His short story “Who Am I This Time?” was turned into a decent PBS American Playhouse show starring Christopher Walken.
And “Slapstick” was butchered into “Slapstick (of Another Kind)” starring Jerry Lewis & Madeline Kahn. God help me, ever Merv Griffin was in this abomination. I do believe that KV totally disowned anything to do with this.
I still think Jailbird would be a kick-ass movie.
BTW, see Slaughterhouse Five (1972) now. Valerie Perrine (Montana Wildhack) inspired many an adolescent fantasy after this movie.
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.
**
[/QUOTE]
His ex-wife Jane wrote a book about the
experience “Angels Without Wings.” They
had the youngest child for 9 months, then
the cousin took him away. Apparently it
was just too much to handle. Vonnegut had
promised his sister on her deathbed that
the four boys would be kept together, but
they had to be split up.
I went to hear him lecture one time – best speech I’ve ever heard. For the first ten minutes, it seemed rambling and disjointed, like he was drunk, but at the end, everything came together, including the (apparently) rambling beginning.
After the lecture, he opened the floor for questions. The first four or five were typical lit. questions by typical lit. majors, and Vonnegut was getting pissed (he got particularly annoyed when asked, “What do you see for the future of American dark comedy?”) My best friend (also a lit. major) stood up and asked, “What was it like working with Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School?” Vonnegut busted a gut, he was laughing so hard. He talked about Dangerfield for about 15 minutes.
Sua
I worked with a guy who took a literature class taught by Vonnegut at William & Mary in the '60’s. This fellow said that Vonnegut was very uncomfortable standing before the class and lecturing, so finally one day he marched the entire class to a local pub, ordered a round of beers, and conducted class from there. According to the guy who told me this, it worked out so well that he held class at the bar for the remainder of the semester.
He and I have the same birthday – November 11. Not the same year, fortunately for me.
Kind of ironic that a writer most famous for his anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five (might as well write an anti-glacier book) was born on Armistice/Veteran’s Day.
His books had a profound influence on me growing up. Lotta sanity in there.
Vonnegut was asked how his children handled being the offspring of a famous author. He explained that, back then, he wasn’t famous. He was a car salesman. Volvos, if I remember right.
Ilium would be a stand-in for Troy, being the ancient name of Troy. Or as Troy, NY puts it in their motto “Ilium fuit, Troja est”, which means “Ilium was, Troy is”. But Troy is near Schenectady.
-waterj2, who is unfortunately going to college in Troy
At first I was dubious about the claim that Vonnegut was ever a car salesman, so I started looking for websites which give his biography. I knew that he had been a PR writer for General Electric, but I couldn’t remember his mentioning any other jobs. Then I found the following:
His work life has been more diverse than I thought. He also worked as a police reporter, worked for an advertising agency, and taught English at a school for emotionally distrubed children. And indeed he did sell cars. He owned a Saab dealership (not Volvo), apparently from about 1956 to about 1965. In 1965 he got a job lecturing at the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop for two years. Since then he’s made a living off the proceeds from his writing (including prominently, I suspect, money from movie and play versions) and from several jobs teaching writing at colleges.
It’s interesting that it took him over 15 years before he could make a living just on writing and teaching writing.
relic_11, is this material something you’re going to use in a paper for school? In the future, do your own research. Asking people on a message board to do your research for you is cheating. You should learn to use a search engine. In the old days, looking through an encyclopedia for information was O.K., but asking someone to look up things there for you was cheating. Similarly, using a search engine is O.K. these days, but asking people on a message board is a sign of laziness.
I used to babysit for his nephew on and off for a number of years. I don’t know if it was one of the three raised by him, I never asked. But while helping Mrs. Vonnegut grocery shop once (with three young kids, it’s always helpful to have a babysitter in tow) and the cashier made a sarcastic “Oh, VONNEGUT. Any relation to the writer?” she was SHOCKED when the reply was “Yes. He’s my husband’s uncle.”
Pictures of him holding the kids as little babies all over the house. Pretty coolio.
–Nope, couldn’t find anything. But I’m fairly certain I remember hearing that someone was planning some such thing, because I remember being horrified at the prospect (I’m sure it will be robbed of all subtlety and ambiguity and be presented as a straightforward SF special effects thing). On my search, this was the best I could come up with: “In 1976 there was a stage adaptation of [Cat’s Crsdle] by Theatre Express in Pittsburgh, PA.”
Well, my sister was roommates with his daughter in college in NYC, I bet she has some stories.
I live in the city where he ran the Writer’s Workshop for many years. In his memoirs he said that this town is so dreadful, he spent the entire time trying to prevent himself from committing suicide. I agree with him, this town (my hometown) is dreadful.
I once read an article in which KV said that his brother was a tornado chaser. This was years before it was fashionable.
As I recall, he also said that he visited his brother’s home office and it was a mess. KV commented on this and his brother pointed to his head and said, “You should see what it’s like in here!”
Yeah, I know, Wendell, but I’m just getting ideas from y’all. I would never do this, but I had to do this in three days, I was sick enough to be dizzy, and I had to go home for a family thing. And it’s the first grade I’m getting in college, so I’m nervous. I know, I know, excuses, excuses. :o
everyone else seems to have covered everything relevant, though i consider myself something of a vonnegut aficionado, having read all of his novels and published stories. you can find lots of cool stuff in the prefaces to his books, as was mentioned previously. i just read bagambo snuff box this summer, and while the stories are quite clearly his early work, it’s still fascinating and the preface is also good.
not sure if this question was answered entirely:
there’s an old movie floating out there somewhere called welcome to the monkey house and is based on his stories. it’s supposed to be bad, and KVJ has stated he regrets its creation.
there’s breakfast of champions with bruce willis. also supposed to be bad.
there’s that old version of slaughterhouse five (“old” as in older than me, which is old enough)
i don’t know anything about the slapstick one. was that a joke?
on the other hand, “mother night,” with nick nolte, is absolutely amazing. it’s one of those rare cases where once you’ve read the book, and seen the movie, they form a cohesive tale that is more than the sum of its parts. (only other example to my mind: fight club) and watch for his cameo late in the game. it’s great.
and the only thing i can actually add that hasn’t already been mentioned: a grandson of his, Eli V., goes to my school. my former school, that is. not quite my alma mater though. =/
BTW: I apologize if this appears twice. I submitted the reply but it didn’t show up. Moderator: please feel free to delete one of these if two show up.
