Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Kurt vonnegut

I am the son and grandson of Indianapolis architects. But my father told me to choose any profession, if only not an architect.

One day In class, the teacher asked each of us to stand up and tell what we do after school. I was sitting in the back row next to a guy named Alburger. And while we waited for our turn, he teased me all the time, and even offered 5 dollars for me to tell the truth, which sounded like this: “After school, I collect model airplanes and jerk off.”

From younger children the family usually makes excellent comedians. When you're the youngest at the dinner table, the only way to get attention is to make good jokes.

At my sister there was a peculiar sense of humor - she had incredible fun when someone fell. One day, she saw a woman getting out of a car, caught on her heel and crashed face down on the ground. My sister laughed for a few more weeks after that.

After As our family lost all their money in the Great Depression, my mother thought she could make a new fortune by writing for glossy magazines. She took an evening literature course and not just read, but studied all the magazines - the way players study the results of the races.

Sons often try make their mothers' unfulfilled dreams come true.

I have no literary education. At first I studied chemistry at the university, then anthropology. I was 35 when I fell in love with Blake, 40 when I read Madame Bovary, and 45 when I first heard about Celine. By pure chance, I read “Look at your house, angel” (a novel by Thomas Wolfe. - Esquire) exactly when it was necessary - at 18 years old.

I write like a child. I don't overuse long sentences. I don't use semicolons. I avoid irony - I don't like it when people say one thing and mean another. That's why students read me.

Angry at a work of art it's like getting mad at chocolate sauce ice cream.

I told my students that at the very beginning of the book the hero must want something very strongly, even a glass of water. And then one student wrote a story about a nun who could not get rid of a piece of dental floss stuck in her teeth all day. It was a great idea.

I once asked my son Mark, what is the meaning of life, and he said: "We were born to help each other break through in life." He is right.

When I was at the front and was captured by the Germans, they said that we were lucky, because most likely we would survive the war. We, the arrested, were sent to Dresden - a city with statues and zoos, like Paris. We lived in a slaughterhouse and worked every morning in a malt syrup factory that was taken by pregnant women. And then one day on February 13, 1945, a siren sounded, and we went underground into a large meat refrigerator. When we left, the city was gone.

Many people think, that the destruction of Dresden is the minimum revenge for the people who died in concentration camps. Maybe. But absolutely everyone who was in the city at that time was sentenced to death - children, old people, animals, Nazis, me and my friend Bernard. The more corpses, the more correct revenge.

There is only one person in a world that benefited from the Dresden massacre. This person is me. I made three dollars for every death in Dresden.

I'm worried about that I write books, but presidents and generals don't read them.

I've been drawing all my life but I don't show it to anyone. It's fun - I recommend it to everyone. Sing, dance, write, draw, play an instrument, and it doesn't matter if you are good at it or not - this is how you develop your soul.

People need good lies because the circle is too much bad.

Television is the most enduring of the arts. For many, television is life itself.

Doesn't matter, where do you live or what kind of family do you have. You turn on the TV - and there you have relatives.

My relatives tell me that they are glad that I got rich, but they still cannot read me.

I have lost many writer friends. They all gave me their work with the words "Read and say what you think." Well, I said.

Everyone writes bad books. Why can't I?

There is no shortage of fine writers in the world, but there is a lack of reliable readers. Therefore, I suggest that all unemployed people be given another benefit check in exchange for a list of books read.

I love talk to locksmiths, carpenters and auto mechanics.

Talent is needed in any business. I trained as a mechanic on Cape Cod and got thrown out because I didn't have the talent.

Writers usually write their best books until the age of 45.

I'm going to sue with the manufacturer of Pall Mall: I'm 83, I've smoked Pall Mall since I was twelve, and these lying scoundrels have long promised to kill me, as they say right on the package. But I'm alive.

Smoking - the only noble way to commit suicide.

If I ever God forbid, I die, on my grave it is necessary to write: "Music was the only proof that God exists for him."

I am a veteran and I want to be buried like a military man - with a bugler, a flag on the coffin and firing into the air.

Polls public opinion, fifty percent of Americans think it was Saddam who flew the planes at the twin towers.

Vietnam War made millionaires into billionaires, and the war in Iraq will make billionaires into trillionaires. This is what I call progress.

The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was actually elected.

My country is in ruins. I am a fish in a poisoned aquarium. We should have become a great country, but we are despised all over the world.

I'm sure AIDS is it is the result of our planet's immune system trying to get rid of us. After two world wars, the Holocaust and the horror in the Balkans, the planet simply needs to get rid of us. We are terrible animals.

It seems to me, that the process of evolution is controlled by some engineer from God. Therefore, there are giraffes, hippos and gonorrhea in the world.

This world is too serious.

It's a pity, that I'm not a musician.

Kurt Vonnegut is considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. At the same time, he suffered from depression all his life and admitted that only a bad example that he would set for his seven children prevented him from shooting himself. And 10 more interesting facts from the life of the writer learn from this material.

Fact 1. Magic number 11

In the life of Kurt Vonnegut there was a special number - 11. On November 11, 1922, he was born. On April 11, 2007, he died. On May 11, 1947, his son Mark was born.

Fact 2. Kurt Vonnegut is an ethnic German

The great-grandfather of the writer was born in the city of Münster in northern Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1848. There, in Indianapolis, he quickly made a fortune by starting his own staple company. His son Bernard founded the construction firm Vonnegut & Bohn, part of which was inherited by the writer's father, Kurt Vonnegut Sr. He increased the family capital by marrying the daughter of a millionaire brewer, Edith Lieber. They had three children - Bernard, Alice and Kurt, who grew up in prosperity until the Great Depression struck.

Fact 3. Kurt Vonnegut's mother committed suicide

With the onset of the Great Depression in the United States family idyll Vonnegutov died. Father unemployed, mother having seizures mental disorder. In 1944, she committed suicide. Strong emotional reflections of the writer on this issue can be traced in his work.

Fact 4. If Kurt Vonnegut had not become a writer, he would have turned out to be a bad chemist

Kurt's father considered his passion for literature and philosophy an unworthy occupation, and convinced his son to enter the chemistry department at Cornell University. But instead of attending classes, Kurt disappeared into the office of the student newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun.

Fact 5. German-Vonnegut fought against the Germans in World War II and miraculously survived in captivity

Private of the 423rd Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division, Kurt Vonnegut, on December 19, 1944, fell during the Ardennes counteroffensive operation of the German troops. He ended up in a labor camp in Dresden and was even appointed headman of a group of prisoners of war, knowing a little German. During the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, when about 250 thousand people died, Kurt Vonnegut managed to survive thanks to the fact that prisoners of war were hidden in an inactive slaughterhouse basement. Kurt Vonnegut took part in the analysis of the rubble of Dresden. His feelings about this were reflected in the novel Slaughterhouse Five, or Crusade children", which brought him fame. Kurt Vonnegut was rescued from captivity by the Red Army in May 1945.

Fact 6. Kurt Vonnegut received his degree in anthropology not for his thesis, but for his novel

After returning from captivity, the writer began to study anthropology at the University of Chicago. But he also abandoned it. His work "The Unstable Correlation Between Good and Evil in Simple Fairy Tales" was not considered worthy of a master's degree by the commission. Vonnegut graduated much later, in 1971, for his novel Cat's Cradle.

Fact 7. Kurt Vonnegut was a "cog" in the General Electric Corporation

Meanwhile, having no confirmation of his higher education, Vonnegut was forced to work in the PR department of the General Electric Corporation, where his brother helped him get a job in 1947 (Vonnegut and his wife Jane Mary Cox just had a son). Over the next four years, while earning pennies, Kurt has the pleasure of communicating with scientists, which inspires him to many stories. Some of them were published in Collier's Weekly magazine and brought the author good three-figure fees. This financial motivation inspired Kurt Vonnegut to devote himself entirely to literature.

Fact 8. In one year, Kurt Vonnegut experienced three deaths of loved ones and three additions to his own family.

In 1957, the writer's father died of lung cancer. A few months later, his sister died of cancer, and two days before her death, her husband died in a train accident. The couple had four children, three of whom were adopted by Kurt and Jane. By this time, they had two more daughters, Edith and Nannet. And Vonnegut adopted another daughter with his second wife, photographer Jill Clemenz, in 1979, she became his seventh child.

Fact 9. Kurt Vonnegut considered music to be proof of the existence of God

A year before his death, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a kind of testament in a newspaper. It contained the following words: “If I ever die, God forbid, of course, I ask you to write the following epitaph on my grave: “For him, music was a necessary and sufficient proof of the existence of God.”

Fact 10. Kurt Vonnegut's books were burned at the stake, but he continued to tell the truth

Kurt Vonnegut wrote 14 novels, but it was "Slaughterhouse Five" that got on the list of "harmful books" in the United States, it was removed from libraries and burned at the stake by the citizens themselves. Despite this, irony, satire, science fiction, dystopia and tragicomedy are so skillfully woven in his works that even sharp criticism of the policies of George W. Bush and the entire American administration did not make Vonnegut stop talking. Kurt Vonnegut was a man of such authority that he could afford to openly call the government psychopaths and "naturally defective beings who have no conscience."

Kurt Vonnegut was born in the city of Indianapolis, which became the setting for many of his novels. From 1941 to 1943, he studied at Cornell University in the state of New York (Cornell University), where he writes a column in the student newspaper Cornell Daily Sun and studies chemistry. After the bombing of the port of Pearl Harbor is called to volunteer in the ranks armed forces United States of America and participates in World War II.

In 1944, Vonnegut was taken prisoner during the Ardennes counter-offensive operation of the German troops, and on February 13-14, 1945, while in captivity, he witnessed the bombing of Dresden by Allied aircraft. Kurt Vonnegut was among seven American prisoners of war who survived that day. What he experienced at that time will be reflected in many works, especially in the novel "", which brought fame to the author. Vonnegut was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945.

Returning from the war Kurt Vonnegut enrolled in graduate school at the University of Chicago with a degree in anthropology. While in graduate school, he worked as a police reporter for the Chicago News Bureau. In 1947, he attempted to defend his thesis on "The Unstable Correlation Between Good and Evil in Simple Fairy Tales", which was unanimously rejected by the entire staff of the department. (In 1971, the same department awarded Vonnegut a master's degree in anthropology for his novel Cat's Cradle (1963)). After this failure, in 1947 he moved from Chicago to the city of Schenectady, New York, where he got a job in the public relations department of the General Electric Corporation. Kurt Vonnegut believed that he developed his writing style while working as a reporter.

In the seventies and eighties Vonnegut continues to write actively - the novels "Breakfast for Champions" (1973), "" (1979), "Small Don't Miss" (1982), "" (1985), "Mother Darkness" (1986), "" (1987), "" (1990). In 1997, he published the novel "", which became one of the most notable events in American literature. last decade XX century.

Kurt Vonnegut considered himself a humanist and socialist, a follower of the ideas of Eugene Debs. In 2003, he participated in the American Civil Liberties Union's campaign to support basic civil liberties and strengthen the Union's role in protecting these rights, during which domestic politics George Bush.

The experiences of youth formed the basis of the first work Kurt Vonnegut — fantasy novel"Utopia 14", in which he draws gloomy pictures of the future: machines do all the work for people, and people are no longer needed. The science fiction genre also includes short stories released after this, and some novels (Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle). However, world fame The writer was brought to the largely realistic work "Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade", dedicated to the bombing of Dresden by British aircraft together with US aircraft in February 1945, during which the city was completely destroyed.

In many works Vonnegut expresses his thoughts in the voices of the main characters such as the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout - the prototype of which was the real-life science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. Vonnegut endowed his hero with a rich imagination and cynicism, softened by humanism.

Kurt Vonnegut died April 11, 2007 from the effects of a head injury received in a fall.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. kɜːrtˈ vɒ nə ɡ ə tˈ dʒuːniə r; November 11, 1922, Indianapolis, USA - April 11, 2007, New York, USA) is an American satirist writer. Considered one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. Author of such works as Titan's Sirens (1959), Mother Darkness (1961), Cat's Cradle (), Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade (1969) and Breakfast for Champions (1973 ), combining elements of satire, black humor and science fiction. He was honored as a New York State Writer from 2001-2003.

Biography

Origin

Kurt Vonnegut came from a family of German immigrants. Great-grandfather of the future writer Clement Vonnegut was born in the German city of Münster and emigrated to the USA in 1848. At his new location, he opened a hardware company in Indianapolis. His son Bernard did not follow in the footsteps of his father, but after graduating he became an architect. Together with your partner Arthur Bon he founded a construction company Vonnegut & Bohn. Bernard's son Kurt Vonnegut Sr. followed in the footsteps of his father. After graduating , he inherited his father 's share in Vonnegut & Bohn . On November 22, 1913, he married Edith Lieber, daughter of local millionaire brewer Albert Lieber ( Albert Lieber). From this marriage they had three children: Bernard (1914-1997), Alice (1917-1958) and Kurt.

Childhood and youth

Kurt Vonnegut, photo from the graduation album, 1940

Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922 in a very wealthy family of German immigrants. During the Great Depression, the financial situation of the father was shaken. He had to long time stay without any work. At the same time, the mother began to show symptoms of mental illness. In 1944, she committed suicide, which was a great shock to Kurt.

In May 1940 Kurt Vonnegut graduated from Shortridge School in Indianapolis. After completing his secondary education, he entered Cornell University. At the insistence of his father, who considered his son's hobbies for history, literature and philosophy a waste of money and time, Kurt was assigned to the Faculty of Chemistry. The prerequisite for this choice was the example of Brother Bernard, who in 1939 received his Ph.D. in chemistry at

According to Official Gazette of Cornell University, "Vonnegut's distaste for chemistry proved to be a boon to American literature." In total, he studied in this educational institution 3 years without finishing it. Kurt spent most of his time working for the student newspaper. The Cornell Daily Sun, acting as a browser and editor .

After the United States entered World War II, Vonnegut enlisted in the army as a volunteer. He was transferred from Cornell University, first to Carnegie University, and then to the University of Tennessee, where he studied mechanical engineering.

World War II, captivity and bombardment of Dresden

Kurt Vonnegut in military uniform

On December 19, 1944, Vonnegut, as a private in the 423rd Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division, was captured during the Ardennes counter-offensive operation of the German troops. After his release, Kurt Vonnegut, in a letter to his father, conveyed the state of affairs at the front as follows:

"Seven fanatical tank divisions cut us off from the rest First Army Hodges. The other American divisions on our flanks managed to withdraw. We were forced to stand and fight. Bayonets are not very good against tanks. Ammunition, food and medicine were exhausted, and our losses exceeded the number of those who could still fight - and we surrendered.<…>I was one of the few who was not injured. And thank God for that."

Original text (English)

Seven Fanatical Panzer Divisions hit us and cut us off from the rest of Hodges" First Army. The other American Divisions on our flanks managed to pull out: We were obliged to stay and fight. Bayonets aren't much good against tanks: Our ammunition , food and medical supplies gave out and our casualties out-numbered those who could still fight - so we gave up. ... I was one of the few who weren "t wounded. For that much thank God.

Initially, the prisoner of war Vonnegut was transported near Berlin, from where he was sent to a labor camp in Dresden. The daily ration consisted of 250 grams of black bread and a pint of potato soup. Vonnegut was appointed headman of a group of prisoners of war, as he spoke little German. After he told the guards what he would do with them when the Russians arrived, he was beaten and deprived of his status as a headman.

Slaughterhouse number five, where Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden

At night, the prisoners were locked up in the inactive slaughterhouse number five, and during air raids they were taken to the basement, where animal carcasses had previously been stored. Thanks to this, Vonnegut managed to survive the bombing of Dresden in mid-February 1945. The Allied air raid almost completely destroyed the ancient city. Several tens of thousands of people died. The estimate of the number of deaths by Vonnegut himself, who was involved in the removal of debris, as well as the burning of corpses, is 250 thousand people. His experiences are reflected in many works, among which is the novel Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade, which brought fame to the author.

When American troops captured Leipzig, located near Dresden, Vonnegut, among other prisoners of war, was transported east closer to the Sudetenland. He was liberated in May 1945 by the Red Army. Upon his return to the United States, he was awarded the Purple Heart medal, which is awarded to those who were injured as a result of enemy actions. Vonnegut himself was critical of the award, as received for "a ridiculously minor injury."

Post-war career

After returning from the front, Kurt Vonnegut entered the magistracy of the University of Chicago with a degree in anthropology. Simultaneously with his graduate studies, he worked as a police reporter for Chicago City News Bureau. A description of working in Chicago is given in the autobiographical novel Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade, as well as in Vonnegut's memoirs.

“While I was studying to be an anthropologist, I worked as a police reporter for the famous Bureau of Urban Incidents in Chicago for $28 a week.<…>And we gave information about trials, about incidents, about police stations, about fires, about the rescue service at Lake Michigan and all that.<…>Reporters transmitted information by telephone to journalists, and they, listening in headphones, printed reports of incidents on stencils, reproduced on rotators, inserted prints into copper cartridges with a velvet lining, and pneumatic tubes swallowed these cartridges.

Kurt Vonnegut left Chicago without graduating from university. His work for a master's degree in anthropology "The unstable relationship between good and evil in simple tales" (eng. Fluctuations between Good and Evil in Simple Tales) was rejected. Later, in 1971, he nevertheless received a scientific degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago - for the novel "Cat's Cradle".

In 1947, young Vonnegut, without higher education was forced to look for a job. The birth of his first son, on May 11, 1947, also belongs to this time - brand. With the help of his brother, who worked at General Electric, Kurt got a job in the same company in the public relations department. At his new location in Schenectady, New York, his duties included writing articles about new discoveries from the company's laboratories. Here he worked for 4 years, until 1951.

Communication with scientists had a strong influence on all of Vonnegut's further work. Going about his routine work, at night he wrote short stories. After several rejections, Collier's Weekly accepted two entries, paying $750 and $950 respectively. Seeing what he received for his works as for a few months of work at the General Electric company, Kurt Vonnegut decided to devote himself entirely to literature.

In 1957, the writer's father died. Less than a year later, Kurt Vonnegut's sister Alice died of cancer. The tragedy of the situation was aggravated by the fact that two days before her death, he died in railway accident her husband James Adams, who was on his way to the hospital to visit his dying wife. After their death, four minor children remained. Three of them, James, Stephen and Kurt, were adopted by Vonnegut.

Death

Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007 from the effects of a head injury sustained in a fall. A year before his death, he published an appeal to British readers in the Edinburgh newspaper The Sunday Herald, in which he wrote:

No matter how corrupt, greedy and heartless our government, our big business, our media, our religious and charitable organizations - music will never lose its charm. If someday I still die - God forbid, of course - I ask you to write the following epitaph on my grave: "For him, music was a necessary and sufficient proof of the existence of God."

Original text (English)

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC.

Vonnegut and the USSR

Writer's career

The experiences of youth formed the basis of the first work of Kurt Vonnegut - the science fiction novel Utopia 14, in which he draws gloomy pictures of the future: machines do all the work for people, and people are no longer needed. The science fiction genre also includes short stories released later, and some novels (“Sirens of Titan” and “Cat's Cradle”). However, the world-wide fame was brought to the writer by the realistic work “Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade”, dedicated to the bombing of Dresden by Allied aircraft in February 1945, during which the city was completely destroyed.

In many works, Vonnegut expresses his thoughts in the voices of the main characters - such as the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, the prototype of which was the real-life science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. Vonnegut endowed his hero with a rich fantasy and cynicism, tempered by his humanism.

In one of his recent interviews Vonnegut, recalling his work on Slaughterhouse Five, described creative process in the following way:

“I don’t think the artist even knows why he does this or that - it defies logic ... it all just pours out of us.”

Original text (English)

I don't think any artist knows why he does anything, it's not that rational... this stuff comes pouring out of us.

Political views

Novels

• Utopia 14 (Mechanical Piano) ( Player Piano) ()
• Sirens of Titan ( The Sirens of Titan) ()
• Mother Darkness mother night) ()
• Cat's cradle ( Cat's Cradle) ()
• God bless you, Mr. Rosewater, or Don't Throw Your Pearls Before Pigs God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine) ()
• Massacre Number Five, or the Children's Crusade Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade) ()
• Breakfast for Champions, or Goodbye Black Monday ( Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye, Blue Monday) ()
• Farce, or Down with loneliness ( Slapstick, or Lonesome No More) ()
• Recidivist ( jailbird) ()
• Small Don't Miss ( Deadeye Dick) ()
• Galapagos ( Galapagos) ()
• Blue Beard ( bluebeard) ()
• Hocus pocus ( Hocus Pocus) ()
• Timequake ( timequake) ()

Storybooks

• Canary in a mine (eng. Canary in a cathouse) ()
• Welcome to the monkey house (eng. Welcome to the Monkey House) ()
• Snuffbox from Bagombo (eng. Bagombo Snuff Box) ()
• Armageddon in retrospect ( , posthumous)
• Now the bird will fly! (English Look at the Birdie) (, posthumous)
• While mortals sleep (eng. While Mortals Sleep) (, posthumous)
• English Sucker's Portfolio (, posthumous)

essay

• Wampeters, Thomas and Granfallons: opinions ()
• Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage () Excerpt
• Fates worse than death ()
• God bless you, Dr. Kevorkian ()
• Man without a homeland ()

Translations into Russian

• Vonnegut K. A man without a country or America raged. Yekaterinburg, Ultra. Culture., 2007. - 240 p., 5 100 copies.

In cinema

Screen adaptations

• In the 1950s, Vonnegut wrote stories for the Crypt of Horrors comics. The comic was adapted into the TV series Tales from the Crypt.
• - "Happy Birthday Wanda June" - Feature Film based on the play of the same name, dir. Mark Robson.
• - "Slaughterhouse Five" Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade, dir. George Roy Hill.
• - "A farce of another kind"- a feature film based on the novel "Farce, or Down with Loneliness" ( or"Balagan, or the End of Loneliness!"), dir. Stephen Paul.
• 1982 - "And who am I this time?" - feature film story of the same name, dir. Jonathan Demmy.
• - "Displaced person"- TV movie based on the story from the collection "Welcome to the Monkey House", dir. Alan Bridges.
• - "Long Walk to Eternity" (or"Long Walk - Forever" - short film, dir. John A. Gallagher.
• - "Harrison Bergeron" - a TV movie based on the story of the same name, dir. Bruce Pittman.
• - "Mother Darkness", dir. Keith Gordon. (In this film, Kurt Vonnegut himself starred in the episodic role of a passerby on the street.)
• - "Breakfast of Champions" - a feature film based on the novel of the same name, dir. Alan Rudolph.
• - "2081" - a feature film based on the story "Harrison Bergeron", dir. Chandler Tuttle.
• - "The Long Walk Forever" - a short film based on the story of the same name, dir. Natalya Belyaeva.

Kurt Vonnegut - Between Time and Timbuktu, or "Prometheus 5"

Kurt Vonnegut - Fates Worse than Death (Biographic Collage)