Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007
Written byPosted on April 12, 2007
Filed Under Obits
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.
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Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. The famed writers behind Smart Bitches, Trashy Books have written a very funny and thoughtful volume about romances, both Old Skool and New Skool. Here is a book that any smug and humorless literary manboy beating his flabby passive chest over Banville or Bolano should probably read pronto, if only for the distant possibility that he might get over himself. While the Choose Your Own Adventure segment at the end caused me to have a very disturbing dream involving Shelley Long (don't ask), Sarah and Candy did have me rethinking many of my own misperceptions when I wasn't busy laughing. They're not afraid to take on the New York Times Bok Review or even the groupthink within certain sectors of the romance community.
Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep. This wild and highly enjoyable narrative involves two sisters (presumably, the third one was still being rented out by Chekhov), a hippie ex-junkie mother who lives with seventeen dogs, a murder, gambling, and libidinous Hollywood actresses who live in Woodstock. But this is the wonderful Maggie Estep we're talking here. And what seems at first like a quirky yarn becomes something unexpectedly moving about connectivity. What I love about Estep's work is the way that she'll juxtapose an extremely astute observation (now that you mention it, why do cab drivers always have somebody to talk with on the phone past midnight?) with an often outrageous story development.
Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
Pieces for the Left Hand by J. Robert Lennon. Lennon is one of the most underrated fiction writers working today. Much as On the Night Plain proved that Lennon had a lot more in the toolbox than heartfelt (and often very funny) suburban satire, this slim but fascinating volume juxtaposes 100 small-town anecdotes -- arranged by category -- in a manner that reads, at times, like Nicholson Baker's passions for minutiae and, at other times, Stewart O'Nan's concern for psychological detail. The result is fiction that makes us wonder about whether one person's subjective view of particulars can entirely be trusted. This book never found a publisher in 2005. But thankfully, Graywolf has released it in the United States, along with Lennon's latest novel, The Castle.
Wonderful World by Javier Calvo. This wonderfully raucous volume has been completely ignored by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. But it's probably one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had this year. Calvo cavalierly mashes up multiple genres and manages to mix up familial subtext with larger-than-life, almost cartoonish characters. (Indeed, one might argue that one mobster's penis is a character of its own in this sprawling novel.). This is not an easy thing to pull off, but Calvo makes it work. And it's helped immeasurably by Mara Faye Lethem's idiom-specific translation. (See longer post.)
The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (See also podcast interview with Goldberg.)
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
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