Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, April 12. 2007

Vonnegut

Never was a big fan, but he was very popular in my youth, and everybody read him, including me. I guess he was a sign of the times, and you have to admire anyone who can write books that people want to buy and to talk about. Blue Crab has a nice obit. 
Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 19:54 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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Vonnegut was one of my favorite authors in the seventy's. I was of the same political and philisophical persuation at that time. My favorite was God Bless you Mr Rosewater. I lost interest and felt sorry for him when I escaped nilism and became a mere Christian. The last book I read I think was Palm Sunday or Galapagos. Very depressing, but talented writer.
#1 sean on 2007-04-12 20:30 (Reply)
Need to reread Breakfast of Champions and some of his others, but I loved Slaughterhouse Five the book and even the movie, for what they told us about the times. Some of his politics then were objectionable and recently wrt to terrorism thoroughly degenerate, but his exploration of time travel, free will and fatalism was an intriguing beyond-history and quantum physics story. And “so it goes.”

Did he know of his death to come that had always happened?
#2 char on 2007-04-12 20:44 (Reply)
Yep--I too didn't much like his latter day politics --but if you're not due a pass by your 80s, well, it's a cruel world indeed.

Just dug out old copy of "Sirens of Titan" yesterday --read a few pages this morning. So it goes.
#3 buddy larsen on 2007-04-12 20:45 (Reply)
Have to wait until my eighties? Phooey.

Will look into Sirens, on your rec.
#4 char on 2007-04-12 21:00 (Reply)
Ah, you'll LOVE it --it's written for just your sort of outlook (if i may say).
#5 buddy larsen on 2007-04-12 21:24 (Reply)
You may, of course, but I may be the last to know what that outlook is. Looked up a synopsis of Sirens and did like the probability waves mention. Coincidentally, a couple of hours ago I was talking to kid about wave/particle duality and felt like a Freshman, again. You probably go through the same with yours. Somehow pointillism and soul waves got thrown into the convo, which was fun but prompted me to cook dinner, instead. For the -perceived- realness of it and all. For some reason, we bother with pretend grounding between bouts of real possibility.

Maybe you'll give us your impressions of the book?
#6 char on 2007-04-12 22:31 (Reply)
Well, to honor the man, he would've surely appreciated that homecooked dinner, even if you did have to decamp the metaphysics for the cooking. over this way, daughter is in the kitchen at the moment (it's her turn) and so far it smell likes chicken teriyaki. Mmm.

Jeez, impression of Sirens. Hmm. Some wag said writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Frank Zappa, i think, IIRC, said that. Anyhoo, I feel that way about trying to give an impression a fantastical plot, without the info spoiling it.

But Frank Zappa reminds of Jerry Garcia --and Jerry Garcia's favorite book was --Sirens.

Garcia was gonna make the movie at one time, but time ran out--he sailed into the Chrono-Synclastic Infindibulum, as it were, and is now everywhere and nowhere, materializing only briefly, as in blog comments when he is remembered.
#7 buddy larsen on 2007-04-12 23:02 (Reply)
wot a pair, Jerry Garcia--The Grateful Dead--and the guy who put on his character/doppelganger Billy Pilgrim's headstone:

"Everything was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt"
#8 buddy larsen on 2007-04-12 23:15 (Reply)
Like that epitaph. And your tie-in to Garcia. But you and Zappa should know that dancing about architecture IS possible if the fenestration and massing have enough rhythm and volume.

Book goes on the list for the weekend, so thanks. Know you'll enjoy your daughter's cooking, but gosh they leave home too soon.
#9 char on 2007-04-12 23:36 (Reply)
I worked on a dental floss farm in Montana during my youth. I kept the hot rats away from the floss in the barn.
#10 sean on 2007-04-13 00:21 (Reply)
sean, riding that dental floss range, yipee yi yo ti yayyy, that's the LIFE!

char, right, they do leave home too soon--but THEN you can start back the all night drunk poker games--I can hardly wait--

(no, actually I'll miss her like crazy, durnit)
#11 buddy larsen on 2007-04-13 01:32 (Reply)

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