Hopedance

by Frank Kahl

In Fond Memory

Kurt Vonnegut
(11/11/22 - 4/11/07)
  
The world no longer has the physical being of Kurt; although his spirit may be with the “asteroid 25399 Vonnegut” named in his honor. The darkly comic counterculture humorist died on April 11 at age 84 after suffering complications from an irreversible brain injury caused by a serious fall.

Vonnegut was a self-styled prophet of the apocalypse with shrewd wit, boundless imagination for the absurd, and a pessimistic disposition.  He used a very powerful tool -- humor -- to deconstruct life’s most daunting and unanswerable questions. Why are we in this world? Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this?

Every generation needs an articulate, critical voice to challenge the status quo.  From Aristophanes to Swift to Twain, these writers have been unafraid
to peer into the apocalyptic abyss of our lives....to encourage readers to laugh at the ghastly absurdity of the state of humanity.  Vonnegut comes as the latest in this great line of cynical soothsayers.

Although he wrote plays, essays and short fiction, it was his novels -- Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater -- that became classics of the American counterculture.  These works made him a literary idol, particularly to students (like me) in the 1960s and ‘70s.  I first read his magnum opus and No. 1 on best-seller lists Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) in the early ‘70s, and for me it became yet another statement of the cruelty and destructiveness of war down thru the centuries and a validation that blind faith in government, religion or other institutions leads to disapointment and a loss of self.  He challenged The Assholes, The Great Parasites, The Scum, The Deranged running our big corporations and government.

His vision of the future was dark; he believed we are rapidly destroying the whole planet as a breathable, drinkable system supporting life of any kind.  Human beings, past and present, are trashing the joint beyond repair.  He shared with Mark Twain a profound pessimism, and in his last book in 2005, A Man Without A Country, he concludes with a poem called “Requiem.” Here are its closing lines:

     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.


This American socialist, humanist, free thinker, prose shaman and national treasure left us for now with 14 novels, two plays, several film cameos, 17 books written ABOUT him, nine music bands influenced by his works, an asteroid named in his honor and numerous works of art.  A filmmaker named Robert Weide is currently working on a documentary on Vonnegut’s life and is adapting Sirens of Titan for the screen.

Free thinkers of the world, unite and help keep Kurt Vonnegut’s moral visions and critical ideas alive as we struggle to cope with a world of tragic comedy.  His worldview seems disturbingly prescient. Here are some tools:

• Visit the official website at http://www.vonnegut.com
• Read the definitive Kurt Vonnegut: A Comprehensive Bibliography by Asa Pieratt, Julie and Jerome Klinkowitz (Archon Books/The Shoe String Press, 1987)
• Purchase his widely available books, used
• View and disseminate awareness by watching the upcoming documentary on his life
• Visit web sites about KV
• Visit the usenet newsgroup alt.books.kurt-vonnegut

Long live the memory of a prophet of the apocalypse!

Frank L. Kahl is a regular contrbutor to HopeDance residing with his wonderful wife in Sebastopol, CA.