Vonnegut!

[Arcturus]

I have this intractable obsession with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Just the sheer individuality and absurdity of his work...it doesn't matter how bad my mood is, a few pages of K.V. Jr. can lift me out of it. I place him head and shoulders above my other favorite writers and the majority of my literate friends have a hard time understanding this, or understanding HIM at all for that matter.

Anybody else share my sentiments in this respect?

[Ntwadumela]

Cat's Cradle is my favorite book of all time.

[Night Runner]

I'm new to his books - just devoured Slaughterhouse Five the other day, working on Time Quake right now. I love the way he writes, the weird little quirks and the overabundance of attitude. His personality, from what little I've read, appears to resemble George Carlin's...

[Storm]

I love Vonnegut's work. Although, his themes get a bit repetitive.
I love his tendency to put himself in his works.
My favorite works: Breakfast of Champions and Bluebeard

(and, of course, Slaughterhouse 5)

[Lesondemavie]

I love his books and seeing him in interviews and reading his quotes. He's magnificently quirky!

"The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon."
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

[LionsPride]

I loved reading Vonnegut. I found the way he wrote often cuts very deep to the essence of things without covering it with prose. He isn't just crass, there is subtlety and brilliance in his brutal simplicity. Breakfast of Champions if my favourite, likely because it was the first I read. Cat's Cradle makes me think about the implications of Ice nine and the theory of a karass. I have a series of essays and addresses by him called Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons. There are a few essays in there that made me think about human relations. Great work all around.

[zibber]

I filled my whole English literature list in high school with Vonnegut.

[Arcturus]

You guys rule :)
I'm not alone after all.

[Ntwadumela]

I loved reading Vonnegut. I found the way he wrote often cuts very deep to the essence of things without covering it with prose. He isn't just crass, there is subtlety and brilliance in his brutal simplicity. Breakfast of Champions if my favourite, likely because it was the first I read. Cat's Cradle makes me think about the implications of Ice nine and the theory of a karass. I have a series of essays and addresses by him called Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons. There are a few essays in there that made me think about human relations. Great work all around.

I quite vividly remember my Eureka(!) as I progressed through Cat's Cradle.

I got chills when I stumbled upon this quote:

"No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's..."
"And?"
"No damn cat, and no damn cradle."


See the cat? See the cradle?

[reb]

at one point, i devoured everything k.v. wrote. i have forgotten most of it, as i think it was umpty years ago. i do recall, however, the couple and kids being kidnapped to an alien planet and put on display...forget the name of the book, though...really enjoyed them...but moved on to carlos casteneda, dr. brian weiss, edgar cayce, shaaras, w.e.b. griffen, john sandford....great stuff, all.

[zibber]

at one point, i devoured everything k.v. wrote. i have forgotten most of it, as i think it was umpty years ago. i do recall, however, the couple and kids being kidnapped to an alien planet and put on display...forget the name of the book, though...really enjoyed them...but moved on to carlos casteneda, dr. brian weiss, edgar cayce, shaaras, w.e.b. griffen, john sandford....great stuff, all.

Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim, Tralfamadorians? :)

[reb]

zibber,

i'm sure i have read slaughterhouse 5, and think i read billy pilgrim-tralfamadorians, i dunno.

remembering the title(s)-this would be taxing my memory more than it will stand. the only real problem is, if i have ever read a book, i may have forgotten the title, cover, etc.....check it out from the library, read about half the first chapter and go 'dang! i've read this before.' same thing happens with movies. rarely ever watch one twice.....i have no great memory for most details, only for 'general trends', which stick like glue.

i had read k.v. for entertainment, and some of his thinking rubbed off in the process, i suppose. having devoured everything from 'biblical archaeology review' to 'jonathan livingston seagull', my mind is a stew of glop....

[TheMadHatter]

cats cradle is my favorite

[Arcturus]

Cat's Cradle (my third-favourite) is full of those profound Vonnegut moments, where you kind of stop reading and let the revelation sink in for a few 'staring-out-the-window' minutes. For me, the genius behind his insights is so accessible and personal yet so revelatory at the same time, and this goes for his other work, too. It feels like he steals ideas from my head, multiplies the absurdity factor by five or ten, then conveys them with more lucidity and humour than I could ever imagine doing.

I found Breakfast Of Champions, even more so than his other work, paralleled my own sense of absurdity, and it remains my number two. The process of reading ANY Vonnegut novel inevitably involves laugh-out-loud moments, but none so much as Breakfast of Champions. I was in fits, time and time again. This book is truly my substitute for 'The Gideon Bible.'

My number one, however, is definitely Slapstick. Never before has a book brought me to both laughter and tears. This work is a mind-bending hybrid of sheer satire, trademark political incorrectness, typical black humour and a deep, underpinning, genuinely heartfelt sympathy for mankind. It's as though he's saying 'This is a joke. But it's not a joke.'

Truly, long live Vonnegut.

[Storm]

You guys rule :)
I'm not alone after all.

Why would you think that? Vonnegut is one of the most popular author's the world over. Numerous publishers keep reprinting his works from decades ago.

I really love the beginning of Slaughterhouse 5 where he compares looking back at the war as Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt for looking back at destruction. Like Vonnegut said, it's such a human thing to do.

[Jantei]

I read Hocus Pocus a few years back.

I remember enjoying it, but not much else, other than a certain parable concerning a cannon being fired at noon, which I found incredibly insightful. That little story within a story alone was worth reading the whole book for, for me.

[dandylion]

His The Sirens of Titan has been at the top of my favorites for 5 years now. I never got a chance to read any of this other stuff, however. I guess I can begin now that I've freed up a bit more time.

[SShack]

I got to interview him while I was in college.

I was a terrible, terrible interviewer though back then. I wish her were still around so I could give it another try and not suck terribly.

[2obvious]

Cat's Cradle is epic, I'll give him that. Everything else is a repetitive schtick.

I'll say it: Slaughterhouse Five one of the classic examples of someone declaring genius at the mere mention of the Holocaust. It's...just...like...every other one his books, people. (Nothing wrong with that if you luuuv sci fi. But pivotal, it ain't.)

Also, I have philosophical misgivings with his aversion to the semi-colon; I use them a lot.

[mnmeq]

so it goes.

[dalidaisy]

I am a Vonnegut fan as well...

"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."