Thursday, April 12, 2007

Sad news

Kurt Vonnegut died the other day, in New York. He fell several weeks ago & died from resultant brain injuries.

I've read a good bit of his work, loved most of it, was stirred by all of it. Not too long ago I reread Player Piano, enjoying his strong style and lack of refinement of his early writing.

*sigh* What can I say? It's a sad, sad day.

4 comments:

moms-r-fun said...

Dear Erica,

wow! your blog is awesome! I have a tendency to gush, which makes me look idiotic on the internet, so this is me restraining myself. you know i haven't seen hardly any of these shows and movies, but it's so fun to read what you write about them. it's cool to read your voice instead of hear it, though I do hear it in my head. i like it! love you, and glad to get caught up on at least the last two months of sci-fi geekery. It was great to see you!
-a

Erica said...

Ahh, a sad day made joyful by your presence, Asenath! Thanks for the gushing, I definitely appreciate the feedback. Perhaps on my next visit, we should plan an afternoon of cheesy scifi, and catch you up on some of the tv you "missed" in India ;)

Anonymous said...

i did a tribute to vonnegut on my show today, interspersing quotes of his (read by myself and another DJ) with various snippets of the man himself speaking. a great loss from one perspective; from another, we're lucky to have had him at all. looed at backward in time, in two days he'll wake up from being dead, and from then on he'll just get healthier and healthier until he crawls back up inside the womb in about 85 years. anyway, he's in heaven now!

love,

slappy


ps: this will make this blog comment a million miles long, literally, but it think i'll go ahead and include some of the quotes i gathered for the show today. enjoy!

* * * * *

We had a memorial service for Isaac [Asimov] a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in heaven now.' It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now.' That's my favorite joke.

* * * * *

As I read the Book of Genesis, God didn't give Adam and Eve a whole planet.

He gave them a manageable piece of property, for the sake of discussion let's say 200 acres.

I suggest to you Adams and Eves that you set as your goals the putting of some small part of the planet into something like safe and sane and decent order.

* * * * *

Life is no way to treat an animal.

* * * * *

Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.

* * * * *

Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.

* * * * *

One thing which Uncle Alex found objectionable about human beings was that they seldom took time out to notice when they were happy. He himself did his best to acknowledge it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and he would interrupt the conversation to say, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

So, I hope that you Adams and Eves in front of me will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud: 'If this isn't nice, what is?' Hold up your hands if you promise to do that.

* * * * *

When you're dead, you're dead. Make love when you can. It's good for you.

* * * * *

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

Erica said...

Thank you muchly, Slappy! A million mile post and it doesn't even scratch the surface. Our loss is heaven's gain.

Heh, that's my favourite joke now, too :)