Liz Gumbinner on Kurt Vonnegut

Jun 6, 2007 at 7:45 PM

"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."

I know you would have had way more clever things to say about your own death than I, so out of respect I won't even try.

But I did have the pleasure of meeting you once, back when I was about 15. I had just read Slaughterhouse Five and you asked me for my thoughts on it. My thoughts. A 15 year old. I don't remember what I said--or, what really kills me, what you said--but the profound impression remained that you could be someone with so many brilliant things to say and still know you have things to learn. Even from a kid.

"When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life," you once said. "Old age is more like a semicolon."

I'd like to think you lived like a big old exclamation point. You don't get that just from farting around.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007
Liz Gumbinner's original post at Mom-101

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