1. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different”
--K.V.

4. The Early Years Born - November 11, 1922, Indianapolis, Indiana
Grandfather- first licensed architect in Indiana
Father- wealthy architect
Family’s wealth diminished when the Great Depression hit and Kurt Sr. couldn’t find work
Parents had trouble accepting the fact that they were no longer wealthy
Mother committed suicide on May 14, 1944 (Mother’s Day) (he was away at war)
Father retreated into his own little world until his death in 1957
Mom’s suicide OD on sleeping pills- haunted him for the rest of his life

5. Education/Writing
Shortridge Daily Echo - the first daily high school newspaper in the country
Cornell University - double major (bio and chem!)
Brother Bernard was a scientist - discovered cloud seeding to induce precipitation
Struggled with bio & chem
Excelled as Managing Editor for Cornell Daily Sun (school newspaper)
By almost asked to leave Cornell, joined Army instead
Dad wanted him to study something dependable, which is why he chose science

6. Dresden
“All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.”

7. Dresden
Became German POW after being captured in the Battle of the Bulge
Sent to Dresden
“The Florence on the Elbe”
No military significance
Sent to work in vitamin syrup factory
February 13, Allied forces firebombed Dresden (incendiary bombs)
Shook faith in humanity and the rationality of the universe

8. “It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.”
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
“It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.”

9. Dresden, cont’d.
Debate about number of casualities from bombing (35, ,000)
Vonnegut and fellow POWs survived
Making vitamins in an underground meat locker
After bombing, put to work cleaning up bodies - too many, so the Germans brought in flame throwers
Sent home in May of 1945
Received Purple Heart for what he called a “ludicrously negligible wound”
Owes career to experience in Dresden
He called the wound frostbite

10. Family Life Married - Jane Marie Cox (high school sweetheart)
Three children of their own
Later adopted his sister’s three children after her death in 1958
Sister Alice died of cancer less than 48 hours after her husband was killed in a train accident (in Newark, NJ)

11. Employment Graduate student at University of Chicago
Anthropology major (the study of humankind and human cultures/societies)
Thesis was rejected, did not receive degree
Newspaper reporter
Teacher (yay!)
Public relations employee for General Electric in Schenectedy, NY
Ran a Saab dealership
Thesis was called “Fluctuations Between Good and Evil in Simple Tales”- unamimously rejected
Saab dealershp went bankrupt- felt like the reason he never received the Nobel Prize was b/c the Swedes never forgave him for the bankrupt business

12. Humanism
As described by Kurt Vonnegut himself, “being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead”
Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity

13. Fatalism
"All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.” (from Timequake)
Fatalism - the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable
Who in Slaughterhouse-Five is a fatalist?
How would the belief in fatalism guide someone’s everyday actions?

14. From Cat’s Cradle
"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand."

15. From Timequake
In response to his own question, “Why bother?” (regarding reading and writing):
"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.'"

16. Writing Style Long sentences Little punctuation Humanist point of view
“Do not use semicolons. They stand for absolutely nothing.”
Humanist point of view
Satire - the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

17. Writing Style Nonlinear Chronology - events are out of order
Metafiction - fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions and traditional narrative techniques

18. Writing Style Repetition Allusions (religious, literary, classical)
Use of an alter-ego (see if you can figure out who it is)
“Combination of simplicity, irony, and rue”
Blended literature with science fiction and humor, the absurd with pointed social commentary

19. Science Fiction?
"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'science fiction' ever since [the publication of Player Piano], and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.”
Science reality, not science fiction

20. Later in Life Taught creative writing at Harvard
Got divorced (and later remarried Jill Krementz [a photographer])
Saw his son Mark suffer and recover from a psychotic breakdown
Attempted suicide (1984)
Died April, head injuries due to a fall in his home (ironic)

21. Other Interesting Tidbits
Smoked unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes, which he considered a “classy way to commit suicide”
November 11, an asteroid was named in his honor
Considered Mark Twain to be an American saint (did you wonder why his son was named Mark?)

22. Great Vonnegut Quotes
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
“Science is magic that works.”
“Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.”
“This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.”
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”

23. Vonnegut’s Last Lines When the last living thing
Has died on account of us,

How poetical it would be

If Earth could say,

In a voice floating up

Perhaps
From the floor

Of the Grand Canyon,

"It is done.
"
People did not like it here.''
From A Man Without a Country

24. So it goes.