RIP Kurt Vonnegut
Devoured his books as a teenager, and believed a lot of the things he did, morality cartoonized and detached from reality, apparently thanks to Dresden and other personal traumas. But he had been there and done that, and in any case his books were entertaining, with a keen sense of irony. NYT here, includes this on the defining moment of his life:
“The firebombing of Dresden,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote, “was a work of art.”
Vonnegut, a witness and survivor, understood terrible beauty, although he rejected the premise that Germany needed to be leveled to prevent a recurrence, as Churchill and FDR did. If anything that strategy was overly successful, as in the wake of the slaughter of millions upon millions in the 20th century thanks to Germany, you can find Germans today who think they invented peace, every bit as obnoxious and self-righteous as peaceniks as their forebears were as warmongers.
And yes, for those who think we now live in an age of warmongers and that we are them, I’d suggest you review your history.
Links:
I thought I was being rough. Here’s Powerline:
Back in the day when I took my lessons in political thought from John Lennon, Kurt Vonnegut was one of my favorite writers … From an adult perspective, one can see that the novels are full of cheap irony, insufferable sentimentality, paper thin characters, and forgettable plots.
Pam at The Democratic Daily hasn’t managed to disgorge hook, line or sinker. “He made us think.” Yeah, but some of us haven’t stopped.
Here’s a guy at Huffpo who actually states Vonnegut “hated sentimentality.” I don’t know what book he was reading.
Topics: literary
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:47 am on Thursday, April 12, 2007
10 Responses to “RIP Kurt Vonnegut”
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April 12th, 2007 at 10:34 am
“During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice.”
- Kurt Vonnegut
April 12th, 2007 at 10:46 am
When I got home from the Second World War, my Uncle Dan clapped me on the back, and he said, “You’re a man now.” So I killed him. Not really, but I certainly felt like doing it.
Dan, that was my bad uncle, who said a man can’t be a man unless he’d gone to war.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Wasn’t aware that Vonnegut served in Vietnam or that you were alive during World War II. You look … uh … not that old for your age.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I thought he did a pretty good job with Fahrenheit 451. But then I remembered that was Bradbury.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:22 am
“I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been.
What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka ‘Christians,’ and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities.”
April 12th, 2007 at 11:33 am
“I ask him whether he worries that cigarettes are killing him. “Oh, yes,” he answers, in what is clearly a set-piece gag. “I’ve been smoking Pall Mall unfiltered cigarettes since I was twelve or fourteen. So I’m going to sue the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, who manufactured them. And do you know why?” “Lung cancer?” I offer.
“No. No. Because I’m eighty-three years old. The lying bastards! On the package Brown & Williamson promised to kill me. Instead, their cigarettes didn’t work. Now I’m forced to suffer leaders with names like Bush and Dick and, up until recently, ‘Colon.’”….”
April 12th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Corndog is quoting from Vonnegut’s completely forgetable last work, a pathetic screed which I imagine he wrote by randomly throwing words at paper.
I was a big fan of his once (over at Tim’s it was surprising how many RWDBs were), but like the guys at Powerline I got over it (unsurprisingly it was about the same time I got my first job).
April 12th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Vonnegut’s talent (and soul, I think) died in the early 70’s, although one could argue that his talent wasn’t all that great in the first place. He was certainly scarred from WWII, and I once gave him the benefit of the doubt. But since the 1970’s, he became a victim of his own thinking, and turned into a bitter, hateful old man.
I don’t wish ill upon him, but I hope that Vonnegut is being asked some searching questions by Someone right now.
April 12th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Never cared for Vonnegut. Actually, never cared that much about Vonnegut.
April 13th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Actually, he was pretty darn funny in “Back To School”, the Rodney Dangerfield movie.