I posted this excerpt back in 2007 as a wy of marking Vonnegut's passing. A recent comment on that post has brought it back to me and this is why I considered Vonegut to be a UNSECO world heritage site in himself:
The Dancing Fool by Kilgore Trout (as outlined in Breakfast of Champions)
A flying saucer creature named Zog arrives on Earth to explain how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. Zog brings the information from his home planet, Margo, where the natives converse by means of farts and tap dancing.
Zog lands at night in Connecticut. He no sooner touches down than he sees a brush-fire spreading toward a house. He rushes into the house -- farting and tap dancing -- warning the people about the terrible danger they're in. And the head of the house brains Zog with a golfclub.
As I said then we shall not see his likes again
12 comments:
Why couldn't I have a name like Vonnegut? It sounds sort of ... Teutonic or Dutch somehow.
I like my Irish name myself
Vonnegut deserves my respect.
Others would not agree, of course; amongst them certainly many who have done their best to gain my disrespect.
He certainly is one to respect. Many are not of course
He was fired by Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School.
Haha!
His incredible perception and awareness of what we are...And his wry humour: "Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand."
Now that is brilliant!
I was introduced to K.V. once, along with a couple of other people. He nodded my way. I used to be acquainted (lost touch) with his nephew. It was uneventful, really. :-) I didn't like his books, though I kept trying. Finally, I read Slapstick (which is a sort of loose and zany autobiography) and it turns out many years later to be one of my favorite novels.
THat is the glory of literature. Books speak to us in very different ways. Me I am not a fan of Slapstick but I love most of his other works!
Strangely for me, too, this is one of the very few passages I remember almost by heart.
Yes, he stands alone.
One of the absolute greats. No doubt about that Snoopy
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