tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808227584959676379.post7324934835785539488..comments2023-06-28T07:56:10.910-04:00Comments on In Progress: The Day I Met Kurt VonnegutPeter H of Lebohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03960259139631190172noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808227584959676379.post-67906829899040349012013-04-20T15:44:55.771-04:002013-04-20T15:44:55.771-04:00Oh, and you gave be the best compliment ever. As m...Oh, and you gave be the best compliment ever. As much I a really appreciated Myk's compliment (thanks Myk), I would rather have someone say "great story" than "great writing".James Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04871338738388893364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808227584959676379.post-37248634280472763552013-04-20T15:39:30.267-04:002013-04-20T15:39:30.267-04:00Yes, it was some Vonnegut books sitting around you...Yes, it was some Vonnegut books sitting around your house and you mentioning that you had read a lot of his books that reminded me of that day in college and telling that story. <br /><br />Later, because you seemed interested in the story, I started to set it down and tried to remembered it better (as well as looking up some details). So really the story was for you. I surprised myself a bit that there was more to the story. As you recall I left out the part that it was the day Martin Luther King was assassinated. So it is doubly your story, Martin.James Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04871338738388893364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808227584959676379.post-40160334586744371012013-04-20T14:53:51.620-04:002013-04-20T14:53:51.620-04:00great story Jim, I remember you telling me about t...great story Jim, I remember you telling me about this before but in less detailMartinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05705725620131265310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808227584959676379.post-14451559939472235892013-04-18T23:19:01.372-04:002013-04-18T23:19:01.372-04:00Great bit of writing. I'd say, the next stop ...Great bit of writing. I'd say, the next stop for you is <i>The New Yorker</i>.<br /><br />I've never seen Kurt Vonnegut in person, but Joseph Heller gave a talk at Fordham when I was there. Like you, I was thrilled by the opportunity to hear him talk. Unfortunately, by the time he was finished, I was totally convinced of the infinite monkey theorem -- that given an infinite amount of time, a monkey hitting random keys on a typewriter will re-create the complete works of Shakespeare. With Heller, it was more like, given an infinite number of mediocre writers trying their hand at literature, the chances are that one of them is going to bang out a truly great book.<br /><br />Heller did absolutely nothing in the 45 minutes or so alotted to him but read passages from his books. Like, he'd say something about Dunbar and then read a paasage to illustrate the point. The pointlessness was almost unbearable.<br /><br />It's interesting that both Heller and Vonnegut wrote perhaps their best books based on their World War II experiences. For Heller, of course, it was <i>Catch-22</i>. For Vonnegut, it was <i>Slaughterhouse Five</i>.<br /><br />Vonnegut fought an ending war against the use of semicolons; his famous line: “Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.”Big Mykhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09488250533536442903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808227584959676379.post-36685601018082607242013-04-18T22:16:01.560-04:002013-04-18T22:16:01.560-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Big Mykhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09488250533536442903noreply@blogger.com