Osler's Razor

Holy Cow!

I keep what is perhaps the world's most worn copy God Bless You Mr. Rosewater in my bathroom at my apartment. I just open up to any page and start reading.
 

Yeah, I think Vonnegut books are the opposite of Shakespeare-- the ratio of readers to copies is pretty high.
 

Cat's Cradle is my favorite. I remember I wanted to read it for this project in junior year where we had to read a book from a living author and then write to them about it. My teacher talked me out of reading Cat's Cradle for it because Vonnegut was such a hermit. But I always wondered if he would have answered. That pretty much would have made my year. (The author whose book I did read did write back actually - I was one of very few who got a response. It was kind of a failure of a project. And a failure of a class in general.)
 

Yee-- I'm thinking about doing something like that in criminal practice class, where everyone has to write to their favorite criminal. I'll bet they would write back!

Um, maybe that isn't such a good idea.
 

I would have to intentionally fail to graduate and then suddenly declare a criminal practice concentration if you did that in Crim Prac. It would SO be worth changing the course of my career.
 

Maybe you could do that in a legal writing class where the students wrote their favorite crime novelist
 

I have not read much Vonnegut, but I remember that phase in my life, looking for stuff to read....between age like 10 and 14. I read my parents stuff too, but it was weird stuff like Lillian Hellman and Truman Capote. I remember how totally depressed I was when they both died. I hardly ever read fiction anymore, I like non fiction the best, esp. biographies. The last really great fiction I read was "The Corrections."

Though, I do read lot of Thomas the Train, Dr Seuss & Curious George. The last non-fiction piece I read was "Are You My Mother?" IT is a tale about a bird on the quest to meet his birth parent, and the emotional journey he embarks on.... Well I do not want to ruin the ending....
 

Dear Scott Peterson:

You are my favorite criminal. SO - what are you doing these days? How is life in sunny California? Do you have any plans for the future?

Write Back soon,
Your BFF,
tydwbleach
 

One of my all-time favorite books is Slaughterhouse-Five, which I even have in hardcover. It is perhaps, along with Catch-22, the greatest anti-war novel ever written. Beautiful.
 

One of my favorite South Park Episodes is the one where Officer Barbready has to back to school to learn to read. Cartman becomes a traffic cop and tells people to "Respect My AuthoriTY!"

But the funniest part is Officer Barbready's book report on "Go Dog Go."

A great book that discusses the state of radio and the rise of "shock jocks," like Imus, is "Something in the Air," by Marc Fischer. Imus is tame compared to people like Tom Leykis. But his target is women, and talking about sex in a degrading way appears to be OK.
 

I have my own space to wax nostaligc about Vonnegut, but I'll throw in a little bit more here.

Vonnegut is my favorite author. He made the difficult look effortless, and he had the ability to point out the absurdities of life and just laugh at them. The only other option is to cry, and as he said, laughter doesn't require you to clean up after.
 

The book I took along to read on the mock trial trip to Boston was "A Man Without a Country". I've read every Vonnegut book that I could get my hands on. He will be sorely missed. If I had a flag, I would fly it at half-mast for this man.

Stokes
 

Maybe I am weird but I think of Vonnegut as one of those things that mostly GUYS like... sort like the three stooges, and Stanley Kubrick movies, esp Dr. Strangelove....

I tried to read him but I never really "got it."
 

OK, Tyd broke the ice, so I will admit I never got Vonnegut either, but I must admit I haven't tried reading anything by him since high school or college. He just seemed to have such a cynical, dark view of the world. Yes, he was funny, but in a dark kind of way.

Call me shallow, but I prefer heroes, or at least redemption. I realize life isn't like that, but I'm not reading "life," I'm reading a story.

That was the problem with Catch 22, which I did enjoy. It just sort of petered out. It didn't wrap things up.

I must say that I cannot recall much about Vonnegut's books, but maybe I'll pick one up at the airport tomorrow when I fly back to DC. I've raced through "Little Children" by Tom Perrotta over the past week -- its great. (came out about 3 years ago, made into a movie last year). I've enjoyed all his books, from Election to Joe College to The Wishbones (my favorite). None of his characters are "heroes," they all have flaws -- they're very lifelike. But there's a story that I can follow and it reaches a conclusion. Not an end, mind you. The reader does wonder what happens next, but my dim recollection of Vonnegut was "huh?"

Maybe I was just too young and naive. As the Prof. and TallTenor can tell you, I was pretty damn naive back then.
 

Naive? You were my role model in how to be worldly!
 

Prolly not dead. Just went home. So it goes.
 

Right.... As you may recall, I was trying to get advice from you about girls when I was a Senior in College and you were a mere freshman.
 

My husband was a film/ journalism /music major. He loves Stanley Kubrick movies and wrote a lot about them. He thinks Dr. Strangelove is the best movie ever.. I am like HUH??? I totally DO NOT get it. I TRIED to like it.

But then my favorite movies are goofy, like RUSHMORE and ISHTAR and TOOTSIE and BREAKFAST at TIFFANY's
 

Dr. Strangelove IS a great movie. But its kind of like the blues, none of the cute girls want to dance to it.