The 'Kurt Vonnegut' Tag Archive

Below you'll find all my writing tagged with the word Kurt Vonnegut. The posts are listed in chronological order. Click the post title to read more.

November 11th, 2008

So it goes, in honor of Vonnegut’s birthday

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in [...]

September 14th, 2008

Vonnegut on how to write a good short story

I saw this on My Own Private Bookclub and had to share. I start a new class tomorrow night, so writing has been on my mind.

May 12th, 2008

Funny fiction Part II

Part I and voila! now Part II. So now I have to ask, what are some books that you’ve found funny, and if you mention Lamb by Christopher Moore, I will cut you. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem I’ve written about this book here and here. It is totally worthy of your time. Home Land [...]

May 4th, 2008

The Vonnegut of my dreams

There was a great flood. I think that maybe the Minnesota River had overflown its banks and flooded most of Shakopee. I had to jump from a plane with a parachute to get anywhere. When I got home, Kurt Vonnegut was sitting at the dining room table in Supergenius HQ. He was using my old [...]

April 21st, 2008

The Origins of Slaughterhouse Five

Steve Almond on the origin’s of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

April 12th, 2007

God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut has died. He was 84. The strength of my reaction has stunned me. I knew something was up when I got to the PC this morning and found the screen littered with blinking IMs. . . ‘Did you hear?’ ‘Sorry about Vonnegut.’ I had not heard. I had blissfully turned in early with [...]

March 31st, 2007

Vonnegut’s rules

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules for Writing Fiction (ironically) five is my favorite, “Start as close to the end as possible.”

February 11th, 2007

On class, comic books, and crackpot theory #29

In class on Thursday we workshopped a story that had a wonderful premise. In the story a man is afflicted with all the diseases ever, a condition called Itisitis. With the Itisitis comes a superpower, the ability to give it away. Anyway, like I said, the premise was pretty kick ass. So, as it often [...]

November 11th, 2006

November 11th should be a holy day

Today marks the birth of Kurt Vonnegut and Mary Gaitskill.

May 12th, 2006

Six old men I wish I could have had sex with when they were in their prime

• Bob Dylan • Mick Jagger • Tom Brokaw • Cary Grant • Kurt Vonnegut • Buddy Holly yeah, the work today is sucking out every brain cell that I used to own.

June 4th, 2005

mmm, a saturday morning book meme to get the weekend back on track

kelly has asked me to take part in a fun little book meme. fun! how many books do you own? gee, by my best guess right now i have about 400 on the bookshelves. you can look at old pictures of my shelves from 2 years ago. plus theres the 100+ Sweet Valley High Books [...]

May 20th, 2005

keep passing the open windows

in John Irving’s Hotel New Hamsphire one of the characters kills herself by leaping out of an open window. it’s been nearly a dozen years since i’ve read Irving’s novel, but i think she kills herself because she has writer’s block or something. at least, that’s what i’ve decided. I might have to add Hotel [...]

January 22nd, 2005

funky foot love

the first time i read Cat’s Cradle i must have been in my 20s. when i re-read it this week as part of RP2005, it was as though i was reading it again for the first time. i knew the basic premise of the story, but so much of it i didn’t remember. since i [...]

January 17th, 2005

reading influences

Yesterday UH left a comment that in my honor he was gonna read The Catcher in the Rye this year. He’s never read it before. Which amazes me a little, because I had to read it in high school. I thought it was one of them books that everyone had to read before they graduated [...]

January 10th, 2005

the as yet unmentioned reading plan is mentioned

now that we’re nearly two weeks into 2005, i’ve finally decided to go public with my reading plan. yeah, i’m that nerdy that i have a reading plan for the year. i had one last year too. RP2004 was to alternate between novels and a collection of short stories. i needed to expose myself to [...]