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April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut
died today-- which is so sad.
For me he was a complete hero and drove my life off the rails of being sensible at a very early age.. To hand is a copy of "Slapstick" which starts "This is the closest I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it "slapstick" because it is grotesque....like the comedies of Laurel and Hardy... and the fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy was that they did their best with every test. And so on" Most of the paragraphs in that book end with the sentence "and so on" or "hi ho". In other books he said "so it goes"
He was a brilliant perceiver and so often I prayed that he would win the Nobel Prize so that the world would become a little more like the world he saw. But he didn't.
My wife met him once and said "he smoked like a bonfire in drizzle" which was a lovely thing to say. You see.
I hope Pan make a fortune out of selling his books. It can only make the world a better place
the other title for "slapstick" is "lonesome no more". so it goes
Posted by Tim Coates at April 12, 2007 7:58 PM
Comments
It's good to see Kurt Vonnegut remembered in this way. His books also made a great impact on me - 'Breakfast of Champions' is a particular favourite (although Vonnegut, in typical style grading his own books, only gave this a 'C'). We badly need writers who can be both thoughtful and funny, and who satirize the stupidities of much of the human race. He will be missed.
Posted by: Philip Spencer at April 17, 2007 10:18 PM