Joan Didion and Kurt Vonnegut had something to say. We have it on tape(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
Joan Didion and Kurt Vonnegut had something to say. We have it on tape
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/books/james-baldwin-joan-didion-92ny-recordings.html
https://archive.md/e6xBV
25 comments
Direct link to the Vonnegut recordings
https://www.92ny.org/archives/kurt-vonnegut,-jr
This was an excellent listen, thank you for linking this directly!
Kurt Vonnegut was such a clear thinker and communicator, we were fortunate to have him for so long.
Kurt Vonnegut was such a clear thinker and communicator, we were fortunate to have him for so long.
Was just thinking to myself how Player Piano has never been more appropriate than the AI age we’re in such a hurry to usher in.
Agree. It's just not a very good Vonnegut novel though. You can see him without (yet) a voice in the novel.
If "Breakfast of Champions" is a little too nutty though, I think I might like his "Mother Night" best. (But maybe we like nutty Kurt?)
If "Breakfast of Champions" is a little too nutty though, I think I might like his "Mother Night" best. (But maybe we like nutty Kurt?)
I think "Hocus Pocus" is his best, followed by "Cat's Cradle". But how lucky are we to have so many good ones to pick from?
>Hocus Pocus
I read this during the same time I was copyediting a good friend's Vietnam memoir. As a staff sargeant [E6], my buddy saw/did some things — including lobbing a girl's head off as she stepped in front of his rocket trajectory — but we both crossed eyes when I explained what the calculation on the last page of HP resulted in: survivor's remorse of rape & pillaging.
How many little half-Sargeants must being running around 'Nam...
I read this during the same time I was copyediting a good friend's Vietnam memoir. As a staff sargeant [E6], my buddy saw/did some things — including lobbing a girl's head off as she stepped in front of his rocket trajectory — but we both crossed eyes when I explained what the calculation on the last page of HP resulted in: survivor's remorse of rape & pillaging.
How many little half-Sargeants must being running around 'Nam...
Thanks. Hocus Pocus slipped past me somehow. Now I have something to look forward to reading. (I liked Cat's Cradle too but it is also on the loopier end of Vonnegut's writing spectrum—but we need some more of that.)
Mother Night is the book that has become more relevant every year since it was published, in 1962.
Every time someone is an "Ironic Nazi" online I think of that book, and how 4chan evolved into the modern political juggernaut it is today.
Every time someone is an "Ironic Nazi" online I think of that book, and how 4chan evolved into the modern political juggernaut it is today.
Mother night was my favorite Vonnegut book.
I happened to reread it recently and was absolutely blown away by how relevant it is today, and how it is almost certainly more relevant today than when it was written.
I think Vonnegut really had his pulse on the human condition. Writers such Aldous Huxley could capture parts of it but Vonnegut seemed to capture it in just about every book.
Just coincidentally, I read Player Piano during my introductions to GPT-2 (summer 2022).
One of my brothers asked (out of legitimate concern) if I needed to visit a mental institution... because there just is no way you are talking with machines about books — about such fantasies.
Granted, my life has been a series of abuses; but Vonnegut helped me realize the impossible isn't so.
And now it's so.
>...so it goes.
One of my brothers asked (out of legitimate concern) if I needed to visit a mental institution... because there just is no way you are talking with machines about books — about such fantasies.
Granted, my life has been a series of abuses; but Vonnegut helped me realize the impossible isn't so.
And now it's so.
>...so it goes.
Bluebeard is a good one too; it ruminates on the nature of art and how/why meaning is assigned to it.
Loved Bluebeard as well. A mature Vonnegut who knew how to use motifs from his earlier work. And for an old guy, he kept his writing fresh and energetic. The miniature story of the dog without a tail always comes back to me.
Thank you for your comment. I like Vonnegut (my favorite is Hocus Pocus) but hadn't read Bluebeard. I only started it and I'm already enjoying it significantly.
Maybe the reason westworld made it such a prominent theme in the show. All of season 3 is essentially that story.
But what vonnegut missed or questioned is what is we aren’t much more either. (Core thesis of the show is that skinner proved we are mostly the same as a player piano anyways)
But what vonnegut missed or questioned is what is we aren’t much more either. (Core thesis of the show is that skinner proved we are mostly the same as a player piano anyways)
No love for "Sirens Of Titan"?
>Just two rules they live by:
>1) I am here
>2) So glad you are
The existance of the harminoniums. That most beautiful of passages, simplicity and grace...
>1) I am here
>2) So glad you are
The existance of the harminoniums. That most beautiful of passages, simplicity and grace...
My programming teacher in 9th grade spent half the class time on Pascal and programming, and half like a literature or social studies class, including reading and discussing "Player Piano".
Today, the people who most should read it and other things are not the people in our field. Just like the people who most should've been reading about the effects and dangers of Wall Street scamming, were not the coked-up bros doing the scamming.
Today, the people who most should read it and other things are not the people in our field. Just like the people who most should've been reading about the effects and dangers of Wall Street scamming, were not the coked-up bros doing the scamming.
Vonnegut is good but I think (Aldous) Huxley had more to say, at least that resonated more with me.
I recently discovered this 1958 interview of Huxley[1]:
> This is the force which in general terms can be called overpopulation, the mounting pressure of population pressing upon existing resources. …This, of course, is an extraordinary thing; something is happening which has never happened in the world's history before. I mean, let's just take a simple fact that between the time of birth of Christ and the landing of the Mayflower, the population of the earth doubled. It rose from two hundred and fifty million to probably five hundred million. Today, the population of the earth is rising at such a rate that it will double in half a century.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alasBxZsb40
I recently discovered this 1958 interview of Huxley[1]:
> This is the force which in general terms can be called overpopulation, the mounting pressure of population pressing upon existing resources. …This, of course, is an extraordinary thing; something is happening which has never happened in the world's history before. I mean, let's just take a simple fact that between the time of birth of Christ and the landing of the Mayflower, the population of the earth doubled. It rose from two hundred and fifty million to probably five hundred million. Today, the population of the earth is rising at such a rate that it will double in half a century.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alasBxZsb40
Huxley was a logician.
Vonnegut was an artist.
They both make you think.
They both make you question human-ness.
Vonnegut was an artist.
They both make you think.
They both make you question human-ness.
Funny then, how he could be so wrong. The population is plummeting in many countries, and the rate of decline will only increase. In China, they're looking at each generation halving the previous (or worse).
“One Headline Copywriting Strategy Increases Clicks. This is How It Works…”
There seemed to be an era where clickbait headlines in major media were seen as passé… but they’ve seemingly made a comeback over the past couple years.
There seemed to be an era where clickbait headlines in major media were seen as passé… but they’ve seemingly made a comeback over the past couple years.
My disgust at this pretentious clickbait outweighs my interest in the historical material.