[NewMusic] Kurt Vonnegut R.I.P.

[David Slusser]

Good God  -  I think literature can be eternal, like music,
but if you were around in the late 60s and 70s, this guy
was quite inspiring.  Don't know how he'd stack up with
Melville and Dostoevsky in any technical sense, but he got
to the point he was making quite well, without a lot of bull-
shit.  I guess that makes him kind of a folk hero as well, and
maybe that's where my great appreciation lies.  This was the
Vietnam and Nixon era, and Vonnegut's moral compass was a
beacon.  Oh, that we had something like that now.  His con-
temporaries like Pynchon (a personal fav), Mailer, Kerouac and
Burrows might get more prosaic credentials, but, I think Kurt
nailed it quite clearly (and amusingly) every time out.

I love the implications of his alleged pseudonymous past, writing
pulp material, which is only hinted at in something like Sirens of
Titan.  As musicians, we can all immediately relate to the day gig.  In
that book, (which also features Kazak, Hound of Space) he introduced
the concept of (forgive my spelling) the "chrono-symplastic-infidibulum"
which poses that time is a spriral, and that you can draw a vector
through that spiral, and see that...to put it succinctly...the more  
things
change, the more they stay the same...you're just further along in  
the cycle.

long live Kilgore Trout


On Apr 11, 2007, at 11:29 PM, Moe! Staiano wrote:

> Sorry to see him go. Another great writer gone.
>
> http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ 
> 0,21985,21544354-5005961,00.html
>
>
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