Kurtains
I normally don’t mark the passing of celebrities. I’m rather obstinate about reserving emotions like love, admiration, and grief for people I actually know.
Caveats completed, I am sorry to hear of Vonnegut’s passing. I don’t know if I would exactly say that he was one of my favorite authors, but I liked some of his books very much. More importantly, as a younger reader growing up in small, conservative town, it was Vonnegut’s irreverent lens that focused a lot of my early political questioning and awareness.
I don’t know if there is anybody out there who could rightly assume Vonnegut’s mantle. (Chris Moore comes to mind.) But if you want to encourage a bright young mind to entertain thoughts subversive to the mind-numbing drone of the American Political-Media industrial complex, you could do a lot worse than slipping them a copy of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Slaughterhouse-Five. A Vonnegut in his writing prime today would truly be a man for these absurd times.
Hi ho.
Photo of vonnegut, originally uploaded by mikemongo.
I’ve been an avid Vonnegut reader for more than 20 years (I’m 25) and have read all of his books. As fate would have it, I had started to re-read The Sirens of Titan (still the greatest novel of all time) the day before Vonnegut died.
I don’t know who you are, but please contact me at the email above. I’m on the Concord-Bethel Dem Committee and when the candidates (and Cliff) attended our meeting, I made a strong point about the critical fall campaign County Council issue on which the Dems who win (whoever they turn out to be) should focus their message. (It’s probably not what you’re thinking it is.) If they follow my suggestion the might actually win the Nov. election; if they don’t they’re going to lose.
Dan Levin
Concord-Bethel Dem Committee