That's the last sentence of the preface to Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House." He's purporting to explain himself, writing in a style that appeals to me more than anything I've read in a long time. Here's the White Rock girl, by the way. Here's Vonnegut.
He's saying that in response to The New Yorker magazine saying that one of his books was "a series of narcissistic giggles."
ADDED: Here's one of the essays that appears in the "Monkey House" collection — one of the 3 things I read in the middle of the night last night. It's a 1966 review of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, which was new back then. Here's the part about the business of unabridged dictionaries:
Whoever decides to crash the unabridged dictionary game next--and it will probably be General Motors or Ford--they will winnow this work heartlessly for bloopers....
Have I made it clear that this book is a beauty? You can't beat the contents, and you can't beat the price. Somebody will beat both sooner or later, of course, because that is good old Free Enterprise, where the consumer benefits from battles between jolly green giants.
And, as I've said, one dictionary is as good as another for most people. Homo Americanus is going to go on speaking and writing the way he always has, no matter what dictionary he owns.
Posts
91 comments:
Kurt had boobs like the White Rock girl?
As Titus would say: tits.
I would rather a literature of narcissist giggles than socially important guffaws (if the latter is even possible, which I doubt).
"A series of narcissistic giggles" is so bloggerly.
Kurt is a proud dilettante and has work hard for an entire career to remain one.
Point of view is what he does so well...like the White Rock Girl remaining pure while peering into the depths.
"A series of narcissistic giggles" is so bloggerly.
I was going to suggest it sounds like the literary equivalent of one of the many nonsensical, overly-self-aware music reviews one finds regularly in Rolling Stone. Pure nonsense wrapped up in so many $5 words it looks like it's saying something important.
After slaughterhouse five... I tried.. but he lost me.
White Rock - terrific orange soda.
Now, if you'd like to know what Ernie Kovacs thought of the White Rock girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG4rV01_oew
WV: bratinta
FloridaSteve,
After slaughterhouse five... I tried.. but he lost me.
I was going to say, if you can stomach him after achieving the age of 15, you might want to do some reassessing.
I was going to say, if you can stomach him after achieving the age of 15, you might want to do some reassessing.
Bullseye. Although, admittedly, sometimes its fun to pull Kurt out and remember liking his work as a 12-year-old and try to recapture seeing it that way. It's one of my writer's block exercises.
Why were you reading in the middle of the night - is this a second sleep issue?
wv: wiggis - a variant of a well-known dish from Scotland, developed by Phyllis Diller
Nothing beats the OED.
All of Vonnegut's work up to SLAUGHTER-HOUSE FIVE still holds up to my adult eyes. As FloridaSteve pointed out, his work post-SH5--the little of it I've read--fails to compel interest.
Damn!!!
I saw, "Perhaps it would be helpful to imagine me as the White Rock girl kneeling on a boulder in a nightgown", and I started hoping Meade was going to give us some Althouse cheesecake.
The idea of Vonnegut similarly posed just doesn't work.
Robert Cook,
All of Vonnegut's work up to SLAUGHTER-HOUSE FIVE still holds up to my adult eyes.
Your Honor, I rest my case.
Robert Cook's the kind of guy that, if you laid a rake upside-down on the lawn,....
The White Rock girl had sex appeal.
The only thing worse than being forced to read Kurt Vonnegut was being forced to read J.D. Salinger.
The world is divided into two camps: those who think the phrase "So it goes" has charm and those, like me, who'd like to rip the phrase's author's head off.
Jeff with one 'f' said...
Nothing beats the OED.
Odd, but Merriam-Webster beat OED on one entry. I've been trying to track the first written political usage of "litmus test". OED says 1957, but M-W says 1952. I still can't find cite to the first written use. link.
___________
wv = "quipserv" lol
Crack's right, Kurt's books should be in the independent reader section, along with Harry Potter and Diary of a Whimpy Kid.
His earlier writing--even S-5-- may have been mostly "narcissist giggles" but with Breakfast of Champions KV entered the big league, IMHE. BoC was a darker vision of Amerika than some realize (and a funny parody of Updike at times). While not a red, Kurt wasn't too fond of ...fundamentalists or conservatives--no wonder the AA gangstas are starting to whine. KV might even have suggested...raising Taxes (the work of the statist DEVVIL, according to Teabugs)
Salinger is insufferable at times but he could write characters well. That said, I did enjoy reading Vonnegut waiting for caddy loops as a 13 year old (in-between reading Stephen King books and playing spades).
That said, I did enjoy reading Vonnegut waiting for caddy loops as a 13 year old (in-between reading Stephen King books and playing spades)
Caddyshack basketball and softball were the best.
Can the Amazing Cracki even read?
Maybe some online underground stuff like "How to Defraud the Fed. govt via bogus Veteran claims", or the Herman Cain Story.
Just STFU, perp
Canada Dry ... Ginger Ale. And, Club Soda. Had the girl on the rock.
Even better, Kurt Vonnegut starts Slaughter House Five ... with a tweeting bird sound.
The slaughter house is where he hid the night Dresden was bombed.
Then, there's David McCullough's biography of TRUMAN. Detailing how good Truman's character was! That was the part of him that withstood the test of FDR's death. It's what is immovable. Doesn't shirk. Works out what its thrown at him, most honestly.
Where there better men in Missouri? You bet. Truman said he was like so many other men he'd meet in his hometown. On Saturdays. When he went into the barbershop to get a haircut.
The design for the atomic bomb had started back in 1941. Perhaps earlier? Becaue Einstein wrote a letter to FDR.
The science was "merely" theory. When the 1930's started, no one even had a particle accelerator. And, the computers that were being developed worked off of bodies made of glass tubing. Separated by drawers. When something failed. Each door was opened. And, checked to see if a fly, or another bug, had flown in. And, died.
When our test bomb was dropped on July 16, 1945 ... Feynman thought it would work. His reaction to the blast was "see, I told you so."
This test bomb was named Trinity. (It probably stood for the #3. Which was the entire stock.)
Truman was asked for approval. At this time he was at Potsdam. Meeting for the first and only time with Stalin. To discuss the remaining war effort in the Pacific.
Truman wired the coded telegram back ... You can start operating on the patient any time after August 1st.
Our military had hope the Japanese would quit right after Hiroshima. They didn't. They wired the Americans they were going to fight to the bitter end.
We dropped Fat Boy on Nagasaki. And convinced the Japanese hierarchy in their bunker that we would drop the next bomb on Tokyo.
Then, you get to MacArthur's steel of nerves victory on the Missouri.
The Americans were told, after Nagasaki, that the Japanese didn't care if everybody had to die. (Yet, for some odd reason, when pilots went Kamikaze ... they wore helmets.) Maybe, to protect their ears from news? Sayonara.
Crack and Scott M think Vonegut is abzurd.
I dig his ability to create characters, though. It's my Achilles's Heel.
Can the Amazing Cracki even read?
Maybe some online underground stuff like "How to Defraud the Fed. govt via bogus Veteran claims", or the Herman Cain Story.
Boy, over the last few days it has been made clear that I'm not everybody's favorite around here. What's that old saying?
They will know you by your enemies.
So far, it's people who will attack over bad Rock 'N' Roll and Leftist children's writers.
I can live with that.
Crack, I find it liberating when people reveal themselves. Fuck em.
Who is anyone's favorite around here?
wv: tests
Reveal yourselves, but then watch out for Fred.
When our test bomb was dropped on July 16, 1945…
The Trinity “bomb” was not “dropped.”
OMG, I *love* the Random House Webster's Dictionary!!!
Seriously-- they have the most beautiful definitions for major concepts: compare their 'poem' entry with Merriam-Webster's 'poetry', for example.
The lovely line drawings of animals are precious too. And no dumb pictures of MLK.
I also love that they define "house" and "techno" music as species of 'disco' instead of something called 'dance music.' I can just imagine some assholes chiding them about that. Stand your ground, Random House Webster's! This is fabulously correct.
Or try "classical" no. 6 (I'm citing the College Dictionary incarnation here), which covers classicism as an aesthetic:
"of or pertaining to a style of literature or art that adheres to established treatments and critical standards and that emphasizes formal simplicity, balance, and controlled emotion"
I spent all evening a few days ago unpacking the implications of "established treatments", and it put me in an ecstatic mood.
The RHW's College Dictionary itself is punching well above the "college dictionary" weight, but the Unabridged Dictionary is a heavenly light. God'spedia!
For instance, the RHWCD tells you that a "bump" is [n] "16. a forward thrust of the pelvis for erotic effect." but the Unabridged will instruct you about the accompanying "musically accented beat."
What's that Miss Fred? ON yr dealer's knob eh. No, fuck you, grrrl.
Just callin' 'em as I see 'em, Cracki--doesn't look like you've ever read one Vonnegut book (and he wasn't a "children's writer", whatsoever). KV's not my fave scribe anyway but he did ... represent in a sense (including for blacks..see Hocus Pocus). As the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover. Instead, read it. At least the ebonics version.
Dad believed that White Rock Soda originated the song "Georgy Girl" - not realizing they snagged the song for the ad. It was memorable. He got a copy of the commercial a few years back and I saw it. The music fit the ad so perfectly you could think it was 1st done as homage to Psyche, the "White Rock Girl". (Which dates to a poster by Thurman done for the 1893 Chicago World's fair)
Of course I had heard the song, seen the movie on Turner Classics, long before I saw the ad.
The song had that Aussie gal with the amazing voice, Judith Dunham. The way the song happened was that Tom Springfield, Dusty's brother, had become a notable pop composer for his sister, some other Brit acts, then produced and composed for the Seekers, Dunham's group and guided them to a #1 album in the UK and Australia.
From that, Tom Springfield got the nod to do the soundtrack of the movie Georgy Girl, hopefully with Dusty doing vocals. Dusty was otherwise engaged, the Seekers were suggested and it was a smash hit song.
The movie itself is really good. James Mason, Lynne Redgrave, and a breathtakingly beautiful young Charlotte Rampling as Georgy's shallow friend Meridith- in Rampling's 1st big role.
Lucius, you're one of my favorite new(ish) commenters in these here parts.
C4, Georgy Girl is great. And don't forget Alan Bates.
@Cedarford: I would assent to your account, except that "Georgy Girl" itself is (at least, played out of context in a restaurant) such a punishingly naff song.
The idea of a soundtrack song that directly addresses itself to the protagonist is one conceit of Swinging Mod times that, thankfully, has been laid to rest.
@yashu: Thanks.
And Charlotte Rampling's charms can never be denied.
J,
Vonnegut wasn't a "children's writer", whatsoever.
What part of, I stopped reading him at 15, didn't you understand?
Fred, help me out here:
Is it just me or should Ann's blog be released as an audiobook for some people?
Crack, don't go by the detox dropouts from Stalin Summer Camp.
Harrison Bergeron was terrific libertarian satire, in my opinion.
Cracki, I suspect that's a lie, given your low-level writing skills in general. Which KV book did you read before 15, gangsta?
(I jus' disregard anything belched by your demonic byatches, Edu and Phreddie)
Harrison Bergeron
Note perfect...except for the dancing. Even as a 12-year-old, he lost me there.
Back@lucious -
1. I rest on Judith Dunham having an amazing voice. Song naff or not, that was a gorgeous piece of work by Dunham.
2. Charlotte Rampling. You notice her because you cannot fail but to notice her. Liking SF a lot in my youth, I remember an argument with some other Geeks about just how much "Zardoz" sucked. Like as in almost worst ever, suck. I did point out how could a movie totally suck when you had Charlotte Rampling playing the Queen in skimpy gauze? Gravely, the others agreed..nope, it can't be all bad with her around...
Rampling is also notable for her dad, Colonel GL Rampling, who was a notable Olympic Gold medalist and career Army officer who died just a couple of years ago at age 100. He was playing golf into his mid 90s.
British athletics has always been renowned for producing talented 4x400 metre relay runners, and perhaps its most memorable victory came in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, when an inspired leg by Godfrey Rampling, in front of Adolf Hitler, helped to defeat both the American and the German teams.
Leni Reifenstahl featured the 4X400 British effort as one of the prime highlights of "Olympia" - With the 2nd leg by Rampling passing the Germans and making up 4 meters on the Americans then leaving Britain with a 3 meter lead in a 100 meter run..the highlight of the event.
This was Rampling’s pinnacle of the career of someone who was hailed by Harold Abrahams, winner of the 100 metres in the “Chariots of Fire” Olympics of 1924 and later athletics correspondent of The Sunday Times, as “the most gloriously heaven-sent quarter-miler I have ever seen”.
Rampling Sr was also a silver medalist in the 1932 LA Olympics.
I agree with Lucius, the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is a work of genius.
I don't know how to link stuff. I don't know the magic behind turning something I see into a "blue link."
But I typed "truman litmus test" into my Google search. And, Truman and the Litmus test showed up. IT LOOKS LIKE THIS:
Our Mission | Truman National Security Project
Understanding national security is a litmus test for leadership. The Truman National Security Project is a national security leadership institute, ...
http://www.trumanproject.org/about/mission - Cached
Leni Reifenstahl
Ja Mein Herrr!
One of Cedarford's all time heroes, be sure of that. Triumph of the Will, in the House. (The Night Porter too, eh, CF)
Vonnegut's essay on the Kennedy klan and their massive Mass. compound was quite entertaining-- in WTTMH IIRC.
Carol, in order to get your "litmus test" link to turn blue, you have to make sure that the material you're linking to is above pH 8.3.
Sorry Crack, I was dealing with work.
As for self appointed literary critic and master masterbator J, Kurt Vonnegut is fun reading when you are under 15. But if you are reading him or Tom Robbins much beyond that...
well what can I say. Maybe this song resonates with you?
J,
I haven't tested his (or your) reading skills, but, based on the limited sample above, Crack does beat you hands down on writing skills. If you are going to try to one up folks, bring a better game.
Yours,
Tom
I read Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan,
Mother Night, Cat's Cradle. 1963.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions and Welcome to the Monkey House, all many years ago. I tried to read Hocus Pocus, but found it dreadful. I think Vonnegut lost his creativity by then.
He attended my alma mater, the University of Tennessee, in 1951 and mentions their football team in one of his books. I think Vonnegut became overcome by cyncicism as he got older.
His son's book, The Eden Express, gives some good insights into what it's like to have a psychotic breakdown. (I guess. I've never gone psychotic and personally don't know what it's like.)
yo, phreddie the queer-atheist--are you talking to me, pipspeak? Mistake grrl. Big mistake--yr gangsta-atheist pal Cracki won't be able to protect you when....it's time to pay the piper. "masturbator"--ah think yr referring to how your bum daddy created you.
You're even too stupid for Vonnegut's low grade humor,Im sure of that perp
Think so Tommy?
Yr wrong. Cracki's another two bit atheist reductionist, like a dyslexic Glenn Reynolds. I doubt he has a GED.
hoops let's get this par-tay rollin
J -
You're bringing me down, and I like Vonnegut. He's no Nabokov, but his work is inventive and evocative.
How come Charlotte Rampling gets mentinoed here and not Valerie Perrine, from the cinematic treatment of "Slaughterhouse Five"? Yeah, she was pretty bad in "Can't Stop the Music" and the original "Superman", but she was quite memorable in S5.
His son's book, The Eden Express, gives some good insights into what it's like to have a psychotic breakdown. (I guess. I've never gone psychotic and personally don't know what it's like.)
J might have some subjective insight on what a psychotic breakdown is like. Unfortunately he is in such a psychotic fit right now that he has lost the ability to rationally communicate.
Crack, J just made your point for you.
Whoever decides to crash the unabridged dictionary game next--and it will probably be General Motors or Ford-
Heh, the cover of a GM dictionary would fall off after a few months, pages inserted out of order and the ink would rub off on your fingers...but the govt would issue a discount coupon...so there's that.
I'm with Crack and FloridaSteve on this one. SH5 was brilliant but Vonnegut dined out on it for the next forty years.
Harlan Ellison is another writer whose personality put me off his writing. Scifi has more than its share of preeners, wankers and ratbags...comes with the genre.
And who can mention the film of "Slaughterhouse-Five" without mentioning that it was one of only two films for which the great Glenn Gould supplied the music.
J, how old are you? I am starting to get the impression you are younger than 15 (which would explain a lot).
Carol_Herman said...
I don't know how to link stuff. I don't know the magic behind turning something I see into a "blue link."
Go to the page you want and highlight the URL by clicking on it. You can copy it to memory by pressing Ctrl-Insert or using Edit|Copy if you're using a browser that has an edit menu.
Come back here and where you want to insert the link, type a less than sign (Shift ,), then a href="", and then a greater than sign (Shift .). Paste the URL between the quotes using Shift-Insert or Edit| Paste. Type something to indicate what you're linking (this will be the blue link) and then type < less than, /a, greater than >. That closes the tag.
I'll watch this post for a while if you have any questions.
PS J doesn't know when the reckoning comes, it's him they'll be coming after.
@t-man: I think what lingers out of the George Roy Hill film of "Slaughterhouse-Five" is the Dresden sequence, first with the "Brandenburg Concerto No. 4" going and the whole place so heavenly, and then the horror after.
Valerie Perrine might be nice, but Rampling just belongs to a different stratosphere. She can handle the kind of demanding roles Glenda Jackson had, but she looks astonishing in them.
Crack, Is it just me or should Ann's blog be released as a paper children's place mat with a cup full of crayons for some people?
@Carol
Piggybacking edutcher...
What I is make a note using Outlook that only has the following in it what's inside the first and last "").
"Link text"
Then, whenever I want to link something, I just open that note, copy/paste the above into comments here. Then, it's pretty simple to capture the URL for the target page, copy/pasting it over "url" and then coming up with a typically pithy title which overwrites Link text.
Doing it this way makes it quick and painless.
DOH!
I thought putting " " around it would just render it as text. Okay, trying again. It's the string below, but you have to put < and > after it. I'm not doing so here because the browser will think I'm trying to link something.
a href="url">Link text</a
The main point is to find a string that works, make a note somewhere easy to retrieve and forget about it.
Boy, even a simple Google images search for Valerie Perrine is NSFW.
@Scott M
What you need are the escape codes to print the characters without interpreting them.
<a href="http://althou.se">Link Text</a>
The < uses the code <
the > uses >
and the / uses /
Palladian said...
Carol, in order to get your "litmus test" link to turn blue, you have to make sure that the material you're linking to is above pH 8.3.
That's pretty basic knowledge.
You do realize that by showing her this, we're getting ready to have our minds blown, don't you?
I'm married. I could use anything getting blown with greater frequency.
Carol, go up to ScottM's comment where he does "Link text". If you have a menu selection in your browser's Options or Tools menu that says, "View source" (or something similar), click that and you'll see how Scott did it.
Hey Phreddie grrl--then just get the f*ck off then, go back to your man Cracki's blog--work on your ebonics certs together, and the Herman Cain campaign. Pizza, mutha-f-ers.
I'm married. I could use anything getting blown with greater frequency.
Try tying it into a balloon animal. Those get blown all the time in Madison.
Care to wager on that, Edu. the liberal atheist? That's right, you a liberal queer atheist
yr days are numbered (kick these fucks off today Annie)
It helps to understand what the code means, then you can just type the code around the words you want to turn blue for a link. Then paste in the address that specifies the exact location of your link into its spot within the code that you typed. It's magic!
Allow me please, if you will, a moment for this.
1) The <a> tag stands for anchor. The tag tells the browser that you are about to use a hyperlink, that you are about to anchor something.
2) href stands for Hypertext Reference. But where? You must tell it where. the code that follows href for hypertest reference is "equals open and closing quotation marks with the address that was copied to computer clipboard then pasted between the two quotation marks.
So now the whole bit of code that tells the browser the location of the linked address looks like this:
href'=""
The address is copied to the href'="" tag smack dab between the quotation marks. This tells the browser the location of the anchor.
the href'="" or hypertext reference equals "this here address" is placed within the anchor tag behind the "a" for anchor and inside the less than and greater than symbols that contain all of it including the long address that you copied between the quotation marks.
<a href="">
3) </a> closes the anchor.
Between the opening and closing anchor tags are the words that turn blue. The best link text are words that are already written in a natural sentence. So write something that describes your link. Like this:
I once had a lovely dog.
Now look at that sentence and determine which words you want to turn blue to be your link. I'll choose "lovely dog" for the link text. Now, type your html code which you have memorized because it's so easy to understand in front of and behind that text you decide to turn blue, remember anchor, hypertext reference, quotation marks to hold the address, closing anchor. Like this:
I once had a <a href="">lovely dog</a >
Now paste the address that you copied to clipboard between the two quotation marks that you typed to hold them
I once had a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bour3/3804310664/">lovely dog<a href="">
And that ↑ magically turns into this"
I once had a lovely dog.
Chip, Well Done.
Anybody who calls guys girls as much as he does is projecting
J has some issues he needs to work out. Like his sexuality and getting out of his mom's basement.
Michael McNeill @ 12:11 PM
WOW! I only remember the mushroom cloud in pictures. Nobody ever showed that it was "smashed."
The dropping plutonium refrigerator.
Putting "little boy" on the Enola Gay was a question of getting the weight right. And, the pilot surviving the blast wave.
You know, I'd bet russia started off by experimenting with the "refrigerator drop."
My favorite dictionary is a
FUNK & WAGNALL's!
"I'm married. I could use anything getting blown with greater frequency."
Silly straight man.
Liked "Slaughterhouse-five" - the rest not so much.
Saw him on C-span - years ago - talking about WW II with Joseph Heller and somebody else. He came off as funny and smart.
His family were left-wing atheists and he just followed the family tradition. So, politically he didn't have much to offer.
What's that Freddie grrrl? You're the queer here, and the liberal atheist, like yr palsies Cracki and Educita
Now, as far as your little email chit chats go--those will be subpoena'd pronto, puto (and I know the Bubba's behind that as well, wicca scum)
bye pedo perps
J, stop hitting on me. What is this "grrrl" shit? I do not care what you are into, but your attention for me is creepying me out. I am into women. I am also not an atheist, but guys like you almost make me want to consider it.
I do consider Crack a friend. You are right on that point.
Move out of your mother's basement and try to be a man. You can do it. No one cares if you are gay (just stop hitting on those of us who are not).
Hey Freddie crip byatch, miss Anonymous--youve been ID liberal puto. you're the cocksucker here.
got that, atheist crip trash? you think yr some bad ass, trash? yll find out soon,
buh bye, satanist
Are you threatening me J? How is life in your central control tactical center, aka J's mom's basement?
You better get ready, don't you have day camp today?
Got that Freddie crip-byatch, white trash queeer satanist?
your lies about over
You live in you mommy's basement satanist crip? Actually I suspect you're just in the street, human excrement, suckin dick for yr pimp
J, keep beclowning yourself. You are also obviously a Democrat (you certainly seem to dislike conservatives). What a surprise.
No, Freddie grrl--you're the queer here, atheist. And it's time to leave your mommy's basement and go suck dick for yr crip pimps, joto
Heh heh. Like that backslap, don't you grrl ( don't use Thompson's name either, byatch. He wouldn't appreciate gay male prostitutes using it)
Vonnegut?
Who cares?
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