Garden Of Blog

Back when I was tearing through his novels, I never realized Kurt Vonnegut had published volumes of nonfiction. There are two, to my knowledge: Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) and Palm Sunday (1981, an autobiography… sort of). The only novel I saved for myself is the one Vonnegut apparently claims is his last, Time Quake. I guess Kurt is mostly drawing these days, at the age of 82.

What is apparent in Vonnegut’s nonfiction— even moreso, if possible, than it is in his fiction— is his politics. A relatively recent interview will give you the idea (his pen, or tongue, is still in fine, biting form, when he whips it out). Wampeters… in particular contains some whithering attacks on war itself, and the society that let it happen, in the Vietnam era. To me, Vonnegut is another example of how superior intelligence always arrives at the same general conclusions, when pressed. He is one of the premier geniuses of our time and a voice for the ages.

And so on.