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Posted on 04.12.07 by Mr. Majestic @ 2:16 pm
Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday. I read him prolifically in high school, as many people do. Drawn-in by a friend’s titillating review of Breakfast of Champions (complete with illustrations!), I quickly moved on to grok just how wonderful a writer he was. My all-time favorite is probably still Cat’s Cradle, but I read – and enjoyed – many of his titles. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater probably weirded me out the most, LOL. I think the last one I read was Slapstick, although I did not pick it up until the early-1980′s. The film version of Slaughterhouse Five (noteworthy primarily for the presence of Valerie Perrine, one of my favorite film-goddesses) pretty much sealed his fate in Hollywood, I think. LOL, again. Vonnegut once said:
Kurt was a bit of an environmentalist, and so I was bemused at the confluence of ironic news-bitz this day. (I think he would have been as well.) A relative of mine, a passionate friend to animals, might have had a hard time processing this nugget, which – forgive me – induced fits of laughter in me. It is a good thing folks have been so diligent assisting the coyote and the wolf, otherwise these tasty snack-sized bunnies might have gone to waste! Too bad the story didn’t break on Easter. I ran across this great quote from a short story on a ‘blog called ‘Mexperimental‘:
I am generally amused by the “earth is our mother” sentimentality which often prevails among those whose experience of nature rarely extends past the community arboretum. It’s not like you have to look hard (poor Steve Irwin) to find examples of the amorality of ‘The Wild.’ Jeff Corwin understands it – now, anyway. Over at the CourtTV site (strange) I saw a post by a Swedish user, describing nature as “a constant arms race from the start.” Kind of clever, that. Speaking of nature, I ran across a nice ‘blog today (getting back to Kurt for a moment) – think I will add it to my roll. Reminds me of when Maria wore a lab coat to class. What’s not to like?
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Posted on 08.08.05 by Mr. Majestic @ 11:36 am
I am usually slogging my way through several unrelated titles at one time … and it is not uncommon for me to set books aside for weeks (or even months) especially if they are non-fiction and not as prone to problems with dis-continuity. Last summer, while waiting on a new title to be released (the third volume in Kevin J. Anderson’s “Saga of Seven Suns” series) I was browsing the science fiction section at the Centerville Library and saw that they had helpful lists of the past winners of the Hugo and Nebula awards. I decided I would pass the time waiting on my new book by reading a few of those “I-should-read-this-because-it’s-a-classic” titles. I think I read five or six of them last year … some good, some average. Included were “The Fountains of Paradise” by Arthur C. Clarke; “The Gods Themselves” by Isaac Asimov; and “Ringworld” by Larry Niven. By far, the one that fell ceremoniously into the “OMG-why-haven’t-I-read-this-ten-times-already” category was “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. The book literally had me enthralled from the very first page. I devoured the entire seven-book Ender series within a few weeks … and Maria did as well. NOW – I find myself in a similar position … OSC has a new title from the “Ender-verse” out called Shadow of the Giant which I have on my “hold request” list at the library, and Kevin J. Anderson’s next installment is out, too. So, *this* year, while waiting on those, I have pulled “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein, and “Neuromancer” by William Gibson from the above lists. “Mistress” was okay … typical Heinlein from the 60′s, but not his best. I am struggling through “Neuromancer” … it is the sort of writing that I find a bit tedious. Reminds me of Don Delillo a bit … admittedly I only read one of his in college (“Running Dog”) but I found it hard to finish in a similar way.
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- Capt. Mal Reynolds