"So it goes."
In Slaughterhouse-Five, nobody ever dies, because life operates free of the shackles of time. Vonnegut is trapped forever in a day before today. So it goes.
-- tpaquin in his tribute to his literary hero, which contains some precious reflections on the high school experience. This Dan Cattucci character is larger than life, and I didn't even go to Tom and Madeleine's high school!
“When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes’.”
-- Kurt himself in Slaughterhouse Five
"I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in heaven now.' It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now.' That's my favorite joke.
-- Kurt Vonnegut as quoted by punkybrister69 in her tribute.
I'd like to think that kurt is 'safe in heaven dead' with Jack Kerouac and lots of other interesting people. I personally believe in an afterlife, but whether you do or not, Kurt's time on earth made life a little bit more towards the heavenly side for many folks. I hope he's not resting in peace but dancing up a storm.
-- bluegreen17 in a comment
I was supposed to read maybe 2 of your books over the course of my academic career, but I didn't, putting you in the company of some very great authors. Now that you are dead, I am relieved, because I will never be at some sort of event at the same time as you and have to lie about how much I loved your books.
So thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for sparing me that awkward circumstance.
-- anarmyofcamp
-- tpaquin in his tribute to his literary hero, which contains some precious reflections on the high school experience. This Dan Cattucci character is larger than life, and I didn't even go to Tom and Madeleine's high school!
“When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes’.”
-- Kurt himself in Slaughterhouse Five
"I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in heaven now.' It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now.' That's my favorite joke.
-- Kurt Vonnegut as quoted by punkybrister69 in her tribute.
I'd like to think that kurt is 'safe in heaven dead' with Jack Kerouac and lots of other interesting people. I personally believe in an afterlife, but whether you do or not, Kurt's time on earth made life a little bit more towards the heavenly side for many folks. I hope he's not resting in peace but dancing up a storm.
-- bluegreen17 in a comment
I was supposed to read maybe 2 of your books over the course of my academic career, but I didn't, putting you in the company of some very great authors. Now that you are dead, I am relieved, because I will never be at some sort of event at the same time as you and have to lie about how much I loved your books.
So thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for sparing me that awkward circumstance.
-- anarmyofcamp