100%(10)100% fanden dieses Dokument nützlich (10 Abstimmungen)
2K Ansichten19 Seiten
A look at the writing and effects of Kurt VOnnegut on two+ generations of science fiction fans.
Writing from Chris Garcia, Steven Silver, Jeff Richmond, John Purcell and more.
A look at the writing and effects of Kurt VOnnegut on two+ generations of science fiction fans.
Writing from Chris Garcia, Steven Silver, Jeff Richmond, John Purcell and more.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Verfügbare Formate
Als PDF, TXT herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
A look at the writing and effects of Kurt VOnnegut on two+ generations of science fiction fans.
Writing from Chris Garcia, Steven Silver, Jeff Richmond, John Purcell and more.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Verfügbare Formate
Als PDF, TXT herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
This issue is a look at Vonnegut’s effect not only on me, but on others as well. There are quotes throughout from the notebooks and collected sayings of John Garcia. The first piece is one that I’ve wanted to write for a while. It tells the story of Kurt Vonnegut’s effect on my teenage years. I remember; Chris came over to the house and he had a copy of Cat’s Cradle with him. Until then, I didn’t know he was a teenager- John Garcia, November 2005 Clara had been killed, and only 6 inju- Coming of Age in the Time of Vonnegut ries of any kind were reported. By That was the first Kurt Vonnegut book I’d read. I’d been given a choice Christopher J. Garcia between Vonnegut and Sylvia Plath. Plath seemed depressing. So did Von- I was 14 when I first came to negut, in all honesty, but the label the writing of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. It science fiction made me take notice. was October 17th, 1989. There was an I loved science fiction. I associated it earthquake coming but I didn’t know with fandom, which I knew about by anythign about that. I would be at that point from my father. home, fresh out of the bath and wait- That would appear to be the way ing for the Giants-As World Series things go. game to begin. I was alone, Mom was That first book in many ways at work and my uncle Wayne, who’d was a call to my rebellion. It was a lived with us for years, was away at the story of an engineer, a powerful man in game. The house started shaking and his town of Illuim, New York. I’ve never I went to a doorway until it was over, trusted engineers. This might not be just like they used to tell you in school. the start of that feeling, but it certainly On my bed before the quake was the solididifacation point. Engi- was my 1/2 read copy of Player Piano. neers live in certainly, in significant When it was over, it was on the floor. digits and absolute certainty. Educated I remember this because I picked guesses are for the soft sciences, the it up and started reading. There was only came on when the room was dark. doctors, the biologists. Precision is all no power, so I was reading by the re- That was the first book by Kurt Von- that matters to an engineer. I never maining sunlight and listening to the negut I’d ever read. I finished it the wanted to be any of those things. I battery-powered radio. Mom didn’t get next morning when I should have been wanted to be a wrestler or a director or home until after 9, completely whigged going to school. They’d cancelled the an actor or something that left preci- out by what had happened. I read most day since there was no power. Our sion even further behind. I wanted no of the end of the book on the floor by electricity came back around 2 in the part of the thing. I was always terrible the battery powered nightlight that afternoon. No one in the city of Santa at math, and even worse at being real- istic. Earthquake was the day I picked up noticed for Player my second Vonnegut book from the those things Piano is a number we had in Mrs. Rasul’s 3rd that don’t re- book that period Honors English class. We had ally matter at many see as more than a month before we had to all. I certainly flawed. That’s give our author reports, and I thought knew that OK, we’re all that it would take forever to read all when I was flawed, aren’t the Vonnegut books I could. The sec- a kid. Kurt we? The thing ond book I read was Slapstick. Vonnegut, this that strikes Talk about a book that lets you old dude who me about know what all the sucess in the world smoked too Player Piano really means. much, knew is that the world it described and so I was 14, a couple of days away exactly how I felt. It was very strange, humbly thought to force on us, never from 15, actually, and I was reading a but very true. came to be. The idea that a computer book with a main character that any I powered through Slapstick like EPICAC would have to be large teenager could understand and com- over the weekend. We had gone up enough to fill Carlsbad Caverns to do pletely relate to. Wilbur Daffidil-11 to the Sacramento River Delta on a any serious work was moronic by the Swain was a giant Neanderthaloid half- houseboat and I read and read and time I was reading it. I’d played on genius who ended up becoming the read. I found myself sitting on top computers small enough to fit on my President of the United States. What of the boat while we were going up lap. The idea of a state where man is teenager couldn’t understand what it towards the first night’s docking and mostly replaced by machine had never was like to look like a freak, to poorly reading, breaking the wind with my happened, and even then it was obvi- coompare to all those around you, back with the book not more than a ous that it would never happen. It was to see that every sucess was coupled foot out of my eyes. I didn’t join in on also obvious that the forces that rose inexplicably with a bitter taste of ab- the swimming, but I did walk onto the up against the Way of the World would solute failure. The man was President, island we grounded ourselves for the never materialize either. but he never really loved anyone. How first night and read more. That night, But what did matter mattered to Teenage Wasteland is that? when the water was highest, I got me the most. The character is lonely living myself onto the island and had one of What mattered was insecurity. with his granddaughter and her lover, those experiences that I love. The wind Dr. Proteus, that Little Master on his but he’s also famous: famous for being on that day was up around 35 MPH way to Greatness, wasn’t certain what the King of Candlesticks, the man who and there was a ring of clouds above. had happened was right, wasn’t cer- is crazy about Candlesticks. The prob- Nothing right above the island, nothing tain that he should be benefitting from lem is, he doesn’t love them, but every- for probably 10 miles in any direction... it in the face of all those who were held one thinks that he does. How Teenager But there was Lightning! back. That was what I took from it. is that? You’re never famous for what All around, in the various The day after the day after the you want to be known for, you’re only directions, there were streaks of talking about despite being in my early it was impossible, knew that the in- teens. I actually wanted to read more. stantaneous transfer of state from I’d go so far as to say I needed to read liquid to solid was impossible and that more. At the time, I had no idea what the terrible event of the end just didn’t it meant, all this speed-reading which jibe with reality, but it was so engross- was far beyond my normal rate. I was ing. I had no other thoughts than powering through things with a deeper about the book for the next three days. understanding of what I was reading I had powered through the others, than I’d ever had on any of my reading. pushed and proded and probed and I was even forgetting that this was all made my way to the other side. Cat’s for a class project. I finished on Friday Cradle I walked through. I chewed night and was waiting for Monday. I it over and over, I worked the edges was waiting to see who else there was and even went back before I had fin- for me to meet in the books. I thought ished and recovered parts earlier that about what wasn’t covered in the two I thought might make the part I was books I’d read. I needed more. currently reading make more sense. It We returned and I went to Mrs. took me days to read it, and I was sit- Rasul’s before classes started and ting with it every chance I had. I didn’t ended up picking up three books. I watch any television that week until LA put them in my backpack, loosening Law on Thursday. I vividly remember the stiches at teh straps a little more. all the reading, all the time it took. I During the Silent Sustained Reading spent a lot of time with it, reading late period, I started reading the third into the night, going back over stuff at Vonnegut book I ever approached: school. Cat’s Cradle. Cat’s Cradle was what earned lightning. It was amazing. I sat there Cat’s Cradle is a difficult book. Vonnegut his PhD, but it was more under the shelter of reeds, watching Not difficult to read, far from it, but than just a simple study in anthropol- small whirlwinds of fine sand and it’s a book that makes thoughts seem ogy or sociology. It as a study in the reading between searching the so much easier than they really are. dark corners of all positive human val- outskirts for new strikes. I finished the I started it on Monday durring SSR. I ues. The characters look at the lies we book with an accompanying series of read it during World History instead tell ourselves and others and the ways flashes off to the southeast, striking of listening to Mr. Sutton lecture. I got in which we make those lies work for the 800 foot antena towers that caught up in the story that even I, a us and against others. I found no posi- rose over the islands northerwest of dumb young teenager, knew was say- tive character in the entire book, no Stockton. ing more about what humans do than one I could trust to give me honesty. At that point, having read two a simple science fiction story. I’ve come to desire that from the books books from the master, I knew that Ice-9 made sense to me. I knew that I read. I don’t want a reliable nar- I couldn’t stop. I knew what he was rator; I want a real person lying to me artist. When I got older, I wanted in the right way. It were Vonnegut what to be an art critic. When I was put me in that mind. The entire con- older still, I worked as an art cept of Bokononism showed me that critic. After that, I never wanted I could no longer consider anything to work in the art world again. the truth. It was like being told Santa Abstract Expressionism, as per- Claus was real while watching him formed by the masters such as take off his beard and unstuff his shirt. Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko That’s the power Vonnegut had. had always been my favorite As a teenager, I was already movement. Bluebeard has some- questioning every truth while being thing to do with that. told that I was wrong to do so, that all I read Bluebeard over a everyone around me ever gave me was weekend, and sadly I don’t have the Truth. Vonnegut said that was all the same total recall I do of read- rubbish, that there was no Truth, only ing the others. I remember lay- lies of varying degrees of helpfullness. ing in bed reading and reading. I That was what I walked away with. learned a lot about art there and The report was still more than a there was something very impor- month away, and since it was an oral tant that I discovered: the narra- report with no written component, I tor was another liar. was set. I’ve always been able to talk Rabo was straight-forward and talk well, so I simply read more with the reader, but he was a and more and more. The next book I bold-faced liar, a teller of half- had picked up was called Bluebeard. It truths. This was wonderful and was different, much newer, much more I absolutely loved it. He was an reasonable...or so I thought. unfortunate scoundrel and I loved it. of things that make teenagers happy. Bluebeard is actually one of Rabo was the first time I really noticed They’re almost all estranged, and when Vonnegut’s less respected books. It that Vonnegut was an unhappy man they get the chance to make things tells the story of Rabo Karabekian, an who was, in many ways, emotionally right, it’s always a messy affair. That’s Armenian whose parents survived the disfigured. His characters are never exactly what they’re like. As a teenager, genocide and came to America, settling bright, healthy young men (except for I had just figured that families of blood in California and giving birth to young Paul Proteus), but they are monsters, relatives were far weaker than those Rabo. He goes to war, he loses an eye emotionally and physically. Rabo lost from of the people we choose. Cat’s and then he becomes an Abstract Ex- an eye and was craggy by the time Cradle dealt with that. So did Jailbird. pressionist. he wrote his memoirs. The relation- I truly found that moving and impor- I love art. I’ve always loved art. ships he talks about between his main tant to my future. My thoughts to- When I was younger, I wanted to be an characters and their kids are the kind wards fandom and it’s place in my life come out of those books. day. I know that he was workign on it I always wish I had some art when Again, Dangerous Visions came talent. I’ve learned that I just don’t out and that he said it was an awful have the hands for it (or the eye...or book then. I wonder what changed... ear...and so on) and the character of Following up a slight disappoint- Rabo Karabekian made it all seem so ment like Breakfast of Champions easy. Pieces of tape on canvases cov- would be easy, but I’d have to buy it ered with house paint. That’s some- myself since I’d read all of the books thing I can understand and I’d love it if that were available in Mrs. Rasul’s I could do something that creative and class (Larry Tsai and Hanna Yee were ballsy. Rabo was my hero, even with both taking forever with Slaughter- his faults. house-5 and The Sirens of Titan) so I stopped reading for a day when I decided to check out a place that the CLash of the Champions show was would quickly become one of my fa- on. Nothing, not even enlightnement vourites: Trade-A-Book. from on high would have made me Trade-A-Book is a used book- miss that wrestling show. I think I was store on El Camino in Santa Clara. It’s forming the opinon of what my future been there as long as I can remember, life was going to be while I was watch- but before 1989, I’d never been inside. hit him harder than he knew how to ing that show. I seem to remember it I walked in and the line of shelves was deal with. He was never violent, but his being very important. I can vividly re- there and Vonnegut was on the first depressions could be terrifying. Luck- member watching that show and hav- one facing me. ily, that’s one of the few things I never ing something of an epiphany. I don’t Every Vonnegut book there was picked up from him. When I was read- know how big of one, but it certainly priced 1 dollar, so I grabbed four. THey ing about the life of Vonnegut later in happened. were very nice and I asked if they had my schooling, I realised that he and I read the third book of the ones Slaughterhouse-5. They didn’t. As long my father had a lot in common. When I grabbed that weekend. It was Break- as I’ve been going there, I’ve never seen they were up, they were up. When they fast of Champions and it was the story a copy of Slaughterhouse-5 there. Odd. were down, watch out. Kurt put his of a guy with a tumor and a failed sci- The next book was the most im- efforts into stories. Dad put his efforts ence fiction author who turns out to portant one I read in those important into helping people. Both of them were be the most important person in the days. It was God Bless You Mr. Rose- bitten in the ass once or twice for the history of mankind. On the other hand, water. It made me hate lawyers. I mean ways they dealt with things. it was also the easiest, the simplest really hate them. I guess it was at that The weekend passed so smoothly story and the one without any huge point that I really understood that as a without much thought. That was one effect on my life. Reading it, it’s story person, I’m basically a non-rich, non- of the things about the book: nothing of a flip-out of a guy reminded me of drunk version of Elliott Rosewater. too difficult. Vonnegut gave it a C on my Dad’s lesser moments when things Elliott Rosewater, aside from his ratings that appeared in Palm Sun- of vision that only maniacs After that, I was up to the new poeess. I could go on and ones. I started with Galapagos, a on about how Mr. Rosewa- strange story featuring the ghost of the ter and myself were kindred son of Kilgore Trout as the main nar- spirits. rator. It was a wonderfully fun piece And that brings me to of writing and one that I suspect will the man, Mr. Kilgore Trout. be with me for a long time. The stroy As Vonnegut’s secret iden- takes place a million years in the fu- tity, Trout is a wonderful ture, after man as we know him has piece of fiction. As a dis- falled away into a new, sea-bred evo- guised version of Theodore lutionary varitation. Mainland Earth Sturgeon, Trout is a won- was full of disease that made the eggs derful homage to the man. of woman infertile and would lead to As a character in a story, the death of the regular human race, Trout is a wonderful exam- but the people on the islands were free ple of the ways a talented and clear. This was another example writer can shatter the rules of Vonnegut using disease, just like while a lesser man would he had used the Albanian Flu and The foul it up in total. Trout was Green Death, as a sign for his own an- one of the things I came to ger at the shit he saw swirling around understand. While differ- him. I think that it’s no coincidence ently terrible in every one of that he set the Green Death on Man- the books he appeared in, hattan, where he’d been living for a Trout was the best possible number of years by the time he wrote vessel for Vonnegut’s dark Slapstick. thougths about himself. I finished Galapagos and started Sometimes he was a traitor- in on Deadeye Dick. I’m not sure what ous former Army man whose I thought about it. I don’t remember being rich and drunk, understood the greatest crime was craving a woman reading it at all. I know I finished it power of a new idea, and even moreso, sexually. At other times he is a noble before I went in on Mother Night, but he understood the value of a weird mind who can not deal with day to day I don’t remember it having any effect idea. He loved a science fiction author life. Often, he’s a neglectful father just on me. I’m rather convinced that I read above all others and believed that he going with what is going on around it on a train trip or maybe while flying would show the way to the future. I him. and the rest of the experience led me to was ready to take up the flag of Von- All of those are things that KV cover up remembering it. These things negut at that point and make him would have considered his own prob- happen. my lord and personal savior. He was lems throughout his life. I closed my reading that fateful slightly insane, but he had a clarity autumn with Mother Night. I wasn’t young wanna-be writer is traveling to sure what to expect. Reading the de- Boston to study under Kurt Vonnegut scription of the book on the bacover, I for the summer, leaving behind the girl was pretty sure I’d hate it. I took to it who he’s wanted for years. Unlike how slowly, much like I’ve done lately with Kurt would have handled that depar- writing from Howard Hendrix and Rob- ture, he ends up making out with her ert J. Sawyer. After a few pages, I dis- at the train station as his goodbye. covered that it was very much umlike Kurt probably didn’t know he regular Vonnegut. There was a very dif- was doing it, but he defined what it ferent set of angers, a difficult type of meant to be a teenager and certainly cynicism. The ‘document’ is presented changed the way that I interacted with as a real piece of autobiography and this cold, cruel world. there are supposedly suppressed chap- ters. That’s a nice touch, but the feel of I remember reading Slaughter- the book is something different. house 5 and thinking that it was com- It made me want to be a propa- pletely unbelievable and then getting ghandist. hit by the car and realizing that I had I’ve never had a rebelious bone come unstuck in time too. in my body, I’ve always loved the sta- -John Garcia tus quo, but for this one blazing mo- ment, I wanted to do something that Some quick thoughts on the would make all the little pieces of evil passing of Kurt Vonnegut by John in everyday life and blast it to our Purcell enemies. I’m not sure who they were at the moment, but I wanted to make It saddens me to learn of sure that they were demoralized. the death of Kurt Vonnegut. His she didn’t think that the artificial fami- was a totally unique voice, filled And that was all the Vonnegut I lies called Karasses mattered at all. with a satirical wit that bit with a read as a teenager. I was changed, in She thought they were all just fake and truthfulness few writers could match. both good ways and bad. When I met she used to get away from that. I wrote My favorite Vonnegut books were M a few years later, she brought up to M and SaBean recently, reminding Player Piano and Slaughterhouse 5, Cat’s Cradle and the two of us chatted them of this. SaBean responded but I believe my favorite Vonnegut about it for at least an hour. She said “He was right afterall: karasses moment was when he had a cameo the whole thing made her incredibly are all that matter.” she said. appearance in Rodney Dangerfield’s happy to be stoned because when she There is a universality to the hit movie, Back to School. In true wasn’t, as she put it, in the world, the works of Vonnegut that appeals to Vonnegut satirical fashion, the story stuff that KV talked about didn’t exist. teenagers. It’s even leaked into the line had Thornton Mellon hiring SaBean had a similar take, saying tht films we see. In Can’t Hardly Wait, a Vonnegut to write his major essay on Vonnegut, and when the grade There is a band called comes back, the teacher, played by BloodHag. They do a sexy Sally Kellerman, says, “I don’t short, death metal/ know who you hired to write this sludge rock versions paper, but he doesn’t know a THING of biographies of fa- about Vonnegut!” What a wonderful mous SF and Fantasy statement! authors. I’ve written of them before and am a God bless, you Mr. Vonnegut, great big fan of theirs. and give Kilgore Trout a kiss when you Here are the lyrics to see him. one of their best songs: John Purcell Kurt Vonnegut- Lyr- Chris makes me write and gives ics by Professor Jake me books to read and videos to watch. Stratton, music by I just read a book called Bluebeard. BloodHag There’s a woman that does the same thing to the poor guy in it. Two hands a piece of Chris is a heartless bastard! string John Garcia Put your feet against mine and sing Excerpt from an Old eMail from Ju- Stack atoms like cannon- dith Morel balls It’s hard for to draw the line. I End human arrogance just don’t know when a writer is being once and for all a hack or a genius. I read Breakfast No escape from the in- In a trans-dimensional hop of Champions like you recommended dustrial Hell It’s a slaughterhouse and you’re the and it was crap. I completely felt that Replaced by a tape of yourself Steer he was just another talentless hack Welcome To The Monkey House, Smile in the face of your darkest fears pumping out a book full of bright shin- Slapstick, Deadeye Dick, Galapagos As the world burns down around your ies for the masses to eat up while their Simple, perfect text ears planes taxied. Unblemished by excess And Kurt couldn’t take it no more I read Cat’s Cradle, a different Disrespected by the press His escape from the horrors of war kind of key-jangling, but the result was But successful nonetheless Bound for Tralfamadore! so thoughtful that I felt like I was read- When the bombs dropped Bound for Tralfamadore! ing a different author. All time for Kurt stopped I don’t know what’s what, but I’ll Saw the future and past read more. Kurt Vonnegut same. This attainment and loss of the mother committed by “American Dream” would become the suicide. His father Jeff Redmond driving theme of many of Vonnegut’s was to remain a fairly writings. isolated man the The literary Kurt Jr. went to Shortridge High rest of his days, in world has recently School, where he was editor of the full retreat from life, lost a truly great man Echo, the daily student newspaper. content to be in his with Kurt Vonnegut, It was at Shortridge in Indianapolis own little world until and a famed writer where Vonnegut gained his first writing his death on October often compared with Mark Twain. One experience. During his last two years 1, 1957. of Vonnegut’s favorite expressions there the Shortridge Daily Echo was In 1943 Vonnegut was going to was: “So it goes” which he frequently the first high school daily newspaper be expelled from Cornell because of his included in many of his best selling in the country. At this young age below average academic performance. novels. So much of his own life was so Vonnegut learned to write for a He quit college, enlisted in the army, fully reflected in his works. wide audience that would give him and was sent to France as a part of the Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on immediate feedback, rather than just U.S. 106th Infantry Division. This unit Armistice Day on November 11, 1922, writing for an audience of one in any was new and so was stationed along in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the teacher. a supposedly quiet part of the lines, son of a successful architect, Kurt After graduating from Shortridge in the Ardennes region of Belgium. Sr., and his wife, Edith Sophia. Edith in 1940, Vonnegut headed for Cornell Its ranks were filled with school drop- was the daughter of millionaire and University. His father wanted him outs, parolees, and whatever else the Indianapolis brewer Albert Lieber. to study something that was solid draft boards could find by 1944. The junior Kurt’s great-grandfather, and dependable, like science, so On December 14, 1944, Clemens Vonnegut, was the founder of Vonnegut began his college career as a Vonnegut became a German prisoner the Vonnegut’s Hardware Store chain. chemistry and biology major, following of war after being captured in the Vonnegut was raised along with in the footsteps of his older brother, Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to his sister, Alice, and brother Bernard Bernard, who was to eventually be the Dresden, an open city that produced whom he spoke of frequently in his discoverer of cloud seeding to produce no war machinery. Thus it was off- works. Fourth-generation Germans, rain. While Vonnegut struggled in limits to allied bombing. He and the children were never exposed to his chemistry and biology studies, he his fellow POWs were to work in a their heritage because of the anti- excelled as a columnist and managing vitamin-syrup factory. On February German attitudes that had spread editor for the Cornell Daily Sun. 13, 1945, however, Allied air forces throughout the United States after By this point Vonnegut’s parents bombed Dresden, killing 135,000 World War I. had given up on life, being unable unprotected civilians. Vonnegut and During the Great Depression, to adjust to or accept the fact that the other POWs survived the bombing the Vonneguts lost most of their wealth they were no longer wealthy, world as they waited it out deep in the cellar and the household was never the travelers. On May 14, 1944, his of a slaughterhouse, where they were quartered. By the time The Sirens of Titan was in print he’d also had dozens of Vonnegut was freed by Soviet troops short stories published. Vonnegut had and repatriated on May 22, 1945. also worked as an English teacher Dresden was virtually destroyed by at a school for emotionally disturbed the intense Allied bombing campaign, students, and run a Saab automobile ordered by the British air commander dealership. He’d seen his father die, Harris (as a retaliation for the Nazi and witnessed the death of his 41- Luftwaffe’s destruction of Coventry year old sister, Alice, due to cancer. in England). Vonnegut would later This had occurred less than forty-eight write about the experience in what hours after her husband had died in a many consider his masterpiece, train accident. Vonnegut adopted three Slaughterhouse Five. of Alice’s four children to add to his Cod, in 1951. Vonnegut was honorably own three offspring. Vonnegut published several discharged and returned to the United In Mother Night (1961) there is a novels throughout the 1950s and States in 1945. On September first of serious study of the dark and sinister 1960s, beginning with Player Piano in that year he married Jane Marie Cox, side of Nazism, and the effects by the 1952. Player Piano depicts a fictional a friend since kindergarten, for he war on the psychology of the survivors. city called Ilium in which the people thought, “Who but a wife would sleep An American journalist infiltrates the have given control of their lives to a with me?” German propaganda radio program, computer humorously named EPICAC, He spent the next two years while secretly being a spy for the Allies. after a substance that causes vomiting. in Chicago, attending the University He discovers that all of his broadcasts Player Piano was dismissed by critics of Chicago as a graduate student of mistakenly prolonged the war by as mere science fiction. Anthropology, and working for the encouraging the German people to The Sirens of Titan (1959) takes Chicago City News Bureau as a police continue fighting. place on several different planets, reporter. When his master’s thesis was The American journalist even including a thoroughly militarized rejected, he moved to Schenectady, encounters Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi Mars, where the inhabitants are New York, in 1947, to work in public official in charge of transporting all electronically controlled. The fantastic realtions for General Electric. It was Jews to extermination camps, in an settings of these works serve primarily here that his fiction career began. Israeli prison after the war. Mother as a metaphor for modern society, On February 11, 1950, Collier’s Night ends with the journalist unable which Vonnegut views as absurd to published Vonnegut’s first short story, to live any longer with his trauma and the point of being surreal, and as a “Report on the Barnhouse Effect.” guilt, and hanging himself with (of all backdrop for Vonnegut’s central focus. By the next year he was making things) his typewriter ribbon. The hapless human beings who inhabit enough money writing to quit his job His 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle these bizarre worlds and struggle at GE, and move his family to West recounts the discovery of a form of with both their environments and Barnstable, Massachusetts, on Cape ice, called ice-nine, which is solid at a themselves. much lower temperature than normal Wanda June, that he had begun ice, and is capable of solidifying all several years earlier. water on Earth. Ice-nine serves as a The play, which ran Off- symbol of the enormous destructive Broadway from October 1970 to potential of technology, particularly March 1971, received mixed reviews. when developed or used without regard Perhaps because it was somewhat too for the welfare of humanity “unusual” for its time. Vonnegut’s reputation was In it a Hemingway-like macho greatly enhanced in 1969 with the writer returns to visit his wife, along publication of Slaughterhouse Five. It with one of the men who flew an was an antiwar novel which appeared atomic bombing mission against during the peak of protest against Japan. She believes her writer American involvement in the Vietnam husband to be dead, and is engaged War. to marry a symphony musician (who Vonnegut described lives in the same building with his Slaughterhouse Five as a novel he was mother). The entire tale is narrated compelled to write, since it is based by a little girl named Wanda June, on one of the most extraordinary and who got killed in a car accident. She significant events of his life. One of lives up in heaven with many dead the few to survive the destruction of soldiers, including a former Nazi SS Dresden, Vonnegut was ordered by officer, himself killed by the macho his captors to aid in the grisly task of writer during WW II. There’s even her digging bodies from the rubble and results in a nervous breakdown. In birthday cake, no longed needed, and destroying them in huge bonfires. addition, he suffers from a peculiar hence the title of the play. Because the city of Dresden condition, of being “unstuck in time,” There were several factors which had been filled with German refugees meaning that he randomly experiences could be interpreted as the cause fleeing the Soviets, and was of little events from his past, present, and of Vonnegut’s period of depression, military value, its destruction went future. The novel is therefore a including, as he admitted, the nearly unnoticed in the press. complex, non-chronological narrative approach of his fiftieth birthday and Slaughterhouse Five is Vonnegut’s in which images of suffering and loss the fact that his children had begun attempt to both document and criticize prevail. to leave home. Many critics believe this event. After the publication of that, having at last come to terms with Like Vonnegut, the main Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut entered Dresden, he lost the major inspiration character of Slaughterhouse Five, a period of depression during which for much of his work. Others feel that named Billy Pilgrim, is deeply affected he vowed, at one point, never to write Slaughterhouse Five may have been by the horrible experience. His feelings another novel. He concentrated, the single great novel that Vonnegut develop into spiritual uncertainty that instead, on lecturing, teaching, and was capable of writing. Whatever the finishing a play, Happy Birthday, cause, Breakfast of Champions marked well as dozens of short stories, essays the end of his depression and a return and plays, Vonnegut relished the role to the novel. of a social critic. Indianapolis, his In Breakfast of Champions, as hometown, declared 2007 as “The Year in most of Vonnegut’s work, there are of Vonnegut” - an announcement he very clear autobiographical elements. said left him “thunderstruck.” In this novel however, the author He lectured regularly, exhorting seems to be even more wrapped up in audiences to think for themselves his characters than usual. He appears and delighting in barbed commentary as Philboyd Sludge, the writer of the against the institutions he felt were book, which stars Dwayne Hoover, a dehumanizing people. Pontiac dealer who goes berserk after “I will say anything to be funny, reading a novel by Kilgore Trout, who often in the most horrible situations,” also represents Vonnegut. Toward the Vonnegut once told a gathering of end of the book, Vonnegut arranges a psychiatrists. meeting between himself and Trout, A self-described religious skeptic whom Robert Merrill calls his “most and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut famous creation,” in which he casts the used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim character loose forever. By this time and Eliot Rosewater as transparent the previously unsuccessful Trout has vehicles for his points of view. He become rich and famous, and is finally also filled his novels with satirical able to stand on his own. commentary and even drawings that Breakfast of Champions and implications and aftermath of the war were only loosely connected to the plot. Slapstick, or Lonesome No More (1976) in Vietnam. In “Slaughterhouse Five,” he drew both examine the widespread feelings In the 1990s, he also published a headstone with the epitaph: of despair and loneliness that result Fates Worse Than Death (1991) and “Everything was beautiful, and nothing from the loss of traditional culture Timequake (1997). Before its release hurt.” in the United States; Jailbird (1979) Vonnegut noted that Timequake would But much in his life was recounts the story of a fictitious be his last novel. Although many of traumatic, and left him in pain. Despite participant in the Watergate scandal these works are highly regarded, critics his commercial success, Vonnegut of the Richard Nixon (1913-1994) frequently argue that in his later works battled depression throughout his life. administration, a scandal which Vonnegut tends to reiterate themes In 1984 he attempted suicide with pills ultimately led to the resignation of the presented more compellingly in earlier and alcohol, joking later about how he president; Galapagos (1985) predicts works. Nevertheless, Vonnegut remains botched the job. the consequences of environmental one of the most beloved of American “I think he was a man who pollution; and Hocus-Pocus; or, What’s writers. combined a wicked sense of humor the Hurry, Son? (1990) deals with the As the author of at least 19 and sort of steady moral compass, who novels, many of them best-sellers, as was always sort of looking at the big works of fiction and nonfiction. His picture of the things that were most stories of human folly and cruelty have important,”said Joel Bleifuss, editor been assigned reading for at least two of In These Times, a liberal magazine decades in college literature classes based in Chicago that featured around the world. Vonnegut articles. On July 9, 1999, he was honored “The firebombing of Dresden by the Indiana Historical Society as explains absolutely nothing about why an Indiana Living Legend. He was 75 I write what I write and am what I am,” when Timequake was published in Vonnegut wrote in Fates Worse Than 1997, and he stated it would be his Death, his 1991 autobiography of last novel. In May 2000, he was named sorts. But he spent 23 years struggling to a teaching position at Smith College to write about the ordeal, which he in Northampton, MA. survived by huddling with other Vonnegut had married Jane POWs inside an underground meat Cox, a childhood sweetheart, in 1945. locker labeled Slaughterhouse Five But they separated in 1970 and were (Schlachthaus Funf in German). divorced in 1979. In November 1979, The novel, in which Pvt. Vonnegut married photographer Jill Pilgrim is transported from Dresden Krementz. In 1991, Vonnegut and by time-traveling aliens from the Krementz filed for divorce, but the planet Tralfamadore, was published petition was later withdrawn. He had at the height of the Vietnam War, seven children, three from his first and solidified his reputation as an marriage and three of his nephews and iconoclast. nieces. He and Krementz also adopted “He was sort of like nobody a daughter. else,”said Gore Vidal, who noted that Many of his novels were best- he, Vonnegut and Norman Mailer were More recent works include sellers. Some also were banned and among the last writers around who Galapagos (1985), Bluebeard (1987), burned for suspected obscenity. served in World War II. and the autobiographical Fates Worse Vonnegut took on censorship as an “He was imaginative; our than Death (1991). Although his work active member of the PEN writers’aid generation of writers didn’t go in has been criticized as simplistic, it has group and the American Civil Liberties for imagination very much. Literary equally often been praised for its comic Union. The American Humanist realism was the general style. Those creativity. Association, which promotes individual of us who came out of the war in Kurt Vonnegut will remain one freedom, rational thought and scientific the 1940s made it sort of the official of the most influential writers of his skepticism, made him its honorary American prose, and it was often a bit generation. Known for his dark humor, president. on the dull side. Kurt was never dull.” pessimism and sharp edge, he was the His characters tended to be author of fourteen novels and other miserable anti-heros with little control peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.” He often in darkly humorous works, died on over their fate. Vonnegut explained joked about the difficulties of old age. Wednesday April 11th, 2007. He was that the villains in his books were “When Hemingway killed himself 84. Oh, Kurt Vonnegut. We will miss never individuals, but culture, society he put a period at the end of his life; you, old warrior. Rest in peace. And so and history, which he protested were old age is more like a semicolon,” it goes. making a mess of the planet. Vonnegut told the Associated Press in Vonnegut’s Novels: “We probably could have saved 2005. Player Piano 1952 “My father, like Hemingway, The Sirens of Titan 1959 ourselves, but we were too damned Mother Night 1961 lazy to try very hard... and too damn was a gun nut and was very unhappy Cat’s Cradle 1963 cheap,”he once suggested carving late in life. But he was proud of not God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater 1965 into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a committing suicide. And I’ll do the Slaughterhouse-Five 1969 message for flying-saucer creatures. same, so as not to set a bad example Breakfast of Champions 1973 He retired from novel writing for my children.” Slapstick 1976 in his later years, but continued to Vonnegut also taught advanced Jailbird 1979 publish short articles. He had a best- writing classes at Smith College, and in Deadeye Dick 1982 November of 2000, he was named the Galapagos: A Novel 1985 seller in 2005 with A Man Without a Bluebeard 1987 Country,a collection of his nonfiction State Author of New York. Hocus Pocus 1990 work, including jabs at the Bush Vonnegut was critically Timequake 1999 administration (“upper-crust C- injured in a fire at his New York City students who know no history or brownstone Jan. 30, 2000. He often Short Fiction and Essays: geography”) and the uncertain future marveled that he had lived so long Canary in a Cathouse 1961 of the planet. He called the book’s despite his lifelong smoking habit, also Welcome to the Monkey House 1968 success “a nice glass of champagne at suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Wampeters, Foma and Granfaloons 1974 Manhattan apartment home in March Palm Sunday 1981 the end of a life.” Fates Worse than Death: An In recent years, Vonnegut 2007. Autobiographical Collage of the 1980s worked as a senior editor and The satirical novelist who 1991 columnist at In These Times. Bleifuss captured the absurdity of war, and God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian 2000 said he had been trying to get questioned the advances of science Bagombo Snuffbox 2002 Vonnegut to write something more for the magazine, but was unsuccessful. “He would just say he’s too old and that he had nothing more to say. He realized, I think, he was at the end of his life,” Bleifuss remembered. Vonnegut himself once said that “Of all the ways to die, I would prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the I’m more sure now than ever that, like Kurt Vonnegut has said, everything is bullshit. That said, there’s nothing better than having your final belief proven wrong- John Garcia Farewell from the Monkey House demons he was wrestling know they’d ‘’The horse jumped over the by been in one hell of a fight. The world, fucking fence.’’ George Van Wagner (originally on as many people have been saying, will his LiveJournal, GVDub) be a little less illuminated with him And from an eMail from Mike Swan gone, but he sure left us some light You really only need to read two I still, almost 40 years after the bulbs. Vonnegut books: Cat’s Cradle and fact, remember the first Vonnegut I and so it goes. Slaughterhouse-Five. I’ve read them ever read. It was the Welcome to the all, every published word that was Monkey House collection. I remember listed in the search I did at the Serra being a bright kid in a rural public Library when I was in ninth grade. I school with no track for bright kids, kept up, bought his books, read his reading Harrison Bergeron, and deeply essays, caught the snippets he would identifying with the idea of being forced run in the various newspapers. He to be something you’re not for the was a writer who really only wrote two convenience of others. I remember the things of any lasting value. gentle whimsy of Who Am I This Time? Sure, he had books with lines and the moral quandary faced by that carry in your head forever, the one the protagonist of All the King’s Men. about the man’s penis that’s hundreds Those stories have stayed with me, as of miles long in another dimension have Slaughterhouse-Five, God Bless from Breakfast of Champions being the You, Mr. Rosewater, Happy Birthday, first I think of, but only those two re- Wanda June, Breakfast of Champions, ally matter. and many others. Even Phil Farmer’s That makes Vonnegut far more Venus on the Half-Shell pastiche, important than almost any other writer written as Kilgore Trout, has a place of From Truthdoctrine on LJ I can think of. John Updike’s never pride in my library. Though I admit to Kurt Vonnegut worked briefly written anything that really matters. not having read a lot of his work from at SI until being told to write a story Nor did Asimov, Vidal, Hammett, the ‘90s, I treasure almost everything about a race horse that had jumped Spillane, Cartland, Maupin, Adams of Vonnegut’s I read as work that the rail and terrorized the infield at or Johnson. Heinlein only wrote one. had a goddamn voice and made you a local track. Vonnegut stared at his Same with Sinclair, Maughn, Fitzgerald think, even if you couldn’t go all the desk for what seemed like hours before and Carrol. Mr. Vonnegut managed a way with him to his destination. Even finally departing the building without good average. when he got a little gimmicky, it was a word. Inside his deserted typewriter So celebrate his genius as well as for a reason (or at least, seemed to me was this: his lesser works! He rose above much to be), and he sure let those personal of it! Happy Accidents Vonnegut by the city of Indianapolis, which scheduled several events based bySteven H Silver on Vonnegut, his books, and essays. My first exposure to Kurt Riffing on the idea of One Book-One Vonnegut’s writing came in junior high City, throughout the year, various school, when we read a story about libraries will be holding reading a man who was head and shoulders discussions of all of Vonnegut’s novels. above everyone else, but not allowed Vonnegut was scheduled to give an to excel. I imagine that this story, address at the Indianapolis Library’s “Harrison Bergeron,” struck a chord McFadden Lecture on April 28. with many teenagers (not just science was probably Slaughterhouse-Five, I wish I had more anecdotes fiction fans) who felt that they were although it could just as easily have about Vonnegut and his writing, but capable of so much more than they been The Sirens of Titan or Piano I don’t, aside from some nastygrams were allowed to exhibit. For yeas after, Player, the point being it was a seminal I got from people who disagree with I could remember the story, and even Kurt Vonnegut novel. She turned to my reviews of his books Timequake the title, but not the author (for several the computer to look it up, not to see if and The Sirens of Titan. I suppose years, I thought it was Harlan Ellison). we had it in stock, but to find out who I shouldn’t say this, but Hell, the Eventually, I figured out it was Kurt the author was. I still have a hard time point is moot now. When discussions Vonnegut, Jr. and found it in a copy believing someone so illiterate could began about who the Chicago in 2008 of Welcome to the Monkey House. The work in a bookstore. Worldcon bid would invite as a guest entire search would have been so of honor, Vonnegut’s names was one While in college, I met (and later much easier in the days of the internet. of the first to come up. I pointed out married) Elaine. She had another When I went away to college, friend, a few years older than us, that the chance of Vonnegut accepting I studied in Bloomington, Indiana. who had previously journeyed to the invitation (let alone seeing it as an Completely coincidentally, Kurt Bloomington to attend college. Elaine’s honor) were miniscule. Vonnegut country. This was the area friend married a guy from Indianapolis Vonnegut, of course, was one of used, in part, as a basis for Rosewater (are you still following this. Don’t science fiction’s favorite whipping boys. County in God Bless You, Mr. worry, it really isn’t worth the effort). As soon as he left the reservation, he Rosewater, the work that introduced The guy from Indianapolis has a sister proudly, and vehemently, declared he the world to the science fiction of who married into the Vonnegut family was not a science fiction writer. In Kilgore Trout. While in graduate (I believe she married Kurt Vonnegut’s more recent years, his role in denying school, I worked in a bookstore, where nephew). So my closest approach to science fiction in his work and his the assistant manager was a woman Vonnegut is my wife’s friend’s sister-in- background in the field. More recently, who did not read. At all. law married Vonnegut’s nephew (see, I of course, his role in this area has been told you it wasn’t worth it). Anyway, one day a kid came superseded by Margaret Atwood and into the store looking for a book. It 2007 was declared the Year of Michael Crichton. However, I tend to agree with Vonnegut, that while he did work, is satire mixed with a good dose Vonnegut and Me, or Thoughts on a write some science fiction, he isn’t, for of common sense, in order to serve up Crusade the most part, a science fiction author. a perfectly gilded pill By Matthew Appleton Yes, Vonnegut used a lot of There’s no philosophy as powerful as science fiction. That’s what Kurt Von- There are plenty of authors whose tropes common to science fiction negut taught me- Chris Garcia, 1989 work I feel I haven’t read sufficiently. in his writing…time travel, space Given the focus of this issue of The travel, aliens, etc. However, there is Drink Tank, clearly Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. a rationalism to science fiction that is one of them. To date, I’ve only read was absence in Vonnegut’s novels. Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan Vonnegut would toss around words and a couple short stories, most notably like chrono-synclastic infundibulum or “Harrison Bergeron.” Without looking having Billy Pilgrim become “unstuck over my book collection, I know that I in time,” but he offered no logical own at least three more of his novels, rationale for these events or concepts. but I’ve just never gotten around to Instead they were very obviously hand them. waves to allow Vonnegut to focus on his more philosophical points. After hearing of his passing, I pulled The Vonnegut Art this issue Rather than call Vonnegut a science out my copy of Slaughterhouse-Five fiction author, I would be willing to Cover- CC Ryder and reread the first chapter. As I read acknowledge him as a fantasy writer, Page 2- Jeb Knox it, I couldn’t help but wonder if Bush, for his use of science tends to have Page 3 and 10- Kurt Vonnegut’s Cheney, Rove, et al. had ever bothered little relationship to the science of own to read the book. Maybe if they had our own world, even if it internally Page 4- Glyn Northern then they wouldn’t have been so hell consistent (but neither logical, nor Page 5- Mike Norman bent on starting an unnecessary war; rational) within the text of any given Page 6- Steven Scott Hellman maybe they wouldn’t have imagined book or story. Page 7- by Lysistrata this war would end like a war movie Vonnegut’s strength as a writer Page 8- by Hitlers Brain starring John Wayne or Frank Sinatra. had nothing to do with whether he Page 9-SketchBomb Then again, maybe not—as Vonnegut Page 11, 12, 13 and 14- Espana himself says in the book, “there would wrote science fiction or not, but rather Sheriff (The BArea’s own!) always be wars, they were as easy to with the ideas he espoused in his Page 15- Alan White (look for his stop as glaciers.” Yeah, but maybe with writing. Throughout his works, he a few more people like Vonnegut in the champions the individual in the face stuff on Fansite1.com!) world actually running the country, of corrupt organizations, whether he Page 16- God Bless You by U4Ick there wouldn’t be as many of them. And was talking about organized religion, Page 17 and 18- RescueTortoise so it goes. government, or corporations. His Page 19- Joas’ka Iwanicka means of attack, throughout all of his In fact, as I thought more about that first chapter, I realized that how In no particular order here’s what all I viewed our leaders changed since of Kurt Vonnegut’s works boil down to: President Clinton took office back in what the fuck is going on? 1993. Back then, with the naïveté of -Chris Garcia in a spoken word a 21-year-old, I thought that it didn’t piece from 1997. matter if our President had served in the military. I see now the folly in that Alright, that’s enough. I wanna belief. I’m not saying that you need thank Matt, Jeff, the good folks in military experience—if you don’t then BloodHag (especially Jake Stratton), you better damn well surround yourself John Purcell, Espana, Alan, and of with people who have served and heed course, my Pops for all the great words their counsel. It’s not foolproof—after and pictures. I really think this is one all, we have McCain running around of those issues that make me smile. supporting the war in Iraq—but war I’m rereading all the Vonnegut veterans know the true costs of a war books including the ones that I missed and don’t see it as a venture to be taken on the first go ‘round. I’m hoping that lightly. I’ll catch the rest of the deep meaning But, I digress. Although I found the that I missed the first couple of times. first chapter of the novel enlightening all Go figure. by itself, not everyone feels that there’s The next couple of issues are something of value to Slaughterhouse- going back to the regular issue grind. Five. It made the American Library own work didn’t “know the first thing There’s the next issue, 126, which is Association’s list of 100 Most Frequently about Kurt Vonnegut!” going to be LoCs, a piece from Matt Challenged Books of 1990-2000.1 Appleton, and a piece about a building Then again, I don’t actually know the that’s near and dear to my heart. After Getting beyond his work, the first thing about Vonnegut either, but I that, it’s 127 with normal stuff, prob- thing that will stand out most about feel somewhat richer for having read a ably including a piece from Dave Lang- Vonnegut in my mind is his appearance couple his novels thus far. ford and something about BayCon and in the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to Westercon. 128 will be normal...normal School. I don’t know what he was paid Poo-tee-weet. for me that is. to appear in the movie, but from what The next big issue will be This I think I know of him I can imagine Were WorldCons. A few folks have al- that Vonnegut must have found some (Footnotes) ready stepped up (John Purcell, Claire pleasure in taking a poke at academia 1 http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/ Brialey, Mark Plummer, Andy Hooper) when the English professor played by bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm and if you got a WorldCon to write Sally Kellerman confidently asserts that about, let me know! a paper that he ghostwrote about his