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YOU ARE WHAT YOU PRETEND TO BE

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“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”
— Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was a 20th-century American writer.[2] His works such as Cat’s Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction. As a citizen he was a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a critical leftist intellectual.[3] He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.

Vonnegut’s first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect”[34] appeared in the February 11, 1950 edition of Collier’s (it has since been reprinted in his short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House). His first novel was the dystopian novel Player Piano (1952), in which human workers have been largely replaced by machines. He continued to write short stories before his second novel, The Sirens of Titan, was published in 1959.[35] Through the 1960s, the form of his work changed, from the relatively orthodox structure of Cat’s Cradle (which in 1971 earned him a Master’s Degree) to the acclaimed, semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse-Five, given a more experimental structure by using time travel as a plot device. These structural experiments were continued in Breakfast of Champions (1973), which includes many rough illustrations, lengthy non-sequiturs and an appearance by the author himself, as a deus ex machina.

Vonnegut attempted suicide in 1984 and later wrote about this in several essays.[36]

Breakfast of Champions became one of his best-selling novels. It includes, in addition to the author himself, several of Vonnegut’s recurring characters. One of them, science fiction author Kilgore Trout, plays a major role and interacts with the author’s character.

In 1974, Venus on the Half-Shell, a book by Philip José Farmer in a style similar to that of Vonnegut and attributed to Kilgore Trout, was published. This caused some confusion among readers, as for some time many assumed that Vonnegut wrote it; when the truth of its authorship came out, Vonnegut was reported as being “not amused”. In an issue of the semi-prozine The Alien Critic/Science Fiction Review, published by Richard E. Geis, Farmer claimed to have received an angry, obscenity-laden telephone call from Vonnegut about it.

In addition to recurring characters, there are also recurring themes and ideas. One of them is ice-nine (a central wampeter in his novel Cat’s Cradle).

Although many of his novels involved science fiction themes, they were widely read and reviewed outside the field, not least due to their anti-authoritarianism. For example, in his seminal short story “Harrison Bergeron” egalitarianism is rigidly enforced by overbearing state authority, engendering horrific repression.

In much of his work, Vonnegut’s own voice is apparent, often filtered through the character of science fiction author Kilgore Trout (whose name is based on that of real-life science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon). It is characterized by wild leaps of imagination and a deep cynicism, tempered by humanism. In the foreword to Breakfast of Champions, Vonnegut wrote that as a child, he saw men with locomotor ataxia, and it struck him that these men walked like broken machines; it followed that healthy people were working machines, suggesting that humans are helpless prisoners of determinism. Vonnegut also explored this theme in Slaughterhouse-Five, in which protagonist Billy Pilgrim “has come unstuck in time” and has so little control over his own life that he cannot even predict which part of it he will be living through from minute to minute. Vonnegut’s well-known phrase “So it goes”, used ironically in reference to death, also originated in Slaughterhouse-Five. “Its combination of simplicity, irony, and rue is very much in the Vonnegut vein.”[32]

With the publication of his novel Timequake in 1997, Vonnegut announced his retirement from writing fiction. He continued to write for the magazine In These Times, where he was a senior editor,[37] until his death in 2007, focusing on subjects ranging from contemporary U. S. politics to simple observational pieces on topics such as a trip to the post office. In 2005, many of his essays were collected in a new bestselling book titled A Man Without a Country, which he insisted would be his last contribution to letters.[38]

An August 2006 article reported:

He has stalled finishing his highly anticipated novel If God Were Alive Today — or so he claims. “I’ve given up on it… It won’t happen… The Army kept me on because I could type, so I was typing other people’s discharges and stuff. And my feeling was, ‘Please, I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. Can I go home now?’ That’s what I feel right now. I’ve written books. Lots of them. Please, I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do. Can I go home now?”

 

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KURT VONNEGUT: BREAKFAST OF HONESTY

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One of my literary heroes is Kurt Vonnegut.  He was one of the primary inspirations for my first book, “The Oz Factors“, which was modeled after the literature created by this  American “revolutionary” (which means he told the truth, rather than pandering to cultural lies and criminal activities called “American culture” and “American history”.  More importantly, as a human being he was caring, intelligent, kind, egalitarian, spiritually aware and didn’t take any bullshit from governments or religions.  Here is a short video of Kurt Vonnegut reading from his book “Breakfast of Champions“.

Here is an interview with Kurt on PBS at the age of 83, commenting on America and the failure experiment of the Human Race:

Learn more about the life and books of Kurt Vonnegut:

(November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was a 20th-century American writer. His works such as Cat’s Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction.  Vonnegut’s first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect,”appeared in the February 11, 1950, edition of Collier’s  (it has since been reprinted in his short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House). His first novel was the dystopian novel Player Piano (1952), in which human workers have been largely replaced by machines. He continued to write short stories before his second novel, The Sirens of Titan, was published in 1959.Through the 1960s, the form of his work changed, from the relatively orthodox structure of Cat’s Cradle (which in 1971 earned him a Master’s Degree) to the acclaimed, semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse-Five, given a more experimental structure by using time travel as a plot device. These structural experiments were continued in Breakfast of Champions (1973).   Breakfast of Champions became one of his best-selling novels. It includes, in addition to the author himself, several of Vonnegut’s recurring characters. One of them, science fiction author Kilgore Trout, plays a major role and interacts with the author’s character. (Wikipedia.org)

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CLEMENS VONNEGUT: THE REINCARNATED WRITER

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Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) died in 1910.  It seems very likely and plausible (if you know about reincarnation) that he was reincarnated as Kurt Vonnegut in 1922.  The resemblance between the two writers is uncanny in their events of their respective lives, there physical appearance, personal philosophies, writing and styles and by the fact that they were both prodigious, life-long smokers.  The resemblance and affinity between Clemens / Vonnegut was not lost on Kurt Vonnegut as you will discover the in following lecture.

Kurt Vonnegut delivered the annual Clemens Lecture at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut,  An edited version of which we present here:

On Twain, Lincoln, Imperialist Wars and the Weather  by Kurt Vonnegut

“Shock and awe.

What are the Conservatives doing with all the money and power that used to belong to all of us? They are telling us to be absolutely terrified, and to run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off. But they will save us.

They are making us take off our shoes at airports. Can anybody here think of a more hilarious practical joke than that one?  Smile, America. You’re on Candid Camera.

And they have turned loose a myriad of our high tech weapons, each one costing more than a hundred high schools, on a Third World country, in order to shock and awe human beings like us, like Adam and Eve, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

The other day I asked the former Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton what he thought of our great victory over Iraq, and he said, ‘Mohammed Ali versus Mr. Rogers.’ What are Conservatives? They are people who will move Heaven and Earth, if they have to, who will ruin a company or a country or a planet, to prove to us and themselves that they are superior to everybody else, except for their pals.

They take good care of their pals, keep them out of jail – and so on. Conservatives are crazy as bedbugs. They are bullies.

Shock and awe.

Class war?  You bet.

They have proved their superiority to admirers of Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain and Jesus of Nazareth by, with an able assist from television, making inconsequential our protests against their war.

What has happened to us?  We have suffered a technological calamity.

Television is now our form of government.

On what grounds did we protest their war? I could name many, but I need name only one, which is common sense.

Be that as it may, construction of the Mark Twain Museum will sooner or later be resumed. And I, the son and grandson of Indiana architects, seize this opportunity to suggest a feature which I hope will be included in the completed structure, words to be chiseled into the capstone over the main entrance.

Here is what I think would be fun to put up there, and Mark Twain loved fun more than anything. I have tinkered with something famous he said, which is:

‘Be good and you will be lonesome.’ That is from ‘Following the Equator.’OK? So envision what a majestic front entrance the Mark Twain Museum will have someday. And imagine that these words have been chiseled into the noble capstone and painted gold:

BE GOOD AND YOU WILL BE LONESOME MOST PLACES,

BUT NOT HERE, NOT HERE.

One of the most humiliated and heartbroken pieces Twain ever wrote was about the slaughter of one hundred Moro men, women and children by our soldiers during our liberation of the people of the Philippines after the Spanish American War. Our brave commander was Leonard Wood, who now has a fort named after him. Fort Leonard Wood.

What did Abraham Lincoln have to say about such American Imperialist wars? Those are wars which, on one noble pretext or another, actually aim to increase the natural resources and pools of tame labor available to the richest Americans who have the best political connections.

And it is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln in a speech about something or somebody else. He always steals the show. I am about to quote him.

Lincoln was only a Congressman when he said in 1848 what I am about to echo. He was heartbroken and humiliated by our war on Mexico, which had never attacked us.

We were making California our own, and a lot of other people and properties, and doing it as though butchering Mexican soldiers who were only defending their homeland against invaders weren’t murder.

What other stuff besides California? Well, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

The person Congressman Lincoln had in mind when he said what he said was James Polk, our President at the time. Abraham Lincoln said of Polk, his President, our armed forces’ Commander and Chief:

Trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood – that serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy, he plunged into war.’

Holy smokes! I almost said, ‘Holy shit!’ And I thought I was a writer!

Do you know we actually captured Mexico City during the Mexican War?

Why isn’t that a national holiday? And why isn’t the face of James Polk up on Mount Rushmore, along with Ronald Reagan’s?

What made Mexico so evil back in the 1840’s, well before our Civil War, is that slavery was illegal there. Remember the Alamo?

My great grandfather’s name was Clemens Vonnegut. Small world, small world.

This piquant coincidence is not a fabrication.

Clemens Vonnegut called himself a ‘Freethinker,’ an antique word for Humanist. He was a hardware merchant in Indianapolis.

So, 120 years ago, say, there was one man who was both Clemens and Vonnegut. I would have liked being such a person a lot. I only wish I could have been such a person tonight.

I claim no blood relationship with Samuel Clemens of Hannibal, Missouri. ‘Clemens,’ as a first name, is, I believe, like the name ‘Clementine,’ derived from the adjective ‘clement.’ To be clement is to be lenient and compassionate, or, in the case of weather, perfectly heavenly.”

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DYING TO ENTERTAIN

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Why is it that killing, mayhem, destruction, murder, blood & guts, war and death in general are called “entertainment”?  It’s not just on television.  Dying horribly has featured as the prominent theme in books, magazines, newspapers, plays, movies and every kind of “entertainment” ever conceived.  A couple thousand years ago we used to go to arenas all over the Roman Empire to watch people slaughter each other and innocent animals by the thousands!  Bloody “sports” like boxing, wrestling, sword fighting, and jousting have been  popular for thousands of years.  More people have been slaughtered on battlefields all over the world throughout human history than by any other cause (except disease and old age).

Why are homo sapiens are utterly fascinated by, and relish violent, dramatic death?  Why is death entertaining?

My guess is because we don’t really die.  We just keep on coming back and doing it all again.  What we really love about death is the drama, the mystery and the pain of playing a game.

— Lawrence R. Spencer, 2012