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Peace Be With You, Kurt Vonnegut
As the media fills with whimsical good-byes to one of America's greatest writers, lets not forget one of the great engines driving this wonderful man---he HATED war. Including this one in Iraq. And he had utter contempt for the men who brought it about.Kurt Vonnegut was a divine spark of liberating genius for an entire generation. His brilliant, beautiful, loving and utterly unfettered novels helped us redefine ourselves in leaving the corporate America in the 1950s and the Vietnam war that followed.
Having seen the worst of World War II from a meatlocker in fire-bombed Dresden, Kurt's Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, cut us the intellectual and spiritual slack to seek out a new reality. It took a breathtaking psychic freedom to merge the interstellar worlds he created from whole cloth with the social imperatives of a changing age. It was that combination of talent, heart and liberation that gave Vonnegut a cutting edge he never lost.
Leaving us in his eighties, Kurt also leaves us decades of anecdotes and volumes of writings---and doodlings---about which to write. But lost in the mainstream obituaries---including the one in the New York Times---is the ferocity with which he opposed this latest claque of vicious war-mongers.
Vonnegut gave his last campus speech in Columbus. He and I met here many years ago, after another speech. Not knowing me from Adam, he was gracious enough to give me his home address.
Out of the blue, I sent him a book-length poem about the passing of my parents. I was shocked when he called me on the phone about it. I asked for his help in finding a publisher. He said to publish it on my own, and gave me advice on how to do it, along with a blurb for the cover.
From then on we talked by phone. His conversation was always friendly, funny, insightful. When last I asked him how he was, he replied: "Too fucking old!"
Last year, apparently on the spur of the moment, he agreed to speak again at Ohio State. It would be his last campus lecture.
When word spread, a line four thousand students long instantly formed at a university otherwise known only for its addiction to football.
Anyone expecting a safe, whimsical opener from this grand old man of sixties rebellion was in for a shock. "Can I speak frankly?" he asked Professor Manuel Luis Martinez, the poet and writing teacher who would "interview" him. "The only difference between George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler is that Hitler was actually elected."
Holding up a book about Ohio 2004, he said: "You all know, of course, that the election was stolen. Right here."
Explaining that this would he his "last speech for money," Vonnegut said he couldn't remember his first one. But it was "long long ago.
"I'm lucky enough to have known a great president, one who really cared about ALL the people, rich and poor. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was rich himself, and his class considered him a traitor.
"We have people in this country who are richer than whole countries," he said. "They run everything.
"We have no Democratic Party. It's financed by the same millionaires and billionaires as the Republicans.
"So we have no representatives in Washington. Working people have no leverage whatsoever.
"I'm trying to write a novel about the end of the world. But the world is really ending! It's becoming more and more uninhabitable because of our addiction to oil.
"Bush used that line recently," Vonnegut added. "I should sue him for plagiarism."
Things have gotten so bad, he said, "people are in revolt against life itself."
Our economy has been making money, but "all the money that should have gone into research and development has gone into executive compensation. If people insist on living as if there's no tomorrow, there really won't be one.
"As the world is ending, I'm always glad to be entertained for a few moments. The best way to do that is with music. You should practice once a night.
"If you want really want to hurt your parents, go into the arts." He then broke into song, with a passable, tender rendition of "Stardust Memories."
By this time, the packed hall was reverential. The sound system, appropriately tenuous, forced us all to strain to hear every word.
"To hell with the advances in computers," he said after he finished singing. "YOU are supposed to advance and become, not the computers. Find out what's inside you. And don't kill anybody.
"There are no factories any more. Where are the jobs supposed to come from? There's nothing for people to do anymore. We need to ask the Seminoles: 'what the hell did you do?'' after the tribe's traditional livelihood was taken away.
Answering questions written in by students, he explained the meaning of life. "We should be kind to each other. Be civil. And appreciate the good moments by saying 'If this isn't nice, what is?'
"You're awful cute" he said to someone in the front row. He grinned and looked around. "If this isn't nice, what is?
"You're all perfectly safe, by the way. I took off my shoes at the airport. The terrorists hate the smell of feet.
"We are here on Earth to fart around," he explained, and then embarked on a soliloquy about the joys of going to the store to buy an envelope. One talks to the people there, comments on the "silly-looking dog," finds all sorts of adventures along the way.
As for being a Midwesterner, he recalled his roots in nearby Indianapolis, a heartland town, the next one west of here. "I'm a fresh water person. When I swim in the ocean, I feel like I'm swimming in chicken soup. Who wants to swim in flavored water?"
A key to great writing, he added, is to "never use semi-colons. What are they good for? What are you supposed to do with them? You're reading along, and then suddenly, there it is. What does it mean? All semi-colons do is suggest you've been to college."
Make sure, he added, "that your reader is having a good time. Get to the who, when, where, what right away, so the reader knows what is going on."
As for making money, "war is a very profitable thing for a few people. Jesus used to be so merciful and loving of the poor. But now he's a Republican.
"Our economy today is not capitalism. It's casino-ism. That's all the stock market is about. Gambling.
"Live one day at a time. Say 'if this isn't nice, I don't know what is!'
"You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society."
The greatest peace, Vonnegut wraps up, "comes from the knowledge that I have enough. Joe Heller told me that.
"I began writing because I found myself possessed. I looked at what I wrote and I said 'How the hell did I do that?'
"We may all be possessed. I hope so."
We were joined for after-speech drinks by the professor and several awe-struck graduate students. Kurt expressed an interest in renewable energy, so I sent him another book, and he called back with another blurb, and more advice on how to publish it.
We planned to have dinner. I wanted more than anything to introduce my daughters to him. But when I finally made it to New York, he was too ill. Now he's gone. When a national treasure and a being of beauty like Kurt Vonnegut invites you to dinner, don't make plans, hop on the next plane.
The mainstream obituaries are emphasizing Kurt's "off-beat" career and the "mixed reviews" for his books. Don't believe a word of them.
Kurt Vonnegut was a force of nature, with a heart the size of Titan, an unfettered genius who changed us all for the better. He was possessed of a sense of fairness and morality capable of inventing religions that could actually work.
Now he's having dinner with our beloved siren of social justice, Molly Ivins, sharing a Manhattan, scorching this goddam war and this latest batch of fucking idiots.
It hurts to think about it. But we should be grateful for what we got, and all they gave us. So it goes.
Harvey Wasserman read Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse Five in college, sought Boku-Maru, and has never been the same. He writes at www.freepress.org and www.solartopia.org
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38 Comments so far
Show AllFart around; (excuse my semi-colon); and don't kill anybody. Words to *live* by.
Great man, thank you for your wonderful insights and love of man. You were and are loved by many. Thank you for the humor, my god the humor (I am still smiling). You'll be missed. Peace love and blessings are yours.
It is very telling that not one of the mainstream "appriciations" of Mr. Vonnegut mentioned his harsh criticism of BushCo, and his last book, "A Man Without a Country". Like MSM mentions of Dr. King, they dwell on the far past Vietnam era stuff, and not on his last years. Even the Daily Show, which hosted one of his last TV interviews, did not mention the book he was on plugging when they played a clip of his interview at the end of the show last night. Only Keith Olbermann quoted his comments about Bush and fascism. Thank goodness for small favors.
Goodby Billy, I love you. Tralfamador has you now. So it goes.
I saw Kurt Vonnegut on The Daily Show not too long ago - within the last couple of years, but I can't remember exactly when. He was, as always, quite wonderful. I wish I could recall his exact words, but he said something to the effect of, "I think it's terrible how everyone is saying bad things about our president, so I am going to say something nice about him. And here is the nice thing I am going to say: George W. Bush is not the most stupid leader we have in Washington. Donald Rumsfeld is the most stupid leader we have in Washington."
Priceless, vintage Vonnegut, even paraphrased.
I read Timequake II a few years ago, and loved his anecdote about his uncle, the source of the quote "if this isn't nice what is." His uncle had said that one of the saddest ends to a human life would be to look back and say, "This was a great life. I wish I had realized it at the time." I was so impressed with the need to acknowledge the nice parts of life, I have passed it on to as many of my friends, family, and acquaintances as are willing to listen. And I make sure I say it whenever appropriate.
So long Kurt, and thanks for all the words of wisdom.
A great memorial to a great progressive and humanist. Vonnegut was the guiding inspiration for the baby boomer and later generations. Always pointing out what was important in life and never afraid to attack the self centered idiots that have mislead this country. He was the Mark Twain of our time. Its a huge loss with him following Molly Ivins so soon, a big void in American literature and wisdom. We must fight on harder for peace for Kurt. And so it goes.
I can't tell you how much it hurt to write this. losing kurt vonnegut and molly ivins in one month is way too much to bear.
RIP
I'll pour a little out for the homey this weekend.
That's the kind of person he was. Just 3-4 years ago my son had an internship at a publisher. He had to call Vonnegut to verify a jacket quote. Kurt took the time to ask him where he was from and to really talk to him.
I mourn his passing, partly because the wickedly truthful book he would have written about this catastrophic war is now lost.
Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.....
My father-in-law is a Methodist preacher and a wonderful man, and I once realized that wherever he went, people were damn glad to see him.
That's how it will be for Kurt: no matter where he is now, they'll be damn glad to see him. I have this lovely mental image of him with Molly and Hunter S., all laughing their asses off.
There's also this: his first novel, Player Piano, always seems to get omitted when his best work is listed. Of the classic dystopian novels (1984 and Brave New World), Player Piano is the best of the bunch. Every day it seems more prophetic.
From one Hoosier to another: thanks Kurt. Journey well.
"Poo-tee-weet?"
M
Opps--My most memorable encounter of Vonnegut was listening to him read of a character who watched a war movie backwards so that the story would have a happy ending--I wonder to whom the Mark Twain spirit will next be given.
"a character who watched a war movie backwards so that the story would have a happy ending"
The Tralfamadorians and Billy Pilgrim, of course, could do exactly that in real life!
Since Vonnegut was basically Zen but didn't even know it,(itself a sort of koan) I thought that Poet was just trying to out-Zen Vonnegut.
REJOICE! - FOR KURT IS DEAD, AS HE LONG WANTED.
REJOICE! - THAT'S SURELY WHAT HE WOULD HAVE WANTED.
My friend Kurt's personal letters to me (as to so many others) intermittently arriving on the book-stalls for more than thirty years since I first met him there, have been soothing companions and sane counterpoints to a crazy world. He lightened my dark moods by grabbing their substance and twisting them to fun and wisdom.
Now he's left the planet. I can see him and Kilgore Trout dancing away together arm in arm among the stars.
We're left with the slowly fading voice of his books. Now we'll need to create our own laughs about the world's stupidities more. It's lonely to become that grown up - no more Kurt Vonnegut to wham our darkly critical thoughts through to expression with truth and laughter. A great reminder to get off our bums and speak up ourselves.
How long should life be? For the past many years Vonnegut has spoken in writing of his wish to get to the end of life - even threatening to sue the Pall Mall-makers for their smokes not killing him. He's probably happy now. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.
And tnx, Wasserman, for that worthy obit.
Thanks Harvey Wasserman for a befitting tribute.
I will miss Kurt Vonnegut's clever, truthful voice. I feel alienated already.
Over a decade ago I impulsively got a tattoo on my upper arm. It's still the only one I have to this day and once in a while I feel silly that I succumbed to the temptation. It's very simple: in black typewriter print is the phrase that embodied my philosophy of the day, So it goes. So it goes that we lost the man who wrote those three words that I will have on my arm for the rest of my days. My 5 year asks what it means and I have a hard time explaining it to her (and to myself). But Kurt is with me, his humor, his irreverance, his outrage at the killers of our world. I look into the eyes of my child and realize that these words remind me to live life. They are three of the most perfect words anybody ever put together in a sentence. I only wish I had told Kurt before he left us. So it goes.
His like comes along about every hundred years. We have a long wait.
This is a great loss. I lost my best friend in college. He was with me all the way and has remained a major influence in my adult life ever since. I miss you, Kurt Vonnegut. I sure hope there is a life after this and that you are somewhere laughing at all of us and in some position to give us all a little grace to help us through the rest of our days. We sure need it.
Damn, it's tough!
Another star for the firmament.
May Bokonon bless him, Molly and their issue to a thousand generations.
Another voice for sanity in an insane world has passed. You will be missed Mr. Vonnegut!
PJD Said:
Since Vonnegut was basically Zen but didn't even know it,(itself a sort of koan) I thought that Poet was just trying to out-Zen Vonnegut.
**************
I am blushing and laughing at the idea that "poet" could outdo anything of Vonnegut's. I'm neither that subtle nor that discerning--yet.
Watching the MSM trying to asses Vonnegut is kind of like imagining Lawrence Welk trying to MC a show at the Apollo Theater--no matter how hard they try they really just do not get it or him because they long ago sold out and Kurt never did.
I first became aware of Kurt Vonnegut in a high school literature class. The class was titled, Science Fiction and Fantasy. We read books like The Hobbit, Isaac Asimov's, I, Robot. When we got to Vonnegut, we read Slaughter House 5 and Breakfast in America. I instantly fell in love with his style of writing and his way of turning conventional thinking on its head. I haven't read all of his books but I never forget him. He was always one of my favorite writers, along with George Orwell, and Mark Twain.
Vonnegut had a unigue way of writing that can't be imitated. And I loved his take on life and this world we live in. He'll never be replaced, nor should he. His books will continue to have a lasting influence on my life.
I could laugh and cry simultaneously as I read a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Because he spoke his truth deeply, he even treated topics such as mental illness as funny, sad and most revealing.
I will miss you Kurt. I know that if you can help us from above, you will.
Fondly, Renee
Heyo, Kurt. Will you please check out that big courthouse in the sky, and let us know once and for all how they've stacked the cannonballs out front? You were a hellofa mind, enit?
Harvey, you spoil your comments by indulging in irrational, wishful fantasies about Kurt's afterlife.
No he isn't having dinner with Molly Ivins. He's just dead. Like she is.
And no, Ullern, he didn't want to die. For many years he was simply deeply unhappy about his loss of function and vitality in old age.
We've lost someone important, someone who would have contributed so much more towards making a better world for us all, had they lived, simply by continuing to speak out.
Progressives should take note: death is the antithesis of all concerns for freedom, justice and happiness. If you care about those things you must also care about keeping people alive.
How many more people are we willing to lose to the dreadful scourge of old age and involuntary death before we do what is medically possible?
I won't say RIP. Resting and peace are known only to the living.
Listen.
Kurt's up in Heaven now with Isaac, remember?
If that isn't nice, what is?
I should have wote "Breakfast of Champions." Somehow, Supertramp got into my head thinking about those years.
t.theodorus ibrahim: It sounds like most people wrote with tears in their eyes. But you sound like you wrote with a stick up your ass. You're a pompous creep!
(I'm channeling Kurt, by the way.)
I haven't cried this much since I heard Howard Cosell tell me that John Lennon had been shot. To me KV was more of a friend than an author- somebody I could always count on- even in the middle of a long night when nobody answers the phone anyway. If all he had written was God Bless You Mr. Rosewater his contribution would still be more than all the chicken hawks currently running our country (into the ground)combined.
Have fun on Tralfamadore old friend. I miss you too much already.
Mr. Wasserman,
Beautiful. Thank you :)
To carbon14 April 14th, 2007 @ 8:15 pm,
:lol:
Thank you too. I had something to say to that wanker, but what you said is wayyyy better 'n funnier. ta again!
A link to an interview on an Australian radio show that you would probably not heard.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/
He was a good writer but an even greater person. I am deeply saddened by his death and miss his presence already.
The world is a far poorer place without him.
Goodbye Mr. Vonnegut. You changed my life. May you yet change the world.
You know, I was with all the starry-eyed admirers until I read extensive quotations from Vonnegut that clearly identified him as a vicious anti-semite. I guess it just goes to show that people have more than one side to them... I was beyond shocked. I thought such a seemingly evolved person was incapable; but then again, Jews are not universalists--Jews are Jews (I am a Jew). Although that means entirely different things to different people, it's certainly true that there are Jews who have rejected Judaism for just that reason (as well as others). When you get down to the nitty-gritty of it, it's truly shocking how many literary persons in history, as well as the present, are rabid Jew &/or Israeli haters. To have discovered Vonnegut among them has been one of my greatest disappointments.
FDR's death or suicide on April 12th, depending on your sources, was announced the next day- sixty two years ago. Franklin had signed off on the actual firebombing of three-fifths of the homes in Japan, long before Hiroshima and Nagasaki's fate.
ONE city, Kyoto, was spared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er2xCn3_QcQ
From a hundred thousand to a million people died in one night, 9 March 1945 (depending on your sources)when the United States burned Tokyo. Kurt reads from his own work in that radio show. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/tokyose.htm
Our loss of Kurt Vonnegut on April 12th over shadows the demise of ANY of the Jerks that run these "wars".
1860s "Civil" War; 280,000 combatants, 700 recorded civilian dead.
WWI; 9 combatant dead for every 1 civilian.
WWII; 1 combatant dead for every 10 civilian deaths.
1950s; ONE building left standing in "North" Korea.
1960s,70s Vietnam "Civil" war, 3-10 million dead in SE Asia, 59,000 American dead.
1990s Iraq invasion, 2-300 US dead.
Yugoslavia's destruction in 1990s, Clinton said "no one died".
The oximornic "missions" to firebomb population centers wore religious names like Archangel, Gomorrah, brimstone jubilee.
That 9 march 1945 mission was called Meetinghouse. So it goes.
I loved Kurt Vonnegut. I started reading Vonnegut when I was 16 and I thought of him as a companion ever since. He influenced how I regard human beings. He influenced how I conduct myself with human beings. I wouldn't call him a great man because I don't think that would be in good service to him - he would have wanted me to regard others the same as those I am most familiar with. No superstars, no special consideration. However, I agree, he was a "beauty".
I was saddened when I heard of his death. I once listened to him speak in Toronto in the early 90's. I had an opportunity to ask him a question that I always wanted to ask him but I was either too shy or too lazy to do it. Oh well, life is short, eh?
Even with all the terrible things he experienced, somehow, he cared. He cared about us. If I were to meet him I would have said thank you. I am comforted by all your comments.