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Nov 11th. Most people think it's important because of Veteran's Day(in the United States). But no, it's important because it's the birthday of KURT VONNEGUT!  One of the greatest authors born in the United States. His career spanned 50 years and he published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He was deployed to Europe and fought in World War 2. During the Battle of the Bulge he was captured by the Nazis. He was a POW in Dresden and survived the Allied firebombing of the city by taking refuge in a meat locker. (The basement storage area of Slaughterhouse 5, hence the name of his most famous novel.) His writing crossed satire, black humor, and science fiction together. He died on April 11th 2007 after a fall. Use this thread to discuss all things related to Kurt and his writings. Slaughterhouse 5 posted:The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. So remember, Kurt's still around just in another time. Just like all our loved ones and friends that have died before us. What's your favorite Vonnegut book(s), goons? For me: It's a three way tie between Slaughterhouse 5, God Bless you Mr Rosewater, and Galapagos.
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Nov 12, 2015 00:50
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Timequake loving sucked
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Nov 12, 2015 01:00
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My name is Spalding. You've probably played with my balls.
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Nov 12, 2015 01:01
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breakfast of champions was always my favorite by him. who hasn't thought they were the only living craeture living among robots once or twice? its relatable which is the key to good literature imo
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Nov 12, 2015 01:05
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uoi2mUMd37M
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Nov 12, 2015 01:10
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Where i come from that means you're going to steal a mirror
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Nov 12, 2015 01:13
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Of the books I've read... Slaughterhouse 5 > Bluebeard > Cat's Cradle > Breakfast of Champions > Mother Night > Slapstick all great though
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Nov 12, 2015 01:18
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ol kurt vonnegut slipped off a ladder and bumped his head three weeks later ol kurt vonnegut fell down dead
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Nov 12, 2015 01:21
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Galapagos is best. Player Piano is perhaps most underrated. He really got sad and cranky in his old age. It worked in Bluebeard, it didn't work in Hocus Pocus. And Deadeye Dick is the only one I really didn't enjoy--it was joyless. Also I read Cat's Cradle recently and was disappointed in the cartoonish racism but he came around on that one I suppose.
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Nov 12, 2015 01:54
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 e: 
ghost host fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Nov 12, 2015 |
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Nov 12, 2015 02:06
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His brother invented cloud seeding and his son wrote a non fiction book about going crazy.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:09
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here is a link to a short story he wrote called "The Big Space gently caress"
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Nov 12, 2015 02:13
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I really liked Cat's Cradle when I read that as a kid, and also Breakfast of Champions Cat's Cradle was the first sci fi book I read with a real crazy hosed up ending
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Nov 12, 2015 02:13
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A famous writer best known for his mustache, his curly hair, and his old. Kurt Vonnegut was born to a wealthy family and then he grew up poor when the Great Depression and Prohibition wiped out the family's money. He was a pacifist who wrote an anti-war column in his college paper but he enlisted after being kicked out because he figured they'd draft him anyway. Personal accounts of him can't really agree if he was nice but sarcastic or if he was a cold rear end in a top hat.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:15
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Ah, Pynchon-lite.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:16
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That Fox News gave him the best requiem "having failed at suicide" reveals the tensegrity of his skeleton.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:24
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I've only read Slaughterhouse 5. That scene in which the guy watches the movie of the bombings in reverse is beautifully surreal and incredibly moving.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:48
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Freestyle posted:I've only read Slaughterhouse 5. That scene in which the guy watches the movie of the bombings in reverse is beautifully surreal and incredibly moving. Yes! That's one of my favorite scenes, makes me wish we had bomb and bullet vacuum planes. Flame sucking airplanes that removed fire from buildings in faraway lands and keep the little children of the people in the faraway land from combustion. It's a nice vision. Asclepius Hot Rod fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Nov 12, 2015 |
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Nov 12, 2015 03:05
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Came here to post that. That whole bit in the film was great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnAhSzb4gY
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Nov 12, 2015 03:29
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Slaughterhouse 5 yo
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Nov 12, 2015 03:36
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rip in peace dude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiVasR2Gzo
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Nov 12, 2015 03:38
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The aliens in slaughterhouse 5 remind me of The Doctor!
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Nov 12, 2015 03:40
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Happy birthday in Heaven KV, wishing you many enjoyable games of shuffleboard.
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Nov 12, 2015 04:26
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Why don't you take a flying gently caress at a rolling donut?
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Nov 12, 2015 04:27
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Asclepius Hot Rod posted:Yes! That's one of my favorite scenes, makes me wish we had bomb and bullet vacuum planes. Flame sucking airplanes that removed fire from buildings in faraway lands and keep the little children of the people in the faraway land from combustion. It's a nice vision. Reading that passage was pretty much the moment that I realized how incredible and profound a book could be. It's my literary version of the 'first high' that people keep chasing.
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Nov 12, 2015 04:45
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I don't like the phrase "so it goes" but I kinda like Kurty V
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Nov 12, 2015 05:05
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Slaughterhouse 5 is good and Timequake is.. okay so far. I really liked the premise of timequake but the execution is missing a little something something imo I like in the intro to time quake he's talking about how his dad and grandfather both retired at like 50 and 55, and died pretty shortly after, and old kurty is like, 70 something. And he's talking bout how old he'll be in 2001 or something (if he makes it there (he does) ) and how drat, his life between 80 and 50 is the entirety of mine  dude writes like he doesn't give a gently caress which is rad
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Nov 12, 2015 05:28
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the favorite author of people who don't read
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Nov 12, 2015 05:30
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Horniest Manticore posted:the favorite author of people who don't read lol If KV was alive today he would read this post and slowly shake his head in pain and go "drat..."
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Nov 12, 2015 05:57
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Welcome to the Monkey House > Cat's Cradle > Player Piano > Breakfast of Champions > Babogombo Snuffbox > Galapagos > Slapstick > Sirens of Titan > etc. etc. etc. Also, if you haven't done so, his collections of non-fiction writings are really great. E.g., Fates Worse Than Death; Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons. Honestly, one of my favorite authors. Fun note: my highschool AP literature teacher told me a story about how she had all of her students write letters to their favorite authors, and one student wrote to KV. His response: english teachers don't know what the hell they are talking about. My biggest regret in life: I started a letter to KV (inspired by my teacher's story), but never sent it. He died a few years later. The experience has inspired me to be more proactive in life, however.
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Nov 12, 2015 06:05
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cat's cradle crew 5ever galapagos #2
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Nov 12, 2015 06:13
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Horniest Manticore posted:the favorite author of people who don't read i too dislike incredibly influential and talented authors because people i dislike like them
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Nov 12, 2015 06:23
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Sheep-Goats posted:lol if he were still alive he wouldn't read it because it's on the internet and the internet was the devil in junior's estimation
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Nov 12, 2015 06:24
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Profondo Rosso posted:i too dislike incredibly influential and talented authors because people i dislike like them influential? yeah, probably. talented? lol harrison bergeron is a great troll on tumblr like 50 years ahead of its time though
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Nov 12, 2015 06:26
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someone doesn't have a birthdy after they're dead lmao
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Nov 12, 2015 06:39
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Your Dead Gay Son posted:Slaughterhouse 5 is good and Timequake is.. okay so far. timequake was boring and bad when i read it before reading most of his other stuff. it was much better when i had read most of it. you should read his non fiction as well, it is better than most of his fiction in my estimation, and timequake is a combination of fiction and non fiction; the voice of his non fiction informs it, and will make it make more sense. horny manticore isn't wrong, vonnegut hasn't aged very well and the majority of his work is bad (this is true of most sci fi writers, even the most influential); his short stories are consistently stronger than his novels, and his non fiction is mostly better than any of his fiction. but he does have something for everyone. you can probably find the book that is weird and bad but somehow speaks to you: mine is jailbird, about a dude who was put in the basement of the Nixon whitehouse because nobody liked him and still ended up in jail for 20 years after watergate. when he finally reenters the world he has nothing, no family, no friends, he is sad and old and totally at a loss. it was always my favorite. slaughterhouse-5 is the only genuinely literary book he wrote, probably by accident; but i don't think it's super likeable; mother night is thematically strong, but like most of his stuff, badly written. i have read everything he wrote before like 2005, and i can say that, in my opinion, his work is trash, but that doesn't mean you should avoid it. the truth is, i have read a ton of canonical sci fi, and feel basically the same way about all of it: mostly garbage, but still worthwhile if you're into genre fiction and looking for new ways of thinking (vonnegut and PKD are particularly good for this, though vonnegut is far far easier to read than PKD).
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Nov 12, 2015 06:45
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the barnhouse effect is a pretty rad story. there isanother one of people learning to float outside of their bodies, that one is good.
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Nov 12, 2015 06:47
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Horniest Manticore posted:the favorite author of people who don't read pretty sure that was always stephen king
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Nov 12, 2015 06:57
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Shasta Orange Soda posted:pretty sure that was always stephen king or chuck palahniuk
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Nov 12, 2015 06:57
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a friend of mine established a theory on chuck palahniuk and i have observed it to be largely true. it is: you read one cp book and like it; you read another and like it; you read a third and realize they are all the same book and stop liking all of them.
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Nov 12, 2015 07:18
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