Thursday, April 12, 2007

Goodbye, Mr. Vonnegut

"I've had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on earth to fart around and don't let anybody tell you any different."
Kurt Vonnegut

I was very sad to see that one of my favorite writers passed away today. His books influenced me profoundly in high school (Mr. Veitenheimer's English class, to be exact). Player Piano was his first book, the first of his works that I read, and perhaps the start of my political awakening. Not that George Orwell, William Golding, John Steinbeck and others hadn't started the process. Kurt Vonnegut spoke to me with a different resonance. His way of making the most absurd and tragic circumstances emit blinding flashes of insight or white hot irony, reflected something I feel inside myself. That swirling paradox of experience and emotion... it seemed like we had the same tipping point where heaving sobs turn into laughter, similar funny bones triggered by the most unlikely things.

Like so many others, his books made me feel like I knew him, although of course I didn't. Any time he spoke publicly or gave an interview I always tried to catch it. He was the old codger I dream of becoming one day... blunt and insightful, funny and profound.

So long, Kurt.

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