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Dear Mr. McCarthy
In October of 1973, a high school English teacher in North Dakota decided to use Slaughterhouse Five in his classroom. When Charles McCarthy, the head of the school board, later heard of this he had all 32 copies burned in the school’s furnace, using the book’s apparent “obscene language” as his reason. Kurt Vonnegut sent this letter to him the following week. November 16, 1973 Dear Mr. McCarthy: I am writing to you in your capacity as chairman of the Drake School Board. I am among those American writers whose books have been destroyed in the now famous furnace of your school. Certain members of your community have suggested that…
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Shapes of Stories
[via]
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Cat’s Cradle
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Published: 1963 My third Vonnegut book, and a strong contender for my favourite. Of the three, this is his most straight-forward book as far as the plot is concerned – straight-forward for Vonnegut at least. The story begins with the narrator, John, setting off to write a book on what important Americans did the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He focuses on Felix Hoenikker, a fictional physicist who developed the bomb, and while interviewing his co-workers and children, he learns that the scientist may have left behind a substance that could threaten life on earth. Cat’s Cradle centres around the juxtaposition…
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The Hundred Martyrs to Democracy
I finished Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut the other day. I unfortunately haven’t had a chance to write about it yet, but I thought I’d pop on to share this quote. This particular bit feels like a precursor for Slaughterhouse 5, which was written six years after. This comes from an American ambassador giving a speech to the fictional Caribbean nation San Lorenzo, memorializing the hundred soldiers they lost during the war. They became known as The Hundred Martyrs to Democracy (lo Hoon-yera Mora-toorz tut Zamoo-cratz-ya in the native tongue). “We are gathered here, friends,” he said, “to honor lo Hoon-yera Mora-toorz tut Zamoo-cratz-ya, children dead, all dead, all murdered…
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Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing Fiction
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of. Write to please just one person. If…
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Perspective
I was recently reminded of my favourite bit from Slaughterhouse-Five, where Billy Pilgrim watches a war movie in reverse. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation. The…