April 12, 2007

See the cat? See the cradle? Vonnegut has passed from this earth.

I met him once! Sort of. He spoke at Washington University here, right after Timequake came out, I think. He and I ended up in the smoking area at the same time, just before the lecture. I said hi, he said hi, we smoked, that was it.

posted by Fes 17 years ago
  • i don't know what to say. He was amazing
  • ah, since no one said it in this thread yet, So it goes. .
  • .
  • Been expecting to hear this bit of news for a long while now.
  • .
  • Sad. .
  • ...
  • Make me young! Farewell.
  • Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.
  • *
  • Damn it, I haven't been this sad over the death of a man I never met since John Lee Hooker.
  • Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut.
  • From the AP story: Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. He often joked about the difficulties of old age. "When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon," Vonnegut told The Associated Press in 2005. "My father, like Hemingway, was a gun nut and was very unhappy late in life. But he was proud of not committing suicide. And I'll do the same, so as not to set a bad example for my children.''"
  • I felt like the last years of his life he was doing us all (or his family, anyway) a favor by not "getting out." And I'm glad of it. Thanks Mr. Vonnegut. via the ubiquiternets: On pages 9 and 10 of his book, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut stated that there are eight rules for writing a short story. 1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. 2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. 3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. 4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action. 5. Start as close to the end as possible. 6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of. 7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. 8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. .
  • No shame in a double post for Vonnegut. “Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.” .
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  • he was one of those authors who, when I discovered him I immediately read about 80% of his work (it was all I could get my hands on) in utter delight. I must reread the Sirens of Titan :)
  • Part of me doesn't want to read more because I thought Slaughterhouse Five was just right.
  • I was so sad when I heard this. God bless you Mr. Vonnegut. So it goes. .