NationStates Jolt Archive

So saith Fox News. (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/16/kurt-vonneguts-lifefox-news-style/)

Vonnegut: "I never thought I'd amount to a hill of beans."

Voiceover: Kurt Vonnegut probably wouldn't have wanted a classically structured obituary. His life's work -- 14 novels, short stories, plays, essays, left-wing screeds, and random musings -- was much too quirky, too filled with scatological humor, cosmic coincidences, and self-admitted sci-fi mumbo-jumbo for him to have enjoyed stately induction into the great pantheon of American writers. So here's the Cliffs Notes version.

Vonnegut (clip): "I was born in 1922 --"

Voiceover (interrupting): And he joined the Army in World War II. Taken prisoner in Germany, Vonnegut survived by pure chance -- the kind of indiscriminate stroke of fate he later made a career out of conjuring: the firebombing of Dresden by Allied planes, a hell-on-earth experience that flattened the city and killed 25,000 people. The horror of the war never left Vonnegut; it figured prominently in his books, most famously Slaughterhouse-Five, which, like other of his works, made it to the big screen.

Commentator (clip): "He drew explicit parallels between his experience in World War II, witnessing the destruction of the German city of Dresden by Allied forces and the American involvement in Vietnam, and that's one of the reasons why it was so popular and it's also one of the reasons why it was a very, very radical book in its time."

Voiceover: Vonnegut thought Richard Nixon was not evil, just mean, and that Ronald Reagan was old-fashioned, ignorant, provincial, and dangerous. Such views make Vonnegut a countercultural icon and ultimately propelled the author himself to the big screen.

Vonnegut (in a sitcom clip): "Hi, I'm Kurt Vonnegut."

Voiceover: His early work in science fiction brought little acclaim until the publication in 1963 of Cat's Cradle, a story of Earth's destruction that became a cult classic. By the late 70's Vonnegut was rich and irrelevant. The subject of other people's books, a sacred cow of the New York literary scene. He once said any New Yorker you've met once you get to call your friend. He then listed his New York friends and asked if anyone wanted an introduction.

Vonnegut (clip): "American male writers have done their best work by the time they're 55 and then it's pretty junky after that..."

Voiceover: But Vonnegut kept at it and persisted in his unique brand of despondent leftism.

Vonnegut (clip): "The bad news is the that the Martians have landed in New York City and have checked in at the Waldorf. The good news is that they only eat homeless men, women, and children of all colors and they pee gasoline."

(Audience laughter)

Voiceover: Vonnegut, who failed at suicide 23 years ago, said 34 years ago that he hoped his children wouldn't say of him when he was gone, "he made wonderful jokes, but he was such an unhappy man." So I'll say it for them.

Kurt Vonnegut was 84.

Compare (http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2005/09/kurt_vonnegut_o_1.html) with Jon Stewart's interview with Vonnegut on The Daily Show a few years ago.

Wow. I'm speechless. I'm generally pretty cynical about the media (especially unabashed mindless agitprop like FAUX News) but this actually managed to shock me. My question to the FAUX News viewer: Even if you didn't agree with Kurt's views, how can you stomach such such a mean-spirited 'obituary?' How do you gloat over the death of an 84 year-old man who hadn't harmed a fly in his 84 years? And a war veteran at that!:rolleyes:

Wow. I'm speechless. I'm generally pretty cynical about the media (especially unabashed mindless agitprop like FAUX News) but this actually managed to shock me. My question to the FAUX News viewer: Even if you didn't agree with Kurt's views, how can you stomach such such a mean-spirited 'obituary?' How do you gloat over the death of an 84 year-old man who hadn't harmed a fly in his 84 years? And a war veteran at that!:rolleyes:

Because that's what they are, apparently.

Not to defend them or anything, but old Kurt tended to be quite self-depricating himself, so to be honest, I think he'd find this obituary more amusing than anything else. And to be frank, so would I, if I were him.

Meh. Maybe it sounds better then it reads.

Meh. Maybe it sounds better then it reads.
The text doesn't quite capture his snide tone of voice...

Maybe I'm still in mourning:(
Nah, Kurt was 84. He had a good run of it!

Kurt dared to question the Great Reagan. For that, he shall burn for all eternity upon a pyre of flaming democrats! :mad:



:p

Maybe I'm still in mourning:(
Nah, Kurt was 84. He had a good run of it!
He did at that.

Kurt dared to question the Great Reagan. For that, he shall burn for all eternity upon a pyre of flaming democrats! :mad:



:p
As always, your humour amuses us.

Wow, that's just plain mean spirited.

How do you gloat over the death of an 84 year-old man who hadn't harmed a fly in his 84 years? And a war veteran at that!:rolleyes:

That's exactly why his message must be killed now, when it is at it's strongest. That sort of weak-kneed leftism will ruin this country. Either you denounce Vonnegut or you're with the flies. :D

(I hope this isn't the only Vonnegut obituary thread.)

As if what Fox News has to say about fucking anything matters a rat's fuck to fucking anyone, whatever the fucking rat is fucking ... er ... fucking. You know.

Fox news is an evil conspiracy to turn reasonable people into indiscriminate terrorists. They are orchestrating a campaign of hate: informed citizens who value their lives and those of others, but hate Fox with an insane passion.

That's probably part of the business plan. :(

Speaking of which: if they had eulogized old Ronnie Raygun in a way consistent with his life and work they'd have had to carpet bomb his ranch and hand Nancy over to a death squad:D

Faux News is just a club for the bitter little rich kids nobody liked in high school. It is completely unsurprising that they are spiteful, petty, and without basic adult maturity.

Faux News is just a club for the bitter little rich kids nobody liked in high school. It is completely unsurprising that they are spiteful, petty, and without basic adult maturity.

I can't follow that.

Vonnegut is good. Anyone who'se never read one should.

In a strange way, I think Fox is good too. Mislead the wishful while provoking the informed. It's a suicide bombing of credibility ... except they've been doing it for years. A slow suicide bombing ... ?

Rupert Murdoch is a deep one. We shouldn't judge him by Fox, and in fact I believe that Fox News was made to fail, that it's pursuing a course of journalistic suicide at the whim of Murdoch. I think he's picking a fight (pushing the gambit pawn of Fox before his army of News) with the whole wide interweb (in which he of course has stakes as well, in case it wins.) He wants to see what we've got, wants to see our best effort at undermining and obsoleting the one-way media (radio, tv, cable, dvd, cd, newspapers, billboards and people on the pavement with a silly hat and pasteboards front and back), just to be sure he's not putting his money into farriers, chimneysweeps and lamplighters.

It's not all about money, it really isn't. Anyone who bothers to type a word should stand aside and let Fox shit right plumb in the middle of their nest, the one-way media. Freedom of speech is a freedom to be heard, not a freedom to listen to whatever you choose. If you have nothing to say, you can go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. YOU CAN GO TAKE A FLYING FUCK AT THE MOON!!

Vonnegut is good. Anyone who'se never read one should.

In a strange way, I think Fox is good too. Mislead the wishful while provoking the informed. It's a suicide bombing of credibility ... except they've been doing it for years. A slow suicide bombing ... ?

Rupert Murdoch is a deep one. We shouldn't judge him by Fox, and in fact I believe that Fox News was made to fail, that it's pursuing a course of journalistic suicide at the whim of Murdoch. I think he's picking a fight (pushing the gambit pawn of Fox before his army of News) with the whole wide interweb (in which he of course has stakes as well, in case it wins.) He wants to see what we've got, wants to see our best effort at undermining and obsoleting the one-way media (radio, tv, cable, dvd, cd, newspapers, billboards and people on the pavement with a silly hat and pasteboards front and back), just to be sure he's not putting his money into farriers, chimneysweeps and lamplighters.

It's not all about money, it really isn't. Anyone who bothers to type a word should stand aside and let Fox shit right plumb in the middle of their nest, the one-way media. Freedom of speech is a freedom to be heard, not a freedom to listen to whatever you choose. If you have nothing to say, you can go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. YOU CAN GO TAKE A FLYING FUCK AT THE MOON!!

Err...What? You lost me with this last poaragraph.

So saith Fox News. (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/16/kurt-vonneguts-lifefox-news-style/)



Compare (http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2005/09/kurt_vonnegut_o_1.html) with Jon Stewart's interview with Vonnegut on The Daily Show a few years ago.

Between you, me, and MTAE's various Internet robots, does Fox News really matter?

Err...What? You lost me with this last poaragraph.

Thanyou. I welcome the opportunity to expand apon the best post I have made yet (apart from the funny ones no-one got :) )

It's not all about money, it really isn't. Anyone who bothers to type a word should stand aside and let Fox shit right plumb in the middle of their nest, the one-way media. Freedom of speech is a freedom to be heard, not a freedom to listen to whatever you choose. If you have nothing to say, you can go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. YOU CAN GO TAKE A FLYING FUCK AT THE MOON!!

There is a war happening. From the standpoint of media providers, it's a war, though for you and I (providers of original content) it's just a bit of fun, or an addiction .... no, I'm doing it again. I keep skipping the obvious.

It's media vs blog. The blogs will win, the media want a bit of our glory, want to dance to the beat. Freedom of speech -- could there be any more pure expression of this freedom than the right to anonymously publish at no cost, to any and all who go searching for the words you say?

That freedom can be subverted, sure, by flooding the web with the same words or restricting the freedom to search (lookin' at YOU, Google) but as long as you and I, and every named entity of the big wide internet keeps pumping out whatever we choose, we will simply swamp their studios and their anchor-people, and their brand-recognition with (A) Quantity. We write more, we shoot more video, we have more brains on the job, and (B) Quality. We report what matters to us. As the number of bloggers increases (bloggers vastly outnumber journalists already) we become not just the providers of media, but the market.

And the others don't matter. If they have nothing to say, their voices won't be heard. Democracy my ass -- if they don't care, they don't matter, and their votes are like the discarded cartons of a Big Mac. Sell them the product, pick up their vote. I sincerely hope that we are headed for a golden age of democracy, where every citizen of a democratic society has a say, not just a vote, and no entity represents us. In the beginning was the word, and I sincerely hope that we can make the word the true representative of our will.

Uh, that's no more clear, is it? I got bit by a snake yesterday, perhaps I'm deranged.

What a bunch of assholes.

What a bunch of assholes.
QFT.
The snide comment about Kurt having 'failed' at suicide is particularly irksome. Taken in context with the rest of the pathetic attempt at insults thinly hidden as humour it's especially contemptible.

naw, scratch that. It's not important nor interesting enough to rate being contemptible. I rate this bit of garbage written by a journalistic picayune on par with the feelings I get at having to scrape dog shit out from between the grooves in my shoe soles.

QFT.
The snide comment about Kurt having 'failed' at suicide is particularly irksome.
And what about the part right after that:

he hoped his children wouldn't say of him when he was gone, "he made wonderful jokes, but he was such an unhappy man." So I'll say it for them.

In one sentence he mentions his suicide attempt, contradicts his "last wishes", and then pulls his children into the mix. Shameful.