Thursday, April 12, 2007

R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut

The world has lost one of its great imaginative writers. Mr. Vonnegut was a genius, iconoclast and humorist. I will read one of his books in his honor and you should too, especially if you haven't read one before. Some of my favorites are: Slaughterhouse-Five, Bluebeard, Cat's Cradle and Good Morning Mrs. Rosewater. There are nearly a couple dozen more to choose from, so what'ya say...go read a Vonnegut book.
A Vonnegut self-portrait

9 comments:

Big Blue Monkey said...

Aw shit. I also recommend Breakfast of Champions, one of his more batshit crazier novels, but an incredibly fun read.

I think I'll have to read Slaughter-House 5 again this weekend.

Don't forget to thumb your nose at God, Kurt!

Big Blue Monkey said...

Atrios has a little passage from Slaughterhouse Five posted.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_04_08_atrios_archive.html#117634956734591420

Big Blue Monkey said...

let's try that again.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_04_08_atrios_archive.html#117634956734591420

Muumuuman said...

An exam question for my graduate class "Clouds and Aerosols" involved a story by Kurt Vonnegut. The question was:

Kurt Vonnegut, the novelist, has a brother Burt who is an expert in cloud seeding. In one of Kurt's books the military is imagined to have invented a thermodynamically stable form of ice (ice 9) whose melting pointing point is above room temperature, The purpose of ice 9 is to make bridges of ice across rivers. What would be the likely outcome of throwing some of this ice 9 into a river?

Answer: The earth would freeze over, as all water would crystalize to form "ice 9".

Here he is on the daily show, I believe just a few months ago:

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=18090&ml_collection=&ml_gateway=&ml_gateway_id=&ml_comedian=&ml_runtime=&ml_context=show&ml_origin_url=%2Fshows%2Fthe_daily_show%2Findex.jhtml&ml_playlist=&lnk=&is_large=true

Badcock said...

Let's all take a moment to honor the great writer.

As for MMMan, I certainly wish I were in a postion to take such a hard "exam" in my "graduate class."

What are you going to write your term paper about? May I suggest "What a cat's asshole looks like"?

Muumuuman said...

Uhm... What?

Big Blue Monkey said...

I believe Badcock-san is referencing "Breakfast Of Champions".

The correct answer is this: "*"

But bigger.

Badcock said...

Whoa, looks like someone graduated from "The Harvard of the Mississippi."

English major?

Oh, little known fact about Badcock: although his hatred towards the virulent misuse of "irony" is quite well-documented, he also has another few ill pickles to disgorge when it comes to misuse the mother tongue.

"Referencing." I did not sit through any class in THOTM without someone using this non-word.

What you mean to say is: I was making a reference to Breakfast of Champions. Alternately (but less ably), I was referring to Breakfast of Champions.

"Reference" is a noun. It does not function as a gerund. "Refer" is a verb. It does not function as a gerund.

I also want to add that I love Big BM, and he is one of the most interesting roommates I've ever had.

Muumuuman said...

Badcock you sure is grumpy, which is ironic in an Alanis Morissette kind of a way. I suspect your use of tea tree and lavender oils has been too liberal as of late. You need a hug, badcock? I can't actually hug you, so I'll do the next best thing, I'l send you one in emoticon form:

<:d wait that not it.... uhm oh fuck it i send you the next best thing:> Best enjoyed with tea tree oil.