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Vonnegut entertains Case
Tonya Rodgers
Assistant News Editor
Kurt Vonnegut, author of 14 novels and dozens of short stories and essays, spoke to a sold out audience of 2100 people at Severance Hall Wednesday afternoon. During the 45 minute talk, the 81-year-old writer focused on a wide range of subjects including anthropology, humanism, growing older, and the act of mailing a manuscript.
Wearing a dark gray suit over a brown sweater, he opened with several off-color jokes, which ignited a roar of laughter throughout the hall.
“I will not announce that I am running for president, although I know that a complete sentence requires a subject and a verb,” he said, taking a jab at President Bush. “And I will not confess that I sleep with children. But I will confess that my wife is the oldest person I’ve slept with,” he added in his trademark warble, the product of seventy years of puffing on Pall Mall unfiltered cigarettes.
Vonnegut is most famous for this sardonic, observational wit. His darkly comical tone saturates all his writings, whether the subject matter concerns the end of the world or the suicide of his own mother. Unique about his literary style is his blend of science fiction, social satire, and black comedy with semi-autobiographical works largely influenced by his own life experiences. Most significantly, the 1944 Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany that he witnessed as a prisoner of war inspired his 1969 classic Slaughterhouse Five.
Although Player Piano, Vonnegut’s first novel, was published over 50 years ago, his messages are acutely suited to our 21st-century existence. He cautions against developing technology, the futility of war, and, most pervasively, the extent of human stupidity.
Judging by the audience gathered and the three speakers who introduced him, Vonnegut’s subject matter transcends ages as well. By way of introducing the author, history professor Jonathan Sadow-sky, Case president Edward Hundert, and junior Lila Ibrahim all shared memories of reading Vonnegut novels in high school and college. Sadowsky, who directs the College Scholars Program that sponsored Vonnegut’s lecture, also noted that of all the individuals students have wanted to invite to campus over the years, no speaker has been more requested than Kurt Vonnegut.
In an interview before his 4 p.m. talk, Vonnegut revealed why, although he has retired from writing novels, he continues to accept these invitations.
“It’s a high. It’s lucrative. I’m not a billionaire,” he said, sitting legs crossed in a high-backed chair backstage.
Although he took time to write Wednesday’s speech, which included both new and old material, Vonnegut announced during the release of his 1997 book Timequake that he was through with fiction.
“I’ve been allowed to say everything I’ve wanted to say,” he said, admitting later that he’s had a reasonably successful career. “The flagship of my fleet – and it’s not a very large fleet – is Cat’s Cradle,” he said, referring to his 1963 masterpiece that earned him his master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago.
Vonnegut worked a little of his anthropological expertise into the end of his speech when he instructed the audience in a brief lesson on story structure.
“I can’t stand primitive people. They’re so stupid. Their stories stunk. They deserved to lose,” he said of the groups he studied, before diagramming the structures of basic plots on what he called the horizontal “Beginning and Entropy” axis and vertical “Fortune and Illness” axis. While Cinderella and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” were subjected to his humorous criticism, his analysis of Hamlet provided the greatest English lesson.
“Shakespeare did what few other storytellers have. He told the truth.”
Vonnegut provided several other lessons, dirty jokes, and charming anecdotes.
Junior Sean Santa’s favorite was Vonnegut’s tribute to his deceased Uncle Alex. When he was a child growing up in Indiana, his uncle would take time every day to notice the enjoyable parts of life. He would then say out loud, “If this isn’t nice, then I don’t know what is.”
“Most people forget to take notice when they’re feeling good,” said Vonnegut.
After asking everyone in the audience to say the name of their favorite teachers out loud, Vonnegut repeated, “If this isn’t nice, then I don’t know what is.”
With that he left, waltzing off-stage to Johann Strauss’ “The Blue Danube” playing over the sound system. This reignited the roar of laughter that had hardly ceased since Vonnegut had taken the stage.
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Vonnegut entertains Case
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