TuRaven: “this is still America and until “King G” says it aint so, we have freedom to say what ever evil we may spout without repercutions(sp?).”

Canning Imus didn’t violate his first-amendment rights.  You have every right to say what you wish in America but no one has an obligation to distribute your speech for you.  He was fired by his employer, not censored by the government.

I just think it is so sad that one of America’s great writers passed away and the coverage of his death (and his accomplishments) is overshadowed by “The Whole Don Imus thing...”

I’ll probably be burned at a stake for saying this, but I’ve never read a single thing by Kurt Vonnegut which is why I didn’t have much to say about his death. I mean I’ve always been aware that he was considered a fixture of American Literature and was highly revered and such, but I just never got around to reading anything by him. That’s true of a lot of the classical authors though.

I’ll probably be burned at a stake for saying this, but I’ve never read a single thing by Kurt Vonnegut which is why I didn’t have much to say about his death.

Burn HIM!! Just kidding, no massive Vonnegut memorial blog entry on SEB doesn’t bother me at all. It is your blog, after all. But the news shows (and I mean the real news programs, not the ‘Entertainment Tonight’ style news programs) have transcripts that read:

Don Imus called young women “Nappy Headed Hoes”.
OMG HE SAID WUT!?
Jessie Jackson calls “Nappy Headed Hoes” comment unacceptable.
Oh, by the way, Vonnegut died, now back to more pressing matters.
Nappy Headed Hoes-Gate… continues.
Is it Hoes or Ho’s we ask Snoop Doggy Dog…
And on.
And on.
And on.

In honour of Kurt

*Moloch

Vonnegut was one of the classic authors that I too haven’t read.  He’s on my reading radar, but my brain is too full of pulse code modualtion and metal-semiconductor interactions right now to be able to sit down with anything more than fun reads(Star Wars, Jim Butcher, etc). 

LH, so I guess your sig when you get to the big flood will be something about the contractor screwing up the plumbing?

Well you know, low-bidders…

I’ve never read Vonnegut either.  Tried to, but the style didn’t appeal to me.  Another beloved author I just couldn’t get into was Ray Bradbury.

Well you know, low-bidders…

Washing away sin and sinners, cleansing the world and all that sounds alot better than “The damned toilet backed up and ruined creation”.

Sadie: pick up a copy of “Slaughterhouse Five”

The Wiki ref mentioned that KV was a (WW2) POW in Germany and as such his duties included collecting corpses; based on these experiences he wrote “Slaughterhouse Five”.
Being one who’d rather self-medicate against reality than confront it I doubt I’d find it enjoyable so I won’t hunt the book down nevertheless, if it were to appear on my horizon I’d read it.

I read the Guadian’s obituary. He told one interviewer the only person to profit from the Dresden raid was him- he got $7 for each corpse collected.

We had to read SlaughterHouse 5 in my English 11 class, but I chose to fail that card marking because it bored me.

I suppose I should try again soon, everyone who is reading it this year, including my boyfriend, loves it.

Excerpted from Arianna Huffington‘s Blog:

“I see dead people.” So Nora Ephron told me earlier this week. And no, she wasn’t having a supernatural experience. She was talking about people like Don Imus, Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Isaiah Thomas, and John McCain…

I don’t care who you are - that’s funny right there.

there is the supreme irony that the thing that might finally bring down one of the primary architects of the biggest foreign policy disaster in our nation’s history is his girlfriend. Getting a country to go to war based on lies and being partially responsible for the needless deaths of tens of thousands of people barely slowed Wolfie down. But using his position at the World Bank to help his girlfriend land a cushy job at the State Department might get him fired. Sort of like Al Capone going to prison for tax evasion.

I wish some shit would stick to The Shrub - the bitch still has 1.5 years to go - so much more havoc to reap ... so little time.

Any fan of Kurt Vonnegut (as I was, and am, reluctantly) should also read The Eden Express, by his son Mark Vonnegut.  Not as clever as his father, but much more empathetic.

Zilch: Any fan of Kurt Vonnegut (as I was, and am, reluctantly)

Reluctant? Why reluctant, the man was a literary genius?

I’m a reluctant fan of John Sandford. Poorly written pulp, but I devour his books like pizza.

But I’m quite proud to say I’m a fan of Vonnegut…

Reluctant because, despite his undeniable genius, he seemed cold.  Maybe I’m just a softie, but I prefer people who are obviously in love with life and other people.  Kurt Vonnegut, at least as far as I can see from his books (and I’ve read almost all of them) was deliciously cynical, but without redeeming empathy.  This is (rumor has it) part of the reason his son went crazy, as described in

The Eden Express

Of course, I don’t know Kurt, or Mark, Vonnegut’s souls, so I shouldn’t be hasty to judge.  But as a person with a decided penchant for cynicism myself, I realize that without love, cynicism is at best light entertainment (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but not as a steady diet) and at worst merely depressing and incapacitating.

I haven’t read anything of John Sanford, but I admit to liking John D. MacDonald.

Reluctant because, despite his undeniable genius, he seemed cold.  Maybe I’m just a softie, but I prefer people who are obviously in love with life and other people.  Kurt Vonnegut, at least as far as I can see from his books (and I’ve read almost all of them) was deliciously cynical, but without redeeming empathy.

A valid point, and very close to the reason I don’t like most of Kubrick’s movies. He’s too emotionally distant from his subjects, there’s no connection. I don’t really see Vonnegut as cynical (at least in his fiction) so much as “other”. He’s almost a godlike presence that looms over his stories and watches his creations behave in strange and dark ways.

I haven’t read anything of John Sanford, but I admit to liking John D. MacDonald.

No comparison, MacDonald was a master craftsman and he turned pulp into art. Sandford just writes a good page turner (and they usually only hold together if you don’t think too hard about the plot).

Good comparison, JPG. “Distant” is the right word for both Vonnegut and Kubrick.  I don’t know about Kubrick, but (to indulge in a little folk psychology here) I can well imagine that being on hand for the firestorm that engulfed Dresden in WWII (as Vonnegut was) might make anyone look at the the human race with a bit of distance.

Thanks for the tip- I’ll look for Sanford next time I’m at “Thrift Town”, where I can pick up pocketbooks for a quarter (my price range for page turners).

Thanks for the tip- I’ll look for Sanford next time I’m at “Thrift Town”, where I can pick up pocketbooks for a quarter (my price range for page turners).

Since we’re on the subject of pulp detective fiction, have you read any Ross MacDonald? His Lew Archer novels are among the few to equal John MacDonald and Raymond Chandler and you can usually find his used paperbacks pretty cheap.

I may have mentioned it before, but to my mind there are only four really important writers in the history of private eye fiction. There are plenty of others worth reading, but just four define the genre. Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, John MacDonald & Robert B. Parker.

(As an egotistical aside, twenty years from now I intend to add my name to that list. But I’m a lot more ambitious than most people who writegenre fiction and hope to bring more than formula to my work.)

...twenty years from now I intend to add my name to that list

Speaking of which, JPG, how’s your novel coming along?  I’d be glad to pay more than a quarter for it…

On pace for the first draft to be complete by July. Then I’ll be soliciting test readers to help me scour for any inconsitencies (too early to bother checking my spelling, blah), a couple folks have already volunteered their services. Hopefully I’ll have a submission ready draft by September.

KPG: … but I admit to liking John D. MacDonald

Yeah, another author who didn’t writeenough Travis McGee philosophy before he kicked the bucket:
“Never quite matching what you want of yourself is the basic human condition” and
“If innocence could keep us alive we’d all be saints”
Both seem aptly poignant with regards to the mass murder of innocent victims today.

I never post song lyrics, or quotes from lyrics. It always seems corny to me. But with the discussion turning to Travis McGee and real world events leaving me feeling somewhat disconnected, this just seems right. These are the words to one of my very favorite songs, written by Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett
Incommunicado

Travis McGee’s still in Cedar Key
That’s what old John McDonald said
My rendezvous so long overdue
With all of the things I’ve sung and read
They still apply to me, they all make sense in time

But now I’m incommunicado
Driving by myself down the road with a hole in it
Songs with no bravado
Takin’ the long way home

Now on the day that John Wayne died
I found myself on the continental divide
Tell me where do we go from here?
Think I’ll ride into Leadville and have a few beers
Think of “Red River”, “Liberty Valence” can’t believe
the old man’s gone

But now he’s incommunicado
Leaving such a hole in a world that believed
That a life with such bravado
Was taking the right way home

So when I finished the last line
I put the book by itself on the shelf
With my heart in it
Never wasting time takin’ the right way home
I know you’re never wastin’ time
Findin’ the right way home

Maybe I’m just a softie, but I prefer people who are obviously in love with life and other people.

Me too.

Given that we share so many of the same starting points, it makes our past exchanges all the more frustrating to me.