July 21, 2004
Vonnegut Gets His Groove Back
filed under: Idle ChatterThere's a pattern that is faithfully repeated by those who turn acerbic dissection of human failings into entertainment. It goes something like this:
ENTERTAINING CYNIC: People are stupid.AUDIENCE: Hey, yeah! People are stupid!
EC: People are really stupid.
A: Ha ha, YEAH! People ARE stupid! You ROCK!
EC: No. I mean people are really, really stupid.
A: YEAH, man, YEAH! People are WICKED STUPID!
EC: You're stupid.
A: YEAH! I'M STUPID! WHOOOOOOHOOO!
EC: No, I mean it. You're stupid.
A: WHOOOOHOOO!
EC: I said YOU'RE STUPID!
A: WHOOO!
EC: GOD DAMNIT, DON'T YOU GET IT?! YOU'RE STUPID YOU STUPID M*****F*****!!!
A: WHOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
By the end of the cycle, the Entertaining Cynic has lost all ability to be entertaining and is frantically spewing bile in an attempt to regain some meaning. Examples: Mark Twain, George Carlin, Kurt Vonnegut. Lenny Bruce stopped even trying to be funny, just wanting someone to understand how unfair what was being done to him really was, but he's a subset to himself.
I love Kurt Vonnegut's work, but felt a couple books ago like he had passed beyond vitality into some flat, bitter echo of himself. Today I followed a link on Defective Yeti to Mister Pants, who linked to an article by Vonnegut that was published in May.
Lo and behold, it's a terrific read.
Somewhere along the line, on his way to 81 years old, Vonnegut seems to have said to himself "Enh. So?" He's still letting us know how stupid people are, and how hard life is, but he's laying it down with the calm wisdom and offhand manner of someone who just can't bother to get angry any more. He's become the Obi Wan Kenobi of cynicism.
Posted by rjt at July 21, 2004 11:02 AM