Kurt Vonnegut - A full life lived
On Wednesday 11 April 2007, author Kurt Vonnegut died at the age of 84, following severe brain injuries sustained after a fall several weeks earlier.
Vonnegut was the author of cult classic novels Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions.
Kurt Vonnegut was one of the great barometers of our times. He was prepared to look at what others refused to see, he wrote about the things we all needed to know - using fiction, fantastical sci-fi, aliens, time travel, to lure us in - and he made sure the world had a chance to find out about issues that were important. Until Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five, the bombing of Dresden was relatively unknown and not talked about.
Kurt Vonnegut will be remembered for making us think.
Kurt Vonnegut caricature copyright © Elsa Neal
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indiana on 11 November 1922. He fought in World War 2 in the U.S. 106th Infantry Division, and was captured by German soldiers on 14 December 1944.Vonnegut was being held as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, when the beautiful city was bombed. As one of the few surviving prisoners, Vonnegut was forced to gather the corpses for burial, but eventually the Nazis chose to set fire to the bodies with flamethrowers instead. The building where Vonnegut was being held, and which later became the scene of corpses reduced to ashes, was a meat packing house called "Slaughterhouse Five", and this later became the title for Vonnegut's 1969 novel.
Vonnegut was rescued in May 1945, and awarded a Purple Heart on his return to the US.
Kurt Vonnegut, photographer unknown, source.
Marriage and family
Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox when he returned from the war. They were divorced in 1979, and Vonnegut married photographer Jill Krementz.
With Jane, Kurt Vonnegut had three children, and adopted four (his sister, Alice's, three children, and an unrelated child).
With Jane, Kurt Vonnegut had three children, and adopted four (his sister, Alice's, three children, and an unrelated child).
Vonnegut, on telling his wife he's going to buy an envelope...
Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that.
Kurt Vonnegut interviewed by David Brancaccio, NOW (PBS) (7 October 2005)
Kurt Vonnegut interviewed by David Brancaccio, NOW (PBS) (7 October 2005)
- Official website of Kurt Vonnegut
- The official website of Kurt Vonnegut. Pause for a bit. There's only one page to look at now, featuring an empty bird cage, the gate ajar, that says all that needs to be said. Release. The End. No more.
- The Vonnegut Web
- Kurt Vonnegut's writings, speeches, FAQ, and biography.
- Knowing what's nice
- A collection of witticisms that Vonnegut has said while addressing students.
"It must be kind of spooky to be a student or teacher in a university as great as this one, with its libraries and laboratories and lecture halls, while knowing it is within the borders of a nation where wisdom, reason, knowledge and truth no longer apply." - Verbotomy - Vonnegut week
- To celebrate Kurt Vonnegut's lifetime of creativity and unmatched comic genius, all Verbotomy definitions, for the week of April 16-22, will be based on invented words he created. Top player of the week will win a 1968 Hardcover Edition of Cat's Cradle. The kick-off definition for Vonnegut week is: "A harmless untruth, intended to comfort simple souls".
Slaughterhouse-Five
Using his horrific experiences during the bombing of Dresden, when Vonnegut was held as a prisoner of war in a building called "Slaughterhouse Five", this novel uses time travel and aliens to fictionalise a series of random events that combine to illustrate the humanist themes that Vonnegut wanted to portray.
After an encounter with aliens, Billy Pilgrim, prisoner of war and witness to the Dresden bombing, gains the aliens' ability to experience all moments of his life - past, present, and future - at once, meaning that he knows when he will die and how.
This has been a contraversial novel in the past due to blasphemy, swearing, and sexually explicit content not previously common in such literature. In some areas it has been banned, and even burned.
After an encounter with aliens, Billy Pilgrim, prisoner of war and witness to the Dresden bombing, gains the aliens' ability to experience all moments of his life - past, present, and future - at once, meaning that he knows when he will die and how.
This has been a contraversial novel in the past due to blasphemy, swearing, and sexually explicit content not previously common in such literature. In some areas it has been banned, and even burned.
Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 01/01/2010) 
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
The irony is so great. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot. And he's given a regular trial, and then he's shot by a firing squad.
From Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter 1
From Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter 1
Cat's Cradle
In Cat's Cradle Vonnegut explores the concept of ordinary Americans living their lives on the day of the bombing of Hiroshima, and the families of those directly and indirectly involved in developing the nuclear bomb.
The plot revolves around a strange substance called "Ice-Nine" which is solid at room temperature and can freeze other water molecules instantly.
A powerful man suffering cancer decides to use Ice-Nine to commit suicide. Accidentally, his frozen body is dropped into the ocean, and the planet's water is instantaneously solidified.
The plot revolves around a strange substance called "Ice-Nine" which is solid at room temperature and can freeze other water molecules instantly.
A powerful man suffering cancer decides to use Ice-Nine to commit suicide. Accidentally, his frozen body is dropped into the ocean, and the planet's water is instantaneously solidified.
Cat's Cradle: A Novel
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 01/01/2010)
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
I once knew an Episcopalian lady in Newport, Rhode Island, who asked me to design and build a doghouse for her Great Dane. The lady claimed to understand God and His Ways of Working perfectly. She could not understand why anyone should be puzzled about what had been or about what was going to be.
And yet, when I showed her a blueprint of the doghouse I proposed to build, she said to me, "I'm sorry, but I never could read one of those things."
"Give it to your husband or your minister to pass on to God," I said, "and, when God finds a minute, I'm sure he'll explain this doghouse of mine in a way that even you can understand."
She fired me.
From Cat's Cradle, Chapter 3, "Folly"
And yet, when I showed her a blueprint of the doghouse I proposed to build, she said to me, "I'm sorry, but I never could read one of those things."
"Give it to your husband or your minister to pass on to God," I said, "and, when God finds a minute, I'm sure he'll explain this doghouse of mine in a way that even you can understand."
She fired me.
From Cat's Cradle, Chapter 3, "Folly"
Kurt Vonnegut talks about Cat's Cradle
Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions is Vonnegut's satirical look at two characters who are opposites of each other. One character is a writer, whom Vonnegut's narrator torments by letting him know that he is a character in a story being controlled by the narrator.
Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday!: A Novel
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 01/01/2010)
A Man Without a Country
"Thank God, Kurt Vonnegut has broken his promise that he will never write another book. In this wondrous assemblage of mini-memoirs, we discover his family's legacy and his obstinate, unfashionable humanism. What makes this all the more remarkable is that most of it happens in Indiana." - Studs Terkel quoted on the 2005 edition of A Man Without a Country
A Man Without a Country
Amazon Price: $13.70 (as of 01/01/2010)
Kurt Vonnegut inspires
Lori Harfinest reads from Kurt Vonnegut's final book, A Man Without a Country
Tribute to Kurt Vonnegut
The Res reads passages that focus on her latest obsessive topic, global warming, from her favorite author's latest book. For more info on the show, visit www.theresident.net. Thanks to the best rock band on Earth, The Sound of Urchin, for use of their song, "Don't Walk Me Down That Road." More info on them at www.soundofurchin.com
Runtime: 383
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Bloggers on Kurt Vonnegut
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- Review: SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut. Cheryl from Scrappy Cat recently read Slaughterhouse F...
- Deception in the 'Organic Food' Industry - A Pagan's Blog
- Kurt Vonnegut. December 30, 2009 7:26 PM. http://anobscureblog.com. When it comes to paganism, I'm a...
- Jane Ciabattari on Kurt Vonnegut | The Hollywood Liberal
- Jane Ciabattari on Kurt Vonnegut A wondrous new collection of previously unpublished vintage Vonnegu...
"I wanted all things to seem to make some sense, so we could all be happy, yes, instead of tense. And I made up lies, so they all fit nice and I made this sad world a paradise."
Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
More Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.""
Kurt Vonnegut, essay: "Knowing What's Nice", In These Times (2003)
Kurt Vonnegut, essay: "Knowing What's Nice", In These Times (2003)
- Kurt Vonnegut - Wikiquote
- "Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules - and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress."
Kurt Vonnegut
Reader Feedback
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- daoine daoine May 14, 2009 @ 5:46 pm | in reply to drifter0658
- Thank you Drifter :-) I think it's really important to fit in a bit of farting around time each day. Before the computers "do us out of that". LOL I don't think he spent any time surfing the Internet.
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- drifter0658 drifter0658 May 13, 2009 @ 8:41 pm
- I had every intention of just dropping a "likewise" ;), but I was so taken by this tribute to the man who walked to the post office, up until his death, to buy stamps. Why would he do that since he was well off enough not to? Because he honestly lived and worshiped one of his quotes (which I believe to be the truest quote of all time): "We were put on this planet just to fart around."
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- lisadh lisadh Oct 22, 2008 @ 5:58 pm
- A high school counselor introduced me to Vonnegut, and I was hooked. Cat's Cradle is one of my all-time favorite books.
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- RickBasset RickBasset Jul 12, 2008 @ 1:19 am
- I love how Vonnegut could take the absurd aspects of our lives and serve them up to us in a totally different form and make us finally see thing for what they are. Great lens!
Peace! :~)
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- chefkeem chefkeem Jun 25, 2008 @ 10:16 am
- "Mother Night" is my favorite out of the three I've read, so far. I definitely want to read all his books. Great tribute lens! 5*s
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