tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post3660657290527489135..comments2024-03-29T15:13:42.610+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Kurt Vonnegut - epitome of a modern evil genius Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-1749464218784287662019-02-11T11:46:34.841+00:002019-02-11T11:46:34.841+00:00Very dangerous writer - I would go so far as to sa...Very dangerous writer - I would go so far as to say that Vonnegut was one of the authors that catalyzed my nascent teenage atheism. His faux-intellectualism lent a legitimacy to my immature rebellion.<br /><br />I remember the "fart around" quote, mentioned by Francis. What made a greater impression on me, in the introduction to one or the other of the books, was a play on the typical disclaimer, where Vonnegut wrote that "all persons, living or dead, or purely coincidental". It's JUST the sort of snotty, oh-so-clever remark beloved by juvenile atheists everywhere.<br /><br />Knowing what I now know - I don't mean this to sound slanderous, as I of course do not have any specific evidence, but I would not be surprised to find out that Vonnegut was sexually deviant in some way.Matthew Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10705518098650594541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-75659950875236280912019-02-09T19:49:41.148+00:002019-02-09T19:49:41.148+00:00Vonnegut was aware of Christ: Kurt Vonnegut, Chr...Vonnegut was aware of Christ: <a href="https://imagejournal.org/article/kurt-vonnegut/" rel="nofollow">Kurt Vonnegut, Christ-Loving Atheist"</a><br /><br />When I saw your comment, I thought, he *must* have come from a strongly religious household! But I was wrong. Seemingly he came from a long long line of 'freethinkers'.<br /><br />Even before I joined church, I noticed the phenomenon of first generation non-churchgoers. It seemed to me they were conscientious and driven, more so than either churchgoers or non-churchgoers raised in non-churchgoing families. <br /><br />Humanism is bizarre. Observed from afar (I don't know any personally) they really *do* seem to uphold high moral and intellectual standards and persist these over generations. It seems to be an exclusively upper middle class thing.Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02005295490663931940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-31139465045926866522019-02-09T18:54:00.155+00:002019-02-09T18:54:00.155+00:00@Francis - That is a devastating explicit quote fr...@Francis - That is a devastating explicit quote from V - but the same message is implicit in most of what he wrote; and perhaps more dangerous because implicit. <br /><br />I was deep into this kind of irony at times in my life, and refused to believe that it has a truly *deadly* effect when a person - or society - begins to regard life as trivial, without real value; when all truth is understood as a trick or a mistake...<br /><br />What is bizzare, is that Vonnegut was so venomous, so scathing, so moralistic in his political opinions. Did he really not see the contradiction between life being no more than a fart, and regarding political enemies as truly evil? Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70481412941817462122019-02-09T16:50:06.978+00:002019-02-09T16:50:06.978+00:00@Crosbie - I agree - it is a brilliant idea - and ...@Crosbie - I agree - it is a brilliant idea - and true! Like I said, the man *was* a genius. <br /><br />Ref: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=karassBruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-59994109612903726062019-02-09T16:50:03.669+00:002019-02-09T16:50:03.669+00:00This is hands down the best and most incisive eval...This is hands down the best and most incisive evaluation of Vonnegut and his work I have read to date. I went through a Vonnegut phase in my late teens/early twenties, which was the late 80s early 90s. I enjoyed him and eventually grew tired of him for the same reasons you outline in your post. <br /><br />What really did it for me was the following quote from one of his later books, Timequake:<br /><br /> “Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!”<br /><br />And that was him saying the line, not one of his characters! I remember reading that line and thinking, "What? That's it, Kurt? That's really all life amounts to for you?" Try as I might, I simply couldn't accept that view of life - the revelation that it was all a cosmic joke. His insistence that you should not let anyone tell you any different reeked of both hubris and defeat. My interest in Vonnegut waned considerably after that. <br /><br /><br /><br /> Francis Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11063224017320651978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18946860808745326812019-02-09T14:43:01.855+00:002019-02-09T14:43:01.855+00:00I've never been able to get the idea of a kara...I've never been able to get the idea of a karass out of my head. I hope that's not an evil idea.Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02005295490663931940noreply@blogger.com