A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut

This is Kurt Vonnegut's final book--well, it was intended to be, though in 2008 they published an as-yet unpublished work of his. The book is mainly an observation on life in all forms, past, current, similarities and differences. There's no real particular story other than the usual anecdotes; I guess it could be said that it's pretty much a series of short essays. It's a great book, one that led me to question why I haven't really read any Vonnegut in almost two years' time. (True, I've read Slaughterhouse Five twice in that time, but it's nowhere close to being my favorite Vonnegut book.) It also made me realize that Vonnegut is not a genius. What? No, he thinks the way everybody thinks, he's just not scared to admit it. He's braver than most is all. Not to say that's a bad thing, it's a good feeling when you discover you're not the only one thinking that way.

Each chapter opens with 'illustrations' which are actually colored prints of Vonnegut's quotes. The picture that opens the book reads: "There is no reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia."

"I used to laugh my head off at Laurel and Hardy. There is terrible tragedy in there somehow. These men are too sweet to survive in the world and are in terrible danger all the time. They could be so easily killed" (4).

"I wanted all things to seem to make some sense, so we could all be happy, yes, instead of tense. And I made up lies, so they all fit nice, and I made this sad world a paradise" (6).

Vonnegut writes, at the beginning of chapter two, that he considers anyone who hasn't read Ambrose Bierce's story "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" a twerp. I was thinking, maybe I'd read it, but the only place I could imagine having done so was in creative writing. None of my classmates recognized it though, and I thought for sure I was going mad (I also imagined ray Bradbury could have mentioned it, he was a huge fan of Bierce and mentions him a lot in his stories). After pacing a gibbering to myself for about a half hour (I was spending self-imposed solitary confinement at work) it occurred to me: that's also the name of a Twilight Zone! Actually, it looks the episode was very close to the original story. (The episode was originally the winner of a short film festival.) Anyway, I guess there's not much to it other than... Well, that I'm a huge dork obsessed with The Twilight Zone. Oh well.

"Do you realize that all great literature--Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, The Illiad and The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, The Bible, and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade"--are all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? (Isn't it such a relief to have somebody say that?" (9). First of all, this goes with what I said at the beginning of this post, no? (Even he appears to be aware on some level of the idea that I described himself.) And, though I don't know all of these books intimately, from what I do know about the others, yes, I'd say that his observation is accurate. Though The Red Badge of Courage and The Scarlet Letter made me realize more what a bummer it is to be a human who has to read either of those books than how much a bummer being a human is in general.

Ah, I think he makes a good point about Marx's famous quote, "Religion is the opiate of the people". That quote tends to be seen by many, myself included, as a negative thing. It gets you high, gets you lazy, dulls your senses, but Vonnegut translates it kindly into a better thing, probably what Marx actually intended to say when he said as he did: Not a condemnation but an admittance of the fact that it is comforting and can give relief (Much like the opium painkillers Marx needed himself). Not even admittance, just Marx "simply noticing" (12) that fact. "It was a casual truism, not a dictum" (12).

"I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent lives as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex" (17).

"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college" (23). ....

"If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something" (24).

Kurt Vonnegut has a section where he draws the story lines of your generic short or long story, then the story lines of specific stories that have generically the same as other story lines. If you happen to be thumbing through the book, look on page 32 for his treatment of Kafka's Metamorphosis.

"But there's a reason we recognize Hamlet as a masterpiece: it's that Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so rarely tell us the truth in this rise and fall here... The truth is, we know so little about life, we don't really know what the good news is and what the bad news is. And if I die--God forbid--I would like to go to heaven and ask somebody in charge up there, 'Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?'" (37). This is part of the story line section, the conclusion of it. Probably one of the most intriguing sections of the book...

Ah, Vonnegut's complaint that for all his years of smoking (all but twelve) he still lives--well, at the time--in complete health: "But I am now eighty-two. Thanks a lot, you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick, and Colon" (40). Have I mentioned quite how much I love Kurt Vonnegut? Has it been properly conveyed?

"Evolution is so creative. That's how we got giraffes" (46).

Vonnegut's "Big Question" is, "What is life all about?" "I put my big question about life to my son the pediatrician. Dr Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: 'Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is'" (66).

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC" (66). This, unfortunately, does not seem to be his actual epitaph. But anyway, in this bit he talks about music with his high regards--I believe it is in Breakfast of Champions that a line occurs that reads something as follows: "What else is sacred? Romeo and Juliet, for instance. Oh, and all music, too."

"How do humanists feel about Jesus? I say of Jesus, as all humanists do, 'If what he said is good, and so much of it is absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or not?' But if Christ hadn't delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I'd just as soon be a rattlesnake" (81).

"Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don't you wish you could have something named after you?" (88).

"As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I'm of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free"--Eugene Debs

"While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, their powerful political connections or great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out their titles... The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries" (103).

"And still on the subject of books: Our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books do we learn what's really going on" (103). I have definitely written about this on here before. And you know what, I'm willing to say that this isn't recent and by no means an American invention. For example: Dickens' works were cited as an example for this concept by Fabrizzles when he explained it to us in... Contemporary Lit? Creative Writing? Well, it matters not what class in particular. The basic idea, though, is that reading a book in a certain era gives you a better image of that era because it explains how the book was written, why it was written, how the idea came up and so on--because the time and breeding would have a direct affect on all of that. For example, when HG Wells wrote his books--things were being discovered. Breakthroughs were being made ten times a day. Someone famously declared (wrongly) that by the 1930's (or something like that) that all that there was to be discovered in the world would be. Space was big--people would have 'comet' parties to celebrate when comets were predicted to be sighted (not kidding about this either, unless if Carl Sagan would dare lie to me). You see what I mean? Maybe?

"The good Earth--we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy" (122).

"Life is no way to treat an animal" (123).

"All I wanted to do was give people the relief of laughing. Humor can be a relief, like an aspirin tablet. If a hundred years from now people are still laughing, I'll be pleased" (130).

"When I got home from the Second World War, my Uncle Dan clapped me on the back and said, 'You're a man now.' So I killed him. Not really, but I certainly felt like doing it" (131). This scene is regaled in I believe Slaughterhouse-Five, only instead it ends with "I almost killed my first German." (Vonnegut was of German ancestry.)

Oooookay. So I know I've been cheaping out on summaries as of late, but this really is just Kurt Vonnegut being awesome. So so so awesome! A longtime Vonnegut fan surely won't be disappointed, and someone who has never read him before will certainly be intrigued--well, if that someone is AWESOME. Kurt Vonnegut is so awesome.... Seriously. Go read all of his books right now, except for Hocus Pocus and Cat's Cradle. Well... at least not Hocus Pocus. Bleghhhhfgffffhhhhjjhhhh.

PS. This book is fantastic.

MLA Citation Information: Vonnegut, Kurt. A Man Without A Country. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2005. Print.

Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Cuddle Fuddle by Passion Pit

This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Kids with guns, taking over, but it won't be long, they're mesmerized skeletons