"All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies." Thus began Kurt Vonnegut's fictional Book of Bokonon, within his novel Cat's Cradle.
The novelist, who, in 1997, told the New Yorker "People are sentimental about me now. I'm not waving my hands in the air looking for attention," passed away last night. So it goes.
His greatest impact on me probably comes from Cat's Cradle, and Bokononism. Many times I find myself whispering "Busy, busy, busy" "whenever I think about how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is." We live in an age of granfalloons and foolishness, a world that will now miss one of its great chroniclers.
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being an atheist-
and vonnegut
a secular humanist-
i object to this
heavenly reference.
I was lucky enough to see Vonnegut speak at KU back in '86, I think (I skipped my evening Design class to go), and I will always remember being in the eighth row as he described the seven basic stories.
No, not heaven.
But I bed there's a helluva welcom-home party on Tralfamidor.
(Almost as sad: I heard Kilgore Trout died this week, too.)