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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."
My best Vonnegut moment was when I was watching that Rodney Dangerfield movie "Back To School" in a theatre. In one scene, there's a knock at the door, and Rodney opens the door, and it's a curly-haired guy who is his tutor for the writings of Vonnegut. That's when I started laughing. Three seconds later, after he says that he is Kurt Vonnegut, the rest of the audience starts laughing.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Vonnegut's Asshole -> * One of my favorite authors. I own more of his books than anyone else's.
Now two of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut, are dead. They both managed to intertwine a strange philosophy in their novels. For Vonnegut, I've always enjoyed the glimpses into Tralfamadorean philosophy. "We are all bugs trapped in amber" they said. It was impossible to ascribe morality to any act. It just is. The easy reading of this idea may say that there's no evil, no good and by following that thread, no God or heaven. But what it really suggests is an idea from antiquity to Marlowe to Conrad to taoism. We are. We must do all that we can on this earth and not let some vague idea of good/bad determine our actions. We must live according to our own personal code.
God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut.
Tiger got to hunt
Eagle got to fly
Man got to ask his self
Why, why, why?
Tiger got to sleep
Eagle got to land
Man got to tell his self
He Understand
--Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
It isn't that an omnoipotent god benefits from it somehow, of course he doesn't. To say otherwise is blasphemy, even, for monotheists. However, they believe that the natural state for human beings is to worship god. In other words, people benefit from worshipping god, not vice versa. Note that the quoted sign can be understood both ways.
Of course, you can raise skeptical doubt about why god would create people at all, and why worshipping him would be good for them. Such doubts are natural, and indeed the major monotheistic religions have had centuries of debate about these topics. So, my point is that the monotheistic belief system (speaking generally) makes more sense than your misinterpretation of that particular sign.
(To prevent misunderstandings, I am a complete atheist.)
Vonnegut from "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,"
"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies - 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.' "
my feeble attempt at an epitaph
"Goodbye, Mr. Vonnegut. God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut.
You told us about ice, you told us about fire. You made us laugh and taught us to think. Your time here was too short. But you gave us a lot more than one rule, you gave us someone to root for."
I'm sorry its no Vonnegut...
DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
In my professional opinion (and by professional, I mean "one I came up with while eating cookies at my desk and not working on an essay due in several hours"), people say it because it makes them feel like their life has a purpose. Doing good in the name of the Lord gives a reason for life. A reason to get up in the morning. They can HELP someone, and they KNOW it has to be a good reason, because, like, God told them to, supposedly.
At least, that's what I've figured out from listening to some of my relatives. Me, on the other hand... I'm agnostic, because I can't say there's NO chance that there is a God... but really, to me, I think the universe can be summed up in two words: Shit happens.
My aunt told me there must be a God because she couldn't face the world if there weren't. I didn't say this to her, but I thought, "Well, good for you. But, guess what: The Universe doesn't give a flying fuck about what you, or I, or anyone for that matter, thinks about it. If you gave up on life, the world would keep spinning, gravity would keep on pulling, men would be men, women would be women, and small blue creatures from Alpha Centauri would still be small blue creatures from Alpha Centauri." (Apologies to Douglas Adams for that last bit)
Basically, I believe the very concept of "meaning" is a human invention. Deer, fish, and elephants don't really care why they exist. They just do. But humans have grown intelligent enough (well, some of us, anyway) to ask "why are we here?" Unfortunately, there's no Intergalactic or Interdimensional phonebook to let us ask potential Creators or other races their opinions. So, humans had to make their own reasons, or else it got very depressing to think we'd suffer in life for no real reason and then just die.
Thus, if humans "created" meaning to feel better, we can say there really was no meaning before us...
Oh, if you can't tell, I'm a real SMASH at parties. I really brighten up the room.
From Slaughterhouse 5. Billy is having one of his "episodes" whilst watching television:
... The minerals were them shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
"American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
"The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.
"When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals.
"The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids."
I just wanted to call out what I perceived as Western bias (I'm not from the "West", which I admit is itself a dubious term).
Well, the definition is fairly standard, based on size basically, giving you Christianity, Islam and Judaism.Sikhism has 1.5 times as many adherents as Judaism (no, I'm not Sikh either).
I was just using the standard shortened version for "Christianity, Islam and Judaism"The fact that you think this is "standard" says it all.
P.S. A better term might be Abrahamic religions.
Typical anything is not very good.
Ah yes. If only our youth would concern themselves not with creativity, non-conformity, and critical thinking, but instead the Virtues and Values befitting a Christian Nation. Instead of wasting their minds upon the disspative slanders of a crypto-communist like Vonnegut, it would behoove them to instead read a Great Book by an Excellent Mind.