hi MJP
I used to love his early work. I re-read a lot of it a few months ago and some of it no longer did it for me, it felt contrived, but Slaugtherhouse 5 is still very powerful,highly recomended and a good place to start. |
al
Username: al
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 9:19 am: | |
Hmm, yes, Slaughterhouse 5 kept me going through an insane job at a collapsing fringe venue. As it went bust, Chinese acrobats abusing us, Brazilian fringe companies building unnameable papiere mache sets through entire suites of rooms (that were meant to be the bar), Australian graffiti stand ups stealing cycles regularly, African witch doctors cursing us, etc, I kept myself going by saying 'So it goes' to myself every five minutes and hoping for the best. |
iotar
Username: iotar
Registered: 6-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 9:28 am: | |
Enjoyed Vonnegut as a teenager, and kept reading him until a few years back until his books started to get very samey.
My sociology teacher at college looked like him. Failed sociology. Twice. |
arturo
Username: arturo
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 10:13 am: | |
Al, that sounds like a story worth telling. The basis of a one-man show even. |
al
Username: al
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 1:21 pm: | |
Yup, I could take it back to Edinburgh, perform it in a failing venue, and begin an infinite feedback loop of some description! |