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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2007 : 07:08:23 [Permalink]
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The most sickening part of this is that they use his clinical depression and many of the sarcastic and self-depreciating things he said (largely due to his depression) against him and then play it off as if they are doing so to honor his wishes.
Nasty nasty fuckers.
Edited for a confusing spelling error. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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| Edited by - marfknox on 04/17/2007 10:04:34 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/17/2007 : 07:39:22 [Permalink]
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Fox  is unworthy of consideration for anything other than reporting on the state of Bill Clinton's fly-zipper. And they mostly lie about that.
But y'know, Vonnegut might be pleased that these clowns put him down. It makes him look that much better.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 04/17/2007 : 08:29:00 [Permalink]
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quote:
Fox News:
“Left wing screeds.”
“Unique brand of despondent leftism…”
“Rich and irrelevant.”
They really had to work hard at missing the point of Vonnegut's message. He was on about the dehumanization of our species at alter of technology and the troubles we have brought to our planet and ourselves. His observations were deeply ironic and compassionate at the same time. And while his writing my have had a political subtext, it was not aimed at a single political point of view, as the Fox Obituary implies.
They dismissed a distinguished literary career with a wave of the hand.
I have to wonder if they worked at spinning that obituary or if they are really that stupid and shallow.
Either way, they should be ashamed of themselves…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2007 : 10:18:41 [Permalink]
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Kil wrote: quote:
They really had to work hard at missing the point of Vonnegut's message. He was on about the dehumanization at of our species at alter of technology and the troubles we have brought to our planet and ourselves. His observations were deeply ironic and compassionate at the same time.
So true. The first Vonnegut novel I ever read was The Sirens of Titan when I was a junior in HS. On the back of the book was the sentence: "The richest and most depraved man on Earth takes a wild space journey to distant worlds, learning about the purpose of human life along the way." I wondered, what was that purpose? What was the meaning of human life according to Mr. Vonnegut. And the answer was simply to love.
I saw Vonnegut speak at Ohio State U and again in Cleveland within the past 7 years. He mostly talked about little, mundane events in his life, and the meaning was almost always the same: appreciation of these fleeting moments where we connect with other people. In Columbus he talked about being "in love" with the woman at the post office, and said that whenever married couples fight, they are almost always essentially saying to each other: "You're not enough people." In Cleveland he quoted some relative of his - I think an Uncle - who had commented at some outdoor family gathering, "Well if this isn't nice, I don't know what is." Vonnegut then encouraged us in the audience to say that to ourselves whenever things are nice, because that's pretty much it. I took that advice and more to heart. I try to acknowledge all the beautiful moments. I try to connect with as many different people in as many different ways as I can.
For all of Vonnegut's pessimism, his darkness, his depression, which I think comes across most vividly in his novel Mother Night, he knew and acknowledged the power of love. Not some romanticized version of it, or some kind of empty or unrealistic sense of hope, but a simple awareness of that which is good in the midst of all of that which is bad.
To reduce Vonnegut's writings to political polemics truly does miss the point and does a great disservice to viewers. I personally find it ironic that the biggest Vonnegut fan I know in person is a life-time Republican (the old school kind, not the religious right or neocon kind). I'm hope that bud of mine Rick doesn't see that Fox News obit, because it would piss him off to no end. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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| Edited by - marfknox on 04/17/2007 10:21:04 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2007 : 13:17:57 [Permalink]
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| This AP Obit is a little but not much better. While it does say, "Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle,....[Slaughterhouse 5] solidified his reputation as an iconoclast." the rest is just a summary of events in his life then it ends with "Critics ignored him at first, then denigrated his deliberately bizarre stories and disjointed plots as haphazardly written science fiction. But his novels became cult classics, especially "Cat's Cradle" in 1963." In other words the stories are only meritorious because they have a 'cult' following. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2007 : 14:20:25 [Permalink]
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As Kurt told Marf, "This is nice."
It's "nice," because the contrast between Vonnegut and the obit hacks vividly displays his genius in the contrast.
Kurt Vonnegut, that wholly decent, but extremely depressed human being who wrote science fiction mumbo jumbo, could out-write those obit writers on the worst day of his life. His very depression made him acquire a philosophical toolkit for finding and appreciating the good things in life, and he was decent enough to share this with the world.
Vonnegut's "unstructured" plots reflect unstructured reality -- few of us lead lives with that follow classical plot development rules. This seeming lack of structure also keeps the baffled and sometimes shell-shocked reader wondering what will happen on the next page, and this effect is one of the classical goals of fiction writing.
The jealous little piss-ant writers and critics who slyly bash him now could not hold a candle to Vonnegut. Some of them never even understood his simple message of the enjoyment of life being the purpose of life.
And so it goes.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
 Posted - 04/27/2007 : 12:21:05 [Permalink]
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YO: These Fox News Asshole Types doing a number on Kurt Vonnegut is only to be expected. What Vonnegut did in his work was to, with much simplicity and humor, expose the absurdity and cruelty human beings foist upon other human beings. Jesus, with such perception, anyone would be depressed as Mr. Vonnegut was. If Fox and others of such inclination DIDN'T show contempt for Vonnegut, it would show they are aware of much of that which surrounds them in their daily lives.
Just because someone might be depressed doesn't necessarily mean that they're preceiving their environment incorrectly.
"Slaughterhouse Five," (novel and film) for me, is a masterpiece of perception on how awful this world can get though sheer ignorance.
So...Fuck Fox! And make sure you fart around some today, as Halfmooner reminds us with Mr. Vonnegut's sagacious quote.
And don't forget Kurt in your toasts and, if you're so inclined, your prayers.
OY! |
"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
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"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
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--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
| Edited by - Orwellingly Yurz on 04/27/2007 12:22:01 |
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Fox New's Obituary of Kurt Vonnegut
