On the subject of Vonnegut.

I know it is old news but I wasn't writing last week so I didn't talk about the fact that on April 11, 2007, Kurt Vonnegut died. I am not a sentimental person and I didn't know Mr. Vonnegut but I will still miss him for the simple fact that I know I now have no hope of a new novel from him. Like many people I read Slaughter House Five in high school and I gotta say, I really didn't pay too much attention to it. The plight of a man to survive in a hostile, repressive, sometimes violent and extremely fascist, environment was, ironically, lost on me. I spent a long time not reading after that, I felt that drinking was more important, as well as video games and trying to meet women of a loose moral persuasion. So it went for many years and then, one day, I was taking a train through New Mexico, traveling from god knows where, for god knows why, when I started to leaf through the copy of Slaughter House 5 that I had bought in a gift shop at by the station in Tempe. Five hours later, I turned the final page, I was in absolute awe, what an amazing book. I read that book three more times on that trip and the moment I got to Chicago, I hunted down a book store and bought another Vonnegut book for the bus ride I had to go on to get to Minneapolis, that book was Breakfast of Champions, another great read, old Vonnegut was batting 1000. I have heard many people say that his writing is somewhat limited, that his subject matter was sophomoric, or that it was hard to identify with his characters, I disregard these people as morons. Vonneguts characters are all to realistic, they are flawed, twisted, crazed and sick, dark and at times, evil, just like the rest of humanity. I admire his writing and thank him for bringing me back to reading. I had lost a few years and had to catch up but since that fateful train ride, I have really been trying to set things right. I am actually amazed that so few people took recognition of the death of Kurt Vonnegut, the other night I was raising a toast to him and few people knew who I was talking about. That is sad really, two of those people have since been given their own copies of Slaughter House 5 and the other guy is a jack ass that stinks of salami (not kidding, he smells like salami). Anyway, that is all I wanted to say, kind of a thank you to Mr. Vonnegut for doing what he did, I am not a life after death person so I am not gonna say thank you to him without pointing out that it is posthumously. I will say to anyone who thinks he is sophomoric, or an immature writer, stop trying t be so civilized and just be human. I hate to use a cheesy line to end this but I am gonna say it anyway " so it goes".

On a further note, I still love video games and drinking and have discovered that having a well rounded vocabulary and a large dose of knowledge can turn even a women of deep moral caliber, into a woman of loose moral persuasion.