Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at 84. I'm far too challenged (on several levels) by the prospect of comment to offer anything original. I did rather like this bit at the end of the MSNBC article:
"Vonnegut said the villains in his books were never individuals, but culture, society and history, which he said were making a mess of the planet.
"'We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard ... and too damn cheap,' he once suggested carving into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a message for flying-saucer creatures."
Here's full text of the MSNBC obit
Here are some other offerings:
BBC News
The New York Times
The Indianapolis Star
Houston Chronicle
Guardian (UK)
Reuters Canada
Editor & Publisher
(headline for this short article reads: Kurt Vonnegut - Former Police Reporter - Dies at 84..."so it goes," indeed)
My current favorite Vonnegut quote:
ReplyDelete"I have wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy—because we’re experienced with it, you know. And, in democracy, after a hundred years, you have to let your slaves go. And, after a hundred and fifty years, you have to let your women vote. And, at the beginning of democracy, is that quite a bit of genocide and ethnic cleansing is quite okay. And that’s what’s going on now."