Farewell, Mr. Vonnegut
As has been noted practically everywhere else in the blogosphere, Kurt Vonnegut passed away yesterday.
I always had a strange relationship to his work. I read Slaughterhouse-Five when I was in middle school - too young to understand a lot of what he was writing about, and young enough to be utterly embarrassed by the drawings (especially the asshole.) I read everything else by Vonnegut that I could get my hands on, missing most of the points, but feeling oh so mighty and sophisticated.
As a college student, I could identify with the depressed Vonnegut - I was captivated by his clinical discussion of his thoughts and feelings, his philosophy of death.
As a writer, I was always stunned by the number of "throw-away" ideas that Vonnegut tossed into his stories. In any one of his novels, there are at least a half-dozen paragraphs of characters' thoughts (or dreams, or stories, written by his author characters) that are described and tossed away, without further comment. The fertility of his imagination intimidated me.
The story that has always stuck with me the strongest (longest? closest? whatever) is one about a future society that wants everyone to be equal, and so it hobbles anyone who excels. The image I've kept forever is ballet dancers plying their trade with blocks of cement strapped to their feet. I think it's from Welcome to the Monkey House, but I'm not at all certain.
Farewell, Mr. Vonnegut.
Mindy, contemplating some re-reading
I always had a strange relationship to his work. I read Slaughterhouse-Five when I was in middle school - too young to understand a lot of what he was writing about, and young enough to be utterly embarrassed by the drawings (especially the asshole.) I read everything else by Vonnegut that I could get my hands on, missing most of the points, but feeling oh so mighty and sophisticated.
As a college student, I could identify with the depressed Vonnegut - I was captivated by his clinical discussion of his thoughts and feelings, his philosophy of death.
As a writer, I was always stunned by the number of "throw-away" ideas that Vonnegut tossed into his stories. In any one of his novels, there are at least a half-dozen paragraphs of characters' thoughts (or dreams, or stories, written by his author characters) that are described and tossed away, without further comment. The fertility of his imagination intimidated me.
The story that has always stuck with me the strongest (longest? closest? whatever) is one about a future society that wants everyone to be equal, and so it hobbles anyone who excels. The image I've kept forever is ballet dancers plying their trade with blocks of cement strapped to their feet. I think it's from Welcome to the Monkey House, but I'm not at all certain.
Farewell, Mr. Vonnegut.
Mindy, contemplating some re-reading
That story has stuck with me, too. It's a testament to the power of speculative fiction.
Harrison Bergeron
(Anonymous)
Re: Harrison Bergeron
Stacie
raspberry-latte.blogspot.com
(Anonymous)
Welcome to the Monkey House?
Hey, this is Leslie Kepley. Remember me? I was going through very old emails and found one with a link for you that still works. I sure hope you are doing well. I felt compelled to write in response to your entry about Vonnegut. First, I hadn't heard that he died. Surprise. Too busy with craziness to pay attention to the bigger world. But mostly, I can't believe you mentioned the story that has always stuck with you, where everyone is equally crippled - I am absolutely haunted by that concept/story. I clearly remember watching a show on PBS as a kid (I was 11 or 12 so it was '71-'72) based on that story and I always wanted to know what it was. I will have to look up Welcome to the Monkey House.
I think about you often! I know you got married - have you had any kids? Mine are 15 (eek!) (Emma) and 10 (Jack). I'm at Marriott working (posing) as an IP paralegal. It's fun and I love my bosses but it's way too much work. (We have an opening if you know of any good IP paralegals.)
I've read a few of your Glasswrights books. They are awesome! I am so proud of you!
If you answer me back, would you respond to my email account cause I don't know how I got here and how I would get back. It's leslie.kepley@marriott.com (or lkepley@comcast.net but I don't check that very often).