Kurt Vonnegut

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DevilMaster
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Kurt Vonnegut

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Bombay Shappire... ma non ? un gin?
WebMaster di

Riflettendo sul "teorema":
- Domani è un altro giorno... -
mi trovo a scontrarmi con la dura realtà....
Ieri,
come del resto oggi,
non c'è stato.
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carlo
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Kurt Vonnegut

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non ? un gin, ? IL gin! :mrgreen:
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carlo
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Per tornare in tema, ho trovato una pagina con un interessante galleria di immagini del buon Kurt, ecco il link:

http://www.kurt-vonnegut.com/photo.html

vi sono molte foto tipo:

Immagine

kurt diciottenne

Immagine

k.v. in spiaggia con il cane

Immagine

l'autoritratto di kurt, da "la colazione dei campioni"

Immagine

e la sua tomba, da "mattatoio N?5"


Io, a kurt vonnegut, lo amo...
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carlo
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Kurt Vonnegut

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Vonnegut-isms: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Opinions on a Variety of Topics
KV on the Army:
"The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn't really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: 'He wasn't going to compose Beethoven's Fifth' "

City Limits 3/11/83



KV on Intelligence:
"I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival."

Observer 12/27/87



KV on Science Fiction:
"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' ... and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics mistake the drawer for a urinal."

Wampeters, Foma, and Granfallons 1974



KV on Superstition:
"We would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and the reading of palms.... Only in superstition is there hope. If you want to become a friend of civilization, then become an enemy of the truth and a fanatic for harmless balderdash."

Wampeters, Foma, and Granfallons 1974



KV on War:
"What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It's a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter."

City Limits, 3/11/83
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carlo
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Kurt Vonnegut

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Year His Life His Works
1922 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is born November 11 to Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. (architect) and Edith Lieber in Indianapolis, Indiana
1940 Graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis Editor of school's newspaper
1940-
1942 Attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he studied biochemistry Wrote for Cornell Sun
1942 Enlisted in U.S. Army as an Infantry Battalion Scout; Trained as Mechanical Engineer at Carnegie Institute and University of Tennessee
1944 Edith Lieber Vonnegut commits suicide May 14, Kurt returns home briefly; Kurt captured in December during Battle of the Bulge
1945 Sent to Dresden, Germany, to work in factory producing vitamins for pregnant women; survives firebombing of Dresden (February 13); rescued by Russians May 22 This experience is the basis for Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
1945 Married Jane Marie Cox September 1
1945-
1947 Worked as police reporter for Chicago News Bureau; studied Anthropology at University of Chicago (His master's thesis was rejected)
1947-
1950 Son Mark (1947) and daughter Edith (1949) are born; Worked as publicist for General Electric in Schenectady, NY
1950 Quit GE and moved to Cape Cod to write First short story published in February 11 issue of Collier's
1952 First novel, Player Piano, published
1954-
1956 Daughter Nanette is born (1954); Taught English at Hopefield School; worked for ad agency; opened first Saab dealership in the U.S. Utopia-14 published, a re-titled edition of Player Piano (1954)
1957 Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. dies October 1
1958-
1959 Sister and brother-in-law die, Kurt adopts three oldest children The Sirens of Titan is published (1959)
1961 Collection of short stories, Canary in a Cat House, published
1962 Mother Night is published
1963 Cat's Cradle is published
1965-
1967 Residency at University of Iowa Writers Workshop God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine, is published (1965)
1967 Went to Dresden on Guggenheim Fellowship Researched Slaughterhouse-Five
1968 Second collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House, published
1969 Slaughterhouse-Five is published
1970 Taught Creative Writing at Harvard Wrote Happy Birthday, Wanda June for Broadway
1971 Received Master's degree from University of Chicago for Cat's Cradle; moved to New York City
1972 Son Mark suffers schizophrenic breakdown; Elected vice-president of P.E.N. American Center; member of National Institute of Arts and Letters Son's breakdown basis for The Eden Express; Between Time and Timbuktu, or Prometheus-5 published; Slaughterhouse-Five produced as movie
1973 Appointed Distinguished Professor of English Prose by City University of New York Breakfast of Champions is published
1974 Awarded honorary Doctorate of Literature by Hobart and William Smith College Collection of essays and speeches, Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons, is published
1976 Slapstick; Or, Lonesome No More published
1977 First grandchild, Zachary, is born
1979 Divorces Jane, marries Jill Kremetz on November 24 Jailbird is published
1980 One man exhibition of his drawings Children's Christmas story, Sun Moon Star, is published
1981 Autobiography, Palm Sunday, is published
1982 Deadeye Dick is published
1984 Kurt attempts suicide
1985 Gal?pagos is published
1986 Speaks at National Coalition Against Censorship briefing for Attorney General's Commission on Pornography hearing
1987 Bluebeard is published
1990 Hocus Pocus is published
1991 Divorces Jill Kremetz in June Collection of essays and speeches, Fates Worse than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the 1980's, is published
1997 Timequake is published
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carlo
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ho ritrovato un ottimo link:

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kt_in.htm

? un sito su kilgore trout, personaggio vonneggutiano, e su molti suoi racconti, estratti dai libri di Vonnegut. Sono in inglese, e ci danno un saggio completo della mentalit? troutiana, a me tanto cara.

un esempio?

the big board

da "Mattatoio n?5"


The Big Board
. . . It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212.


These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and comodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when they were returned to Earth.

The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo--to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat, or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms.

The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it, too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl.

It worked. Olive oil went up.
(pages 201-202)



non vi ? bastato?

allora

How You Doin'?

da "la colazione dei campioni"

Trout wrote a novel one time which he called How You Doin'? and it was about national averages for this and that. And advertising agency on another planet had a successful campaign for the local equivalent of Earthling peanut butter. The eye-catching part of each ad was the statement of some sort of average--the average number of children, the average size of the male sex organ on that particular planet--which was two inches long, with an inside diameter of three inches and an outside diameter of four and a quarter inches--and so on. The ads invited the readers to discover whether they were superior or inferior to the majority, in this respect or that one--whatever the respect was for that particular ad.

The ad went on to say that superior and inferior people alike ate such and such brand of peanut butter. Except that it wasn't really peanut butter on that planet. It was Shazzbutter.

And so on.

And the peanut butter-eaters on Earth were preparing to conquer the shazzbutter-eaters on the planet in the book by Kilgore Trout. By this time, the Earthlings hadn't just demolished West Virginia and Southeast Asia. They had demolished everything. So they were ready to go pioneering again.

They studied the shazzbutter-eaters by means of electronic snooping, and determined that they were too numerous and proud and resourceful ever to allow themselves to be pioneered.

So the Earthlings infiltrated the ad agency which had the shazzbutter account, and they buggered the statistics in the ads. They made the average for everything so high that everybody on the planet felt inferior to the majority in every respect.

And then the Earthling armored space ships came in and discovered the planet. Only token resistance was offered here and there, because the natives felt so below average. And then the pioneering began.
(pages 169-171)



insomma, se sapete l'inglese, dategli un occhiata!

Immagine
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carlo
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sempre su quel sito

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/vonn.html

da non perdere la "collection of quotes", citazione vonneguttiane come:

questa la trovo a dir poco stupenda:

"If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts."

da:

- Mother Night
o questa:

"Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules -- and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress."

da:
- Sirens of Titan
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carlo
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La feltrinelli prosegue con la sua opera di ristampa del grande maestro, pubblicando ora Player Piano, libro che era pressocch? introvabile fino a poco tempo fa...
tra l'altro noto ora che ? una nuova traduzione, quindi forse da buon maniaco mi comprer? anche questo...

Piano meccanico
Kurt Vonnegut


dal sito della feltrinelli:

Traduzione: Vincenzo Mantovani
Collana: I Narratori
Pagine: 328
Prezzo: Euro 17




In breve
Piano meccanico ? l?appello di Vonnegut affinch? l?America possa essere una societ? composta da individui che hanno scoperto di condividere sentimenti e scopi, che sanno distinguere chiaramente tra mezzi e fini e che affermano con convinzione che la cultura americana non ? n? vera n? utopica, ma parziale e imperfetta.

Il libro
In un futuro non troppo lontano, dopo una guerra che ? ovviamente ? ? stata l?ultima, l?America vive nel benessere grazie all?impiego su vasta scala della meccanizzazione. Le macchine hanno sostituito l?uomo in ogni lavoro manuale e forse stanno per prendere il suo posto anche nelle attivit? intellettuali. La societ? ? divisa in due. Da un lato un pugno di tecnici e manager, che proprio durante l?ultima guerra hanno imparato a produrre senza le maestranze richiamate sotto le armi. Dall?altro tutti coloro che il basso quoziente d?intelligenza condannava a un lavoro manuale che oggi non esiste pi?. Il cittadino medio americano, gratificato da modeste e standardizzate comodit?, ? confinato in un ghetto, lontano dalle fabbriche automatizzate, difese come fortezze, dove dominano incontrastati le macchine e i loro signori. Sotto questa blanda dittatura di tecnici e manager freddi e razionali come le macchine che hanno brevettato, l?americano medio vive una vita senza scopo. ? un rottame, uno scarto del processo industriale, e pi? nessuno sembra aspettarsi da lui un gesto di ribellione. Sar? il tecnocrate pi? giovane e promettente, Paul Proteus, il primo ad avere qualche dubbio sulla validit? della propria missione. Infiltrato dai suoi capi in una bislacca setta rivoluzionaria, dopo un vano tentativo di evadere dalla realt? rifugiandosi in un sogno pastorale, Proteus sfugge al loro controllo e diventa rapidamente il capo dei congiurati. I cittadini si sollevano e si gettano su quello che credono il loro nemico: la civilt? delle macchine. Ben presto, tuttavia, si accorgeranno che l?obiettivo era sbagliato. La civilt? ha bisogno delle macchine e i ribelli, incapaci di cavarsela senza il loro aiuto, si vedranno costretti a ricostruirle. Colpire i tecnocrati, non le macchine: questa era la linea da seguire. Proteus l?aveva intuito, ma ormai ? troppo tardi. La rivoluzione ? sconfitta e la morsa dei tecnocrati si stringe intorno a lui.
La lezione di Vonnegut ? chiara: i rivoluzionari non sono stati battuti dai loro nemici, ma dagli uomini che sognavano di liberare. Erano stati questi i primi ad accusare il sistema e a proclamarsi schiavi delle macchine, mentre senza quel sistema e senza quelle macchine non avrebbero potuto vivere. ? una lezione amara, e significa che l?uomo ha, in fondo, quello che vuole. Prima di poter cambiare il mondo, dovr? imparare a cambiare se stesso.


Immagine

ringrazio Elena Carbonari per la segnalazione!
Ultima modifica di carlo il 20/10/2004, 15:24, modificato 1 volta in totale.
kurtz
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Kurt Vonnegut

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Dio mio! da quello che leggo sembra bellissimo..... non vedo l'ora di averlo!
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carlo
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Kurt Vonnegut

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Ti dico, a me ? piaciuto moltissimo, se non altro ? il suo primo romanzo, scritto che era molto giovane, ribadisco la bibliografia:

Piano meccanico (Player Piano, 1952)
Le sirene di Titano (The sirens of Titan, 1959).
Madre Notte (Mother Night, 1962).
Ghiaccio nove (Cat?s Cradle, 1963).
Perle ai porci (God bless you, Mr. Rosewater; or Pearls before Swine, 1965).
Mattatoio Numero 5 (Slaughterhouse 5, 1969).
La colazione dei campioni (Breakfast of Champions, 1973).
Comica finale (Slapstick; or lonesome no more, 1976).
Un pezzo da galera (Jailbird, 1979).
Il grande tiratore (Deadeye Dick, 1982).
Galapagos (Galapagos, 1985).
Barbabl? (Bluebeard, 1987).
Hocus Pocus (Hocus Pocus, 1990).
Cronosisma (Timequake, 1997).
RACCOLTE DI RACCONTI

Canary in a Cathouse, 1961 - non tradotto in Italia.
Benvenuti nella gabbia delle scimmie (Welcome to the Monkey House, 1968).
TEATRO

Buon compleanno Wanda June (Happy Birthday Wanda June, 1968).
Between Time and Timbuktu, 1972.
SAGGISTICA

Divina Idiozia (Wampeters, Foma and Grand-falloons, 1974).
Palm Sunday: an autobiographical Collage, 1981 - non tradotto in Italia.
Destini peggiori della morte (Fates worse than Death: an autobiographical Collage of the 1980s, 1991).
Dio la benedica dott. Kevorkian (God bless you Dr. Kevorkian, 1999).




A me come libro ? piaciuto moltissimo ma non si pu? nascondere che sia forse uno dei meno riusciti del genio.
? un libro molto impegnato, a tratti politico (come forse perle ai porci) meno pungente di futuri lavori come mattatoio n?5 o le sirene di titano, per? sicuramente importante per capire meglio l'autore, e comunque amabile e piacevole come testo...

Kurtz, ti invidio, a volte vorrei non aver mai letto vonnegut, e iniziare ora...

prende met? del tuo cervello e gli fa capire gli sbagli che l'altra met? continua a commettere.
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