Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dies At 84

At least twenty-two readers took the trouble to make sure we knew that Kurt Vonnegut has died at 84. From the Times obituary: "Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' 'Cat's Cradle' and 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan... Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz." Reader SPK adds: "He will be remembered not only as a great writer, but also as a staunch civil libertarian (long-term member of the ACLU) and as a 'mainstream/literary' author who integrated science fiction concepts into his writing. So it goes."

Comments

Bokononist last rites

[djdead]

God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going God.

Re:Bokononist last rites

[hey!]

I wonder if he died while thumbing his nose at God.... It would seem a fitting gesture.

The inability to conceive of a God who would find that amusing is the biggest reason that belief is on the decline.

The idea of an omnipotent God who creates a creature capable of reason, then throws an eternal hissy fit when that creature doesn't spend all his time telling God how wonderful He is... Well it seems like rather insecure behavior for an all powerful, all loving being.

A God who didn't want anybody in heaven unless they had the spunk to spit in His eye would make more sense. So Vonnegut, you're in. Give my regards to Twain when you see him.

Re:Bokononist last rites

[C0y0t3]

I have to disagree with your interpretation of a pretty straightforward phrase, "men were created to worship god". Although it could be seen as meaning what you suggest, that men benefit from worship, the statement is obvously designed to be at least initially interpretted as "the purpose for which men were created was to worship god, god created us to worship him". You have to bend over pretty far backward to see the other interpretation as primary, but most religious people probably perform these sorts of logical contortions without batting an eye daily if not continuously. theres no need to justify them, controversy is supposed to occur. they are not content with your atheism

Re:Bokononist last rites

[geekoid]

Why is it that atheists know theology better then the worshipers?

Re:Bokononist last rites

[bkr1_2k]

Because Atheists question, and read. "Believers" simply believe, and by doing so think that all the questions are already answered.

I can't say who's right, but I can certainly say I raise my kids to question everything, even me, if they don't understand it.

Re:Bokononist last rites

[Johnny5000]

Why is it that atheists know theology better then the worshipers?

I think learning enough about theology is probably enough to turn anyone into an atheist.
Read enough holy books, and you'll realize they're lovely fictional works that do contain some generally good lessons, but couldn't possibly be the work of a superhuman being.

Re:Bokononist last rites

[kripkenstein]

Why is it that atheists know theology better then the worshipers?

Do you mean, why do I presume to understand religion better than a person who believes in it? Or, on the contrary, do you mean that the believers are misled about their own beliefs? I'm not sure.

In any case, I think that knowledgable people know more about everything. A learned believer, or a learned atheist, will know about the same. But the vast majority of people are unlearned in such matters. As a consequence, the majority of believers do not fully understand the complexities of their religion, while all of the atheists who are interested enough to learn about religion will know quite a bit (but exactly the same as the learned believers). That may be misleading at first glance, of course.

Thanks for the good reads, Kurt

[drewzhrodague]

Thanks for the good reads, Kurt. Time to go through my bookshelf, and do a little rediscovery. Thanks so much.

Re:Thanks for the good reads, Kurt

[Scott7477]

A big part of my appreciation for Vonnegut lies in the fact that his work has been accepted as literature by the literary elites while including elements of science fiction. Typically science fiction is not considered to be literature.

Re:Thanks for the good reads, Kurt

[Moofie]

A big part of my appreciation of Vonnegut has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what a bunch of "literary elites" think about anything.

As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single time in my life that I thought to myself, "Gee! I wonder what the literary elites would think about that?"

I'd easily have traded all of hollywood,

[Spazntwich]

to give that man 10 more years.

The world is truly poorer for his loss. :-(

Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84.

[penp]

So it goes.