This one hurts.
Maybe his obituary will read like an outline to a real obituary, much like Breakfast of Champions read like an outline to a real novel.
Not impressed.
Way to thread crap.
Thanks for sharing.
Security eunuchs- escort him off the property, please. And be a dear- bring me a Fresca on your return.
Ironically…
NOT IMPRESSED"
could be a great describer of KV’s attitude…
He saw a lot (Dresdin before and after the fire bombing) and found the only logical explination of the human situation (ie: “NOT IMPRESSED”)
His ability to describe the human condition from the outside in, and the inside out… could only be described as “not impressed”… totally dry, totally exterior…
He showed us as just a planetary anthill… Our great structures, intellectual, artistic or physical, are just grains of sand stuick together by our own sense of relevance…
He saw that by being “not impressed”
now… if we could , as a species, only do something as impressive as his vision(s)…
sadly
FML
Even though I only just read him for the first time, I love Vonnegut’s style, his worldview, and everything else about him as much as anyone. But to be fair, people (myself included) have crapped all over Johnny Hart’s life and death in that thread, and that hasn’t started a shitstorm only because fewer Dopers like his full body of work. Just because Vonnegut is more popular here doesn’t mean the same spirit of free speech can’t/shouldn’t apply. I’d like to think Mr. Vonnegut would have grinned, or at least smirked, at a Doper summing up his view of him as “Not impressed” (see FML’s post).
At the bottom of my screen: Peace Flags – Earth Flags
Seems appropriate.
Hail and farewell.
Well, I’m certainly not impressed with Johnny Hart’s work, and beyond the generic civil “sorry to his family for the loss” I’m not moved by his death.
But…
that’s why I didn’t go to the “Johnny Hart is dead” thread.
I’ll never forget the impact his books had on me in the 60s when I first read Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan and Cat’s Cradle. I do remember feeling some youthful resentment that he’d “deserted” science fiction for the mainstream with his subsequent books, but I eventually realized that Vonnegut was always above genre.
God Bless You, Mr Vonnegut!
Rest in Peace, Mr. Vonnegut. It’s a sad loss. But you know:
Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.
CMC fnord!
He inspired me to read and question my beliefs.
Damn. 
MODERATOR WARNING: Johnny Hildo: if you want to start a thread commenting negatively on Vonnegut as a writer, or post negatively to such a thread, that’s fine. However, this thread is about a death, and negative comments about the deceased are out of place. “Thread shitting” is the term we use. Please note, I’m not saying no negative comments, I’m just saying that people should be sympathetic to the tone of a thread. A funeral (or a funeral thread) is NOT the place to disparage the decedent.
“Every man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in all mankind. … Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” – John Donne
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward”
Kurt Vonnegut
Damn.
First Robert Anton Wilson and now Kurt.
Upon hearing the news, I put on a black sweater and pants. Kurt was an artistic genius.
He also smoked Pall Malls for 69 years!
I wrote my senior thesis paper on Kurt Vonnegut, and I since I first read his pamphlet “How To Write With Style” that he did some years back for some paper outfit, I have always admired him, and aspired to write like him. But that is not what I am here to say.
What I wanted to say is that Vonnegut was the commencement speaker at my alma mater, Syracuse University, in 1994, and I was on some activity-related committee, and I got to attend the graduation dinner-dance, where I got to dance the hokey-pokey with him.
That is how I will always remember Kurt Vonnegut: dancing the hokey-pokey with a bunch of snot-nosed kids and putting us all to shame.
So it goes.
Kurt was an artistic genius. RIP.
So you can confirm that he did not say that about sunscreen, right?
Here is an interesting interview with Kurt discussing the plays he wrote. He won the 1971 Drama Desk Award for playwriting.