When he came to Indiana to speak at the ICLU, more than 500 people turned out to hear him talk, arguably the largest crowd ever at a Union dinner. The banquet hall was so crowded that the waitstaff couldn’t even get to the tables. His speech was vintage Vonnegut—funny and provocative. He said that citizens in a self-governing society had a moral responsibility to preserve human rights. He said that his favorite Founding Father was Benjamin Franklin, and that Franklin had written an essay called “Fart Proudly.” Then he fixed his eye directly on then–Indiana first lady Judy O’Bannon, seated at one of the head tables.
“Have you read it?” he asked her. The crowd erupted.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Well, Kurt's Up in Heaven Now . . .
In the April issue of Indianapolis Monthly, John Krull recalls his friendship with Kurt Vonnegut, who died last year.
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5 comments:
Is this an opportunity to retell some of my favourite Kurt Vonnegut lines? OK, just one then.
Apparently, he went for a job interview once as a sub-editor on a horse racing paper. He had to do a test and write a caption for a picture. He sat there for a bit, wrote "The horse jumped over the fucking fence", and walked out.
Why didn't I think of that?
Thinking about it, I think I read that anecdote first here. Hurray for Counago and Spaves! By the way, what does Counago and Spaves mean?
Never you mind.
But you're right, Stuart; you can never have too many Kurt stories.
Incidentally, here's where we got the title for this post from (scroll down to the Isaac Asimov story).
Wonderful piece.
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