Kurt Vonnegut

The tributes are rolling in, much as they did for Hunter S. Thompson. And that brings up an interesting dichotomy.

I like to consider myself fairly literate and well read. I have ingested works as varied as Frankenstein and The Diary of Margery Kemp. (Reputed to be the first autobiography) I have read bits of Augustine, Jocephus, have read Thomas More's Utopia, Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm. I have read a lot of Stephen Ambrose, ken Burnside, Procopius, and much, much more. I have read bits and pieces of Poe, Twain, some of the various poets....I have read the great (I would put a lot of Twain in this category) and the crap (no matter how much some people love him I will never be convinced Ginsberg had any talent whatsoever). I have read some of the pop-culture icons of today...Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck, Cosby...I have read biographies of everyone from Jackie Robinson to Jack Benny to Allan Pinkerton. I have read histories. And so forth.

But I have never read either Thompson or Vonnegut. Here are 2 cultural icons that somehow have never crossed my path. I have seen a movie made from one of Thompson's books (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...hopefully the book was better than the dreary, miserable, spiteful, blood-drenched movie. That is typically the case).

But somehow I have never read either of their works.

It makes me wonder how this age will be viewed. Several of the books I mentioned are icons of ages: Utopia is an examination of class warfare and fairness in medieval European society. Frankenstein contrasts romanticism and the enlightenment. Heart of Darkness investigates colonialism/imperialism/nation building, whatever name you wish to call it. These are books reputed to have impacted their ages, to have moved people's thinking. Some people class Vonnegut in there. Yet I have never read one...I have read O Henry and Sedaris, others who are known for commentary on society. Acid Dreams still resides in my library. But I have never read Vonnegut, a sci-fi writer?

My sci-fi library is not insignificant. My interest is there. Why have I not done so?

The real irony is now would be the time to read them. However, with his passing I have no doubt his books will be flying off the shelves and hard to get a hold of. And by the time they return to stock I will have moved on, perhaps returning to intense study of DeLoria or Hudson or Brown or maybe being caught up in a wish to study the life of some individual...all projects that have occupied a great deal of time in the last year or so.

So basically this is just a ramble about how someone's passing brings to attention a lack of interaction between voracious reader and prolific writer with somewhat similar interests. Bizarre.