death
As everyone now knows, Kurt Vonnegut died.
I'm a little taken aback by the apparent outpouring of emotion toward the man across the people on my friends list. Don't get me wrong -- he was a good guy and a great author. But...
The only time I've ever actually seen Vonnegut was when he was on The Daily Show, just after releasing A Man without a Country. Having read his books, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I figured on some impressive, sardonic wit and cutting commentary about the current state of our country. I expected a presence, a mind honed by age and wisdom that would leave me with a sense of clarity. What I got was the impression of a senile old man, less a mental giant and more a fruitcake. (Yes, he's known for being eccentric, but you're only allowed so many non-sequiturs in a ten minute segment before you get upgraded to crazy-folk status.)
I'm not sure. Maybe I just didn't have the kind of connection to his work that a lot of people I know seem to. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, especially since I liked him. I'm just surprised at how much he seemed to mean to other people.
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In the news of the living, Google Earth now has a downloadable layer of information on the Darfur conflict:
http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/projects/darfur/
It lets you see -- both geographically and with pictures -- where villages have been burned down, where battles with the Janjaweed militias have been fought, and the conditions the survivors are living in. (Obviously, this is not being done with the consent of the Sudanese government.) If you haven't been paying attention to the conflict (or even if you have) this is a must-see. It's disquietingly eye-opening.
I'm a little taken aback by the apparent outpouring of emotion toward the man across the people on my friends list. Don't get me wrong -- he was a good guy and a great author. But...
The only time I've ever actually seen Vonnegut was when he was on The Daily Show, just after releasing A Man without a Country. Having read his books, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I figured on some impressive, sardonic wit and cutting commentary about the current state of our country. I expected a presence, a mind honed by age and wisdom that would leave me with a sense of clarity. What I got was the impression of a senile old man, less a mental giant and more a fruitcake. (Yes, he's known for being eccentric, but you're only allowed so many non-sequiturs in a ten minute segment before you get upgraded to crazy-folk status.)
I'm not sure. Maybe I just didn't have the kind of connection to his work that a lot of people I know seem to. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, especially since I liked him. I'm just surprised at how much he seemed to mean to other people.
---
In the news of the living, Google Earth now has a downloadable layer of information on the Darfur conflict:
http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/projects/darfur/
It lets you see -- both geographically and with pictures -- where villages have been burned down, where battles with the Janjaweed militias have been fought, and the conditions the survivors are living in. (Obviously, this is not being done with the consent of the Sudanese government.) If you haven't been paying attention to the conflict (or even if you have) this is a must-see. It's disquietingly eye-opening.