Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dies At 84

At least twenty-two readers took the trouble to make sure we knew that Kurt Vonnegut has died at 84. From the Times obituary: "Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' 'Cat's Cradle' and 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan... Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz." Reader SPK adds: "He will be remembered not only as a great writer, but also as a staunch civil libertarian (long-term member of the ACLU) and as a 'mainstream/literary' author who integrated science fiction concepts into his writing. So it goes."

Re:Bokononist last rites

[Bill Wong]

God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn't have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait...
To find out for certain what my wampeter was...
And who was in my karass...
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.

from wikiquote

[stoolpigeon]

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC

        * Vonnegut's Blues For America 07 January, 2006 Sunday Herald

Re:Well

[jamie]

Anonymous cowards can be funny sometimes. By way of explanation, here's an excerpt from Vonnegut's book God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian:

I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of regards or punishments after I'm dead. My German-American ancestors, the earliest of whom settled in our Middle West about the time of our Civil War, called themselves "Freethinkers," which is the same sort of thing. My great grandfather Clemens Vonnegut wrote, for example, "If what Jesus said was good, what can it matter whether he was God or not?"

I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great, spectacularly prolific writer and scientist, Dr. Isaac Asimov in that essentially functionless capacity. At an A.H.A. memorial service for my predecessor I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." That was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. It rolled them in the aisles. Mirth! Several minutes had to pass before something resembling solemnity could be restored.

Re:Well

[sherpajohn]

'Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.' - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007)

Re:a little less love

[grub]

Heheheh, it's the favicon for his page [vonnegut.com]. :)

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's a reference to a passage from his most recent book:

I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, "Isaac is up in heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in heaven now." That's my favorite joke.

Kurt Vonnegut

Re: Where to start?

[enharmonix]

Slaughterhouse Five

Re: Where to start?

[Conesus]

Breakfast of Champions. He spells it out right there, and your conception of an asterisk will never be the same.

*

There, I drew it.

Re:Thanks for the good reads, Kurt

[drinkypoo]

Typically science fiction is not considered to be literature.

"writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays." ("literature." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 12 Apr. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/literature [reference.com]> .)

"Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value" ("literature." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 12 Apr. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/literature [reference.com]> .)

By my reading of the dictionary, the genre isn't significant. Or are you talking about what some isolated intellectuals with ivory towers up their asses told you the word meant?

Re: Where to start?

[DjMd]

Actually I think this is the worst book to start with (it has other charcters in it for starters...)
Plus Vonnegut himself gave it a C.
(from wikipedia)In Chapter 18 of his book Palm Sunday "The Sexual Revolution," Vonnegut grades his own works. He states that the grades "do not place me in literary history" and that he is comparing "myself with myself." The grades are as follows:
* Player Piano: B
* The Sirens of Titan: A
* Mother Night: A
* Cat's Cradle: A-plus
* God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A
* Slaughterhouse-Five: A-plus
* Welcome to the Monkey House: B-minus
* Happy Birthday, Wanda June: D
* Breakfast of Champions: C
* Slapstick: D
* Jailbird: A
* Palm Sunday: C

Slaughterhouse-Five or Cat's Cradle are both good first books.

stupid people should not be permitted to moderate

[drinkypoo]

If you want to call my comment flamebait, well, I can see the justification. But modding this a troll proves either that you are an idiot, or that you are deliberately abusing moderation to suppress my opinion. So Mr. moderator, are you an idiot, or an asshole who hates slashdot?