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--- Begin Message ---Peninsula Peace and Justice Center 3/6/06 - Kurt Vonnegut's "Stardust Memory" Monday, March 06 2006 @ 09:06 AM PST (View web-friendly version here) http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060306090609596 Harvey Wasserman Columbus Free Press (Ohio)On a cold, cloudy night, the lines threaded all the way around the Ohio State campus. News that Kurt Vonnegut was speaking at the Ohio Union prompted these apathetic heartland college students to start lining up in the early afternoon. About 2,000 got in to the Ohio Union. At least that many more were turned away. It was the biggest crowd for a speaker here since Michael Moore. In an age dominated by hype and sex, neither Moore nor Vonnegut seems a likely candidate to rock a campus whose biggest news has been the mens and womens basketball teams joint assault on Big Ten championships. But maybe theres more going on here than Fox wants us to think. Vonnegut takes an easy chair across from Prof. Manuel Luis Martinez, a poet and teacher of writing. He grabs Martinez and semi-whispers into his ear (and the mike) What can I say here? Martinez urges candor. Well, says Vonnegut, I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president. The students seem to agree. The only difference between Bush and Hitler, Vonnegut adds, is that Hitler was elected. You all know, of course, that the election was stolen. Right here. Off to a flying start, Vonnegut explains that this will be his last speech for money. He cant remember the first one, but it was on a campus long, long ago, and this will be the end. The students are hushed with the prospect of the final appearance of Americas greatest living novelist. Alongside Mark Twain and Ben Franklin, Will Rogers and Joseph Heller and a very short list of immortal satirists and storytellers, there stands Kurt Vonnegut, author of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and SIRENS OF TITAN, CATS CRADLE and GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER, books these students are studying now, as did their parents, as will their children and grandchildren, with a deeply felt mixture of gratitude and awe. Nobody tonight seems to think they were in for a detached, scholarly presentation from a disengaged academic genius coasting on his incomparable laurels Im lucky enough to have known a great president, one who really cared about ALL the people, rich and poor. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was rich himself, and his class considered him a traitor. We have people in this country who are richer than whole countries, he says. They run everything. We have no Democratic Party. Its financed by the same millionaires and billionaires as the Republicans. So we have no representatives in Washington. Working people have no leverage whatsoever. Im trying to write a novel about the end of the world. But the world is really ending! Its becoming more and more uninhabitable because of our addiction to oil. Bush used that line recently, Vonnegut adds. I should sue him for plagiarism. Things have gotten so bad, he says, people are in revolt again life itself. Our economy has been making money, but all the money that should have gone into research and development has gone into executive compensation. If people insist on living as if theres no tomorrow, there really wont be one. As the world is ending, Im always glad to be entertained for a few moments. The best way to do that is with music. You should practice once a night. If you want really want to hurt your parents and dont want to be gay, go into the arts, he says. Then he breaks into song, doing a passable, tender rendition of Stardust Memories. By this time this packed hall has grown reverential. The sound system is appropriately tenuous. Straining to hear every word is both an effort and a meditation. To hell with the advances in computers, he says after he finishes singing. YOU are supposed to advance and become, not the computers. Find out whats inside you. And dont kill anybody. There are no factories any more. Where are the jobs supposed to come from? Theres nothing for people to do anymore. We need to ask the Seminoles: what the hell did you do? after the tribes traditional livelihood was taken away. Answering questions written in by students, he explains the meaning of life. We should be kind to each other. Be civil. And appreciate the good moments by saying If this isnt nice, what is? Youre awful cute he says to someone in the front row. He grins and looks around. If this isnt nice, what is? Youre all perfectly safe, by the way. I took off my shoes at the airport. The terrorists hate the smell of feet. We are here on Earth to fart around, he explains, and then embarks on a soliloquy about the joys of going to the store to buy an envelope. One talks to the people there, comments on the silly-looking dog, finds all sorts of adventures along the way. As for being a midwesterner, he recalls his roots in nearby Indianapolis, a heartland town, the next one west of here. Im a fresh water person. When I swim in the ocean, I feel like Im swimming in chicken soup. Who wants to swim in flavored water? A key to great writing, he adds, is to never use semi-colons. What are they good for? What are you supposed to do with them? Youre reading along, and then suddenly, there it is. What does it mean? All semi-colons do is suggest youve been to college. Make sure, he adds, that your reader is having a good time. Get to the who, when, where, what right away, so the reader knows what is going on. As for making money, war is a very profitable thing for a few people. Jesus used to be so merciful and loving of the poor. But now hes a Republican. Our economy today is not capitalism. Its casino-ism. Thats all the stock market is about. Gambling. Live one day at a time. Say if this isnt nice, I dont know what is! You meet saints every where. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society. Im going to sue the cigarette companies because they havent killed me, he says. His son lived out his dream to be a pilot and has spent his career flying for Continental. Now theyve screwed up his pension. The greatest peace, Vonnegut wraps up, comes from the knowledge that I have enough. Joe Heller told me that. I began writing because I found myself possessed. I looked at what I wrote and I said How the hell did I do that? We may all be possessed. I hope so. He accepts the students standing ovation with characteristic dignity and grace. Not a few tears flow from young people with the wisdom to appreciate what they are seeing. If this isnt nice, we dont know what is. Not long ago we spoke on the phone. I asked Kurt how he was. Too fucking old, he replied. Maybe so. But the mind and soul are still there, powerful and penetrating as ever. Just as theyll ever be in his books and stories and the precious records of his wonderful talks. Thankfully, Kurt Vonnegut is still possessed by the genius of seeing and describing the world as only Kurt Vonnegut can. He is still sharp and clear, full of love and life and light. May he be with us yet for a long long time to come. Harvey Wasserman read CATS CRADLE, SIRENS OF TITAN and SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE in college, sought Boku-Maru, and has never been the same. Peninsula Peace and Justice Center · 457 Kingsley Ave · Palo Alto, CA peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060306090609596 - - - - - - Fields are spoiled by weeds; people, by delusion. So what's given to those free of delusion bears great fruit. Fields are spoiled by weeds; people by longing. So what's given to those free of longing bears great fruit. Dhammapada, 24 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.Section 107, this material is provided for those who have expressed a desire in receiving the information for research or educational purposes. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Alamaine; Grand Forks, North Dakota. US of A www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== ctrl is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, ctrl gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. ctrl gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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