Comments on Still More Responses to the Question: What Were You Doing When You Found Out Kurt Vonnegut Died?

Can we mourn in silence. And yes- I don't give a crap where YOU were.

Kinda second that....silence.

silently (well, okay, quietly) raising a glass of Glen Livet to his memory right now.

suck it, haters.

You know what? Who cares about what a famous person was doing when they got the news that another famous person died? That's the height of pretension.

I found out here on the slog the other day. It's ironic because I'm currently working in a bookstore in Denver and put up "Cat's Cradle" as my recommended book a week ago. That may be more interesting to me than anyone else, but it's also more important to me than what Sherman Alexie was doing, especially now that I have read what he was doing.

BTW, does anyone think he wrote anything worthwhile in 30 years? Not taking away from his body of work in the 60s and early 70s, but what about since then? Is this another example of baby boomers so successfully hyping up their heroes that it seems like nothing of import has been done since that time in the field of writing?

Thank you #4.

"Where were you when"........? I thought that The Stranger saw itself as being "too good" and "different" to print "where were you when" articles. I seem to recall that after the 2001 Seattle earthquake you made a point about not running a "where were you when the earthquake hit?" article. The question as to where somebody was either when an author dies or the earth shakes are equally interesting or not interesting depending on ones view.

I'm really liking these. Regardless of how you feel about Vonnegut, there's something compelling about listening to the articulate minutae of intelligent people's lives. This series could be 'Where were you when you heard about the paternity of Anna Nicole's baby?' as far as I care. We're so bogged down in what everybody thinks about everything nowadays, sometimes it's just nice to hear what someone did with their Tuesday...

I was working on my book about being a lifelong registered sex offender (see The Offender in the Stranger's features).
I appreciated Vonnegut's ability to recognize the absurd in fear-driven, inflammatory matters. Given my circumstances, I've had plenty of opportunity to recognize this myself. Laughter is powerful medicine, and black humor is an insightful way to reveal the deeper challenges of the human condition. Breakfast of Champions is one of my favorites.

Yes, Sherman, this moment is all about your new novel. (Clever plug)