Does anyone LOVE Kurt Vonnegut?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

discuss...

[Trajan]

1. um ...

SEE the Cat ? ...

SEE the Cradle ? ...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. see the sirens?

[Zomby Woof]

3. yes!

"Slaughterhouse 5", "Cat's Cradle", and "Player Piano"... just to name a few great ones. :-)

[Blue-Jay]

4. I do!

Extra points to the first person to explain his "signature".

[Trajan]

5. From the Books of Bokonon ...

The Final Sentence

If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

[JitterbugPerfume]

6. I love Vonnegut

when we had our cool DU book club we did a thead about him

[JitterbugPerfume]

7. but we quit diong the book club

because no body wanted to play <sigh>

[Snow]

8. Brush with fame.....

his father was partners with my grandfather in their architectural office in Indianapolis. I like his books very much, too.

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. Yes, he made some very important observations, with humour -

.
.
.

One of the ones I remember the most, and should be remembered today - -
______________________________________________________________________

"We teach our children a wee poem:

"In 1492,

Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue"

And the story goes that he discovered America, and civilized the Continent.

Actually, they just murdered the civilizations that were already here and stole their land."
_______________________________________________________________________

Hmmm

Haven't changed much have we

(shame)

[MAlibdem]

10. Good writer

funny...a little depressing

[Kazak]

11. Oh God yes!

I can't read enough of his stuff!

[Parrcrow]

12. love his work

and Billy Pilgrim posts here when he come unstuck in time in our vicinity.

I think that Deadeye Dick and Bluebeard are underrated.

I am currently in a bidding war with someone on ebay for an HC copy of Welcome to the Monkeyhouse.

[Kazak]

13. Bluebeard is great!

Haven't read Deadeye Dick, but I'll make a point to now.

Palm Sunday is a particular favorite of mine.

[Parrcrow]

14. Deadeye Dick concerns

how people can do things for merely symbolic purposes which then have horrendous results.

If you really liked Bluebeard, you might like "What's Bred in the Bone" by Robertson Davies.

[rumguy]

15. duprass

love that word

[MinnFats]

16. He is absolutely brilliant! Surely one of my heroes!

Got a chance to hear him speak -- and even shake his hand -- in St. Paul a couple of years ago.

there's a pretty good story there, too.,

[Skeptical Democrat]

17. I keep running across his quotes in books I read

but don't know his works personally.

I must like him if the stuff I read refers to him all the time.

[Kazak]

22. ****HIGHLY**** recommended.

you've gotta read a few of his books to get a feel for his brand of cinicism. Start with Slaughterhouse-5, then move onto Breakfast of Champions, or The Sirens of Titan, or Hocus Pocus...you'll have to read them all by that point.

[Skeptical Democrat]

24. I will check out Amazon and put them on my order list

I have so many on my list to read now ...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. I've been a fan ever since Montana and I read him on Tralfamadore...

A great place to vacation.

Seriously, his writing works on whatever level you choose to read. An open mind and warped sense of reality are prerequisites though.

[Parrcrow]

19. Happy Birthday

:toast: :toast:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

20. Thanks!

[OneBlueSky]

21. he was my college commencement speaker . . .

along with R. Buckminster Fuller . . . one of my funnier memories is walking into the men's room of the Student Union before the ceremonies, only to see both of them -- along with the college president -- at the urinals with their gowns lifted up, doing their business . . . now Fuller was very short, Vonnegut is average height, and the president was quite tall . . . and they were lined up in order of height . . . had to make a quick exit to avoid busting out laughing and embarassing all of us . . . :)

[Kazak]

23. Wow!

He published one of his commencement speeches in Palm Sunday...one of my very favorite pieces by him. It wasn't that commencement speech was it? It was in the sometime in the '70s.

[OneBlueSky]

25. actually, I don't know . . . but it was in 1974 . . . so maybe . . . n/t

.

[ComerPerro]

26. Oh God Yes!!!!!!

Breakfast of Champions because it is just fucking hilaroious.

God Bless You Mr. Rosewater because it has the best message against conservatism that I have ever heard.

Cat's Cradle because it manages to work in everything I love about a book, and has a great philosophy behind it.

Welcome to the Monkey House, because I love every story in there, and also because one of my favorite bands took their name from a story, and called themselves "Bockman's Euphio"

I have also read:

Slaughterhouse Five
Galapagos
Deadeye Dick
Slapstick
The Sirens of Titan
Player Piano

All are great books