Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@ [Hodgepodge o' liberalism alert]

In these times ^ | 1/27/03 | Joel Bleifuss

[vikingchick]

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[Russell Scott]

Another overrated "legend in their own mind" leftist has-been.

[Cicero]

I have enjoyed reading Kurt Vonnegut's books, especially "Player Piano," a wonderful satire on his years working for General Electric in Schenectedy, and "The Sirens of Titan."

But I wouldn't expect to turn to him for political wisdom.

I don't blame him for this stupidity. I blame the media for going around asking novelists and movie stars for their opinions in matters they know nothing about.

[vikingchick]

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[Commander8]

I don't agree with Vonnegut's politics, but some of his works are so good they transcend politics. Case in point: Harrison Begeron. A portrait of a society that "handicaps" intelligence and honors mediocrity. Sounds eerily like California Public Schools doesn't it?

[vikingchick]

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[Argus]

I fought in a just war

How come WWII was a "just war", presumably because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and Hitler was gassing the Jews, and this one isn't a just war because the Arabs just bombed New York and DC, and Saddam is only gassing the Kurds?

But I'm not holding my breath waiting for lefty boy interviewer to ask the old fraud anything difficult.

[Domestic Church]

"I blame the media for going around asking novelists and movie stars for their opinions in matters they know nothing about."

Exactly! Especially these pop writers who are full of cotton candy between their ears.

[glock rocks]

OMG, kurt's finally turned into Duane Hoover.

quick! somebody buy him a rubber parking lot!

yup, Duane Hoover, one of kurt's characters from The Sirens of Titan... don't buy the book... borrow it from yer local socialist library. then burn it. BWAHAHAHAHA.

[Billthedrill]

Yeh, we can depend on paragons of conscience such as Vonnegut to have a sort of selective amnesia when it comes to things like 2 million boat people and a brand, shiny-new Gulag for his buddies to put their political prisoners in, some of whom are still there. Only the casualties we cause, count. Forgive me if I reserve my respect for antiwar protesters, who, like Joan Baez, were smart enough to realize they'd been duped. Vonnegut is far too immersed in his own brilliance to do so - that, unlike protesting an unpopular war, requires real courage.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There you go. Why expect this guy to know something about automechanics, for example ?

[BCrago66]

The ironic thing is that Vonnegut recommends Hervey Cleckey's "The Mask of Sanity" on the psychopathic personality - which I read have recommended many times.

Around %1 of the people walking around are complete pyschopathic freaks, and they do a lot of damage. Of course, when I recommended the book, it was almost always in connection with Clinton.

[billorites]

Vonnegut is a great writer.

Writers should write.

They should never talk, especially 'off the cuff.'

[Welsh Rabbit]

Based on what you’ve read and seen in the media, what is not being said in the mainstream press about President Bush’s policies and the impending war in Iraq?

That they are nonsense.

What a thoughtful, well-reasoned response! With all the supporting facts he provided, it's hard not to agree. And did you notice the hardball follow-up questions to this brilliant proclaimation by the esteemed elder statesman of literature? /sarcasm off.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Hard to believe that the guy who wrote "Harrison Bergeron" could be a left-winger.

[IncPen]

To have lived all those years and learned nothing, let Vonnegut be a lesson to us all.

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”

Here, he's referring to the Clintons.

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

Here, he's referring to Saddam Hussein.

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

Here, he's referring to the liberals in Congress.

[BossLady]

I was thinking the same thing.

Kurt has looked through the bottom of a booze bottle for many years, now. Guess it has finally affected his sense of reality. Sad,indeed.