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Kurt Vonnegut Dies

   April 12th, 2007

Bill's CageI was saddened to learn today that Kurt Vonnegut has died.

He has been one of my favorite writers since I was old enough to have a favorite writer. Very rightly, Indianapolis had declared 2007 as the Year of Vonnegut, and I consider myself lucky to have lived in his time.

One of my favorite quotes is something I read in one of his books, but is not something he wrote. In the preface to one of his novels, he told of a letter he received from a young boy. The boy talked about how he noticed that all of Vonnegut's stories seemed to distill down to a single six-word theme: "love may fail, but courtesy prevails." If I live my life by any motto, that comes close, and Vonnegut played a large part in shaping it.

4/12/07, kurt vonnegut, vonnegut




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2 Responses to “Kurt Vonnegut Dies”

  1. Liz Says:

    You know, I was writing you about this very thing and thought to check your blog. The NY Times wrote a nice article about his life and included the graduation address he gave at Syracuse, which I had never seen before. You may want to check it out.

    Thanks for introducing me to his work. We are, indeed, lucky to have lived in his time.

  2. herzogbr Says:

    Here’s a link to the NY Times article Liz mentioned (thanks Liz).

    Also, if you’re interested, Vonnegut was semi-involved with a newsletter entitled In These Times. It contains “reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter.”