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Post by Eternal Lobster on Jun 14, 2011 22:27:28 GMT -5
I first encountered him in my Postmodern Fiction course. Oh gosh, I have sudden memories of former class arguments over calling that literature "postmodern" along with what comes after it. Tempted to make a thread... What other authors did you cover in that class, if you can remember? I wish my uni offered more interesting courses like that. |
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jun 14, 2011 22:42:26 GMT -5
I first encountered him in my Postmodern Fiction course. Oh gosh, I have sudden memories of former class arguments over calling that literature "postmodern" along with what comes after it. Tempted to make a thread... What other authors did you cover in that class, if you can remember? I wish my uni offered more interesting courses like that. 100 Years of Solitude (hated it), The Bloody Chamber (very lovely writing), The Things They Carried (life changing), White Noise (tedious at times, but life changing), and Beloved (decent). It's probably my favorite literature class I've taken in my college career. Either that or my Dickinson course. Edit: Oh, you said authors. Sorry haha. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Angela Carter, Tim O'Brien, Don DeLillo, and Toni Morrison (respective to the list of titles). |
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Post by Olive on Jun 15, 2011 7:29:28 GMT -5
I enjoy Vonnegut's technical style in most of his writing. It's raw at times and painfully refined at others, honest one moment and a massive lie the next. Beautiful.
As someone else mentioned, the way he plays with time is cool. It was really interesting to go and read The Sirens of Titan this summer, having read Slaughterhouse Five last summer. Oh, Tralfamadore....
Mother Knight is also very good. That's where I started with Vonnegut.
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Post by serpentheart on Jun 15, 2011 8:10:10 GMT -5
My university has Slaughterhouse Five in a class called The Sixties: From the Beat to the Bongs. It is an English class. I tell no lie.
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jun 15, 2011 9:57:45 GMT -5
"Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."
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alyoshka
Young Armadillo
Vous etes un chanteur des pommes.
Posts: 94
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Post by alyoshka on Jun 15, 2011 21:08:18 GMT -5
I do not like Vonnegut at all personally, but I can see why someone does.
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jun 16, 2011 0:38:49 GMT -5
Have you read Slaughterhouse-Five? Just curious.
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Post by KatjevanLoon on Jun 16, 2011 3:09:36 GMT -5
I started Vonnegut with Welcome to the Monkey House (recommended to me by a friend in high school) and then read the very good but also really creepy Galapagos.
Well, I found it creepy.
Anyway, have read to read his other works, though they're on my very long "to read" list.
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Post by Dodger Thirteen on Jun 16, 2011 12:27:17 GMT -5
I have Hocus Pocus and Slaughterhouse Five on my shelf to read this summer. Anyone read the former yet?
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jun 16, 2011 18:21:54 GMT -5
I haven't, but it's on my list of things to read.
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Post by Alex Pinto on Jun 20, 2011 10:34:45 GMT -5
Oh my goodness, seeing this thread on here made me so happy because Vonnegut is currently my favourite author.
Where do I start? My love for Vonnegut is hard to describe. I read Slaughterhouse-Five a few years ago and I enjoyed it. I definitely felt an emotional response to the horrors described during the Dresden bombings and knowing that Vonnegut was actually there made it that much more real to me. Then again, time travel. I really enjoy the way his science fiction is engrained in the "real world". It's very matter of fact, it just happens.
However, my love affair with Vonnegut didn't start until I read Breakfast of Champions in my first year English class in university, which was an introductory type class. This is my favourite book of all time, no question about it.
There's so much to talk about with this book but mostly it contains a lot of pictures drawn by Vonnegut explaining the most minute details of the very simple plot, as if he's explaining the human race and its culture to a bunch of aliens. He also makes a lot of points about how we reliant we are on images and commands for our society to work.
Also, Kilgore Trout is a major character in the novel and his science fiction stories are summarized several times. The stories are all about aliens but they could also be applied to the human race too, which is fascinating. Basically it's a book of layers because there are Kilgore Trout's stories, then the plot of the book, then the constant acknowledgements that Vonnegut makes to the fact that Breakfast of Champions is fiction that he is making up.
Okay, sorry about the huge block of text but I am extrememly passionate about this book (in case you couldn't tell). I've also read Cat's Cradle, Galapagos, Bluebeard, and I have several others in my reading queue to read, but this one is by far my favourite and really turned me into a huge Vonnegut fan.
Honestly, the man could just write really well, and had a lot of good points to make about the world.
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jun 21, 2011 19:29:51 GMT -5
He taught me to be succinct in my prose.
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