My absolute favorite author of all time, Kurt Vonnegut, died today. As his ubiquitous characters the Tralfamadorians would say, “So it goes.”

Vonnegut was the author of several of my favorite books, the most dear to me being The Sirens of Titan. The back cover of it refers to “a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life,” and I recall thinking when I first picked it up, “Wow, this Vonnegut guy’s got some balls.” And, of course, he did–not only does the book dare to ask the question of the meaning of life, but it answers it as well.

I remember reading some years back how Vonnegut planned to sue the big tobacco companies, because he’d been a chain smoker all of his life and had yet to die as a result. It’s somewhat fitting that in the end, at the age of 84, the cigarettes still didn’t get to him (a lingering injury from a fall did). I hope as he went, he did so like Bokonon from Cat’s Cradle, “thumbing his nose at You Know Who.”

So it goes.

Comments (1)

1 Response to “So It Goes”:

• Comment by Mark J. at 9:20 pm on April 12, 2007

  A quote from Vonnegut:

  “I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, “Isaac is up in heaven now.” It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, “Kurt is up in heaven now.” That’s my favorite joke.”

  He was quite a wit. Our generation’s Mark Twain. They don’t make ’em like him any more.