RESOURCES:
- Vonnegut Web
- How Kurt Vonnegut Changed Our Lives.
- Maud Newton’s thoughts and previous entries.
- alt.books.kurt-vonnegut FAQ.
- Kurt Vonnegut timeline.
INTERVIEWS:
- Don Swaim’s 1981 interview with Vonnegut.
- The first of many parts of a Vonnegut documentary posted on YouTube.
- Jon Stewart interview.
- NPR interview: Kurt Vonnegut Judges Modern Society.
- The Kurt Vonnegut Audio Library.
- 2003 interview with Douglas Brinkley.
- 1999 interview with Salon’s Frank Houston.
- Vonnegut plays chess with Andrew Leonard.
- 2005 appearance on Nova.
- Paris Review (1977, excerpt featuring manuscript page).
- McSweeney’s interview.
WRITINGS:
- “Harrison Bergeron.”
- Excerpt from Slaughterhouse-Five.
- Excerpt from Mother Night.
- Excerpt from A Man Without a Country.
- A good chunk of Man.
- God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian.
- “To Be a Native Mid-Westerner.”
- Vonnegut’s contributions to the New York Review of Books.
- In These Times: “But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.”
- Eight rules for writing fiction.
- Vonnegut on telling a story.
- More reviews penned by Vonnegut.
- “Smile, America. You’re on Candid Camera.”
- Vonnegut on science fiction (Playboy, 1973)
- Vonnegut’s 1998 blueprint for the American Dream.
RECEPTIONS:
- Contrary to popular belief, Vonnegut did not offer a commencement speech involving sunscreen.
- Justin Hall.
- Terry Southern’s 1963 review of Cat’s Cradle.
- Bad enough that Christopher Lehman-Haupt was so wrong about David Markson, but he was equally confused about Vonnegut. And not just once.
- John Leonard on Vonnegut (1979).
- Lorrie Moore on Vonnegut (1985).
- Jay McInerney (!) on Vonnegut (1990).
- Kurt Vonnegut and the No Asshole Rule.
- The Critical Response to Kurt Vonnegut.
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
Thanks for the links, Ed. I’ll be weeping on and off throughout the day.
Thanks for the links, Ed. This is my reading for the day.
Nice roundup of links, thanks. You can think he’s a great writer and nice guy even if you think his politics were “sour owl poop.”
You may also enjoy this tribute video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atABhlMLYvU
Mr. Vonnegut will be missed but his words will live on at least a little bit longer.
My tribute to Mr. Vonnegut – http://www.wordsareimportant.com/kurtvonnegut.htm
The Wampeter of our Karass is in heaven.
peace
Gear up for grub with a tripleheader of pigskin, including a meeting of brothers in Dallas. Everybody knows it’s been a rough year for her, but find out who else had issues