Larry, I was thinking the same thing. It has been at least thirty years for me since I read him! I think his book about the Dresden bombing was probably his most significant work.
It is interesting that you saw him in person. (I am not fond of musical adaptaptions and cannot imagine why anyone would consider Cat's Cradle as a good excuse for one.) There was a scandal, I vaguely remember, connected with his family. His children disliking him or something. Do you, does anyone, remember the story?
Msolga -- I think both karass and ice-nine were from Cat's Cradle, but karass was used again in at least one other work. Amazing notions, both of them.
I have learned the hard way not to reread favorite authors from"my salad days, when I was green in judgement" as Shakespeare puts it so well--they rraely seem as good to me now as they did then. I recently was horrified to discover all sorts of faults in my beloved Raymond Chandler when I reread him. So I'm not going to revisit Vonnegut. There are too many writers out there I haven't yet read and too many books by great writers like Dickens that I want to get to to waste time going back to the books I liked as an adolescent. Life is too short for the inevitable disenchantment.
I haven't read Vonnegut again for many years either, for the reasons you mentioned, Larry.
I guess what's brought his books to mind again is the current war in Iraq. His attitudes to war & the madness of humans seemed appropriate for these times ... as they were during Vietnam.
I find that "Catch 22" is the epitome of war "logic"
I am a resigned Yossarian.
Pity.
How do you resign as a Yossarian?
Catch 22 - never stops being true...
You continue to care, when you know it's all a manipulated illusion. Because the illusion is indeed, a reality.
"Catcha-22"
when you allude to an illusion does it become an allusion?
Hmmmm- very likely.
Ain't English great?
Oh, I forgot to add a personal connection to Vonnegut through my father's unfortunate experience with the real Kilgore Trout....yep, the original one that Vonnegut cited way early on. And then I think Vonnegut realized the guy was trying to capitalize on his "fame" through Vonnegut and tried to distance himself.
Unfortunately, in th episode I vividly remember, the aforesaid Trout got off a bus in Illinois and read through the paper to learn the name of the mayor. Who he called. Who was my father. And proceeded to tell quite a tale of having had an emergency happen on his trip somewhere and was stranded now. So, he hit on a well-educated literary fan of Vonnegut with his call! My father then arranged to bring him by taxi to our home and over the next few days, a bank, a hotel and my father helped out in the "emergency" by guaranteeing his charges until he would wire them the repayment when he got back 'home'. Can you guess what happened?
LOL!
MsOlga - it is just as well I am the one to tell you that Hoosier is not necessarily a term of prestige....lol!
I lived in Indiana a few years and since I was only about 3 miles from the border of Michigan, I prefered the term to be "Michianan". Hoosier has so many speculations that it is just a term that has come to mean a sort of Indiana resident that is rather conservative. This is the place where Debs came from, yes, but also the Studebakers and the Quyales. (Dan, the Potato Man). The KKK was revived again in the 20's in Indiana, and the John Birch Society also fluorished in Indiana.
Now before I am to be hit with lots of tomaters, there are some mighty fine Indiananans we know - one from abuzz is Debacle!
some day son, all this will be yours.
For those who haven't picked up a Vonnegut in years, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Bagambo Snuff Box.
But then, I have always preferred his short stories to his novels.
His novels were mostly short.
Bluebeard is my all time favorite Vonnegut read. It is about art painting and the art of writing. He takes the idea of "the writer as priest" not so seriously.
"Time is liquid. One moment is no more important than any other and all moments quickly run away."
- Bluebeard p.82
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