In his prologue to "A Novel Slapstick" Kurt Vonnegut writes, "I have had some experiences with love, or think I have, anyway, although the ones I have liked best could easily be described as "common decency". I treated somebody well for a little while, or even for a tremendously long time, and that person treated me well in turn. Love need not have anything to do with it. Also, I cannot distinguish between the love I have for people and the love I have for dogs."
When someone writes it down, a thought is brought out of the abyss of abstraction and legitimized somehow, making the thinker of it feel less alone, especially when the idea is not as common as he or she would like it to be. This is why Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. The above paragraph summarizes a lot of my opinions.
Also, to this day, my dead dog is the only creature on earth whose death I mourn every night, and whose memory is capable of bringing me to tears. (Pablo Neruda's "My dog has died," which I read only a few weeks ago, is an especially tear-inducing text.) And Vonnegut makes me feel like there's nothing wrong with that.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Journal Entry: A Note on Vonnegut
In his prologue to "A Novel Slapstick" Kurt Vonnegut writes, "I have had some experiences with love, or think I have, anyway, although the ones I have liked best could easily be described as "common decency". I treated somebody well for a little while, or even for a tremendously long time, and that person treated me well in turn. Love need not have anything to do with it. Also, I cannot distinguish between the love I have for people and the love I have for dogs."
When someone writes it down, a thought is brought out of the abyss of abstraction and legitimized somehow, making the thinker of it feel less alone, especially when the idea is not as common as he or she would like it to be. This is why Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. The above paragraph summarizes a lot of my opinions.
Also, to this day, my dead dog is the only creature on earth whose death I mourn every night, and whose memory is capable of bringing me to tears. (Pablo Neruda's "My dog has died," which I read only a few weeks ago, is an especially tear-inducing text.) And Vonnegut makes me feel like there's nothing wrong with that.
When someone writes it down, a thought is brought out of the abyss of abstraction and legitimized somehow, making the thinker of it feel less alone, especially when the idea is not as common as he or she would like it to be. This is why Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. The above paragraph summarizes a lot of my opinions.
Also, to this day, my dead dog is the only creature on earth whose death I mourn every night, and whose memory is capable of bringing me to tears. (Pablo Neruda's "My dog has died," which I read only a few weeks ago, is an especially tear-inducing text.) And Vonnegut makes me feel like there's nothing wrong with that.
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