Kurt Vonnegut

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
-- Kurt Vonnegut

Article by Ulla Kelly, Artistic Lemonade Contributing Writer

Born on Armistice Day, 1922, Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most easily recognizable names in science fiction literature, and his work is often characterized by his own unique sense of humor. His best known book is probably Slaughterhouse-Five, which was also one of the films made from his books. He was also a graphic artist, providing illustrations for some of his novels and became well-known for simple ink drawings of abstractions of faces.

There is speculation that his frequently dark humor and perspective on the world stemmed from the suicide of his mother and the death of his sister and his own experiences as a prisoner of war during World War 2 (see the vonnegutweb.com critical bibliography for some of these sources).

Vonnegut was not a fan of the internet, saying, "The Internet stuff is spooky." He created an alter ego called Kilgore Trout who appears in several novels and short stories. Several bands were inspired by Kurt Vonnegut, for example, The Grateful Dead and Joe Satriani used his title Ice Nine. One of his funniest and most repeated quotes is, "why don't you take a flying f*** at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying f*** at the mooooooooooooon?"

He died on April 21, 2007. His official website contains moving tributes from his children and others as well as rare or previously-unseen works and a gallery of his visual art work.

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand
-- Kurt Vonnegut

 

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