Kurt Vonnegut has died

[gummy d]

GTL,
I agree that Cormac is in a differnet league. To me he towers over American literature. He can't be touched.
On a different note, I happened to see the eulogy given to Kurt by Britt Hume of Fox News. After giving him props and highlighting his leftist leanings, he concluded by saying he died "such an unhappy man". FUUUCKKKK YYOOOUUUUUU MURDOCH(K)!

[Bill Murphy]

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We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

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I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.

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If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.

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It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.

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So it goes.

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HiHo!

A great shame all this Imus/Lacrosse crap is going on right now to distract from the tributes he should get. He had a minor headline on CNN this morning, and then it was gone by noon.

I wasn't a huge fan, but he had some great stuff, and was certainly a Top Ten giant. RIP.

Greatest living american writer, Philip Roth FTW?

[React1oN]

I read 1984 the first day I got in in 10th grade. I came back next class and told teacher, she handed me Slaughter-House Five. Incredible book.

RIP.

So it goes...

[Bill Murphy]

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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.

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I've never read any McCarthy, and this latest post-Apocalyptic one doesn't interest me. Any recommends? Didn't he write some ultra-violent book set in Mexico?

King in many ways resembles the Rolling Stones. Limited, but very well aware of those limitations, for the most part. They've both put out so much for so long (a good deal of it crap, esp. in the last 10-15 years), plus their names have so much baggage, it's hard to sometimes remember how really good they were & can be.

The last three Dark Tower books were muddled at best, and the 2nd is nearly unreadable. King himself has said the whole series needs a revision.But both the 1st and esp. the 4th books are fantastic, even as standalones.

If King were to release Different Seasons & the first four Bachman books today (which foresaw reality shows, planes into buildings, and eminent domain backlash, among other things), he'd be a strong Pulitzer/PEN/NBA contender.

Many of his early short stories ARE highly derivative, but some others rank among the very best of the genre; Poe, Lovecraft, Bloch, Matheson, Hemingway.

And he's written about the process of writing (both fictional & non-fictional), and men's relationships with their wives & children about as well as anyone I can think of.

He certainly will be read & discussed 100 years from now, although his more recent stuff is overrated, kinda like Steely Dan getting a Grammy for Two Against Nature instead of Aja.

[Big Poppa Smurf]

This made me really sad.

[Blarg]

I wish more people who esteem this writer would read one of his great inspirations, a man called the greatest prose stylist in France. Vonnegut wrote forwards for the Engilsh editions of some books of Louis-Fernand Celine. Celine came to huge prominence in the early 30's with the magnificent Journey to the End of the Night, an absolute must-read in world literature.

Journey to the End of the Night, at Amazon

Future books included Death on the Installment Plan and a series of novels about Europe after WW2.

Celine, horrifically bitter, horrifically honest, eventually made the horrific mistake of supporting the Nazis, and with that virtually vanished from the world stage overnight. But Vonnegut knew the stunning power of the man, and that his later mistakes did nothing to wipe out his previous brilliance. "So it goes," his famous refrain, was taken directly from the spirit of Journey to the End of the Night's blasted, prodigiously cleverly and artfully styled incorporation of endless terrible, fearless, wrenching, yet often screamingly funny truths into the hapless picaresque fugue of his protagonist's stark encounters. Seen with an absolutely ruthless eye, Celine's characters and situations undoubtedly were a lifelong wellspring of Vonnegut's own fiction and outlook on the world.

If you love the son and value his judgment, you owe the father a look. It's worth it.

[Blarg]

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so it goes.

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RIP Kurt, you're the last great American writer..

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stephen king is still alive

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Holy crap, for a second I thought you were serious.

[Blarg]

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

RIP KV.

-JP

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Awesome sentiment. And very very rare.

[Borodog]

Blarg,

You write well.

I mean, for a Nazi-lover.

[Blarg]

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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.

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World class.