I remember reading a Vonnegut story about the future where they've cured all the possible diseases and other causes of death. People start living forever. But they get bored and start to plan their own death parties (i.e. a bizzaro birthday party).

It's practically the same premise as TOMORROW, TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW from WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE, but then it talks about the parties and people choosing the date of their death.

Does anyone remember what this is from?

I've been looking for a copy of Bluebeard with the 90s "V" design to match a few other Vonnegut books I own, but I'm running into trouble finding one online. It seems like most used copies I'm seeing have the cowboy boot image for the cover, or the modern Dial cover with the cartoon face. Searching by publisher doesn't seem to help either, as the cover seems to vary by region. I was wondering if anyone here had any info while I wait for a nice copy to pop up.

What I'm looking for: https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0MDE1MTQ5OTc4NjkxNDUx/kvbluebeard.jpg

I was researching From Time to Timbuktu and I'm just more confused. Is it a short story collection? A speech collection? A novel? Is it even written by Kurt Vonnegut? I have no clue.

Hello, I was wondering if someone could help me understand the context of the story briefly told in this book. I just finished it today, and absolutely loved it. Just confused on this part. Maybe it’s nothing more than Howard’s shitty poem, but I know it’s deeper than that…

I saw a huge steam roller, It blotted out the sun. The people all lay down, lay down; They did not try to run. My love and I, we looked amazed Upon the gory mystery. "Lie down, lie down!" the people cried. "The great machine is history!" My love and I, we ran away, The engine did not find us. We ran up to a mountain top, Left history far behind us. Perhaps we should have stayed and died, But somehow we don't think so. We went to see where history'd been, And my, the dead did stink so.

Hello all,

I started reading Vonnegut a week before my widowed mother took her own life. Mother Night was the first book I read in years, and I read it front to back in about three days, and I told her she had to read it the day before we lost her. To cope with her loss, I’ve been reading a lot of KVJ (read cats cradle and halfway through Player Piano) as I find his sentiments on life resonate with me, and help me in my own fight against dark thoughts.

I got curious and decided to do some research on him. Found out we both lost our mothers to themselves, so it goes. Neither left a note, and we were both 21 when it happened. How’s that for a Karass?

I was wondering if anyone knows of any article or interview where he discusses the loss of his mother. I find just reading his stuff to be quite relaxing, and as I’m soon to be graduating lord knows I could use some stress relief.

Tl;dr: Mom died similarly to KVJ’s mom, wondering if there’s any media where he discusses his loss.

I've heard that some are better than others. Which ones do you recommend?

To start with that one quote:

It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”

I am anti-war. I read Slaughterhouse-Five when I was 12-13 years old and it changed me forever. Half of my family hails from a war-worn land. There’s no more war there, but there was a while ago, there were horrifying things happening casually in there before I was born. I happened to choose an area of study that required me to study all about the horrible shit happening there. I refuse to talk about the things I've heard. And I knew how to view these things because I had read this book. It felt like Kurt had personally taught me that I should never be a stupid motherfucker who cheers for war like cheering for football games. I still keep that philosophy.

People act like I am stupid because I know what war is. They imply that I’m a coward. They act like some grand cause can justify murdering someone so easily. They act like war is all about a cool face scar to tell the story of at a bar or something. No. I’ve seen the hollow look of my father’s eyes. I’ve seen dead lands. I walked fields wondering whose nameless bones we were treading over. It feels like shit. War feels like shit. I stayed up at night like Vonnegut, alcohol and my phone. Instead of calling people, I read nameless stories of nameless lands, hating anything about war over and over.

When my mental shit got worse, I started having vivid images of tortured people. Dying people, dead people, all kinds of tortures and cannibalism, something so horrifying that makes you thankful for today’s execution methods. I saw war in my head. I carried half-century-old memories of war in my head. I believed I was dead for a while. When people asked me what happened, I couldn’t answer. What to say about it? “Hello, I can’t remember my name or the year, but I know that I’ve been dead since 1974. They killed me. I’m sorry.”

What do you say about a massacre when it runs in your blood? Hobbes said, “Fear and I were born twins,” and I like to say a similar thing, that my father died in war and his corpse conceived me decades later somehow. Death and I were born twins. Half of me is dead, half of the blood is poison, and half my organs are rotten. Funnily enough, a side of my body is weaker and I am a cripple, so it’s not entirely wrong.

Here I am, feeling like a coward because I couldn’t tell people what war really is. I couldn’t find the words to explain what I saw. I draw those visions sometimes, they are all kinds of nauseating shit, and I can’t even show that to people. They should read Slaughterhouse-Five. They should shut the fuck up and actually listen to the people who lost their minds because war was so inhuman, so anti-everything.

I'm glad this book was written. It must have been so fucking painful to talk about. It feels like he is sitting next to me, we are drinking and crying, and laughing about all kinds of unlaughable things. Trying to drown our nausea in alcohol perhaps. Keeping quiet about many things. Losing our minds. Finding meaning in the solidarity of feeling dead.

Yes, everything is dead. When I look at someone or something I love, I see them dead. There’s something so hollow. I hate interacting with people because it makes me feel guilty for feeling alive for a second. When they make me feel like a coward, I hate talking to them. I don’t want to associate with war-loving people. I feel helpless. I want to scream but it’s like that one story, I have no mouth and I must scream.

Only the birds speak about the massacre, I guess. They say all kinds of important things like, “Poo-tee-weet?”.

This is war.

I’d like to treat my mom with a certified signed Kurt print, for her birthday. I see some stuff on EBay but anyone has suggestions on where to look. TIA

Hey -- I'm having trouble understanding this whole section:

The honeymoon was taking place in the bittersweet mysteries of Indian summer in New

England. The lovers' apartment had one romantic wall which was all French doors. They
opened onto a balcony and the oily harbor beyond.
A green and orange dragger, black in the night, grumbled and drummed past their
balcony, not thirty feet from their wedding bed. It was going to sea with only its running
lights on. Its empty holds were resonant, made the song of the engines rich and loud. The
wharf began to sing the same song, and then the honeymooners' headboard sang, too. And it continued to sing long after the dragger was gone.
''Thank you,'' said Valencia at last. The headboard was singing a mosquito song.
''You're welcome.''
''It was nice.''

I'm a little hazy on it, but I think the first part is about the hum of engines from the dragger being reproduced by other solids in the area (wharf, the headboard). What about the second part though? What's a "mosquito song"? What is the narrator trying to evoke here? Any ideas? (I'm not a native of any English-speaking country, so there might be some cultural context I'm missing) Thank you!

Hi everyone! I am a senior in university writing my senior thesis on Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. More specifically, I'm writing about Bokononism and the duality of finding solace and delusion within religion.

I am wondering which elements of Bokononism stood out to you most when reading the book for the first time. I am trying to come up with a cohesive summary of the beliefs of Bokononism, and want to make sure that I place emphasis on the ones that also impact others the most. Page numbers (or chapter numbers) are appreciated, if you have a copy of the book nearby! Thank you :)<3

I didn't even finish Sirens, it got water damaged when I was about halfway through the book and I just dropped it. I remember Malachi (or whoever the protagonist was, I don't remember) was stuck in a cave filled with aliens that fed on sound, or something like that. The book just never gripped me. I don't know why.

Right now I'm loving How to Change Your Mind (about the spiritual and cognitive science of psychedelics). The fiction I like tends to be on the more grounded side. I loved I Know This Much is True, The Goldfinch, A Little Life, The People in the Trees, The Road. Didn't love No Country for Old Men. And I've had a good time with all the Stephen King I've read, particularly The Stand.

So glad I read this book. I think 12 years ago Player Piano was an option for a high school book report but I ended up choosing a different book. The teacher’s short explanation of the plot stuck in my head, though.

I finally got around to reading it because I’ve been on a sci fi binge and I’m glad I did!

• the idea of a giant neural network consisting of magnetic tape storage and vacuum tubes in Carlsbad Caverns is so cool, and hilarious considering what modern computer technology looks like

** I really wanted them to feed the Shah’s riddle into the computer

• The Meadows reminds me of every tech company I’ve worked at trying to showcase their great “culture” 😂😩

** did blue team end up winning? I must have missed that, it was crucial to the plot so I’m sure it wasn’t left out

• what ended up happening to the Shah and his interpreter at the end?

A few observations:

• if lawyers can be automated, why can’t managers?
• every dystopian book always seems to have an element of mass censorship, including this one. That’s something that still hasn’t really panned out in reality, thank god

While visiting the island of Madeira I read the following on wikipedia:

“In 1418, two captains, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, while exploring the African coast in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator, were driven off course by a storm to an island which they named Porto Santo (English: "holy harbour") in gratitude for divine deliverance from a shipwreck.”

That sure reminded me about how Bokonon and McCabe landed at San Lorenzo. Surely enough, there is a place called São Lourenço on the island as well.

Is that a coincidence? Are there many other islands populated by shipwrecked captains? I just wonder if I stumbled on something here.

Maybe I missed something with Breakfast of Champions???

Hi folks — I’m a big Vonnegut fan who finally got around to Breakfast of Champions. It was fun to see Mr. Trout get some moments in the spotlight and also to see Rosewater in the background (Rosewater being one of, if not my favorite book by the author).

But finishing it yesterday, I feel like I just missed something or a lot of somethingS. I didn’t really like the book, though I breezed through it in only a few sittings…a testament to the writing, I guess.

I understand and appreciate the theme of free will, how if we’re not influenced by the shifts and gears Dwayne is tricked into thinking, then certainly dance to the same tunes our art and culture present us. I also liked how the author’s perspective as a character made the different parts of the world connected.

However, I found a lot of the explanations tiresome, the plot too un-climatic (though maybe the point) and a lot of moments not just crude, but ugly. I didn’t respond to this one as well as any of the others I’ve read.

So what did you all get out of it? What more did you get from the story?

Rereading Breakfast of Champions. Did Vonnegut actually like The Temptation of Saint Anthony once it was explained that any living thing is an unwavering band of light, or was he still being sarcastic?

On one hand, it seems like he does because he says it rebirthed him to realize that he and all humans are sacred. But on the other, a character says “if artists would explain more, people would like art more” and that doesnt really seem like something Vonnegut would agree with. Earlier he describes that he doesnt like unattainable art, and this is unattainable until it is explained.

What do you think?

I hope this question is appropriate here. I am aware of Mr. Vonnegut's views on religion. However, I remember finding a quote from him that said something to the effect, that he didn't understand how or why people would try to undermine the faith of others. His reasoning had something to do with the comfort (or something) that people received from their faith was important. It was a beautiful quote. It struck me because of his comments about the terror and dangers he had of unquestioning faith. I have searched for the quote for a long time, off and on for years. I am wondering if anyone is familiar with the quote I am thinking of. Any help would be much appreciated.