h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Wizard of Indianapolis is gone. Having suffered from head injuries during a fall a few weeks ago, the 80-some gentleman died on Wednesday.
Kurt Vonnegut was cited in an interview with Douglas Adams as an influence. Given Vonnegut's humanistic agnosticism and his tendency to treat science fiction as a basis for parody and satire as well as political commentary, Douglas, as well as many other young students of the sixties, was undoubtably impressed by the uniqueness of the novels, including "Player Piano" and "Slaughterhouse Five".

The historical connection of "Slaughterhouse Five" is one of the landmarks in WWII-related fiction. An actual incident involving the firebombing of Dresden, an industrial city famous for it's china and churches and no known military involvement, and a young Vonnegut as a POW, the story flips back and forth between a fictionalized version of what happened to him and the science fictional events that happen to Billy Pilgrim, the stand-in for Vonnegut in the novel. Pilgrim gets to visit another planet as part of a sereis of zoo exhibits involving disparate species. The movie version starred a newcomer to films named Valerie Perrine as the chosen mate for Pilgrim.

Vonnegut as a man was clinically depressed and addicted to cigarettes.
He was as surprised as anyone when his books began to sell in the mid-sixties to college students who had not been assigned them as study texts. Kurt's books were usually found in the knapsacks and the book shelves next to those of some fellow named Tolkien. Vonnegut was always a middle class family man, who lived a simple life and remained amazed at his celebrity, which put him in a class with Norman Mailer, whatshisface, the author of "Catch 22", Tom Wolfe, whathisface, who wrote "A Clockwork Orange", and Gore Vidal.

Vonnegut was a chronic doodler, who drew things in the margins of his galleys and manuscripts. These tiny drawings later became an integral part of his books when they were published.


Kurt never stopped writing, but his last few books were collections of essays, as he'd stopped working on novels about twenty years ago. He wrote a column and editorials for a small politcal magazine in the US up until recently.

As a rather unique artist, it is hard to say that he was the last of an era. He was sui generis, as Harlan Ellison would say.

Goodbye, Kurt.
The midwest has no one to take your place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/629620.stm

http://www.bordersmedia.com/features/pages/vonnegut_brinkley.asp

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A3234953

Wow. I'd forgotten I'd done that.

"I'm suing a cigarette company because on the package they promised to kill me, and yet here I am."

Goodbye Kurt!.

Yep. A genius.

I tried re-reading Hunter S Thompson after he left us, and have to admit it wasn't quite what I remembered.

But this man will be, I know.

Wellll... I wouldn't mention both artists in the same conversation, meself.

But Thompson was a character and a character of his times.
He was reactionary while Kurt was more of a visionary.
Also, Thompson was a maniac. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the same county with him, while Kurt was a fairly nice person.

Plus there is the odd fact that Thompson considered himself to be a journalist. Vonnegut on the other hand was a verbal cartoonist.

Fair comment.

I read them both in the same period of my life. That was the only reason for the association, that and the fact they've both left us.

There's a very fine Thompson homage-parody in the UG : A4177280

I wonder if somweone dare try Vonnegut? Much harder, but it would be

I found out from my daughter, Shnooks, that my ex went to the library and checked out "Slaughterhouse Five" and read it through after hearing of Kurt's death.

And she's practically alliterate.

I was reading Kurt in his entirety about the same time I discovered Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels. That would have been about 1982...