Kurt Vonnegut passed on… So it goes.
I recently read Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse Five for the first time just two weeks ago. I'd been meaning to for years, but I finally got around to it in March of this year and I'm glad I read them thinking of the author still full of life and humor in his eighties. As recently as last year he was on the Daily Show, and who could forget his cameo in Rodney Dangerfield's movie, Back to School?
Well, he was a fun, creative thinker and I'm sure he will be missed by those who knew him. For the rest of us, we still have his stories, and I recommend them to any who have never read them. They are unique, accessible, mostly light and fun, but somehow always deep — occasionally mournfully so.
Kurt passed away yesterday. He was 84.
Vonnegut, who passed away April 11, 2007, was a Senior
Editor and long-time contributor to In These Times.
“Without In These Times, I would be a man without a
country,” Vonnegut often said of the national monthly
news magazine that has featured investigative
reporting about corporate malfeasance and government
wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and
international affairs, and cultural criticism about
events and ideas that matter. “Kurt was first and
foremost my friend,” remembers In These Times editor,
Joel Bleifuss. “But he also wasn’t afraid to speak
out against man’s inhumanity to man. He never suffered
fools lightly and was particularly concerned about the
direction the U.S. is heading under the current
administration.” Vonnegut and Bleifuss collaborated
on articles for In These Times, many of which were
compiled in Man Without a Country, Vonnegut’s last
book. A collection of articles by Kurt Vonnegut can
be accessed at
http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/vonnegut/. Vonnegut
also faxed word art to In These Times, often bemoaning
the Bush administration and the overall state of
affairs. “When we ponder various people going about
their business, we assume they have nervous systems,”
read one. “But George W. Bush doesn’t have one. What a
time to be alive!” Vonnegut also briefly authored an
advice column for In These Times called “Dear Mr.
Vonnegut.” “I have not so much a comment or a
question for you, but rather a request: Please tell me
it will all be OK,” wrote one reader. Vonnegut’s
response? “Welcome to Earth, young man. It’s hot in
the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet
and crowded. At the outside, Joe, you’ve got about a
hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know
of: Goddamn it, Joe, you’ve got to be kind!” “He was
a great supporter of In These Times, and we benefited
from both his sharp wit and the moral compass that
guided his work,” says Bleifuss. “I will miss his
unassailable political integrity and the wisdom that
he brought to our pages.”
Comment by InTheseTimes — April 13, 2007 @ 2:46 pm