# Kurt Vonnegut Jr. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405 "2000-09-07T19:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![relic\_11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/50afbb/32.png) [@relic\_11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/relic_11)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/1 "2000-09-07T19:56:55Z")
I need intresting and\or cool facts about him. Anybody? **Kilgore Trout** , you must have something! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/2 "2000-09-07T20:02:01Z")
I understand that he wears a moustache. Okay, wait, I got a real one. He published PLAYER PIANO to no great acclaim in 1951, after which his career as a writer of novels languished. THE SIRENS OF TITAN was published as a science fiction paperback original (a potboiler, in other words) in 1958. ---
**Author:** ![relic\_11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/50afbb/32.png) [@relic\_11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/relic_11)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/3 "2000-09-07T20:05:16Z")
Perfect! Thanks **ike**! ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/4 "2000-09-07T20:19:47Z")
does anybody know if his testicles really retracted into his abdomen, ala Breakfast of Champions? relic, he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/5 "2000-09-07T20:40:50Z")
He served during World War II, and was a prisoner of war being held in Dresden when the disastrous firebombing of said city occurred. _Slaughterhouse Five_ is in many ways based upon his recollection of those events. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/6 "2000-09-07T21:32:17Z")
One of the great things about Vonnegut is that he is very wide-open. All I know about him, I read in the prefices to his books. But now I feel guilty – as if I should meet him to let him know as much about me. Helluva writer ---
**Author:** ![eponymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@eponymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eponymous)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/7 "2000-09-07T21:42:03Z")
Hmmm… Appeared as himself in Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School” movie. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/8 "2000-09-07T21:48:08Z")
He has a son and two daughters, but he also took in his sister’s four sons when she and her husband died unexpected 36 hours apart (she of lung cancer, he was in a train that fell off an open drawbridge into the water). This was during his lean years, before he was rich and famous. I’ve always admired him and his first wife Jane for doing it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/9 "2000-09-07T22:46:34Z")
My tenth grade English teacher, who taught us _Slaughterhouse Five,_ lived next door to him as a child. She didn’t know at the time that he was _the_ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.; she just remembers running through her friend’s house and being yelled at by her friend’s dad to keep the noise down, because he was writing. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/10 "2000-09-07T23:13:24Z")
I hate to be ignorant enough to ask this question, but does anyone know how uncle Kurt is doing? Last I heard. he was in bad shape following a fire at his place. The man truly helped me get through adolescence. Books like _The Sirens of Titan_ and _Cat’s Cradle_ kept me going. Love may fail but courtesy will prevail. Pete ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/11 "2000-09-08T00:23:18Z")
One of his earliest jobs after the war was writing PR for General Electric in Schenectady. Rumor had it, he worked in Building 23, where I also worked for a time. He wrote the short story “Deer in the Works” about his experiences there, and his first novel was set in “Ilium, NY” which was a stand-in for Schenectady. He has a cameo appearance near the end of the film _Mother Night_, made from his novel. ---
**Author:** ![PattyCake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9adbd/32.png) [@PattyCake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PattyCake)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/12 "2000-09-08T02:04:58Z")
Ol’ Kurt is a devout Humanist. I went to a reading of “Bagambo Snuffbox” and he said the best ice-breaker joke at a Humanist’s funeral is to say, “Well, he’s is heaven now.” He also hates computers, calling them (in the same lecture) “electronic miniature golf courses,” saying they basically exist to make us feel busy. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/13 "2000-09-08T02:32:36Z")
Annie Xmas writes: \> He has a son and two daughters, but he also \> took in his sister’s four sons when she and \> her husband died unexpected 36 hours apart (she \> of lung cancer, he was in a train that fell off \> an open drawbridge into the water). Actually, according to the way he tells it in one of his books, his sister and her husband had four sons and he and his wife took in the three older ones. The youngest one, who was just a baby, was adopted by a cousin of his brother-in-law. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/14 "2000-09-08T03:00:06Z")
If this posts correctly, Vonnegut is recovering OK from the smoke inhalation episode in Jan/Feb(It didn’t help that he had emphyzema. What does that say about cigarettes, boys and girls?) Copied this short blurb from the AP. > [@](#): > > Names in the News > Relevancy: 92 Byline: Category: U.S.\_Domestic Pub. date: 05-17-2000 Word Count: 882 > NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) Author Kurt Vonnegut has moved from New York City to this small western Massachusetts city, where he will start teaching in the fall at Smith College. Vonnegut, 77, is likely to teach advanced writing, though English department It came from [here](http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=HOME&SITE=ININS&enter=Go) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/15 "2000-09-08T03:11:17Z")
Additional further info: > [@](#): > > Faculty Information has been updated with the new members of the department: Michael Thurston (American Literature), Eleanor Wilner (Poetry), Dean Albarelli (Fiction) and Kurt Vonnegut (Distinguished Senior Lecturer). From [Smith’s homepage](http://www.smith.edu/english/update.html) ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/16 "2000-09-08T03:26:11Z")
Every year on his birthday, there’s a party in the front yard of the house he lived in while attending the University of Iowa. Bonfires, drumming, chemicals, etc. Don’t know if he’s ever attended one, but I’ve wandered through a few over the years. ---
**Author:** ![KevInVegas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@KevInVegas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KevInVegas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/17 "2000-09-08T06:40:34Z")
I know that there’s an adaptation of Harrison Bergeron (story that was in Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, I believe) that was on either HBO or Showtime. For those of you who’ve not read it, the story emphasises originality and uniqueness (?) by showing us a future world where everyone is mandatorily made equal. If you’re stronger than average, you have to wear weights to weaken you. Smarter people have little buggers in their ears that send very loud noises to scramble your thoughts. If you’re attractive, you must wear masks. Etc. The end of the story is well worth the ten or so pages that the story actually takes up. Really great tale. The movie adaptation was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. It had Chris O’Donnell, I think, as Harrison. The only resemblance the movie has to the story is it’s set in the future and people have the mandatory handicaps. That, and the end sorta is the same. But the movie folks needed to have more than ten pages of story there to work with. I also recall seeing a movie adaptation of Mother Night, with Nick Nolte as the lead. That movie held really true to the book, as I recall, with some great embellishments. Does anyone else know of any other movie adaptations of Vonnegut stuff? Remember, kids. Gravity’s not just a good idea. It’s the law. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/18 "2000-09-08T06:49:50Z")
mother night, or BoCh? ---
**Author:** ![KevInVegas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@KevInVegas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KevInVegas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/19 "2000-09-08T06:53:04Z")
I believe it was Mother Night… The story of Howard someone or other, who was a double agent on the radio during WWII. John Goodman played an American G-Man who recruited him. ---
**Author:** ![eponymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@eponymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eponymous)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405/20 "2000-09-08T12:37:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KevInVegas \* > > Does anyone else know of any other movie adaptations of Vonnegut stuff? Well, “Slaughterhouse Five” was made into a movie back in the late 70’s early 80’s (I think). I haven’t seen it mayself, but I have seen it displayed in video stores. “Breakfast of Champions” was also turned into a movie starring Bruce Willis. It came out last year. I haven’t heard much about it, other than reading some reviews stating it wasn’t a very good movie. Again, you might want to check a video store to see if they carry it. An aside…I movie I would pay good money to see is a kick-ass adaptation of “Cat’s Cradle”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-jr/32405.md?page=2)