In Memoriam: Kurt Vonnegut

I am sad to report that one of my all time favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., has died at age 84. Vonnegut's writing influence much of my early thinking and attitude. It was scary how much we thought alike. Kurt Voinnegut Jr is responsible for a lot of what Dane Bramage is.

The AP story mentions his best works with one exception; Breakfast of Champions.

Some of Vonnegut's books were banned and burned for alleged obscenity. He took on censorship as an active member of the PEN writers' aid group and the American Civil Liberties Union.

If you have never read BOC, I fully recommend it. If however you are one of these people who are offended by the N-bomb then stay clear. It is NOT PC at all. Though Kilgore Trout still remains one of my all time favorite characters.

Vonnegut was a staunch supporter of humanism. He felt that organized religion was one of the bad things in our society. That is where he and I split in our opinions. His life was filled with pain and suffering to the point he attempted suicide.

Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. He often joked about the difficulties of old age.

"When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon," Vonnegut told the AP.

"My father, like Hemingway, was a gun nut and was very unhappy late in life. But he was proud of not committing suicide. And I'll do the same, so as not to set a bad example for my children."

Despite his intellect, he had little regard for life and little hope for life after death. I pray he had time and oppurtunity to rethink his position with regards to accepting Jesus as Saviour before his end came.