What can I say that others aren’t already saying? But I can’t let the death of Kurt Vonnegut pass without a few words. Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, Slaughterhouse 5, Breakfast of Champions, all brilliant books, of course. I got the chance to hear him speak at the University of Massachusetts many years ago as he examined the greatest work in the English language (Hamlet) and plotted the course of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis on a blackboard--drawing a straight line that drops immediately after the first sentence: “Oh s-----!”
The story that he told that stuck with me is this: someone asked him if he had a word processor (this was 1992, BTW) and he said no, and went off on a long description of how he writes up his work, goes to the drug store to buy an envelope, hangs out and farts around with the people in line at the drug store, goes to the post office to buy a stamp, hangs out and farts around with the people in line at the post office, then mails it to his secretary in upstate New York, a process that takes about an hour. Why does he do it this way and not just have stamps and envelopes on hand? Because doing all that gave him the opportunity to hang out and fart around: “life is all about hanging out and farting around and don’t let anybody tell you any differently!”
Advice we can all take to heart.
Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007
1 comment:
hey, nice post. i didn't realize you got to hear kurt speak. so much more i need to learn!
Post a Comment