“God Bless You, Kurt Vonnegut (1923 - 2007)What is your favorite Vonnegut book? What did it mean to you? Why do we Vonnegut fans devour his novels, one by one? Discuss. ”
“A black black sad day for all humanity: the passing of another of god's chosen spokesmen, another visionary in the ground, another hero taken down.Kesey, Hunter Thompson, Cash, now Vonnegut. The world grows dark and cold.Now we are left with men of a younger generation,men whose fathers I would have disdainedto put with the dogs who kept my flock.So now my soul is in turmoil within meand misery has me daily in its grip.Rise up, ye sons of Molech, ye sons of Mammon.Do you not hear the Lord's voice crying in the wilderness?Do you not hear the foe break upon the flanks of the sanctuaryLike the ocean burst its shores in the dead of night.Who will lead us, oh Lord, who will lead us now?”
“Oh, I'm sorry. As soon as I heard, I jumped on Shelfari and started a discussion thread. But, I guess Vonnegut deserves more than one memorial thread. For some reason, I don't remember too many details about many of the Vonnegut books I've read. Which is sad really, because they are among my favorites. His books are mainly considered "science fiction" but you are right, there is so much truth to each one. I should also make a plan to reread those that I own and make some headway in reading those that I haven't. The more memorable ones for me were Cat's Cradle, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (Hitler says, he's sorry! C'mon!) and Breakfast of Champions. Breakfast of Champions has a significant importance to me. I believe I was reading a passage that either stated, or made me think about how seemingly insignificant moments can really change your life in a big way. I was sitting in a hospital cafeteria, waiting for my dad to get out of surgery on his leg. Just then my phone rang and it was a wrong number. The wrong number interrupted me from my reading and caused me to look up and see my friends mother. And so Breakfast of Champions and the insignificant wrong number will forever be connected to my friend's suicide. I don't know why I'm sharing this, but that book just holds a lot of meaning for me, and I don't think I could read it again without applying that moment to its every page. ”
“I have a similar thread going with Cat's Cradle. That is my favorite too, although I also loved Slaughterhouse Five, Player Piano, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater and Breakfast of Champions. His vision of a world of chaos and cruelty and the hope of human kindness resonates deeply with my experience growing up in the sixties. The idea that certain people are in your life for cosmic reasons has also always made sense to me. I think Mr. Vonnegut was a writer who was paying attention to what was really real for him and so even though he wrote fiction, it was filled with insight and awareness applicable to real life. Rereading those books now makes sense to me and I am going to make a plan to do so.”
