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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84
2007-04-12
"Hey! I really am dead! The smell is more than just my writing!"
NEW YORK (AP) -- Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people. "I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

More at link.
Posted by:gorb

#8  As a high schooler with pretensions of edgey intellectualism, I read quite a bit of Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle were very well-written, even if I didn't understand or agree with them completely. I tried to pretend to be impressed with Happy Birthday, Wanda June and Breakfast of Champions, but I realized they were mostly crapulent nonsense. I didn't want to read any more of his stuff after that (or even re-read what I had liked), and his more recent rantings certainly cemented that.

As for his talent, I think he was a bit like Hunter S. Thompson: when he was good in his early career, he was very good, but the years were not good to him.
Posted by: xbalanke   2007-04-12 21:24  

#7  I remember reading somewhere that Mr. Rivera had a Hispanic father and an Anglo mother, so that he went by with whichever name fit the situation.

As for Mr. Vonnegut, may he rest in peace, but I never did understand what so many saw in his writings.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-04-12 20:08  

#6  I think he suffered brain injuries a lot longer ago than a few weeks.
Posted by: Sonar   2007-04-12 18:57  

#5  Won't miss him. What kind of moron would define World War 2 based on the strategic bombing of Dresden? When he attacked one time son-in-law, Geraldo Rivera, for cheating on his daughter, he made Gerry Rivers look good. (And the "Gerry" monicker is not an urban legend; because the hitherto proud PR bean eater was proven to have proffered that broadcast name before he found salsa more profitable)
Posted by: Sneaze   2007-04-12 12:52  

#4  There were a couple of stories of his I liked: "EPICAC," about a computer that writes poetry, and "Harrison Bergernon," which is probably the first recorded literary attack on political correctness. I got to see him give a lecture on the structure of stories at Youngstown State in the late 1970s, and it was truly enjoyable. However, as time went on, he truly was coasting on his reputation, and on the fact that he eagerly parroted whatever was the conventional wisdom of the liberal elitist establishment at that particular moment.

Nevertheless, De mortuis nil nisi bonum. That was a good lecture you gave at YSU.
Posted by: Mike   2007-04-12 10:35  

#3  So it goes.
Posted by: Penguin   2007-04-12 10:00  

#2  ...I read Cat's Cradle, Player Piano and Slaughterhouse Five many years ago, and I still consider them masterpieces of satire and thought. The trouble is that after that, ol' Kurt was living on his rep and he could never get back up to the standard he set - that and is progressively more crippling moonbattery. Though it should be said in his defense that having Geraldo Rivera for a son in law (look it up) would crack anyone's personality.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2007-04-12 09:11  

#1  Who captured the absurditry of war for shutting down Auscwitz and end slavery.

Hre, fixed tyhe text for you.
Posted by: JFM   2007-04-12 08:31  

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