Kurt Vonnegut RIP (1922 - 2007)

Living in the countryside of Northern California when I was about 12, going through some of the things my parents had stuffed into my large bedroom closet because their own large bedroom closet was stuffed to overflowing, I discovered a boxed set of 5 Vonnegut books from the 70s - my dad’s books. The covers were gaudy comic-book like things with lurid female imagery and so I asked my dad about them. His response was that they were “books for adults,” they had “complex themes,” and I “probably wouldn’t like them.” Of course that set my mind’s course upon immediately ripping through them all. I quickly tossed whatever Dragonlance novel I was reading at the time and read straight through “Slaughterhouse Five,” “Cat’s Cradle,” and “Breakfast of Champions.”

I like to believe that my dad was subtly challenging me, throwing that Vonnegut gauntlet down the way he did. He was right, to a large degree, about the fact I probably didn’t understand everything. I did, however, realize that Vonnegut was brilliant, funny, and challenging conventions; that there was something perplexingly human in the writing that I wanted badly to comprehend. While I’m uncertain how much influence this event had in putting me on a path where I’d eventually study literature, the fact that I can remember it so clearly is probably a sign that it was important.

Godspeed Mr. Vonnegut! May the Sirens of Titan sing your name and may you have a Breakfast of Champions every morning. If I might make one request, please keep Ice 9 from falling under the control of certain ne’er-do-wells (present administration, of course, most of all).

Related Links:

• Greg O’Byrne’s earlier TPN post: Kurt Vonnegut - How to Write with Style
• Technorati Search: Kurt Vonnegut
• Library Journal: April 15, 1973 - An Interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.