# So it goes... RIP Mr. Vonnegut. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753 "2007-04-12T03:45:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/21 "2007-04-12T04:39:18Z")
☹ I just read my first Vonnegut book–Cat’s Cradle. I’m glad I put in a staff pick for it where I work–I’m told it will be featured on the Staff Picks rack by the end of the night. Thanks for everything, Kurt. May you find your wampeter and enjoy eternity with your karass. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/22 "2007-04-12T04:42:36Z")
R.I.P. One of America’s treasures. ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/23 "2007-04-12T04:43:21Z")
My wife and I are truly saddened my this news. RIP Mr Vonnegut Thank You ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/24 "2007-04-12T04:48:29Z")
Who’s left among us to speak so bold as Kurt? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/25 "2007-04-12T05:02:21Z")
Peace be with you, Mr. Vonnegut. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/26 "2007-04-12T05:02:45Z")
One of my all time favorite writers. He left a great body of work, and yes, he is probably the only American writer of the 20th century who can be spoken of in the same breath as Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/27 "2007-04-12T05:04:53Z")
Wow… One of my favourite writers… sarcastic, insightful, and funny… so it goes… FML (Sigh) ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/28 "2007-04-12T05:08:31Z")
Modersator. please remove thread… I should have read down further thanks FML ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/29 "2007-04-12T05:08:40Z")
I think all of my heros are dead now. And Vonnegut was set to speak here in Indy this month. I didn’t get tickets at first, but I put ads in the papers and yesterday this man called me to tell me he had two tickets. So I drove over there and he was this really nice old guy, so I gave him $50 for the tickets. And then I had them in my hand and came home and I was so happy because I’ve waited for 15 years to see him speak. Then today they announced that he cancelled and I was so mad. And now I feel terrible and selfish for being mad about it. This is such a shitty fucking day. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/30 "2007-04-12T05:09:46Z")
Damn. Now I know I am old. Just damn. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/31 "2007-04-12T05:09:56Z")
I think all of my heros are dead now. And Vonnegut was set to speak here in Indy this month. I didn’t get tickets at first, but I put ads in the papers and yesterday this man called me to tell me he had two tickets. So I drove over there and he was this really nice old guy, so I gave him $50 for the tickets. And then I had them in my hand and came home and I was so happy because I’ve waited for 15 years to see him speak. Then today they announced that he cancelled and I was so mad. And now I feel terrible and selfish for being mad about it. This is such a shitty day. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/32 "2007-04-12T05:15:06Z")
night kurt… ☹ tsfr ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/33 "2007-04-12T05:16:23Z")
[QUOTE=Eva Luna] I saw him speak when I was in grad school, and he was just as crusty in person as I’d imagined him. Definitely a man with a solid set of opinions, and who wasn’t shy about expressing them. [/QUOTE] You are so lucky. He was supposed to speak when I was a freshman in college (1992) and he cancelled on the day of the event. And then he was set to speak here in Indy on April 27 and I thought after all this time I’d finally get to see him… I feel delusional with grief over this. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Stinkum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Stinkum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinkum)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/34 "2007-04-12T05:18:28Z")
This morning, I went to a press conference where the city announced it’s “One Book, One City” pick was _Slaugherhouse-Five_. It’s the Year of Vonnegut in Indianapolis (he was a native). At the conference this morning, there was announcement that Kurt would not be able to attend the lecture he was supposed to give April 27 due to illness. The folks at the library told me (in confidence) that it was “very serious” but wouldn’t go into details. I was really upset leaving, and had to take a moment – I knew it was really bad. He was one of the writers who informed me as a writer. \*Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, Player Piano \* and the short story “Harrison Bergeron” blew out the walls of my thinking about literature. His characters were innocent and cynical at the same time, accepting and rebellious. I can think of few writers who can pull literary shenanigans like KV, and give curmudgeons a good name. Damn! I so wanted to meet him at the media event the 27th, to ask him probably some inane question. I wanted to be in the same room with him, if only to snap a photo and say “thank you.” So it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/35 "2007-04-12T05:23:47Z")
Damn. I haven’t been this upset since Stanley Kubrick died. I’ll have a martini for breakfast tomorrow to remember Kurt. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/36 "2007-04-12T05:37:15Z")
My dad gave me _Breakfast of Champions_ to read when I was 11. A few pages in and it was already my favorite book. I read a lot more of his writing later in life, but was never as affected by anything as much as BOC. The sheer dreariness and absurdity of it all, and the low-rent world it evoked, just hit me on some profound level, even back then. I’ve re-read it two or three times since. I also thought the movie with Bruce Willis was pretty good, despite getting bad reviews. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/37 "2007-04-12T05:45:34Z")
[QUOTE=myskepticsight] That sucks. I was hoping I’d get the chance to see him speak sometime… [/QUOTE] Total ditto. Well, there’s no logical way he lived as long as he did. > [@](#): > > [Kurt Vonnegut](http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/iblog/C1192696909/E727803457/index.html) :“Being a humanist means that you try to behave as decently, as honourably, as you can without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. When we had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, I spoke at it and said at one point, ‘Isaac is up in heaven now’. It was the funniest thing I could think of to say to an audience of humanists. Believe me, it worked - I rolled them in the aisles. If I should ever die, god forbid, I hope people will say, ‘Kurt is up in heaven now’. That’s my favourite joke.” 🙂😃😉🆒 _ **Kurt is up in heaven now.** _ 🙂😃😉🆒 ☹ ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/38 "2007-04-12T06:22:01Z")
I met Vonnequt at a book signing. I had an old copy of If magazine that had 2BR02B in it written by Vonnequt (not Kilgore Trout). He looked at it and said “amazing!”. I have always regretted not saying “No, If”. Anyways I have a signed copy of that somewhere in my mother’s house. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/39 "2007-04-12T06:35:36Z")
There’s [another thread in MPSIMS](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=416302) , where my post here is [explained](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8456622&postcount=21) : Kurt is up in Heaven now. I’m just so happy he made it 84 years. There was absolutely no reason he should have. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753/40 "2007-04-12T06:47:06Z")
Bravo! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-it-goes-rip-mr-vonnegut/399753.md?page=3)