(Currently on my last wave of Vonnegut reading (previous, or 2nd, was during my hospital stay))
 
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'''''Kurt Vonnegut''''' ({{thisday|11|November|1922}}—†{{thisday|11|April|2007}}) is an American writer and a top-[[favourite]] author of [[Fabrice]].
 
'''''Kurt Vonnegut''''' ({{thisday|11|November|1922}}—†{{thisday|11|April|2007}}) is an American writer and a top-[[favourite]] author of [[Fabrice]].
  
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Favourite works include the everybody's best-loved [[Slaughterhouse 5]], [[Cat's cradle]] and [[the Sirens of Titan]], but one cannot truly enjoy or even understand Vonnegut without reading his other works. Among those, {{I}} have special admiration for [[Breakfast of Champions]], [[Mother Night]], [[Jailbird]] and [[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]. The first book {{I}} read was ''Cat's cradle'', which I did not fully understand then. The best first book for Vonnegut is probably Slaughterhouse 5 or the Sirens of Titan. I read again Cat's cradle during our [[Icelandic trip (2024)]] and it got me crying.
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Favourite works include the everybody's best-loved [[Slaughterhouse 5]], [[Cat's cradle]] and [[the Sirens of Titan]], but one cannot truly enjoy or even understand Vonnegut without reading his other works. Among those, {{I}} have special admiration for [[Breakfast of Champions]], [[Mother Night]], [[Jailbird]] and [[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]. The first book {{I}} read was ''Cat's cradle'', c. [[2010]], which I did not fully understand then. The best first book to read of Vonnegut is probably Slaughterhouse 5 or the Sirens of Titan. I read again Cat's cradle during our [[Icelandic trip (2024)]] and it got me crying.
  
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== Novels<ref>[https://www.amazon.es/Kurt-Vonnegut-Complete-Library-America/dp/1598535099/ref=sr_1_20?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1NKMXW7EAFOXG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kmf--13lXClJvDS_rEGJahNr-8Mhbwt0qpNJnMsEpaGSG-b5wfqcNGh3yE2j7y6EiXCFe7yCEWAURiCndm_AaPMXsj3erNOPA8hBfjskDLWKeTNwGoYr6_0V15ZdiR2siwnxCmAoWwBBJpTCNA8uUEjauM68IWXZRrMxlvc04qwnwu4oHhZ9dFbrvA3hPF4zYL7e06huy5y6VDkTyJBjoK_5FTP4m7B8bSKxCh9CwmwShUNEY2MSiKVpCBg3Z15eLTJYnFxNOkmyqFovAzR32R6Jz4oxFX-LJU9LckKPFgM.b0wSNs1ikJde5BstxOmZPm5oDxF8q3c8twe8dV9yyFU&dib_tag=se&keywords=timequake&qid=1723983452&sprefix=timequake%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-20#customerReviews Exist as collected works.] from the Library of America.</ref> ==
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Vonnegut is often hailed for his dark humour, but this is missing the point entirely. Humour is in his work only because humour is everywhere of quality regarding human affairs that are deep enough. Vonnegut is really about humanity. His work describes the grip of man against everything that is inhumane: the violent, the ugly, the painful. For this reason, war has a particularly central role in his work, and his success (from Slaughterhouse 5) is largely due to the anti-war sentiment from the then ongoing Vietnam war, but as for the dark humour, war is an accessory or by-product only of his thinking. Vonnegut is much deeper than that. This is also why many of his novels have a [[science-fiction]] component. A technically minded person (as he was, having a background in biochemistry), he found the real world too narrow to capture the human spirit and had to stretch in both spiritual, religious and science-fiction dimensions to get closer to his subject. It is remarkable how he came to distrust machines and a society of robots (already evident from his very first novel, [[Payer piano]]). In this sense, Vonnegut belongs with Authors like [[Bernanos]], [[Giono]], [[Gheorgiu]] and to a lesser extent, [[Orwell]] and [[Burguess]].
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== Novels<ref>[https://www.amazon.es/Kurt-Vonnegut-Complete-Library-America/dp/1598535099/ref=sr_1_20?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1NKMXW7EAFOXG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kmf--13lXClJvDS_rEGJahNr-8Mhbwt0qpNJnMsEpaGSG-b5wfqcNGh3yE2j7y6EiXCFe7yCEWAURiCndm_AaPMXsj3erNOPA8hBfjskDLWKeTNwGoYr6_0V15ZdiR2siwnxCmAoWwBBJpTCNA8uUEjauM68IWXZRrMxlvc04qwnwu4oHhZ9dFbrvA3hPF4zYL7e06huy5y6VDkTyJBjoK_5FTP4m7B8bSKxCh9CwmwShUNEY2MSiKVpCBg3Z15eLTJYnFxNOkmyqFovAzR32R6Jz4oxFX-LJU9LckKPFgM.b0wSNs1ikJde5BstxOmZPm5oDxF8q3c8twe8dV9yyFU&dib_tag=se&keywords=timequake&qid=1723983452&sprefix=timequake%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-20#customerReviews Exist as collected works] from the Library of America.</ref> ==
  
 
* ''[[Player Piano]]'' (1952) {{done|2024}}
 
* ''[[Player Piano]]'' (1952) {{done|2024}}

Revision as of 13:00, 18 August 2024

Contents

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (11 November (1922)—†11 April (2007)) is an American writer and a top-favourite author of Fabrice.

Favourite works include the everybody's best-loved Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's cradle and the Sirens of Titan, but one cannot truly enjoy or even understand Vonnegut without reading his other works. Among those, I have special admiration for Breakfast of Champions, Mother Night, Jailbird and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The first book I read was Cat's cradle, c. 2010, which I did not fully understand then. The best first book to read of Vonnegut is probably Slaughterhouse 5 or the Sirens of Titan. I read again Cat's cradle during our Icelandic trip (2024) and it got me crying.

Vonnegut is often hailed for his dark humour, but this is missing the point entirely. Humour is in his work only because humour is everywhere of quality regarding human affairs that are deep enough. Vonnegut is really about humanity. His work describes the grip of man against everything that is inhumane: the violent, the ugly, the painful. For this reason, war has a particularly central role in his work, and his success (from Slaughterhouse 5) is largely due to the anti-war sentiment from the then ongoing Vietnam war, but as for the dark humour, war is an accessory or by-product only of his thinking. Vonnegut is much deeper than that. This is also why many of his novels have a science-fiction component. A technically minded person (as he was, having a background in biochemistry), he found the real world too narrow to capture the human spirit and had to stretch in both spiritual, religious and science-fiction dimensions to get closer to his subject. It is remarkable how he came to distrust machines and a society of robots (already evident from his very first novel, Payer piano). In this sense, Vonnegut belongs with Authors like Bernanos, Giono, Gheorgiu and to a lesser extent, Orwell and Burguess.

Novels[1]

Nonfiction

Post mortem

References

  1. ↑ Exist as collected works from the Library of America.
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