Ever notice how the stuff I write has a little bit of irreverence to it?
I might zig when you expect me to zag during a history lesson, making commentary with a voice that steps completely outside of the narrative. At other times, I’ll try to get you to wonder whether something you’ve thought to be a given fact your entire life actually is true.
There is a method to this madness, and a lot of it came from reading a ton of Kurt Vonnegut earlier in life.
Vonnegut was a master of the metaphor, using analogies to tell a deeper story—all while maintaining the reader’s interest with sardonic wit and very, very clever storytelling. He was unafraid to question the status quo on all sorts of things, and I loved it.
Today, I want to tell you a little bit about Vonnegut the person, and in doing so I’ll talk about why I love these books so much, and how much they ultimately influenced my own writing.
The Introduction and Expansion
Slaughterhouse Five introduced me to the world of Kurt Vonnegut.
Here was a story with insightful commentary about World War II, interwoven with a compelling science fiction tale of a time traveling soldier named Billy Pilgrim. Pilgrim jumped back and forth through time, echoing the confusion and chaos of war that Vonnegut himself knew all too well.
This was probably my junior year in high school, but maybe it was later—my own mental time travel is sometimes as chaotic as Billy Pilgrim’s.
I wanted more. I found more. Used books were abundant in the 90s, and I was extremely hungry for some Vonnegut.
I was completely blown away by how irreverent and delightful Breakfast of Champions was, and at how clever Sirens of Titan and Cat’s Cradle were. I kept going, and found a collection of short stories. Some were better than others, but all of them gave fuel to my imagination.
Here are some of the Vonnegut books I still have on my shelf from a few decades ago!
For more commentary on Vonnegut’s writing, I highly recommend checking out
’s page, . Gabe loves Vonnegut’s style every bit as much as I do, and he’s written quite a bit about it. This piece is a great place to start.The Human
Kurt Vonnegut grew up in the same world as my grandparents. The twin tragedies of the Great Depression and World War II were instrumental in the lives of everyone who lived through this turbid time. Much of Vonnegut’s commentary is told through the lens of someone who has experienced real need… and real tragedy.
Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Germany during the war. He was tasked with gathering bodies for mass burial. "But there were too many corpses to bury. So instead the Nazis sent in troops with flamethrowers. All these civilians' remains were burned to ashes."
Vonnegut had the wherewithal to point out that the allied bombing of Dresden—the city where he was held—was also unbelievably atrocious and horrifying. Some 25,000 civilians were vaporized or burned to death.
I can’t really know what it was like for Vonnegut in that prison camp, but I bet he used a lot of dark humor to cope with reality. It’s also no surprise that he ended up with a very strong anti-war stance, given the horrors he had seen first hand.
After the war, he attended the University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology, a field that encapsulates a lot of what I write about. Vonnegut was fascinated with why humans do what they do, and with how we got to where we are now.
His time at General Electric inspired him to write his first novel, Player Piano. Skeptical of turning the keys over to corporate control, and cognizant of the dehumanizing nature of technology, Vonnegut found his voice early on in his career, but kept refining the way he told the stories.
He put little drawings in with Breakfast of Champions and some of his other novels. This interactive reading experience gave me a lot of joy, and probably inspired the way my Substack looks and feels today, at least to an extent.
Maybe most impressively, Vonnegut’s works often contained a message of fundamental kindness—an appeal for compassion amidst the absurdity of human existence. He was incredibly good at pointing out that there is a basic goodness in people, and that our institutions were the problem, not humans themselves. Knowing what he lived through, I am blown away by his comprehensive and balanced view of the human condition.
In my own writing, I carry with me the essence of Vonnegut's philosophy—that despite the rapid technological changes and cultural shifts, at the heart of all stories are the humans, with all their foibles and wonders. His legacy is not just in the stories he told but in the way he saw the world: with a critical eye, a warm heart, and always a touch of playfulness.
Sci-Friday
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little about Vonnegut today! This piece is a part of a celebration of all things science fiction we call Sci-Friday. Many of these authors were influenced by Vonnegut, but some likely were not. We’ll have to go and ask them, and I’ll give us an easy way to do that.
did a little something special this week by un-paywalling his comprehensive History of Science Fiction piece, just for Sci-Friday! Be sure to check out his work when you get a chance. , , and are very likely to be publishing full science fiction articles. They also each have a collection of several recommendations you can check out from past weeks. and write a lot about horror, too, and many sci-fi fans are also horror fans (myself very much included). , , , , , and are all grizzled veterans of Sci-Friday by now.Finally, these folks round out the festivities, and all are worth a peek when you have the time and bandwidth. Many of these folks also dabble in their own science fiction stories, and all have their own style to contribute:
, , , , , , , , , , and .Whew! That’s a lot of sci-fi writing and thinking. I am fortunate to have gotten to know many of these authors, and our shared love of the imagination that sci-fi inspires is what drew us all together.
Are you a fan of Vonnegut? What are you watching or reading right now?
Fascinating look at Vonnegut. Shamefully, I don't believe I've read much of his stuff. Off to ask ChatGPT to give me one-line summaries of each Vonnegut book. I'm sure nothing at all will get lost in that transition.
How come I missed this!? Excellent exploration and loved the photo.