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“It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us.” ❤

Incredibly powerful letter and read. And, this was from 1990 and here we are continuing to ban more and more books. 🤬. Thank you for sharing.

In 2023 still Benedict and louise brealey reading Chris and Bessie letters in letters live Still this letter only read by both of them. No alternative

That was great!

Kurt was the "Dude".

I am a native born citizen of the United States. I became disenchanted with American culture in my thirties. Now in my mid-fifties. I am just starting to see our inherent good. This letter filled my heart in a way little else has. 😌 Thank you.

so relevant today

Sadly, still relevant in 2023 USA.

👏👏👏👏👏👏

Aren't you Harry baby ?

Elements of Fahreinheit 451 in this speech. I Just watched the biopic of Kurt Vonnegut on Skyarts. I was totally transfixed by this person whose life was filled with tragedy living through being a POW and seeing death and destruction in Dresden. He lost his elder sister through cancer and two days before she died her husband died in a railway bridge disaster which led him to adopt her three boys. I now have a new mission to read as many of his books as possible.. Nice speech and letter Mr Cumberbatch.

My favorite gift to someone if I can't think of anything else is to give him or her a Kurt Vonnegut novel. If they haven't read anything by him, Cat's Cradle.

Burning books are an echo of Nazi ideology, thank god there are good people out there!

“A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

This is so GOOD.; the great man speaking to us across the years. Everyone who cares about literature ought to read it now or share this with as many viewers as possible, especially in a time when books are being censored and writers cancelled. I found it in a collection of Kurt's essays...years ago. I can't quite remember the title, but it exists in perpetuity in black and white. God rest you, Kurt--and I don't think that's an ironic remark for a man of faith like me to write about a man such as Kurt; in fact, I think he would be charmed. "God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform" as the poet Cowper put it. So it goes... What a wonder was Kurt Vonnegut, and kudos to Benedict Cumberbatch for his impeccable reading.

There was an old man who lived near you. He saw so many fools he did not know what to do. He gave them some stories without any BS. Then whiped them all soundly and put them to rest.

🙏

Excellent Sarah B

sherlock and molly

Did Cumberbuddy do this to practice his American accent?

All the assholes speaking in the background must be RepubliQan Trumpers.

As of the traffic noise wasn't bad enough, there various overlaying sounds of God knows what were an appalling diversion from a safe and poignant reading. Christ! Have some people lost all dense of occasion....

And NOW our "conservatives " are back at it. Banning and BURNING books. FFS people! Can't we EVER evolve to a point where this kind of nonsense is EXTINCT?!!!! WHY must we CONSTANTLY revisit our worst acts all anew?

As a bipolar sufferer this letter really strikes home. My life has been ruined by this disease. I have lost my job, my wife and my sense of pride. I cannot imagine the pain Ms. Woolfe went through with the lack of medicines in her time. The pharmacy industry is still doing very little in terms of producing new and better medications. I hope my children will not suffer as I have. I wish for mental illness to one day be a minor thing.

So true. The radical religious right here in America are no better then the radical Islamic extremists. Death of knowledge is death of civilization.

Book burning has been a fascist obsession for a long long time.

I love Kurt Vonnegut’s book so much. I have read his history, I will always adore 🥰 Kurt Vonnegut!!!!!!!! I consider myself a Bokononist. I am so proud of Kurt’s letter and Benedict’s reading of it. Kurt was indeed a patriot and an amazing human, his imagination has allowed mine to soar! My son loves Vonnegut as much as me!

"I figured out how to keep humanity from hurling itself off the cliff. To start, we're all going to post our favorite Rant(s) on 11-11 at 11:11. ~ xoxo Hahn Furst” #FLICKiT #HappyBirthdayKurt #HappyBirthdayFyodor #HappyBirthdayLeo

"If you are an American, you must allow **all** ideas to circulate freely in your community." "You should also resolve to expose your children to all sorts of opinions and information in order that they will be better equipped to make decisions and to survive." Kurt is spinning in his grave at what America has become in the era of cancel, 'misinformation,' propaganda & social media.

That was written in 1973, and now a Republican in Texas wants to ban books again. People truly never learn from history.

My father, was an avid Vonnegut reader, he also read U.Sinclair, and catch 22. He loved Louis L'Amour and Richard Bach, and Frank Herbert's Dune. My mother both loved and hated him when she left him for the 10th time after her 200th black eye. He'd touched me. That was her line. He choked her and beat her regularly. He beat us kids. But when he stepped across that line, it was one step too far. I'm not sure what my father was hiding, because he wouldn't let me read Vonnegut; I'd asked several times. Later, after we were gone a few years, I asked my mom about the books he read. She got angry and said that it was obvious that he'd been influenced somewhere and that was probably it. Nuff said, case closed. I got the message. Dad was a pervert and if he read Vonnegut, it's probably where he got it. Check. I was 16 when he died 35 years ago. I never questioned my mother. It's taken until today to learn about Vonnegut and by extention, my father. I have some reading to do.

If you think it’s a nice reading, watch how Nicole Kidman read it. Above and beyond this

So beautiful.

a super sweet reading from the sweetest ever girl ! 😍😎🌞

Benedict it's Often so serious watching Louis reading...

Thing's have been unAmerician for a looonnnnģgggggg Time. The Wonderful Statuesque Liberty, a gift of France to Hope Becomes a money making industry feeding off those already used brutally

Nice undershirt

Funny how burning books and suppressing ideas is progressive now. Vonnegut would have approved.

I just listened to Oscar Isaac read Richard Feynman's letter to his dead wife. OK, Feynman, a physicist is an infinitely more effective writer than Vonnegut. Break this letter down: (1) this is private no copies are retained (obviously a lie); (2) I am frequently invited to give commencement speeches; (3) I have children and I am good with tools; (4) I've taught at Harvard (not really, they let you speak at a seminar because you were the antiwar flavour du juour); (5) you are nobody; (6) books are sacred, even books that claim books are not sacred are sacred; any nonsense, drivel or raging hatred that has been bound between covers is a holy object and; (7) did I mention I am frequently invited to give commencement speeches? You may have seen me on TV as well. This is the most dishonest, shallow, narcissistic screed in the history of human correspondence. Vonnegut was a smirking mediocrity. Feynman was a genius and a man of deep feeling. Cumberbatch-code is not at fault. He placed the emphasis on random syllables that fine actors are trained to do in order to ensure that we stay awake watching Shakespeare. He contorted his facial features impressively. He did everything actors are expected to do and paid lavishly to do. Vonnegut simply had no soul. Feynman had one.

Well read, Actor. As for Vonnegut: he is shooting every fish in the barrel, twice, with a howitzer. I liked the fact that he had an engineering background of sorts (so did Mailer who didn't brag about it half as much) and that he used to scold luddite hippies that it was not a vice to know how a refrigerator worked. Yet this is not a particularly well written letter for a professional writer. Yes. Books are sacred. Are they all sacred? Is Mein Kampf sacred? And Vonnegut gets in the fact that he has lots of invitations to speak and is therefore important and that the little man should pay attention to someone as important as he is and that he is even good with tools and can fix the little man's refrigerator. A succession of narcissistic non-sequeters resonantly read by Actor. (By the way, how is Actor reading an entirely private letter? Did the little man who received it treasure it? Would Vonnegut, so good with tools, be capable of lying?) Vonnegut was a nobody's nobody 4 years before this letter was written. Slaughterhouse 5 made him rich and famous because it was seized by the antiwar movement to undermine morale in Vietnam. This was highly profitable for anyone who could do it at the time. I don't know if anybody remembers the Vonnegut commercials from about 20 years ago where he goes to some online bookstore and buys all his own books which is exactly what a solipsist would do. He died in his 85th year, walking his dog, tangled in a leash, crashing to the New York city pavement, a martyr to pet ownership. Greater love than this hath no dog owner. And an argument for owning cats. Finally: what writer would defend freedom of speech now? It got you speaking fees in 1973. It gets you un-personed today. Vonnegut's courage was cheap at the 1973 zeitgeist exchange rate.

Receives standing ovation by people who think deplatforming is civilized behavior...

I was introduced to Kurt Vonnegut in an English grammar school by a beloved American teacher. And what a favour that man did me. I still regard Vonnegut as one of the best authors ever. Not everyone gets it, but his articulation in this letter shows his mastery. RIP Mr Vonnegut. Oh and well done Benedict!

Good bless you Kurt.

funny how nobody is comenting about the letter but only about the person who reads it...

Curious about why this is being read at a festival in Wales. Does book censorship occur similar to how it does in some US schools?

Yes yes

looks like somebody else got another copy of his letter. btw- that crowd is very loud & rude. These performers have a lot of words to get thru. Keep quiet & let them do what you came to hear!!

It is tragic how this is the only time we'll get Sherlolly confessing their love for each other(except that one time).

Poorly read by badoonga crimpleboth i thought

<3