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
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...
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
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: $10.98 (as of 07/12/2009) 
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
From Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter 1
Cat's Cradle
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 07/12/2009)
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
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: A Novel
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
A Man Without a Country
A Man Without a Country
Amazon Price: $18.68 (as of 07/12/2009)
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: 6:23
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Vote for your favourite Kurt Vonnegut books
"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."
More Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
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
daoine wrote...
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.
Posted May 14, 2009
drifter0658 wrote...
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."
Posted May 13, 2009
lisadh wrote...
A high school counselor introduced me to Vonnegut, and I was hooked. Cat's Cradle is one of my all-time favorite books.
Posted October 22, 2008
RickBasset wrote...
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! :~)
Posted July 12, 2008
chefkeem wrote...
"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
Posted June 25, 2008
by daoine
Daoine has been a Top 100 Giant Squid since July 2008, and was chosen to be part of the first group of Squid Angels, blessing lenses from May 2007 to...
