dead Where [was] Kurt Vonnegut?

[maryportfuncity 10,630]

Either way, rock on Kurt.

 

Bush hasn't the brains to understand Vonnegut's best work.

[Canadian Paul 97]

Vonnegut also said that he felt "embarrassed" to have lived to the age of 83.

 

"It's in terrible taste," he said.

 

"I had a fire several years ago, and it would have been so shapely if I'd died in that - but here I am.

 

"I'm suing a cigarette company because on the package they promised to kill me, and yet here I am," he joked.

 

Sounds like someone we'd enjoy on the forums...

[Guest Anafranil]

How about novelist Kurt Vonnegut (aged 84) and a dark horse for 2007 thirsty leader of The Fall Mark E. Smith only fifty but looks about 75 and has 'Alex Higginsesque' look about him.

[Phantom 2,531]

Vonnegut has written a foreward for Ralph Steadman's new book The Joke's Over which is due to be released in the shops on October 6th

[maryportfuncity 10,630]

News page of his official site. Busy boy for a frail 83 year old.

[Banshees Scream 110]

News page of his official site. Busy boy for a frail 83 year old.

 

Claims to suffer from a disease called Prosopagnosia, which relates to blindness and failure to reconize faces of people he has known. Also is still a smoker, though reading through his biography I couldn't find any artical stating that he was in declining health. Perhaps you labeling him as frail is just a bit overated.

[maryportfuncity 10,630]

No it isn't, he's stooped and a little slow in his movements. Like Spike Milligan he walks his age and talks and writes with the vitality of a much younger man.

[Banshees Scream 110]

No it isn't, he's stooped and a little slow in his movements. Like Spike Milligan he walks his age and talks and writes with the vitality of a much younger man.

 

I still don't think his death is next door.

[maryportfuncity 10,630]

Totally agree BS, above all I think his grim sense of humour is a survival mechanism, relieving the worst of the stress and keeping it real. An example from forty years ago in the novel Cat's Cradle:

 

'Maturity is a disappointment for which there is no cure, unless laughter can be said to cure anything.'

[Banshees Scream 110]

'Maturity is a disappointment for which there is no cure, unless laughter can be said to cure anything.'

 

Almost every day of your life you will make a mistake, some days you may make more mistakes then others, but to live a life with those who never grew up, and to make a joke out of the failures you have had to know, laughter just may be a cure to alot of things.

 

I agree with you.

[maryportfuncity 10,630]

More to the point it's Vonnegut's main indulgence along with the fags. His work is full of grim humour that suggests he's long ago accepted the things he can't change and - therefore - probably has a handle on the worst of the anger and frustration that an old soldier who saw horrors before struggling to become a great writer might feel. Such emotions are destructive to health by way of heart disease and blood pressure problems.

 

Another corker comes in the introduction to Slaughterhouse Five in which he reports a conversation between himself, an ex-army buddy and the wife of his friend. Vonnegut announces he's writing an anti-war book at which point the woman says: 'Why don't you write an anti-glacier' book?

[Banshees Scream 110]

Writers, poets, lyric writers, musician's, authors, = A good majority of them may not be in touch with reality. To what measure, all people are different. I don't know how sane Kurt Vonnegut is, I would think he is strange, plane and simple but atleast he isn't at an extreme that some creative writers were of the past.

 

Hunter S Thompson and Edgar Allen Poe and even Aleister Crowley may have been insane.

[maryportfuncity 10,630]

Disagree there BS, the man's strength has been to combine sometimes sci fi and often surreal plot lines with an empathy and humanity so wide they've spoken to different generations about the human condition. I know that sounds like pretentious bullshit but I'd stand by it, at his best he's that good. He's less in love with his status as a writer than are many lesser talents, in fact the self-depreciation about such achievement and often a sympathy for misunderstood creatives is another big KV theme. Witness 'Mother Night' a sympathetic portrait of a double agent doomed to be regarded as a Nazi collaborator. The book is also an insight into opportunities to use creative talents and the elements of chance that make any kind of reputation.

 

Sorry, I'll lay off bangin' on about the man now, but you get my point?

[Guest Guest]

KURT VONNEGUT JR., author, born 1922

[Phantom 2,531]

KURT VONNEGUT JR., author, born 1922

 

He's on the cover of the latest issue of Stop Smiling magazine

he looks pretty frail, but otherwise seems fine

 

Edited December 7, 2006 by Magere Hein

[hellsbookmaker 0]

Neither the Wehrmacht or the Bomber command managed to do for old Kurt back in the day.

 

He is now 84 going on 85 and still smokes like a trooper.

 

He is apparently sill hale and hearty

 

“I’m going to sue the cigarette companies because they haven’t killed me,”

 

but surley his luck must ran out soon.

[Slave to the Grave 26]

Lucky old Kurt already has his own thread here.

 

 

[Topics merged- NAP]

Edited February 17, 2007 by Notapotato

[Banshees Scream 110]

He is an August shocker if you know what I mean.

[Handrejka 1,903]

He is an August shocker if you know what I mean.

 

No, BS. I don't know what you mean.

[Banshees Scream 110]

No, BS. I don't know what you mean.

 

A sudden death, a quality hit, a 'I'm so glad I listed him on DDP' shocker. Know what I mean now Handrejka?

[Handrejka 1,903]

What does August have to do with it though? Anyway I though you were giving up dl.

[Banshees Scream 110]

What does August have to do with it though? Anyway I though you were giving up dl.

 

I think your looking at things to hard, it was just a month I happened to say. If you want something different it could be a July shocker! And o Han don't sound like your trying to get rid of me... Starting tommorow I should meet that deal.

[szhengd 0]

Well now he's dead

 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/vonnegut-...5971238011.html

[Rotten Ali 600]

That's a shame - Kurt was one of those I removed from this year's DL shadow list!

[Phantom 2,531]

That's a shame - Kurt was one of those I removed from this year's DL shadow list!

 

I removed him from my list too. Thinking that he looked fine albeit a tad frail.Other than that he seemed to be in good spirits and not likely to drop dead for at least another year.

 

Weird though, i just lent a copy of Slaughterhouse Five to a work colleague of mine only yesterday