Kurt Vonnegut Has Become Unstuck In Time

Lileks takes down a target that's been deserving it for years. Smart people whose opinions I respect tell me I should read more Vonnegut, but after sloughing through Slaughter-House Five in high school I never had any interest in it. Maybe I just didn't get the joke. Douglas Adams, whose books describe much the same universe, works because he employs the Guide device for his explications of true insanity: a traveler's resource from Hell, pointing out with chirpy optomism how there's nothing to be optomistic about. That, plus secondary characters who are memorable because their creator actually gives a damn about them instead of using them as archetypes. I freely quote Zaphod Beeblebrox and have referenced him in music reviews; I couldn't remember the name of the Italian wanker who promised to whack Billy Pilgrim if you paid me.

But the real meat is this:

Which is more likely: a book review that says Vonnegut’s criticisms of the Bush Regime must be considered in light of the author’s support of suicide bombers, or a review that says Vonnegut has made statements lauding bombers, BUT he brings up troubling issues / confronts the hypocrisy inherent in Washington / speaks truth to power / speaks Hindu to houseplants / etc.

What's depressing is how beyond parody this all is. It's like I keep expecting a cutaway to a series of explosions with "We'llllll meet agaaaaaaaaain/Don't know wheeerrrreee/Don't know wheeeennnnnnn" on the soundtrack, or "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong or something, but it never does. Instead, all I'm left with is this feeling of impeding doom and the desire to slap the snot out of people while yelling "What the is wrong with you? At what point do you stop making excuses for people who kill civilians for its own sake? At what point do you start making fun of their supporters with half the fervor that you make fun of the President? What's it gonna take, a car-bomb in a Buddhist Temple in San Francisco during Gay Pride Week with accompanying billboards that state: WE WANT TO KILL ALL OF YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE UNHOLY KAFFIRS, AND SO THAT WE CAN RULE THE WORLD?"

And it ends like this: "POO-TEE-WEET?"