Kurt Vonnegut, "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian"
The girl who took me to see Noam Chomsky last week (whom I�m not sure qualifies as a crazy ex-girlfriend, as I�m not sure we really achieved dating status and she�s feeling MUCH better now) mentioned after the lecture that she had now seen most of the people she wanted to meet, those who were still alive anyway.
I thought about that, and while I don�t really just want to SEE people, Kurt Vonnegut is definitely someone I�d like to hang out with. He just seems to be pleased about everything and has this sense of joy at everything he sees, even things that are on the surface, pretty damn horrible.
I doubt I�m ever going to meet the guy, but it reminded me of something I decided I wanted to do a while ago, which was to write to certain people � Propagandhi, Jello Biafra, Bruce Campbell, The Coen Brothers, Kevin Smith, Tom Robbins, Tim Robbins, Tom Waits, Frank Miller and of course, Kurt Vonnegut � and tell them thanks for making my life a little more pleasant or inspiring. I never got around to it. Maybe I will someday.
And maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.
So this book has Vonnegut strapping himself to a gurney and having near-death experiences in order to interview the dead. He has commentary on Clarence Darrow, Sir Issac Newton, John Brown, James Earl Ray, William Shakespeare and Adolf Hitler, amongst others.
Each piece is extremely short, originally being broadcast for 90-second spots for a radio station in New York, but each has a small gem commenting on the nature of humanity. As is the case with most gems, some are more striking than others, but they�re all nice to look at in their own way. So in case I do forget to write these people, as I�m sure I will � Thanks, Kurt.
