Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

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

--K.V.

The Early Years

Born - November 11, 1922, Indianapolis, Indiana

Grandfather- first licensed architect in Indiana Father- wealthy architect Family’s wealth diminished when the Great

Depression hit and Kurt Sr. couldn’t find work Parents had trouble accepting the fact that they were

no longer wealthy Mother committed suicide on May 14, 1944 (Mother’s

Day) (he was away at war) Father retreated into his own little world until his death

in 1957

Mom’s suicide OD on sleeping pills- haunted him for the rest of his life

Education/Writing

Shortridge Daily Echo - the first daily high school newspaper in the country

Cornell University - double major (bio and chem!) Brother Bernard was a scientist - discovered cloud

seeding to induce precipitation Struggled with bio & chem Excelled as Managing Editor for Cornell Daily Sun

(school newspaper) By 1943- almost asked to leave Cornell, joined Army

instead

Dad wanted him to study something dependable, which is why he chose science

Dresden

“All this happened, more or less. The war parts,

anyway, are pretty much true.”

Dresden

Became German POW after being captured in the Battle of the Bulge

Sent to Dresden “The Florence on the Elbe” No military significance

Sent to work in vitamin syrup factory February 13, 1945 - Allied forces

firebombed Dresden (incendiary bombs)

Shook faith in humanity and the rationality of the universe

Warning: some of the images that follow may be upsetting. Close your eyes if you do not

want to see them.

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and

exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning

up to do afterward.”

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

Dresden, cont’d.

Debate about number of casualities from bombing (35,000 - 350,000)

Vonnegut and fellow POWs survived Making vitamins in an underground meat locker After bombing, put to work cleaning up bodies - too

many, so the Germans brought in flame throwers

Sent home in May of 1945 Received Purple Heart for what he called a

“ludicrously negligible wound” Owes career to experience in Dresden

He called the wound frostbite

Family Life

Married - Jane Marie Cox (high school sweetheart)

Three children of their own Later adopted his sister’s three children

after her death in 1958

Sister Alice died of cancer less than 48 hours after her husband was killed in a train accident (in Newark, NJ)

Employment

Graduate student at University of Chicago Anthropology major (the study of humankind

and human cultures/societies) Thesis was rejected, did not receive degree

Newspaper reporter Teacher (yay!) Public relations employee for General

Electric in Schenectedy, NY Ran a Saab dealership

Thesis was called “Fluctuations Between Good and Evil in Simple Tales”- unamimously rejectedSaab dealershp went bankrupt- felt like the reason he never received the Nobel Prize was b/c the Swedes never forgave him for the bankrupt business

Humanism

As described by Kurt Vonnegut himself, “being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead”

Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity

Religious Beliefs

Believed that religious doctrines were “so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash”

Rejected divinity of Jesus but admired him nonetheless

The Beatitudes (poor, mourners, hungry, persecuted for seeking righteousness, meek, merciful, pure of heart, peacemakers) informed his own humanist outlook

Fatalism

"All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.” (from Timequake)

Fatalism - the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable

Who in Slaughterhouse-Five is a fatalist? How would the belief in fatalism guide

someone’s everyday actions?

From Cat’s Cradle

"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder,

'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand."

Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance the action.

Start as close to the end as possible.

From Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, by KV

Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story

Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them, in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

One More Thing About the Eight Rules

Vonnegut qualifies the list by adding that Flannery O'Connor broke all these rules except the first, and that great writers tend to do that.

From Timequake

In response to his own question, “Why bother?” (regarding reading and writing):

"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.'"

Literary Life

Player Piano (1952) took on corporate culture

Cat’s Cradle (1963) satirizes the Arms Race, addresses science, technology, and religion University of Chicago accepted this as his thesis The Grateful Dead - Ice Nine

Slaughterhouse-Five (1968) exploration of the human condition mixed with the

fantastical, semi-autobiographical A Man Without a Country (2005)

collection of essays, mostly political

Armageddon in Retrospect - published on KV’s bday

Writing Style

Long sentences Little punctuation

“Do not use semicolons. They stand for absolutely nothing.”

Humanist point of view Satire - the use of humor, irony, exaggeration,

or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

Writing Style

Nonlinear Chronology - events are out of order

Metafiction - fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions and traditional narrative techniques

Writing Style

Repetition Allusions (religious, literary, classical) Use of an alter-ego (see if you can figure

out who it is) “Combination of simplicity, irony, and

rue” Blended literature with science fiction

and humor, the absurd with pointed social commentary

Science Fiction?

"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'science fiction' ever since [the publication of Player Piano],

and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the

drawer for a urinal.”

Science reality, not science fiction

On Reviews...

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is

preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

Design Career

Illustrations in his books (felt tip drawings)

Collaborated with Joe Petro to create silkscreen prints

Participated in a project - The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were - created an album cover for Phish

Later in Life

Taught creative writing at Harvard Got divorced (and later remarried Jill

Krementz [a photographer]) Saw his son Mark suffer and recover

from a psychotic breakdown Attempted suicide (1984) Died April, 2007- head injuries due to a

fall in his home (ironic)

Other Interesting Tidbits

Smoked unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes, which he considered a “classy way to commit suicide”

November 11, 1999 - an asteroid was named in his honor

Considered Mark Twain to be an American saint (did you wonder why his son was named Mark?)

Vonnegut’s Last LinesWhen 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 A Man Without a Country

So it goes.

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SatireNoun. A literary manner which blends humor with criticism for the purpose of instruction or the improvement of humanity

The necessary ingredients♦Humor

♦Criticism, either general criticism of humanity or human nature or specific criticism of an individual or group.

♦Some kind of moral voice: simply mocking or criticism is not “satire.”

The Satiric Manner♦ Ironic/Sarcastic

♦ Either good natured criticism (Horatian after Horace) or bitterly cynical denunciation (Juvenalian after Juvenal)

♦ Always opposed to pretense, affectation, and hypocrisy

♦ More than a little bit prone to references to things society finds taboo or disgusting

Some tools of the satirist♦Direct satire♦ Indirect Satire

– Parody– Caricature – Exaggeration/Diminutization – Utopianism– Dystopianism

Direct Satire = stating a direct criticism humorously. This is the oldest and, historically, most common form of satiric writing.

Comedian Dennis Miller’s popular series of books, Rants, are an excellent modern example of direct satire.

The Death of Common Sense“You can't get in your car and not run into another

idiot who pulls into the gas station with his fuel tank on the wrong side and then has to get instructions from a NASA team at Houston Control to figure out how to maneuver his car so that the tank is on the correct side. And you can't open a paper without reading about a mondo idiot who gets hurt or killed at a railroad crossing because they had to try and beat the train to get home in time to watch Charlene Tilton's salute to porcelain clowns on QVC.”

Parody = a work of literature that mimics another work of literature,

♦ Monty Python and the Holy Grail♦ Austin Powers♦ Scary Movie/Epic Movie♦ Gulliver’s Travels♦ Don Quixote♦ Wicked

Check out this classic modern example of parody in action

Reversal…♦ When the satirist uses/describes the opposite of

what he actually wants to happen in order to make a point…

When Colbert discusses the Mexican “invasion” of Hollywood, he truly means that he does not mind the “immigration” but comments on the irrational fear conservatives have of Hollywood and immigrants.

Caricature = An exaggerated portrayal of the weaknesses, frailties, or humorous aspects of an individual or group.

Caricatures of the presidential candidates by Saturday Night Live cast members in ‘03 year actually changed the way that the candidates

Exaggeration = The portrayal of something trivial or unimportant as very important, usually to emphasize its triviality.

Diminutization = the portrayal of something perceived as important as something trivial/unimportant to show its unimportance.

An Excerpt..The Peer now spreads the glittering Forfex wide, T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide. Ev'n then, before the fatal Engine clos'd, A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd; Fate urged the Sheers, and cut the Sylph in twain, (But Airy Substance soon unites again) The meeting Points the sacred Hair dissever From the fair Head, for ever and for ever!

Contrast

♦ George Orwell’s 1984♦ Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World♦ Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451♦ Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano♦ Gulliver’s Travels, Book IV* Both Dystopianism and Utopianism use contrast to

make point.

♦Zoolander♦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=GurTrUMMB9E

♦Anchorman♦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Ip6GolC7Mk0

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