Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.) Fans Unite

[Ginnie]

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.) is my favourite novelist.
I hadn't read any of his books in years until a Physicist that is moving in down the street gave me a whole bunch of his novels by Vonnegut - totalling nine in fact. Apparently he won't have room for them anymore, moving into an upstairs apartment in a house.
I have about 1500 books at home, and if I was getting rid of some I think I would keep the Kurt Vonnegut.
I had already read Cats Cradle, The Sirens of Titan, Welcome to the Monkey House and Slaughterhouse Five and thought they were very entertaining, imaginative and funny. Now I am reading Breakfast of Champions.
I'm curious if they are any other Vonnegut fans on this forum - for some reason I think he makes a good literary fit for the personalities I run into here

[pzkpfw]

"God bless you, Mr Rosewater" - is one that has stayed in my head (along with "Slaughterhouse Five" and others).

Been scanning the local 2nd hand bookshops but with no luck.

I still have the "Player Piano" that was my 21st present.


...and lately, Gravity has been feeling strong.

[echnaton]

I read several of his books while in college and really enjoyed them. Its always good to revisit novels to see how things have changed over the years. Maybe a trip to Half Price Books is in order.

[Jason]

I haven't read any Vonnegut books. I saw the movie Slaughterhouse Five but didn't think much of it.

[Ginnie]

Jul 11, 2008 13:18:34 GMT -4 Jason said:

I haven't read any Vonnegut books. I saw the movie Slaughterhouse Five but didn't think much of it.

Read the book first.

[Jason]

Well reading the book before seeing the movie for me would now require a time machine. Got one handy?

[Ginnie]

Well, if it's been years since you seen the movie you probably forget most of it anyway.
In fact, now that I think of it, I'll need to re-read the book and re-see the movie.
...memory retention problems, you know...

I do remember the first time I saw Slaughterhouse Five - I caught it on TV about half way through and couldn't figure out anything that was going on. Later on, I read the book and saw the full movie by chance late night on TV. Ben Gazzara makes a great bad guy. And Valerie Perrine is just gorgeous.

[Ginnie]

I'm reading Slapstick right now.
I'm not enjoying it that much. His earlier works are much better.
Know what it's like? Like listening to Momentary Lapse of Reason, and thinking: I love Pink Floyd, but this sounds like Pink Floyd trying to sound like Pink Floyd.
So its like Kurt Vonnegut trying to write like Kurt Vonnegut. If that makes any sense.

[Jason]

A lot of authors only seem to have one or two good novels in them and then pretty much just repeat what they did before after that point. Very few seem to go on to write whole libraries of good stuff.

[Ginnie]

Walter Tevis comes to mind (The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth).
Maybe even Truman Capote? (Breakfast at Tiffanys, In Cold Blood).
Or Peter Benchley even.

I've never read a bad Heinlein book, but I've only read four of his: Stranger in a Strange Land, Have Space Suit Will Travel, Farmhand's Freehold, and I Will Fear No Evil. All were quite good. I still wonder why they haven't filmed Stranger In a Strange Land.

Bradbury? Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles, all good stuff...

I'm a little out of my element anyway regarding fiction. I've been reading 99% non-fiction for the last twenty five years.

[Jason]

Stranger in a Strange Land is probably much too '60s to make a good film for a modern audience these days. And considering what they did to Starship Troopers and The Puppet Masters I would really rather prefer they not make any new Heinlein films.
And Heinlein kind of proves my point too - he wrote a lot of great stuff and then seems to have run out of steam. A lot of people think his later stuff is almost unreadable.

Peter Benchley? The movie Jaws is head and shoulders above the book, and a lot of stuff he's written since then is simply re-packaged Jaws.

Bradbury, who really is a great author, also did all his great stuff before the seventies (including all the titles you just mentioned). Have you tried reading anything he did that's more recent?

[Ginnie]

Peter Benchley? The movie Jaws is head and shoulders above the book, and a lot of stuff he's written since then is simply re-packaged Jaw

Hmm. I thought the book was excellent. There were so many more details - like the sheriffs wife having an affair with the mayor if I remember right. I rarely see a movie that is better than the original book. Jaws, The Exorcist and Jurassic Park may be the exceptions...

Bradbury, who really is a great author, also did all his great stuff before the seventies (including all the titles you just mentioned). Have you tried reading anything he did that's more recent?

No I haven't. Should I? I find the fifties and sixties a great period for science fiction writing.
Did Asimov go stale later on too?

[Jason]

I think it's an improvement that they excised the affair from the movie myself (it was between Ellen Brody and Hooper - not the mayor). Jaws is really a near perfect film - no fat to it at all.
Jurassic Park is a pretty good book. It would be a tough call as to whether the movie is better.
I haven't read the Exorcist, or seen the movie for that matter.

Bradbury's newer stuff isn't anything I would recommend, unfortunately.
And Asimov did get somewhat stale later on too, yes.
Part of the problem in their cases may be that they acheived immunity to editors. Much like George Lucas, they did their best work when they were under pressure. As soon as they were so successful that no one was willing to second guess them (which happened to Lucas after the success of Empire Strikes Back) their work went down hill.

[reynoldbot]

I'm a pretty big fan of Vonnegut. Any Vonnegut fan can safely say that Slaughterhouse Five is essentially unfilmable, and the film that was made, while a pretty good attempt, completely failed to capture it's essence. There truly is no novel like Slaughterhouse Five, and it is really worth it to give it a read. At the very least, Vonnegut is quick and easy to read. Knowing that the novel is essentially an autobiography (all of the major plot points save the extraterrestrial stuff really happened to him though I wouldn't doubt it if that stuff was true too) makes the novel that much more impactful.