Thanks for helping me question everything, Kurt.

I am *sure* this has been replied to all ready, but I'm not going to go through all the pages to find out . . .

The title is a reference to a speech Vonnegut gave after the death of Isaac Asimov. After Asimov died, Vonnegut became the Honorary President of the Humanists Association (maybe they have a different name, but the big group of Humanists and Humanist writers). Humanists are atheists, and Asimov was a notorious atheist, and Vonnegut opened with saying, "Isaac is in Heaven now," and it had everyone laughing. It was the funniest thing he could have said to a group of Humanists at the time.

So it goes.

Humanists are not necessarily Atheists. Kurt himself was not.

"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different. "

-Kurt Vonnegut

so it goes

found this out this morning. a good mentor who left pages of instructions on how to be the best.

Wish I got a chance to meet him. Thanks for everything, Kurt.

awesome!

Additionally, I think all this remembering and respect is good and well deserved. However, Vonnegut is the one who taught me a good trick to avoid mourning. Whether or not you believe in block time or not, I think it still works to remember that though he's dead, the period during which he lived, and all that he accomplished within that period, has an unalterable permanence to it. The aliens in that one book said we should focus on the good moments in time, and luckily, with Vonnegut, he committed a lot of his best to the permanence of his books, eliminating the need for difficult unsticking. He lived a full life, near as I can tell, and I think it's more appropriate to celebrate it.

I was already bummed, but reading through this thread, i'm actually tearing up a little.

To anyone with a spirit of iconoclasm, questioning authority, and humanism, KV was an inspiration.

I saw (a tape of) a lecture of his at Brown my freshman year there. Among other pearls of wisdom, he told the students not to bother buying, or reading Hocus Pocus, which had just come out. He also said he'd rather have written "Cheers" (the sitcom) then almost anything he'd written, and that the most important step one could take to be a successful writer is to marry someone rich.

Really, not many inconoclasts have the honesty to stay that way when they themselves become an icon.

Happy Birthday, Wanda June.

His death marks the end of an age. Who do we have now that matches his wit and insight?

SO BUMMED.

True. But they are skeptics, and generally reject the common definition of the the belief in God.

Vonnegut was one of a kind.

That sucks.

So it goes.

So now that he's dead it will make me even more intellectual to read his books right?