One of my favorite authors died yesterday. Indianapolis born satirist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. died Wednesday in New York as a result of brain injuries sustained in a fall several weeks ago. He was 84 years old. Vonnegut was best known for his book "Slaughterhouse-Five" which drew inspiration from his experience as a prisoner of war during World War II and his witnessing of the firebombing of Dresden Germany.
I never did get to hear Vonnegut speak. It'll rank up there with some of my biggest missed opportunities, like not seeing Johnny Cash perform before his death. One of my prized possessions is an autographed 3rd edition of "Slaughterhouse-Five" that my lovely wife gave me as a present.
Vonnegut's writing was full of wit, irony, humor, religious skepticism, humanism and compassion. He was a modern day Mark Twain. I wonder if his tombstone will echo that of his character Billy Pilgrim's with it's epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt"?
Here's a Vonnegut poem called "Requim" from 2005
When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.
Indy Star article
New York Time article
No comments:
Post a Comment