Kurt Vonnegut has died

[Dids]

This hit me harder than expected. RIP Kurt [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

(the guy who mentioned Stephen King should be [censored] slapped, hard, with a red vine or other painful candy product).

[tdarko]

He was one of the authors that turned literature into a passion of mine. He will be missed.

[I.Rowboat]

It's a huge loss for those of us who loved his works, but from his recent interviews, it sounded like living had become burdensome, and he was ready to be relieved of his burdens.

"Kurt is up in heaven now."

[gumpzilla]

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We are healthy to the extent that our ideas are humane.

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I'd forgotten this quote, but I really, really like it.

[pryor15]

"Extenuating circumstances to be mentioned on Judgment Day: We never asked to be born in the first place."

[KungFuManchu]

found this on YouTube. Its a pretty amazing documentry/interview with Kurt Vonnegut. It also has him reading from his work and re-anactments from his various works as well. Its pretty amazing stuff. Very enjoyable. Looks like it was done in the late 70s/early 80s

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6 (cats cradle)

Part 7

Part 8

[cognito20]

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i saw him speak in 2005.

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ditto. bluebeard is my favorite

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I saw him speak in the 90s with Joseph Heller and William Styron. "Bluebeard" is also my favorite, and gave rise to my interest in abstract expressionist art. It definitely his most -underrated- novel, and one of the more underrated novels of the 20th century, period.

--Scott

[cognito20]

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Yeh, Cormac McCarthy can definitely be put in the same category as Kurt. Stephen King? Perhaps you're leveling.

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Stephen King is just as good as McCarthy and Vonnegut, in a much different way. All three of them will be among the few modern American writers whose works will still be read and enjoyed 100-150 years from now, and it's a crying shame that all three of them should be Nobel Laureates in Literature, and none of them are.

--Scott

[TheDudeAbides]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yeh, Cormac McCarthy can definitely be put in the same category as Kurt. Stephen King? Perhaps you're leveling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Stephen King is just as good as McCarthy and Vonnegut, in a much different way. All three of them will be among the few modern American writers whose works will still be read and enjoyed 100-150 years from now, and it's a crying shame that all three of them should be Nobel Laureates in Literature, and none of them are.

--Scott

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Wow. Just wow.

[GTL]

i think my favorite vonnegut writing is his short stories. i like a few of his books (slaughterhouse 6 and Sirens of Titan), but some of them (and even he admits this) are average at best and just rehash a lot of the same ideas and characters. that said, he is still a very funny writer, with a few amazing books.

Personally I think Cormac McCarthy is in a different league and head and shoulders above stephen king and Vonnegut. There is an argument for McCarthy being the best american writer ever. It would be impossible to make that argument for King or Vonnegut.