My favorite part in *Slaughterhouse-Five* is the description of the bombs going in reverse: being caught by the planes, safely returned to the factory where they are heroically dismantled.
And then broken into their mineral composites, which are buried around the world. One of the most beautiful, brilliant passages of writing I've ever read
He and Thomas Pynchon were equals, I also love William kotzwinkle and Jonathan Lethem, they are the modern writer's equivalents. Plus Stefan Merrill Block, as Oliver Loving was a masterpiece!
I used to work at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis, and this is very similar to what I'd say in tours (though Princess Weekes presents it rather more eloquently). It's got a lot more stuff than it did when I worked there - come visit :)
I read Slaughterhouse Five when I was sixteen. I think I should go back and read it again to see how much more I understand and measure how formative it was for me. I had forgotten that '...so it goes' came from reading his work. He is one of the people I'd like to meet when I die. Shout out to Princess Weeks! Love to see her!
I still regularly shout "Ding-a-ling you sonofabitch!" as a curse and legit can't remember which book of his I read it in or the context. I read vonnegut around 19 and now 35 went back and started re-reading. I wouldn't say it didn't hold up, its still great, but its not the same as when I read it as a teenager. That said I reckon Terry Pratchett was incredibly formative for me and when I go back and read his books I can genuinely see how much of my worldview was either formed by, or already resonated with, the way he writes. So maybe you'll have that experience re-reading Vonnegut :)
i'm sixteen and have read a man without a country and slaughterhouse five! this is exactly what i've been wanting to do -- keep revisiting this book in the future :) it's an absolute favourite and i'm doing my english literature coursework on it!
I read all of his novels over the course of last December. I kept joking with my relatives that it was like reading the world's most complicated and distorted memoir based on how much of his own life he put into them.
There is a very Vonnegut-like vibe to that game I hadn’t considered until this vid. The lead can go through time like they’re Billy Pilgrim, there are a lot of “so it goes” one-liners as characters deal with losses from war(s), and each of the allied lords has almost a Paul Proteus zeal to their plots to change the social order.
Cat's Cradle was the gateway book that got me through my adolescent angst. You can get over anything even the end of the world. Even the most horrible circumstances is just absurdity given enough time, and distance.
You were not alone. I read it as part of a school project where we could choose any genre and write about the writers listed. No one else choose him, and I think it just unzipped my brain and spoke to me in a way that no one else had.
I wouldn't be the person I am without Vonnegutt. If I had to put into words what I learned from his work it would be an understanding that life is absolutely terrible and cruel sometimes, that people can be stupid, uncaring, and crazy sometimes, and that all you can do is face it and keep trying your best.
If you needed to learn that from a book then you’ve contradicted its reality. But it is real therefore you didn’t actually learn it from a book but are making up a story to justify your love of the book.
Vonnegut's work is the kind of case where I really hate the general application of "death of the author" because, yeah, no, sometimes the author is very much alive. Without context of his personal life, his work can stand on its own merit, definitely. But it is far richer and more complex if you do put it within that framing. I think that's why he resonates with so many people.
Yeah, I've always disliked the concept of "death of the author". Some authors may intentionally leave their work up to interpretation, which is fine, but many (if not most) have a distinct point they are trying to make or message that they are trying to send. I've felt that "death of the author" is basically telling someone "No, you're wrong. The work you made actually means something else". Context is everything.
@@alexdillahunt6908 I hang out in the middle - like, I agree with John Green that once a book is out there the author doesn't necessarily have control over how people see it ("Hey Ya" is a great example of this), but also where someone is coming from influences what's on the page to begin with. I think it just comes down to shades of grey, as frustrating as that is.
I feel like Death of the Author is frequently abused to either excuse crappy actions or beliefs of authors (see: JKR) or to divorce a work from things in an author’s life that definitely influenced their work. The only times I really see it used well is in the case of transformative fandom, when fans come together to create new things in those sandboxes, even if authors don’t like it (see: Anne Rice and Diana Galbadon’s attempts to stifle fanfiction).
@Caterfree10 I think its more about not making a one to one comparison between the life events of the author and the book as if that explains everything that the book is doing.
that isn't really what Death of the Author is, at least in Roland Barthes's original application. it isn't that you should ignore historical context, it's a statement about interpretation, saying that the author doesn't ultimately dictate the meaning of a text, but rather it's collectively constructed by the audiences interactions with the text and each other. so Vonnegut's Persona overshadowing the real person to his audience is an example of Death of the Author.
I read all of his novels around 18-19 years ago. I’m getting ready to read them again. My favorite has been Sirens of Titan and I’m curious to see if that will change after rereading them as a middle aged man instead of a young man.
It should be noted that at the time, Dresden was regarded as the most beautiful city in the world. The intense bombing created a firestorm so intense it drew in air at gale force, sucking people into the inferno. It was so much worse than any kind of bombing.
It was the city with the most old world buildings, etc. The bombing of Dresden had nothing to do with the war, per say. It needed to be destroyed so that the current false narrative could be more easilty propagated.
Yes, the war was over and the U S/U K just had to show who was boss. Dresden had no war industry, no military, only refugees and what was left of German civility.
Vonnegut was the author responsible for teaching me that reading was actually worth while. The first author I liked that really spoke to me on an emotional level, when I was a dejected teen. And he was batsh!t insane... so I'm sure that says something about me.
I can only imagine how history would’ve turned out if he and George Carlin got together and lived throughout the pandemic. Oh boy, now wouldn’t THEY make a great pairing for a variety of projects, ha ha! Nice analysis, by the way! I like how you tied up Vonnegut’s personal life together with his complex personality/“personalities,” depending on how you wish to look at it, of course.
I'm picturing then cussing each other out at length in the back garden, bumming cigarettes off each other the whole while. Then when one of them was heading back inside to refill his cup, he ask the other, "more coffee?"
The first time I ever heard of Slaughterhouse Five was in the movie Footloose. I wonder if Vonnegut ever saw his book being mentioned in the movie and how it caused controversy in the town. I like to think if he did, he would laugh at it.
Sometimes I have to wonder whether he was a Tralfalmadorian in disguise. I got hooked reading Breakfast of Champions: The drawings in particular, especially that of the spider and something else that looked identical to the spider.
Same. That drawing & description of the torch at the top of the Statue of Liberty as being "like an ice cream cone on fire" still cracks me up just to type those words, even today! The other drawings.. drew me in, if you will -- the hilarity and spot-on nature of them comforted and mentored me as though some wise, elder uncle were being so terribly candid in letting me in on all the insane games going on long before either of us were here to likewise be driven a little mad by them.
Of all Vonnegut's works, "Welcome to the Monkey House", a collection of short stories, is probably the most impactful as it gives a variety of points of view within each of the stories. From "Harrison Bergeron" to "Long Walk to Forever" to "Miss Temptation" and all throughout he deftly forces the reader to see the different points of view of the characters and how each action is shaped by their inherent biases.
I read Harrison Bergeron in 5th grade because it was in the school syllabus in 1980. That version described Harrison as black. More recent versions leave out that detail. Wonder why?
@@MikeInOregon ... "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal." This is the first line of the original version. At no time in the story is anyone's skin color mentioned.
What happened to _God Bless You, Mr Rosewater_ in Vonnegut's report card at frame 15:20? It is rated almost 4 stars on Goodreads. The summary there is: *Second only to Slaughterhouse-Five of Vonnegut's canon in its prominence and influence, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) presents Eliot Rosewater, an itinerant, semi-crazed millionaire* *wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome, introducing the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout.* It's an excellent novel. I still smile when I think of it.
That is because she is so dumb with her constant hand gesturing. That is why I love reading so much. It is the words that matter, not the unnecessary "talking with her hands."
Great video! I was born in the late 50s and grew up in the 60s and 70s, and Kurt certainly helped *me* deal with those times. Humor, a commitment to justice and refusing to look away from the darkness are powerful tools.
I think the intro was supposed to be “there are three types of people in this world. Those who can can’t and those who can’t”. It’s supposed to be a joke
I'm so honored that I got to meet him a couple of years before he died. He gave a talk in Albion, Michigan. I hold him in high regard as one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.
One of my best-ever friends reminded me years ago how amazing Kurt Vonnegut is! This is the same friend who first got me to watch A Clockwork Orange. See why he's such a good friend?!
Breakfast of Champions was the most impactful book I ever read. I actually worked in some pretty hardcore sales environments while struggling with undiagnosed ADHD and dysthymia. Reading Breakfast of Champions was such an uplifting experience for me, even though most of the book is fairly dark. It was just really comforting to read this book that's so personal, and so authentic, and with such a deep portrayal of not only mental illness, but how it relates to the greater social context. One of the more subtle messages of the book is how *everyone* loses under capitalism, even one of the better off members of society struggles with mental health issues that we can understand given his work and life pressures. To this day one of the things I quote the most is Kilgore Trout's epitaph: "We are healthy only to the extent our ideas are humane." This was written a full 25 years before the field of positive psychology was established, and yet it encompasses not only how we ought to treat others, but how we ought to treat ourselves.
I wrote a research paper my sophomore year of high school about Slaughterhouse Five for my American Lit class. My teacher wanted us to pick an American writer, and that book was one I’d found in my uncle’s old room at my grandma’s house and taken home. I absolutely loved it. This video makes me want to find my paper and cringe at sixteen year old me’s writing.
The Sirens of Titan - is an absolute masterpiece, a farce about the reality that surrounds us, how small a person is and how little he knows, if our entire solar system disappeared, the universe would not notice it, it must be read between the lines
*"The world may be divided into two classes of people:* *those who divide the world into two classes of people, and those who don't."* - Robert Benchley
Vonnegut's novels always put me into existential crisis mode, because I can see myself and the whole world in all those characters who are caught up drifting in an absurd current to our own destruction or untimely end. And yet, there is so much to savor in those stories, and many moments of peace to be found.
To this day, my favorite author. Though it may not be his deepest work, my favorite is Welcome To The Monkey House. I think because I read it pretty young, when I was just dipping into the vast well of science fiction. The range of stories go from serious to a bit silly, but all with a point. It gave me a glimpse into a spectrum of imagined futures, and alter ate histories. I had thought all sci-fi had to be robots in space until I read that book.
WWII: Hitler Boogaloo - niiice. I literally use this ref for all sequels. Forgot to get something at the grocery store? *Piggly Wiggly's 2: Electric Boogaloo.*
I think one of the most underrated things Vonnegut wrote was Rabo Karebekian’s speech about his art in Breakfast of Champions. That he had this pretentious ass deliver the themes of the book so directly and eloquently that his words even surprised KV really encapsulates what I love about his work.
i'd love to see a video about PKD. As a CS DADOES rings pretty true when it comes to AI ethics and AI safety. it's themes centered around our tendency to otherize demographics to justify expressive social norms just feels so ahead of it's time. The constant questioning of self and reality in his works hits me right in the noncisgender. his short stories always seam to encapsulate some fundamental facet of the human experience.
Isn't it true of all of us though? The persona that represents us at work or even out grocery shopping is not the same as the persons we really are "when no one is watching." I don't see anything odd about is duplicity of nature. Both were him.
@@Lucius1958 agreed. Perhaps I could have represented my thoughts better. It seems to me, that we are all truly more than one person. As a teen, I had several and quite diverse groups of friends. I.E. say I had church youth group friends, I had a group of artistic friends, a group I hung out with at school, and fellow employees. Each group would know a piece of who I was, but rarely the other parts. I was not "pretending' nor was I deceiving anyone. I was simply a different me depending on who I was with........where our common ground lay. I feel the point I was trying to make is that, in a sense, whether he realized it or not, Vonnegut was really both........ the persona was simply another him. He may not have been "comfortable" with it, but he wasn't "playing a part," he was simply embracing another "him." Also, often others really can know us better than we can know who we are. Its something we learn along the way. Through companions and experiences that weave the threads of our life. We are often too focused on detail to stand back and look at the fullness of what is already there. I apologize for this long winded comment....if you made it to the end.....thank you.
I remember how much joy I took in even the formatting of "Cat's Cradle", the paperback edition I had was 137 pages, with 136 chapters I think. Chapters being between a half page, to a page in a half on average. I was very disheartened to find if you try to buy a copy now, you can only find the gouging trade editions, with extra large type and spacing to make it a much bigger book.
Galapagos for mine, for the sheer pleasure of Kurt's wise and friendly humour. That bit at the end where a seal-human farts on the beach and the other seal-humans are still human enough to giggle, a million odd years from now..
I’ve just ordered Mr Rosewater. Really excited to be reading the “god damn it, you’ve got to be kind” first hand in flesh. It always get me emotional hearing that quote. It feels like if there’s one thing we human should do, it is that.
God Bless You Mr. Rosewater gets better each time you read it and with more Vonnegut you read. It was the book that made me love Kilgore Trout. It's wonderful if you're already acquitted with Vonnegut, but it's a great introduction to his world. If you want more, Breakfast of Champions is most closely related, but Jailbird is also a good choice (thematically, not necessarily in the context of Vonnegut canon).
Not gonna lie. I saw the thumbnail of Vonnegut and shrugged. Then I realized it was for a Storied video and watched immediately. Princess' delivery always brightens my day!
I don’t know if I’m reading into it too much, but the allowance for ‘God damnit’ felt like a subtle nod to Maus in lieu of recent news. If so, right on.
God bless you mr. Vonnegut. You are my personal savior old dead man. ❤️This is an absurd world we inhabit, and we are absurd beings. Kurt made this oker to digest, not okay, I’m not the only one thinking I’m living in a bad sci fi novel.
I feel like (and this is partly my cultural biases and prejudices, to be sure; non-White, Non-European descendants will likely have very different feelings about Vonnegut, or who their "necessary writers" are), if you DIDN'T have at least a brief "Vonnegut Phase" in your reading life, you really, really, missed out. You don't have to put him on a pedestal, you don't have to declare him the greatest writer of his generation or some-such, but you'll really benefit from absorbing at least a few of his novels. Me? I'm here for (in no particular order): Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, & Slaughter-house Five (though attempts to re-read it have been hard; I find the tone SO angry, it infects me)... (BTW, if you can find it, the '90s film version of "Mother Night" is one of the best novel-to-movie translations I've ever seen. And the film version of Slaughter-house Five is a valiant attempt at capturing the book.)
Such dedicated work in brining us closer to a writer who took us into the modern age with laugher and gusto! Subscribed! - That being said, I always wondered, maybe Kurt Vonnegut is a pre-cursor to Magical Realism. I was reading about a Salmande Rushdie novel (Midnight's Children?) where where there was a very serious, grounded storyline about some threat to the country of India, and at the same time there were thousands Indian children psychically connecting and communitating to each other in the chaos. Pretty wild, dream-like stuff! Did not Kurt Vonnegut play with this type of "literal" bending of space-and-time?
My first book of his was “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” and the very first page speaking of how money to humans is like honey to bees, it had me thinking, “oh jeez, I’m gonna be reading more than just this book, aren’t I?”
IMO Edgar Allen Poe was also deeply affected by his mother's death. He watched her die spitting up blood from tuberculosis at age 3 or so. His response was also channeled thru his writing, where he Oedipally split, writing both horror and romantic poems.
In my 19th year here, I read several of Kurt's droppings enthusiastically, leaving me with more clarity in life's challenges while maybe even attuned to Kilgore Trout's stream of consciousness. Meeting Kurt on the street and knowing what to talk about would have been a surprise and quite a treat, for he seemed to have an astronomical world-view and I'm sure he wouldn't have left me out. Thanks
Perfect ending.... Absolutely nailed it. "He did die....more or less. *cut to black*" Highlights the abruptness of death, and even the most interesting minds in modern history disappear quicker than the snap of your fingers
![[UNCUT] “บอสณวัฒน์” ลากไส้!! ใครหนุนหลัง "แม่ตั๊ก ป๋าเบียร์" I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 30 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QlD7mU2KKRk/mqdefault.jpg)
My favorite part in *Slaughterhouse-Five* is the description of the bombs going in reverse: being caught by the planes, safely returned to the factory where they are heroically dismantled.
And then broken into their mineral composites, which are buried around the world. One of the most beautiful, brilliant passages of writing I've ever read
My least favorite is when the dog dies.
I read it to three people after I first read it.😉
@@swankidelic , so it goes.😢
In a book with extra dimensional aliens I found that part the most outlandish. 😅
Vonnegut wrote so many utterly hilarious and deeply gut punching stories. He's one of the greatest writers of all time.
agree, one of its kind
I have always enjoyed many of his books
He and Thomas Pynchon were equals, I also love William kotzwinkle and Jonathan Lethem, they are the modern writer's equivalents. Plus Stefan Merrill Block, as Oliver Loving was a masterpiece!
@@johnedwardkerr7814 Thank you for the recommendations. Now could you help me with modern Sinclair Lewis's. Just asking for a friend.
I treasure the works of Vonnegut! I first read "Breakfast of Champions" in my teens, at a bad time for me, and, it saved my life.
I read it during a bad time as well. I wonder if it's particularly good for that.
I want to scream the text of Mother Night into the world. The world made it a prophecy, Vonnegut did not want to be a prophet.
I used to work at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis, and this is very similar to what I'd say in tours (though Princess Weekes presents it rather more eloquently). It's got a lot more stuff than it did when I worked there - come visit :)
that museum kicks ass! i highly recommend anyone with an opportunity to visit indianapolis to go directly to the KVML
@beanbagbooks , you are amazing! That's a job I would have grabbed if the opportunity arose!
I read Slaughterhouse Five when I was sixteen. I think I should go back and read it again to see how much more I understand and measure how formative it was for me. I had forgotten that '...so it goes' came from reading his work. He is one of the people I'd like to meet when I die. Shout out to Princess Weeks! Love to see her!
I still regularly shout "Ding-a-ling you sonofabitch!" as a curse and legit can't remember which book of his I read it in or the context. I read vonnegut around 19 and now 35 went back and started re-reading. I wouldn't say it didn't hold up, its still great, but its not the same as when I read it as a teenager.
That said I reckon Terry Pratchett was incredibly formative for me and when I go back and read his books I can genuinely see how much of my worldview was either formed by, or already resonated with, the way he writes. So maybe you'll have that experience re-reading Vonnegut :)
i'm sixteen and have read a man without a country and slaughterhouse five! this is exactly what i've been wanting to do -- keep revisiting this book in the future :) it's an absolute favourite and i'm doing my english literature coursework on it!
Me too - I'm 68 now but read it when I was about 16 - formed much of my view of the world I think.
Yes reread them as adults, it makes a world of difference. Depending on your life experiences.
I read all of his novels over the course of last December. I kept joking with my relatives that it was like reading the world's most complicated and distorted memoir based on how much of his own life he put into them.
I love how Princess could wear a Fire Emblem Three Houses crest while talking about a totally unrelated topic like Vonnegut
There is a very Vonnegut-like vibe to that game I hadn’t considered until this vid. The lead can go through time like they’re Billy Pilgrim, there are a lot of “so it goes” one-liners as characters deal with losses from war(s), and each of the allied lords has almost a Paul Proteus zeal to their plots to change the social order.
Cat's Cradle was the gateway book that got me through my adolescent angst. You can get over anything even the end of the world. Even the most horrible circumstances is just absurdity given enough time, and distance.
Such wise words
i became a bokononist when i was around 15/16
You were not alone. I read it as part of a school project where we could choose any genre and write about the writers listed. No one else choose him, and I think it just unzipped my brain and spoke to me in a way that no one else had.
I love Vonnegut.
And world War 2, Hitler Boogaloo had me crying 🤣🤣
Vonnegut- he’ll make you laugh. He’ll make you cry. All on the same page. GOAT
Hmm. Better than me? Ha
This reminded me that I really need to read more of Vonnegut.
Agree
Same I read Slaughterhouse Five when I was like fifteen and I think I was too young to really “get” it ya know?
I wouldn't be the person I am without Vonnegutt. If I had to put into words what I learned from his work it would be an understanding that life is absolutely terrible and cruel sometimes, that people can be stupid, uncaring, and crazy sometimes, and that all you can do is face it and keep trying your best.
If you needed to learn that from a book then you’ve contradicted its reality.
But it is real therefore you didn’t actually learn it from a book but are making up a story to justify your love of the book.
Vonnegut's work is the kind of case where I really hate the general application of "death of the author" because, yeah, no, sometimes the author is very much alive. Without context of his personal life, his work can stand on its own merit, definitely. But it is far richer and more complex if you do put it within that framing. I think that's why he resonates with so many people.
Yeah, I've always disliked the concept of "death of the author". Some authors may intentionally leave their work up to interpretation, which is fine, but many (if not most) have a distinct point they are trying to make or message that they are trying to send. I've felt that "death of the author" is basically telling someone "No, you're wrong. The work you made actually means something else". Context is everything.
@@alexdillahunt6908 I hang out in the middle - like, I agree with John Green that once a book is out there the author doesn't necessarily have control over how people see it ("Hey Ya" is a great example of this), but also where someone is coming from influences what's on the page to begin with. I think it just comes down to shades of grey, as frustrating as that is.
I feel like Death of the Author is frequently abused to either excuse crappy actions or beliefs of authors (see: JKR) or to divorce a work from things in an author’s life that definitely influenced their work. The only times I really see it used well is in the case of transformative fandom, when fans come together to create new things in those sandboxes, even if authors don’t like it (see: Anne Rice and Diana Galbadon’s attempts to stifle fanfiction).
@Caterfree10 I think its more about not making a one to one comparison between the life events of the author and the book as if that explains everything that the book is doing.
that isn't really what Death of the Author is, at least in Roland Barthes's original application. it isn't that you should ignore historical context, it's a statement about interpretation, saying that the author doesn't ultimately dictate the meaning of a text, but rather it's collectively constructed by the audiences interactions with the text and each other. so Vonnegut's Persona overshadowing the real person to his audience is an example of Death of the Author.
He saved me during my PhD depression days. Highly recommend to anyone dealing with isolation, and any growing up issues.
I read all of his novels around 18-19 years ago. I’m getting ready to read them again. My favorite has been Sirens of Titan and I’m curious to see if that will change after rereading them as a middle aged man instead of a young man.
It should be noted that at the time, Dresden was regarded as the most beautiful city in the world. The intense bombing created a firestorm so intense it drew in air at gale force, sucking people into the inferno. It was so much worse than any kind of bombing.
It was the city with the most old world buildings, etc. The bombing of Dresden had nothing to do with the war, per say. It needed to be destroyed so that the current false narrative could be more easilty propagated.
Yes, the war was over and the U S/U K just had to show who was boss. Dresden had no war industry, no military, only refugees and what was left of German civility.
I’ve always had a fondness for Galapagos
Vonnegut was the author responsible for teaching me that reading was actually worth while. The first author I liked that really spoke to me on an emotional level, when I was a dejected teen.
And he was batsh!t insane... so I'm sure that says something about me.
I can only imagine how history would’ve turned out if he and George Carlin got together and lived throughout the pandemic. Oh boy, now wouldn’t THEY make a great pairing for a variety of projects, ha ha!
Nice analysis, by the way! I like how you tied up Vonnegut’s personal life together with his complex personality/“personalities,” depending on how you wish to look at it, of course.
I'm picturing then cussing each other out at length in the back garden, bumming cigarettes off each other the whole while. Then when one of them was heading back inside to refill his cup, he ask the other, "more coffee?"
The first time I ever heard of Slaughterhouse Five was in the movie Footloose. I wonder if Vonnegut ever saw his book being mentioned in the movie and how it caused controversy in the town. I like to think if he did, he would laugh at it.
Sometimes I have to wonder whether he was a Tralfalmadorian in disguise.
I got hooked reading Breakfast of Champions: The drawings in particular, especially that of the spider and something else that looked identical to the spider.
Same. That drawing & description of the torch at the top of the Statue of Liberty as being "like an ice cream cone on fire" still cracks me up just to type those words, even today!
The other drawings.. drew me in, if you will -- the hilarity and spot-on nature of them comforted and mentored me as though some wise, elder uncle were being so terribly candid in letting me in on all the insane games going on long before either of us were here to likewise be driven a little mad by them.
Of all Vonnegut's works, "Welcome to the Monkey House", a collection of short stories, is probably the most impactful as it gives a variety of points of view within each of the stories. From "Harrison Bergeron" to "Long Walk to Forever" to "Miss Temptation" and all throughout he deftly forces the reader to see the different points of view of the characters and how each action is shaped by their inherent biases.
I read Harrison Bergeron in 5th grade because it was in the school syllabus in 1980.
That version described Harrison as black.
More recent versions leave out that detail.
Wonder why?
@@MikeInOregon ... "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal." This is the first line of the original version. At no time in the story is anyone's skin color mentioned.
What happened to _God Bless You, Mr Rosewater_ in Vonnegut's report card at frame 15:20? It is rated almost 4 stars on Goodreads. The summary there is:
*Second only to Slaughterhouse-Five of Vonnegut's canon in its prominence and influence, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) presents Eliot Rosewater, an itinerant, semi-crazed millionaire* *wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome, introducing the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout.*
It's an excellent novel. I still smile when I think of it.
why does this only have 2.000 views, this is a great video, please never stop doing your videos!
It just got posted. Give it a day or two.
Now THAT is how you quote a dictionary. Also interesting lesson in what words PBS does and doesn't allow.
I am always happy after watching Princess Weekes deliver something like this. She always makes me feel slightly smarter afterwards.
That is because she is so dumb with her constant hand gesturing. That is why I love reading so much. It is the words that matter, not the unnecessary "talking with her hands."
Great video! I was born in the late 50s and grew up in the 60s and 70s, and Kurt certainly helped *me* deal with those times. Humor, a commitment to justice and refusing to look away from the darkness are powerful tools.
I think the intro was supposed to be “there are three types of people in this world. Those who can can’t and those who can’t”. It’s supposed to be a joke
Vonnegut really takes the absurd and made the stories so deep. Breakfast of champions really got me through tough times and a comfort in those times.
I'm so honored that I got to meet him a couple of years before he died. He gave a talk in Albion, Michigan. I hold him in high regard as one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.
My Calculus 3 instructor used to say there were three kinds of mathematicians in the world, those who can count and those who can't.
Any time I get really really depressed and feel like I can't go on I remember Kurt's writings. Makes me feel okay having doodley squat!
God bless you Dr. Kevorkian, Galápagos, & Blue Beard are all good reads by him
On top of being a great writer, he was a Kauffmanesque comedian and probably had a lot of good laughs at the expense of his audience.
Can you please do an episode on Terry Pratchett? I've been working through Discworld and I have so many questions.
YASSSSSSS!!!!!!
😯 WHOA! I was thinking about 'Harrison Bergeron' just a few hours ago!
One of my best-ever friends reminded me years ago how amazing Kurt Vonnegut is! This is the same friend who first got me to watch A Clockwork Orange. See why he's such a good friend?!
Breakfast of Champions was the most impactful book I ever read. I actually worked in some pretty hardcore sales environments while struggling with undiagnosed ADHD and dysthymia. Reading Breakfast of Champions was such an uplifting experience for me, even though most of the book is fairly dark. It was just really comforting to read this book that's so personal, and so authentic, and with such a deep portrayal of not only mental illness, but how it relates to the greater social context.
One of the more subtle messages of the book is how *everyone* loses under capitalism, even one of the better off members of society struggles with mental health issues that we can understand given his work and life pressures.
To this day one of the things I quote the most is Kilgore Trout's epitaph: "We are healthy only to the extent our ideas are humane." This was written a full 25 years before the field of positive psychology was established, and yet it encompasses not only how we ought to treat others, but how we ought to treat ourselves.
I wrote a research paper my sophomore year of high school about Slaughterhouse Five for my American Lit class. My teacher wanted us to pick an American writer, and that book was one I’d found in my uncle’s old room at my grandma’s house and taken home. I absolutely loved it. This video makes me want to find my paper and cringe at sixteen year old me’s writing.
The Sirens of Titan - is an absolute masterpiece, a farce about the reality that surrounds us, how small a person is and how little he knows, if our entire solar system disappeared, the universe would not notice it, it must be read between the lines
Slapstick was one of his finest, from one of the hardest times of his life.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
Those that can count and those that can't.
*"The world may be divided into two classes of people:*
*those who divide the world into two classes of people, and those who don't."*
- Robert Benchley
@@Lucius1958 I don't remember where I stole that joke.
Cats Cradle is one of my favorite books of all time. A+
Vonnegut's novels always put me into existential crisis mode, because I can see myself and the whole world in all those characters who are caught up drifting in an absurd current to our own destruction or untimely end. And yet, there is so much to savor in those stories, and many moments of peace to be found.
Big fan of the man's work. His short story TANGO is well worth reading.
Thank you Princess, for an eloquent, brief, yet profound depiction of an extraordinary man, even in his own words “hard to describe”. 🙏🌹
To this day, my favorite author. Though it may not be his deepest work, my favorite is Welcome To The Monkey House. I think because I read it pretty young, when I was just dipping into the vast well of science fiction. The range of stories go from serious to a bit silly, but all with a point. It gave me a glimpse into a spectrum of imagined futures, and alter ate histories. I had thought all sci-fi had to be robots in space until I read that book.
I’m the right age and inclination to have worshiped the peace-loving author but never bothered. Thanks for waking my interest.
And so it goes. (Great job! Time to revisit a master.)
Stop no... 🤣💀 U cant call it the Hitler Boogaloo. I wasnt prepared
I was not familiar with this author but now I wanna read all of his work!!
Start with slaughterhouse 5 . I also have a fondness for Galapagos
Princess Weekes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WWII: Hitler Boogaloo - niiice. I literally use this ref for all sequels.
Forgot to get something at the grocery store?
*Piggly Wiggly's 2: Electric Boogaloo.*
Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers… thank you for such an in depth overlook of a legendary literary titan.
A great bit about one of my favorite authors.
Hopefully we'll see lots more It's Lit coming, PBS keep this series up please!
Most enlightening, thank you!
This was really informative. Have you considered doing one of these on Thomas Pynchon?
I think one of the most underrated things Vonnegut wrote was Rabo Karebekian’s speech about his art in Breakfast of Champions. That he had this pretentious ass deliver the themes of the book so directly and eloquently that his words even surprised KV really encapsulates what I love about his work.
Have you read "Bluebeard" yet?
i'd love to see a video about PKD. As a CS DADOES rings pretty true when it comes to AI ethics and AI safety. it's themes centered around our tendency to otherize demographics to justify expressive social norms just feels so ahead of it's time. The constant questioning of self and reality in his works hits me right in the noncisgender.
his short stories always seam to encapsulate some fundamental facet of the human experience.
Isn't it true of all of us though? The persona that represents us at work or even out grocery shopping is not the same as the persons we really are "when no one is watching." I don't see anything odd about is duplicity of nature. Both were him.
But consider Bokonon's maxim: you become what you pretend to be. That applies to all of us.
@@Lucius1958 agreed. Perhaps I could have represented my thoughts better. It seems to me, that we are all truly more than one person. As a teen, I had several and quite diverse groups of friends. I.E. say I had church youth group friends, I had a group of artistic friends, a group I hung out with at school, and fellow employees. Each group would know a piece of who I was, but rarely the other parts. I was not "pretending' nor was I deceiving anyone. I was simply a different me depending on who I was with........where our common ground lay. I feel the point I was trying to make is that, in a sense, whether he realized it or not, Vonnegut was really both........
the persona was simply another him. He may not have been "comfortable" with it, but he wasn't "playing a part," he was simply embracing another "him." Also, often others really can know us better than we can know who we are. Its something we learn along the way. Through companions and experiences that weave the threads of our life. We are often too focused on detail to stand back and look at the fullness of what is already there. I apologize for this long winded comment....if you made it to the end.....thank you.
I remember how much joy I took in even the formatting of "Cat's Cradle", the paperback edition I had was 137 pages, with 136 chapters I think. Chapters being between a half page, to a page in a half on average. I was very disheartened to find if you try to buy a copy now, you can only find the gouging trade editions, with extra large type and spacing to make it a much bigger book.
Galapagos for mine, for the sheer pleasure of Kurt's wise and friendly humour. That bit at the end where a seal-human farts on the beach and the other seal-humans are still human enough to giggle, a million odd years from now..
One of my favourite comments about Vonnegut's writing, which he said a friend said to him, was that he put bitter coatings on very sweet pills.
Omg thank you so much for making this. I am such a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut & this was so awesome
How dare she inspire lol with a mouth full of burrito over WWII: Hitler Bugaloo.
I’ve just ordered Mr Rosewater. Really excited to be reading the “god damn it, you’ve got to be kind” first hand in flesh.
It always get me emotional hearing that quote. It feels like if there’s one thing we human should do, it is that.
God Bless You Mr. Rosewater gets better each time you read it and with more Vonnegut you read. It was the book that made me love Kilgore Trout. It's wonderful if you're already acquitted with Vonnegut, but it's a great introduction to his world. If you want more, Breakfast of Champions is most closely related, but Jailbird is also a good choice (thematically, not necessarily in the context of Vonnegut canon).
That was a great video, and so well presented! KUDOS...
I recently read Slaughterhouse Five and was blown away!!! This video couldn’t have arrived at a better time!!! Thanks Princess xx
"Slaughterhouse Five" is literally in my reading queue. Looking forward to getting to it soon.
This might explain the "Whoever wrote this [Vonnegut paper] doesn't know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut" line in 'Back to School' ...
Not gonna lie. I saw the thumbnail of Vonnegut and shrugged. Then I realized it was for a Storied video and watched immediately. Princess' delivery always brightens my day!
This host is awesome. I hope she gets more work explaining literature!
She is! You can see more of her on her personal channel, Princess Weekes. She's excellent.
I don’t know if I’m reading into it too much, but the allowance for ‘God damnit’ felt like a subtle nod to Maus in lieu of recent news. If so, right on.
I best remember Kurt from reading his work in high school and his cameo in Back to School 😂
I literally re-read all his books between everything else I read like dessert.
This series does not get the amount of likes it deserves. Good stuff.
God bless you mr. Vonnegut. You are my personal savior old dead man. ❤️This is an absurd world we inhabit, and we are absurd beings. Kurt made this oker to digest, not okay, I’m not the only one thinking I’m living in a bad sci fi novel.
I got hooked on Vonnegut at Slaughterhouse Five, Sirens of Titan, and Cat's Cradle.
Did not expect a PBS/Weekes joint to move me to tears today.
Watching Swaim on Cracked makes me feel unstuck in time. Still as good as ever. (Remember Clippy?)
poo-tee-weet?
This series never disappoints
I went on a big Kurt Vonnegut bing when I was in high school. I read practically everything he wrote. One of my favorites..... so it goes.
Wow, I have had a different life experience but resonated with him deeply. It’s quite rare for me to relate to someone in this way. He’s phenomenal
I love that last line! The truth lives on in his fiction, more or less. Wonderful homage.
My favorite author, really good video!
*squints* is that a fire emblem crest i see?
Thank you for this one. Vonnegut is a real favorite of my partner and I's.
the three times i died in this video 3:27 9:44 14:09
"I learned that science fiction was a junk drawer and that my work belonged in it."
- Kurt Vonnegut
I feel like (and this is partly my cultural biases and prejudices, to be sure; non-White, Non-European descendants will likely have very different feelings about Vonnegut, or who their "necessary writers" are), if you DIDN'T have at least a brief "Vonnegut Phase" in your reading life, you really, really, missed out.
You don't have to put him on a pedestal, you don't have to declare him the greatest writer of his generation or some-such, but you'll really benefit from absorbing at least a few of his novels.
Me? I'm here for (in no particular order): Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, & Slaughter-house Five (though attempts to re-read it have been hard; I find the tone SO angry, it infects me)...
(BTW, if you can find it, the '90s film version of "Mother Night" is one of the best novel-to-movie translations I've ever seen. And the film version of Slaughter-house Five is a valiant attempt at capturing the book.)
As a fellow Hoosier, I love that Mr. V so oft quoted another Hoosier, Eugene V. Debs, reciting what is likely Debs most famous quote.
Such dedicated work in brining us closer to a writer who took us into the modern age with laugher and gusto! Subscribed! - That being said, I always wondered, maybe Kurt Vonnegut is a pre-cursor to Magical Realism. I was reading about a Salmande Rushdie novel (Midnight's Children?) where where there was a very serious, grounded storyline about some threat to the country of India, and at the same time there were thousands Indian children psychically connecting and communitating to each other in the chaos. Pretty wild, dream-like stuff! Did not Kurt Vonnegut play with this type of "literal" bending of space-and-time?
My first book of his was “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” and the very first page speaking of how money to humans is like honey to bees, it had me thinking, “oh jeez, I’m gonna be reading more than just this book, aren’t I?”
imagine a timeline where Vonnegut was a standup comedian
IMO Edgar Allen Poe was also deeply affected by his mother's death. He watched her die spitting up blood from tuberculosis at age 3 or so. His response was also channeled thru his writing, where he Oedipally split, writing both horror and romantic poems.
In my 19th year here, I read several of Kurt's droppings enthusiastically, leaving me with more clarity in life's challenges while maybe even attuned to Kilgore Trout's stream of consciousness. Meeting Kurt on the street and knowing what to talk about would have been a surprise and quite a treat, for he seemed to have an astronomical world-view and I'm sure he wouldn't have left me out. Thanks
Perfect ending.... Absolutely nailed it.
"He did die....more or less. *cut to black*"
Highlights the abruptness of death, and even the most interesting minds in modern history disappear quicker than the snap of your fingers
My favorite author, right behind Terry Pratchett.
Both legends
You, my friend, have impeccable taste.