Kurt Vonnegut - November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007

I'm not exactly sure what leads me to writing blog, I haven't read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut, but I have quoted him in some of my Diving Deeper writing workshops. And, I have just finished participating in a writing retreat, which was not easy for me, and perhaps I'm looking for inspiration.

Very recently Andrew, a dear friend of mine, sent me Vonnegut's  eight rules for writing a short story. I loved them, and today I discover Vonnegut died last week, on April 11.

I recently wrote a blog on U.G. Krishnamurti, who also died this year. He died on my mother's birthday. Vonnegut died on the birthday of my last husband, Makoto Kabayama (aka Nip Kicks). Actually there are a lot of interesting numbers in Vonnegut's birth and death day, if you are into that sort of thing. These little details may have absolutely nothing to do with anything, but, well, this is my blog and I can blather about anything, I'm afraid.

I did poke around a bit and found some wonderful Vonnegut quotes. I'm certainly going to read more of his work. Clearly he was a man with a wide ranging incisive wisdom and a wonderful sense of humour. Cute, too.




To start with, for those of us who call ourselves 'writers' - the eight rules:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.*
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, (1999)

Vonnegut said that most  great writers tend to break all the rules except the first...

(aargh there I was, thinking I'd found the secret to finishing my novel, or writing another one, or writing something, anything...).

Ah, perhaps here's the secret...

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.
Science Fictionisms (1995), compiled by William Rotsler

Well, I certainly have got number 7 down.

Okay, enough of that. There are several videos of Kurt Vonnegut, online, I haven't found one that feels like 'it', but here is one which gives you a sense of the man. On PBS's October 7, 2005 program, NOW Host David Brancaccio interviews Vonnegut:




Here are some of my favourite Vonnegut quotes.


Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.
Cold Turkey (2004)

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.
Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974)

What is literature but an insider's newsletter about affairs relating to molecules, of no importance to anything in the Universe but a few molecules who have the disease called 'thought'.
Bluebeard (1987)

Sometimes I think it is a great mistake to have matter that can think and feel. It complains so. By the same token, though, I suppose that boulders and mountains and moons could be accused of being a little too phlegmatic.
The Sirens of Titan (1959)

The only difference between [George W.] Bush and [Adolf] Hitler is that Hitler was elected.
Stardust Memory The Free Press (2006-03-04),

I do feel that evolution is being controlled by some sort of divine engineer. I can't help thinking that. And this engineer knows exactly what he or she is doing and why, and where evolution is headed. That’s why we’ve got giraffes and hippopotami and the clap.
On Evolution vs. Intelligent Design, on The Daily Show (September 2005)


Unsourced Quotes

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.









Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.


People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say.

Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.


What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.