Well, there were—or maybe there are—a number of dead people out there. (Laughs.) It’s a very crowded place. There is a Beethoven and a Shakespeare and a Hitler and an entire family out there. But, fortunately, you don’t have to go to heaven to talk to some of them. A lot of them have left us amazing things on paper, and so their lives persist here anyway. Wonderful words. Beautiful music. Stunning things that resonate.
-Kurt Vonnegut

Look at the Birdie

Look at the Birdie is the second posthumous collection by Kurt Vonnegut. The first was Armageddon in Retrospect, which came out last year.

I thought this collection was a lot better than Armageddon in Retrospect. Armageddon had some good stories, but there were a few I wasn’t crazy about. I really enjoyed every story in Look at the Birdie. It’s a very solid collection.

Here’s one of my favorite passages, from the story “A Song for Selma” -

Ernest Groper, the physics teacher, joined the group. He was a rude, realistic, bomb-shaped man, at war with sloppy thinking. As he transferred his lunch from his tray to the table, he gave the impression that he was obeying the laws of motion voluntarily, with gusto – not because he had to obey them but because he thought they were darn fine laws.

I read somewhere that one of the next posthumous books by Kurt Vonnegut will be a collection of letters. I’m excited for this, I’ve read some of his letters and I really enjoyed them.

Look at the Birdie is currently available from The Book Depository for 50% off.

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I think this year I’d like to post one of my favorite parts of A Man Without a Country, which I try to live by (as corny as that sounds).

But I had a good uncle, my late Uncle Alex. He was my father’s kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life-insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

So Happy Armistice Day everyone, and Happy Birthday Kurt Vonnegut.

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Joe, a young man from Pittsburg, came up to me with one request: “Please tell me it will all be okay.”

“Welcome to Earth, young man,” I said. “It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, Joe, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of: Goddamn it Joe, you’ve got to be kind!”

During a campaign season with all together too many Joes, it was pleasant to encounter Vonnegut’s Joe. If only elections could be as straightforward as Vonnegut was.

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Here are my favorite lines:

“Since there is no one else to praise me, I will praise myself – will say that I have never tampered with a single tooth in my thought machine, such as it is. There are teeth missing, God knows – some I was born without, teeth that will never grow. And other teeth have been stripped by the clutchless shifts of history–
But never have I willfully destroyed a tooth on a gear of my thinking machine. Never have I said to myself, “This fact I can do without.”

“I had taught myself that a human being might as well look for diamond tiaras in the gutters as for rewards and punishments that were fair.”

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where’s evil? It’s that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side. It’s that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive.”

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Armageddon in Retrospect

Kurt Vonnegut

I realized I never posted any thoughts on this after I finished it.

First of all, it was wonderful to have a new Kurt Vonnegut book to read. This is silly for me to say, because I haven’t even read all of his novels yet. However, it was exciting to read his first post-posthumously published work.

Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of short fiction and non-fiction.  The introduction by his son, Mark Vonnegut, is great. It was interesting to read about Kurt from someone who knew him so well.

One cool inclusion in the collection is the scanned pages of a letter Kurt wrote in 1945 to inform his family (who had no idea of his whereabouts) that he had been a prisoner of war and survived the Dresden bombing.

Kurt Vonnegut’s home town of Indianapolis declared 2007 the “Year of Kurt Vonnegut.” Kurt was to return home in April to speak to the community at a big kickoff event for the celebration. Sadly, he died two weeks before he was supposed to give the speech. He had already written the speech, and his son Mark went to Indianapolis to deliver the speech in his memory. The text of this speech is also included in this collection.

The above mentioned pieces were my favorite parts of the book. I also enjoyed the short stories, but I prefer the non-fiction in this collection.

One more thing to note about this book: it’s a beautiful edition. It has beautiful paper, and drawings by Kurt are included throughout, some in color.

Mark Vonnegut  on whether or not we can expect more posthumously published work by his father:
“We’ll catch our breath and see how this one goes. There is a ton of unpublished stuff. We’ll figure it out as we go along.”

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Armageddon in Retrospect

Since I found out about Kurt Vonnegut’s posthumously published book, Armageddon in Retrospect, would be released April 1, I’ve been checking Strand’s site to see if they would get any review copies in. I didn’t have high expectations to find one though, since it was Kurt Vonnegut.

Alas, today it was there! The site said they had two copies left, and I ran over during lunch to get one.

If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.

Perfect reading material for this rainy weekend!

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Armageddon in Retrospect

Kurt Vonnegut

The only thing that makes going back to work on a Monday after a 2 week vacation fun is learning that your favorite author has a new book coming out on April 1, despite the fact that he died last year.

Even better, there is an author event on April 1 featuring his son, Mark Vonnegut, who wrote the introduction. I could not be more excited about this. Well, on second thought, I could… if Kurt Vonnegut was still alive and going to attend the event himself. But I’m super excited nonetheless.

From Putnam’s Spring/Summer 2008 Catalog: (pages 11 and 12)

Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve new and unpublished writings on war and peace. Imbued with Vonnegut’s trademark rueful humor, the pieces range from a visceral nonfiction recollection of the destruction of Dresden during World War II—an essay that is as timely today as it was then—to a painfully funny short story about three Army privates and their fantasies of the perfect first meal upon returning home from war, to a darker, more poignant story about the impossibility of shielding our children from the temptations of violence. Also included are Vonnegut’s last speech as well as an assortment of his artwork, and an introduction by the author’s son, Mark Vonnegut.

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“It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

“Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ day is not.

“So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.

“What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

“And all music is.”

-From Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Happy Birthday to Veteran Kurt Vonnegut.

(Happy Birthday to his alter ego, Kilgore Trout.)

Happy Armistice Day to another Veteran, Norman Mailer. I’m feel honored and lucky to have met Norman earlier this year before he died. What a somber year for literature this has been.
Happy Armistice Day to my cousin Matthew, who has now safely completed his time in the Navy and is expecting a baby with his wife Rachel!

Happy Armistice Day to my Grandma Earlene, who recently joined her Veteran (my Grandpa Wayne) in heaven after 23 years living on earth without him.

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