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Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dead

By Brad Wells
MasterRWayne is a big Vonnegut fan. However, I must confess a truly horrible sin: I have never read Slaughterhouse Five. For a writer in this profession, or any profession, that is a crime. I stand guilty before you and ask the spirits of goodwill to please pardon me.

Vonnegut was born and raised in Indianapolis.  Though he hadn't lived in the city for over 30 years, he still kept ties to Indy. He was scheduled to speak there at an event in his honor recently, but had to cancel. The reasoning for the cancelation was Vonnegut was still suffering from injuries sustained from a fall at his Manhattan home several weeks ago.

Those injuries took his live last night. He was 84.

Vonnegut wrote the great novel Slaughterhouse Five years after witnessing first hand the World war II Allied fire bombing of a German civilian target: The city of Dresden. Matt at Sunday Morning Quarterback writes a beautiful send off to Vonnegut. Like me, matt is guilty of the sin of never reading Slaughterhouse Five. Unlike me, Matt is able to tastefully articulate just how important Vonnegut was (and still is) for writers everywhere:

Kurt Vonnegut will be lauded today, but I'm not sure we can really do better after the past few decades of a life whose dues were paid so long before its end than a tasteful stone cross or something like that. I have no idea if he cares, or would have, or if the people close to him think he deserves any rewards (or punishment). The only meager reward I can offer is the assurance that, professionally, to the world's sense of literature and self-examination, there is nothing to pardon.
The image above is from Vonnegut's website.

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