A man without a country
What was called science fiction, now called modern lit?
“I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex.” Page 25.
But to round it out? The original CSI (Las Vegas), the TV show, was also deemed ‘science fiction’ in a then-current literary taxonomy because of the technology used to solve the crimes.
“First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” Page 29.
I disagree, as witnessed in my own writing. But I admire the sentiment.
A man without a country
I must admit that the writing of Kurt Vonnegut has influenced me over the years. I was an early teen when I first read Slaughterhouse-Five, and the end of the Vietnam conflict punctuated the questions.
A man without a country
I heard him speak, once. Think, it was old Austin, at the university, $5 will-call ticket.
“How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.” Page 52.
Seen that sentiment, that quote in various forms, repeated throughout the memes, mostly writers. However, I think, no proof, it was from on stage, an hour-long presentation to half full auditorium, at the University of Texas, been around the spring/summer ’93. Question mark? But yes, part of the book’s passage was repeated from the podium.
“Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself.” Page 90.
Remarkable collection, and I’m sure I’ve read it before, but I couldn’t find any of my own notes.
The collection does give pause, first, to what I read when a I was a teenager, the early books, but then, that professor who assigned The Sirens of Titan, and the way it fit with the Kurt Vonnegut oeuvre, and finally, the notation about that book’s first publication with a lurid cover, which hardly depicts anything therein.
The slim collection of ramblings from Kurt Vonnegut brought so much careening back.
A man without a country
Vonnegut, Kurt. A man without a country. New York: Seven Stories Press, (c) 2005.
Trout, Kilgore. Venus on the Half Shell. New York: Dell Publishing, 1975.
