Kurt Vonnegut RIP
An avowed humanist, Vonnegut became more pessimistic about human capacity for good in his later years. In a 2004 essay he wrote, "Only a nut case would want to be a human being, if he or she had a choice." And he told the Los Angeles Times in a 2005 interview, "I think we're a very bad idea. Look at the 20th century. You've got the Holocaust, two world wars, Hiroshima. Let's just call it off."
On a bookshelf in my living room you'll find approximately 98% of this man's literary work. Original... Hardback.... Worth more today than yesterday.
I had an appetite for his work back when I was as lost as he was.
I believe it was in Cat's Cradle that Vonnegut thought up the crystal "Ice 9" which transformed water to a solid form whenever contact was made with the crystal... Leaving the oceans a solid mass and humans as frozen statues. The main character ended up as a statue... On his back... Thumbing his nose at the heavens.
An avowed humanist, Vonnegut became more pessimistic about human capacity for good in his later years. In a 2004 essay he wrote, "Only a nut case would want to be a human being, if he or she had a choice." And he told the Los Angeles Times in a 2005 interview, "I think we're a very bad idea. Look at the 20th century. You've got the Holocaust, two world wars, Hiroshima. Let's just call it off."
On a bookshelf in my living room you'll find approximately 98% of this man's literary work. Original... Hardback.... Worth more today than yesterday.
I had an appetite for his work back when I was as lost as he was.
I believe it was in Cat's Cradle that Vonnegut thought up the crystal "Ice 9" which transformed water to a solid form whenever contact was made with the crystal... Leaving the oceans a solid mass and humans as frozen statues. The main character ended up as a statue... On his back... Thumbing his nose at the heavens.
...That pretty much sums it up.
2 comments:
I don't think I ever read Vonnegut. I was more of a Heinlein fan.
He was right about human capacity for good. It doesn't play itself out very well, apart from God.
Skyepuppy,
A life without hope is a very poor life.
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