Kurt Vonnegut dead at 84

[www.nytimes.com]

Vonnegut was the first real writer that I read on my own time. He is one of the greats and I'll never forget his cameo in Back to School. That said ...

[url=http://cornelldailysun.com/node/22837
Cornell Daily Sun[/url]]The names E.B. White ’21 and Jeremy Schaap ’91 will always be mentioned with pride, but they will never be equal in stature to Vonnegut.

E.B. White is being penalized for not being alive during the lifetime of the Sun staff; I don't think his stature pales next to Vonnegut's. More importantly, I have no idea what Jeremy Schaap is doing in an obituary for Kurt Vonnegut much less in a sentence with those two legends. Dick Schaap, maybe (maybe!), but Jeremy?

So it goes.

fink
So it goes.

Well put.

I just heard a Fresh Air rebroadcast of the 1986 interview with Vonnegut (it appears that Kurt Vonnegt has become unstuck in time).

A brief mention of being a chemistry major and Sun writer at Cornell.

Roy

ugarte
Vonnegut was the first real writer that I read on my own time. He is one of the greats and I'll never forget his cameo in Back to School. That said ...

[url=http://cornelldailysun.com/node/22837
Cornell Daily Sun[/url]]The names E.B. White ’21 and Jeremy Schaap ’91 will always be mentioned with pride, but they will never be equal in stature to Vonnegut.

E.B. White is being penalized for not being alive during the lifetime of the Sun staff; I don't think his stature pales next to Vonnegut's. More importantly, I have no idea what Jeremy Schaap is doing in an obituary for Kurt Vonnegut much less in a sentence with those two legends. Dick Schaap, maybe (maybe!), but Jeremy?

I think time can only tell whether E.B. White or Vonnegut will be more well known, but I agree that today's (by which I mean going back a few years at least) Sunnies often feel more pride about Vonnegut than E.B. White because the former was alive while they were there. And I agree that Schaap (either one, I'd say) isn't at the same level.

What of Vonnegut's works are people's favorite? I loved Cat's Cradle of course, but I think Mother Night is his most underrated of the ones I've read (not nearly all of them; I'm pacing myself). The moral is nothing new, but it's presented in a very moving way and reflects, better than Cat's Cradle I think, the style that I think is most quintessentially Vonnegut -- that way of presenting a story not by following its plot, but by painting a series of images whose connection one hardly notices until the end.

I was introduced to his works in 9th grade when an English teacher gave me Welcome To The Monkey House (not for assignment, just cause she thought I'd like it). That last time I read those stories, a year or two ago, I came to the conclusion that they were very hit and miss -- the scifi stories were bland, but the others stood out. For my money, "Where I Live" is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing out there.