tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11290750.post-66559492948511572762007-04-12T17:33:00.001-11:002007-04-13T17:02:36.913-11:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iit7VukdI0A/RiBH9NNpPZI/AAAAAAAAAd4/v_Zp1e12EcY/s1600-h/Slaughterhousefive.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iit7VukdI0A/RiBH9NNpPZI/AAAAAAAAAd4/v_Zp1e12EcY/s200/Slaughterhousefive.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053117898754178450" /></a>Newspapers around the world yesterday reported the death of writer <a href="http://www.vonnegut.com/">Kurt Vonnegut</a> at the age of 84. <br /><br />His books such as <a href="http://www.vonnegutweb.com/catscradle/index.html">Cat's Cradle</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_of_Champions">Breakfast of Champions</a>, and <a href="http://www.vonnegutweb.com/sh5/index.html">Slaughterhouse-Five</a> faced many challenges over the years, likely for their dark, satiric humour. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/national_world/stories/2007/04/11/vonnegut.html">The Columbus Dispatch</a> describes his novels as "classics of the American counterculture" and go on to compare his humour to that of Mark Twain.<br /><blockquote>Like Mark Twain, Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?<br />He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. </blockquote><br />He was the author of 14 novels and wrote in other genres as well. <br /><br />His experience of the fire bombing of Dresden during the war was the basis of Slaughterhouse-Five, which was published in 1969, just as America was experiencing the war in Vietnam, racial unrest, and other social upheaval. It struck a chord with American society. The author became a cult hero when Slaughterhouse-Five became a best seller. It was challenged in schools and public libraries for its violence, sexual content and rough language. Vonnegut took on censorship as an active member of the <a href="http://www.pen.org/">PEN writers' aid group</a> and the <a href="http://www.aclu.org/">American Civil Liberties Union</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/">Boing Boing</a> offers a podcast of the very <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/13/vonneguts_first_read.html">first reading of Breakfast of Champions by the author.</a><br /><br />A number of people who are signed up for the "<a href="http://www.pelhamlibrary.blogspot.com/2007/02/take-banned-book-challenge.html">Banned Book Challenge</a>" are moving the order of their books or adding a Kurt Vonnegut book to their list, in honour of his passing.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11290750-6655949294851157276?l=pelhamlibrary.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>fahrenheit451moderatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10731036165600788012noreply@blogger.com0