... Passed away today

:`(

...and so it goes...

First Trout, and now this!

I actually made this comic earlier today:

389729

Damn shame. He's second on my list of 'authors whose stuff I must read', just behind Italo Calvino and in front of Ian McEwan.

I recommend starting with "Slaughterhouse Five"

LadyJ, I love your tribute.

there's a nice 8-part series on u-tube starting here we watched. there's also this interview he did in second life which isn't bad if you can get past the annoying cunt of a host. at the end of it, he says 'well if this isn't nice, i don't know what is,' which is something that came from a favorite uncle who told him the thing wrong with people is they don't stop to acknowledge when they're really happy. he said his uncle would be sitting there on the porch on a lazy day, drinking ice tea with the family and he'd hear him say that. 'if this isn't nice, i don't know what is.' i found that endearing. he seemed like a really neat guy.

Breakfast of Champions is probably my favorite book ever. Sad to see him go, he seemed like a really kind person.

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lima wrote:
Damn shame. He's second on my list of 'authors whose stuff I must read', just behind Italo Calvino and in front of Ian McEwan.

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Good news.  You can still read his stuff even though he's dead.

Calvino is shit, by the way.

Maybe I'll pick up Slaughterhouse Five just to see what Vonnegut's stuff is like.  I've been looking for something to read.

I am gonna get the good bye blue monday cow tattoed on me somewhere within a few days, I already miss that crazy son of bitch.

ting a ling!

I read Cat's Cradle back in high school and recall liking it. I've been meaning to read more of his stuff, this should be the inpsiration I need to go out and read some of it.

I read all his stuff in high school, but for the life of me, I can't remember a damned thing about any of it. Normally I remember all the stupid tiny details of any book I read (long after I forgot the title) and for some reason, I can't remember any of Vonnegut's writings. So I read them over over and over again and it's almost like a new book every time.

I think he gots some voodoo in there.

I saw him speak at LSU about 20 years ago, and I still remember a lot of what he said. The title of the program was "How to Get a Job Like Mine." All of his lectures were titled that, no matter what they were really about. This one could have been titled "Fates Worse than Death," and it was mainly an anti-Cold-War polemic, but he did cover some facts about his job, as well as secrets of love, leadership, and heroism.

Which can be summed up in his remark about the meaning of life:

"We're all here to fart around."

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not_Scyess wrote:
Good news. You can still read his stuff even though he's dead.

Calvino is shit, by the way.

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Noted and noted, with sarcasm and suspicion respectively and in equal measure. I've enjoyed what I've read of Italo Calvino, even if his writing is a tad simple, but I always put that down to issues with translation.

Slaughterhouse Five is the one i've been advised to get first, so I may have to go buy that one.

Still, shame he's dead.

When my son was in 8th grade (3 years ago) he had to do a power point presentation on a war hero.  Since we are anti-war, we did the presentation on Vonnegut and the horrors Churchill perpetrated on the quiet little town of Dresden, Germany, after the war had ended, which is what Slaughterhouse Five is based on.  Excellent read. 

I don't think my son's teacher liked the fact that we chose Vonnegut as our war hero :P

 If I can ever figure out how to allow his presentation to be shown here, I'll post it.  Made me proud.

Hooray for turning an 8th grade project into political propaganda.

if the subject was war heroes, it already was

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lima wrote:
Damn shame. He's second on my list of 'authors whose stuff I must read', just behind Italo Calvino and in front of Ian McEwan.

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I just finished Atonement. Ian is very good, but Kurt is much more fun and still good.

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mandingo wrote:
if the subject was war heroes, it already was

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Thanks, that was exactly my first thought.

I read Slapstick a while ago and S5 even longer ago. Can recommend those two if not probably all of his works.

There was a copy of Galapagos in the Take-A-Book-Leave-A-Book at the coffee shop I used to work at today, so I took it.

I confess Ive never read any of his work, which is an oversight I will be correcting soon. Its a shame some authors have to die before they make it onto my reading list, well apart from Dan Brown, who can just die.

Anyone have a good recommendation of a book to start with? "Breakfast of Champions" looks very interesting and up my proverbial street, I think Id like to leave slaughterhouse five until Ive read some of his other books first though.

I have a tattered copy of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater that I nabbed from the free bin of the local used book shop several years ago. I've never opened it, but it's on my list of Stuff To Read.

The back of the book reads, "By the author of Breakfast of Champions."