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- the6thReplicant, on 10/12/2007, -8/+72God damn greatest post-war American author. He deserves a ***** holiday dedicated to him.
- Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2007, -10/+68He'd probably want it on a day already occupied by a religious celebration, just to piss people off. :)
I nominate Easter. - PATSCRU, on 10/12/2007, -1/+44"There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too."
A-*****-men - rjam710, on 10/12/2007, -2/+44@Dumbledorito
Vonnegut liked to stir things up to prove a point, not just to "piss people off." He wouldn't do something to intentionally anger people for the sole purpose of causing a scene. Look at the quotes, a lot of them show a theme common in a lot of his works: no matter what happens, just be kind to those around you and appreciate happiness whenever you get the chance.
Besides, he'd probably want a day completely ridiculous... like February 29th so we can only celebrate it every 4 years. - BiteTheHand, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28" * "
--Kurt Vonnegut - farmboymdp, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25My favorite quote of his, not on the list:
"Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia."
---Kurt Vonnegut - tehkain, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19"I believe there is a divine engineer guiding evolution... That's why we have giraffes, hippopotami, and the clap." ---Kurt Vonnegut
- SwampyUK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference." ---Kurt Vonnegut"
That's by Reinhold Niebuhr - aka the AA Serenity Prayer. Dates from the mid 1930s iirc. Doesn't diminish its beauty though :) - Aard88, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16"So it goes"
- AoiTakuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Kurt is up in Heaven now.
One of my favorite quotes:"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
Kurt Vonnegut - heinousjay, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10That's not irony. It is preachy, but it's not irony.
- syphon7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@0o0moylan0o0
Actually no... Easter eggs are not a pagan thing. You clearly aren't a member of the Hare Club for Men. I was waiting till you were a bit older til I explained it... but I guess now is as good a time as ever. - maabus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I agree. And that's why I think this little article sucks. Let Vonnegut's quotes speak for themself; I don't want to hear some blabbering literature PhD rambling on and trying to explain what the quotes mean. The author somehow made reading Vonnegut quotes boring--quite a difficult accomplishment.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11Easter wouldn't be the date of choice then, it looses signinficance seeing as it is also (originally) A Pagan Festival
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html
Thats where the origins of easter eggs, bunnies all come from. - h0m3styl3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Kurt Vonnegut jr. on dying:
"How nice--to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive"
I hope those that mourn him do so properly - by drinking your coffee black and smoking a pack of pall malls while rubbing feet with a close friend. - airquotes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5who ever dugg swamypuk (or whatevr his name is) down is an idiot, he's right, vonnegut didnt write that god grant me the serenity ... prayer.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5here is a list of Vonnegut quotes without all the interpretation:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vonnegut - nipuL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"Hello, I'm Kurt"
- Rocketbird, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Despite It Being A Title You Don't Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word
..Sorry, I'm being anal - Wonderkind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"He deserves a ***** holiday dedicated to him."
Having read quite a bit of his literature, I think he'd shake his head and tell you to not bother. - reventlov, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10I was just about to quote this one, too. Someone should pass this along to the neo conservatives.
- Swishkid44, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Genious. His writing offers so much wisdom combined with a certain witty-humor that I can truly connect with and which inspires me.
- Solowing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"We had a memorial services for Isaac a few years back, and at one point I said, 'Isaac is up in Heaven now.' It was the funniest thing I could have said to a group of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in Heaven now.' That's my favorite joke." - Kurt Vonnegut
- Hacbarton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How To Write
1. Find a subject you care about.
2. Do not ramble, though.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Have the guts to cut.
5. Sound like yourself.
6. Say what you mean to say.
7. Pity the readers.
* quoted in Science Fictionisms (1995) - thelab101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Best quote -
It was a thunderingly beautiful experience—voluptuous, sexual, dangerous, and expensive as hell. - geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6interesting.. I've found that people tend to be happier in the third world, living in the same community as their extended family.
- AoiTakuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Kurt was a humanist, he didnt believe in heaven. when he took over as the head of a humanist group after Isaac Asimov died that was the first thing he said about Isaac at his funeral, or a meeting of the humanists i cant remember exactly. It's a joke, made my Kurt himself. so you sir should read MORE of his stuff.
- tech42er, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I read his short story Harrison Bergeron in a Fark thread. It was great.
- reventlov, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@liam76
I don't believe in god, and so I don't believe he or she hates anyone. I do think the neo conservatives believe in a god that makes it easier for them to hate without reservation, which is wrong. They aren't unique in this, in fact the phenomenon is a reoccurring theme in human history. Put bluntly, that IS human history. - rustygb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Here's the popular YouTube tribute to Kurt with more quotes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atABhlMLYvU - rlinse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Excellent interview Kurt gave last year in Second Life. Man had a great sense of humor to the end.
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2007/04/kurt_vonnegut_i.html - definiteform, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Wow. That song makes me quite upset he's gone. I never got to meet him, but what a writer.
- SQUIDwarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That saddens me. Not that you almost fell asleep, (Vonnegut is not for everyone) but that you had never heard of him. Not that surprising though. Outside of an advanced English literature course, you'll almost never see a Vonnegut book because most teachers can't teach Vonnegut worth a damn.
Go read "Slaughterhouse Five", "Cat's Cradle", and "The Sirens of Titan." Even if they bore you, you'll come out a better person because of it. Everyone should at least read "Slaughterhouse Five" at least once in their lives. - laserdog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My favorite Vonnegut quote, is paraphrased, as I can't locate the source for the life of me:
"Computers are machines that fool you into thinking you're not sitting alone in a room."
(Here's hoping someone will swoop in and correct me with the actual quote and attribution.) - javaroast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Vonnegut died at the age of 84 on April 11, 2007, in Manhattan, New York after a fall at his Manhattan home several weeks prior resulted in irreversible brain injuries.
- capndan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2On the other hand, maabus, having never read Kurt's writings before the explanations actually helped me a lot. Now excuse me while I try to go find some of his books to read ^__^
- ChumpChief, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness. Science has nothing to do with it, friends."
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Those foam mattresses are way too hot. They suck, regardless of what Lindsay Wagner says.
- kickaha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Kurt might be gone, but his avatar is not...nor his account.
http://www.wayneporter.com/2007/04/17/kurt-vonnegut-lives-on-in-the-grid-of-second-life/
What is cool is an guy in his eighties hanging out in a metaverse. - nazsco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Purpose of human life is to love whoever is around to be loved."
- whiterabbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I am quite partial to what Billy Pilgrim has to say in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut:
"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever." - funkspiel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"My soul seemed as foul as smoke from burning cat fur."
cat's cradle - HisTumness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe."
- banderbe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Sorry folks, but I don't see what he said that's so profound.
Mostly he states the obvious.
Granted, he states the obvious in a very eloquent way and makes very unique and interesting use of the English language, and that's admirable, but beyond that.. he's just another guy with opinions.
I'm confident that I could get more profundity from a homeless person living under a bridge, if only they could articulate as well. - saifatlast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1God damn. The world is a less altruistic, more cynical place without that man around.
- addrake, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I was reading these quotes, and although I am pretty conservative I like their eloquence and beauty. Then I read this:
"Vonnegut (who often said "The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected") was righteously skeptical about war, having famously survived the only one worth fighting in his lifetime."
Skepticism about the war? Damn straight, it's a useless war we shouldn't have gotten into.
Bush=Hitler? Idiot ***** Godwining that makes him look like an absolutist fool. - szembek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Me neither.
- cyks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3You cannot simultaneously claim he is in heaven and that you value his messages.
Read them again please... - cyks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1& Hitler was appreciated relatively greater.
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