I Get All Misty Over Old Books

I was probably a freshman in high school the first time I heard of Vonnegut, and it was like being let in on a dirty little secret. Before that, fiction writers had always seemed so stale and so damned dull to me. There was the canon of English literature, and we were going to plow through all of the classics because it was good for us. Reading was something you did because your mom or your teacher forced you to, or at least it was in my house. And then I stumbled across Breakfast of Champions and I was hooked.

Maybe it was the childish drawings breaking up the text (the drawing for an asshole was particularly brilliant). Or maybe it was a cast of characters that I would soon see again and again like Eliot Rosewater and Kilgore Trout. But mainly it was that the book was so damned funny. OK, it hit on some important themes like commercialism and existentialism, but that's not what a 14-year old cares about. It was the first time literature didn't seem like Literature but as something I'd actually want to read. It was the literature of hopeful cynicism, which seems like a contradiction, but that was Vonnegut.

Vonnegut is, simply put, my favorite writer. I consider myself a richer person for having read his books. And if I had even a tenth of his talent, I certainly wouldn't be in law school. I've tried my hand at writing, and I've even churned out some things I'm proud of, but my comparing my work to his is like comparing doodles on notebook paper to the Sistine Chapel. Writing is a difficult, soul-sucking experience. Or at least it is for me. And his work always seemed so effortless. It boggles my mind, really.

His death is sad, but he has left behind his legacy, a full library of biting satire and absurdist critiques of modern life. He will not be missed because he will always be with us. In fact, this is the perfect chance for me to re-read my favorite novel, Cat's Cradle. I'll even close this post with a quote from that book, which sums up Vonnegut pretty well:

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."

Ah, hell, here's another, this one from Breakfast of Champions:

"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."

I can’t stop myself. I swear this is the last one. Some sage words of advice to live by, from The Sirens of Titan:

"A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."

Cynics are just romantics with broken hearts. Thank God someone broke Kurt Vonnegut's.