I'm thinking about reading all of Kurt Vonneguts books again, in the order in which they were written. He was one of my favorite writers when I was a teenager and his books meant a lot to me. The first book I read of his was "Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death".
Lately though I can't stop thinking about the baptismal speech from "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."
I sort of want to get a tattoo of that but its pretty long so maybe I'll just get one that says "be kind." Words to live by.
I sort of want to get a tattoo of that but its pretty long so maybe I'll just get one that says "be kind." Words to live by.
I reread "Breakfast of Champions" the summer of 2014. I hadn't read it since teenagehood and it was astounding how much of his world view resonated with me. Kind is good. Be kind, especially to ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager my life was changed at the moment I read "Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." from Slaughterhouse Five.
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