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I'm Lauren, and I'm a proud groupie. I have a (probably unhealthy) obsession with Kurt Vonnegut: his words, his drawings, and his wisdom. From time to time you'll see more personal things on here, because it is my blog, but it's probably 95% Vonnegut. If you love Kurt, you're in the right place. |
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Notes Kurt Vonnegut: The Art of Fiction No. 64Interviewer: What is a twerp in the strictest sense, the original sense? Vonnegut: It's a person who inserts a set of false teeth between the cheeks of his ass. Interviewer: I see. Vonnegut: I beg your pardon; the cheeks of his or her ass. I'm always offending feminists that way. Interviewer: I don't quite understand why someone would do that with false teeth. Vonnegut: In order to bite the buttons off the backseats of taxicabs. That's the reason twerps do it. It's all that turns them on. -
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NotesQuestion: What’s your take on George Bush?
Kurt Vonnegut: We have a President who knows absolutely no history, and he is surrounded by men who pay no attention to history. They imagine that they are great politicians inventing something new. In fact, it’s really quite old stuff: tyranny. But they imagine they’re being creative.
Kurt Vonnegut would despise Santorum…
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Notes"Write a poem tonight. Make it as good as you possibly can. Four, six or eight lines. Make it as good as you can. Don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it to anybody. When you’re satisfied it’s as good as you can make it, tear it up in small pieces and scatter those pieces between widely separated trash receptacles and you will find out you have received your full reward for having done it."Kurt Vonnegut
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OK, guys, just go read that interview and check out Kurt’s perspective on art and Dada. It’s insanely beautiful and true.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled dashboards.
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Notes"I realized something this morning at the Museum of Modern Art, where they were having a press reception before the opening of their Dada show. Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and all those guys started making these very strange works of art after the First World War. Duchamp famously signed a urinal “R. Mutt.” Anyway, I saw that urinal this morning and I realized that’s what Joe and I are doing — Dada. Dada was the artists’ response to the senselessness of the First World War. Who wants to make a picture of noble human beings? Joe and I are practicing Dada now. They were protesting the meaninglessness in life."Kurt Vonnegut (on producing art with Joe Petro)
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NotesInterviewer: Do you think the Midwest is a good place to grow up? Kurt Vonnegut: If George W. Bush got mad enough at me and exiled me back to Indianapolis, I could make a decent life there. I could hack it in Indianapolis. -
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Notes The Melancholia of Everything Completed“Stop Smiling” interview with Kurt Vonnegut, from 2006. That’s where I just found the photo of Kurt in his little yellow chair (get in my life, little yellow chair!) and the interview has some great gems from Kurt. It also features him talking about his life in a way that seems less cynical and self-deprecating than his usual autobiographical talks. Somehow that appeals to me- it feels like I’m getting the real story.
Anyway, you guys should read the interview. Quotes are forthcoming. Enjoy!
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Notes Kurt Vonnegut on writingINTERVIEWER: Could you put the theory into a few words? VONNEGUT: It was stated by Paul Engle—the founder of the Writers’ Workshop at Iowa. He told me that, if the workshop ever got a building of its own, these words should be inscribed over the entrance: Don’t take it all so seriously. INTERVIEWER: And how would that be helpful? VONNEGUT: It would remind the students that they were learning to play practical jokes. INTERVIEWER: Practical jokes? VONNEGUT: If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again. -
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Notes From a McSweeney's interview with Kurt VonnegutInterviewer: When I was reading "Dr. Kevorkian", I was reminded a bit of a Japanese film from a couple years ago called "Afterlife". [...] Its premise is that those who have recently died are taken to a waiting room for one week, during which time they must choose only a single memory from their entire lives which will endlessly replay for them, while all of their other memories are erased. Kurt: So everybody's fucking, right? Interviewer: See, that's the peculiar thing. Maybe in your world or mine, everybody's fucking. But in this movie, some of the memories are much simpler, almost elegant. Many people can't choose a memory at all. [...] Any idea what memory you might choose? Kurt: [long pause] I think it would be the moment where I was doing everything right, where I was beyond criticism. It was back in World War II. It was snowing, but everything was black. The trucks were rolling in. I was surrounded by my buddies. And my rifle was between my knees, my helmet on my head. I was ready for anything. And I was right where I belonged. That would be the moment. It would have to be the moment. (This is so beautiful and haunting that it brings tears to my eyes.)
