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(Letters of Note)   In 1973 Drake High School burned 32 copies of Slaughterhouse-Five in its furnace. Here is the letter Kurt Vonnegut wrote to their school board   (lettersofnote.com) divider line 287
    More: Hero, Drake High School, Kurt Vonnegut, Lists of American writers, Purple Heart  
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38122 clicks; posted to Main » on 30 Mar 2012 at 1:09 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»



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2012-03-30 03:09:41 PM
pottie: crispyone: Most overrated writer in history and now sounds like a whiny-asz bich. Could he be any more but-hurt?

Jeez, I've sold millions of books and you burnt 32 of them!!!

I can't decide whether you're a nasty little troll or merely an idiot.


I'm voting for both
 
2012-03-30 03:11:57 PM
louiedog: The librarian thing sticks with me because her husband also worked at the school. H

Librarians should not be doing that. It is against the ethics of the profession. Some librarians get around not having books by purchasing them and then keeping them in their desk drawers.
 
2012-03-30 03:13:53 PM
tlchwi02: louiedog: handed her my copy of Jurassic Park and her first reaction after thumbing through it was glaring at me and telling me that I shouldn't be reading a book with so many naughty words

i had the same experience with the same book. teacher took it away from me in elementary school because it was inapropriate for me. my parents were livid when i got home and told them.


My "naughty book" was Roots in grade 6. My mother told me I really needed to read it, and made me watch the mini-series and sat down with me and we discussed it. My grade 6 teacher thought it was inappropriate for my age. Ironic part was that it was Black History month too when she told me not to read the book anymore.

Also, not all librarians are assholes that like to censor. This librarian is a huge Vonnegut fan, and still misses him.

/Mom just told me to keep it at home, and proceeded to buy me more books, such as Lord of the Flies, that 11 year old girls probably couldn't/wouldn't even read in this day and age
 
2012-03-30 03:15:00 PM
NateAsbestos: StaleCoffee: Slaughterhouse Five was a great book. Vonnegut is awesome. Didn't know he was a veteran. Learn something every day I guess.

Really? He talked about it all the time, in practically all of his later, more self-referential books.


Well, yeah, but he also talked about having a penis 3 inches wide and 1 inch long so I kinda just didn't take that in as factual. I shamefully admit I have not really read much about his life. I will go atone for that later and do so.
 
2012-03-30 03:15:15 PM
They should have burned "Fahrenheit 451" but I suppose this was before meta was invented
 
2012-03-30 03:19:58 PM
Tax Boy: Did he remind the students to always wear sunscreen?

Popular misconception - Vonnegut didn't write that.

/just finished his biography
 
2012-03-30 03:20:36 PM
s3.amazonaws.com
 
2012-03-30 03:22:06 PM
I always thought there were a couple of good points in Salughterhouse Five.

Link (new window) NSFW
 
2012-03-30 03:23:57 PM
crispyone: Most overrated writer in history

Oooohh! Oooh! I know the answer!

Ayn Rand



I thought Atlas Shrugged sucked (had to bail at 100 pgs), but I really liked Anthem when I was 14.
 
2012-03-30 03:25:07 PM
You now hold the only copy in your hands.


www.theodoresworld.net
 
2012-03-30 03:25:25 PM
Devo: I enjoy reading. I remember reading Catcher and the Rye on some Florida car trip as a teen. After reading the letter, I will pick up another book by Kurt twenty years later. Any recommendations?

/pretty sure Florida is one big highway.


Catcher was not Kurt. Anyway, you really can't go wrong with anything by Vonnegut but I'd say start with Breakfast of Champions.
 
2012-03-30 03:27:21 PM
azazyel: Devo: I enjoy reading. I remember reading Catcher and the Rye on some Florida car trip as a teen. After reading the letter, I will pick up another book by Kurt twenty years later. Any recommendations?

/pretty sure Florida is one big highway.

My top favs are "Cat's Cradle" and "Welcome to the Monkey House" (bunch of short stories). But "Man without a Country" was really good too. That one isn't a story but a collection of articles that he had written.

"[This] may be as close as Vonnegut ever comes to a memoir."
-Los Angeles Times


Man Without a Country is great if you're into that sorta thing. And lean left.
 
2012-03-30 03:40:17 PM
crispyone: Most overrated writer in history and now sounds like a whiny-asz bich. Could he be any more but-hurt?

Jeez, I've sold millions of books and you burnt 32 of them!!!


This coming from someone so eloquent and learned, I see.
 
2012-03-30 03:41:18 PM
alklloyd: crispyone: Most overrated writer in history

Oooohh! Oooh! I know the answer!

Ayn Rand


I thought Atlas Shrugged sucked (had to bail at 100 pgs), but I really liked Anthem when I was 14.


""Two novels can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other involves orcs."
- the Internet
 
2012-03-30 03:44:44 PM
Durake Sucks!

/ great letter, but a little longer and not quite as elegantly biting as I expected when I clicked the link
 
2012-03-30 03:47:11 PM
Teachers in the 1970s: purse-lipped old biddies who are more concerned about children hearing certain words than they are about educating the children

Teachers in 2000s: smokin' hot babes more concerned about getting laid than educating children

So, some improvement.
 
2012-03-30 03:50:06 PM
Smelly Pirate Hooker: Teachers in the 1970s: purse-lipped old biddies who are more concerned about children hearing certain words than they are about educating the children

Teachers in 2000s: smokin' hot babes more concerned about getting laid than educating children

So, some improvement.



I've dated a few teachers in recent years. Newsflash: 20-something women enjoy a good farking.
 
2012-03-30 03:52:21 PM
yequalsy: honk if you demand satisfaction: CliChe Guevara: Danger Mouse: So where did this copy come from? I find it hard to belive that McCarthey who was burnign the books actually saved the letter?

To all the people asking this, RTFA or RTFT. It came from vonneguts own papers. it was found after he died, and reprinted in a biography.

Actually, he published it himself in his non-fiction collection "Palm Sunday". It says so right in TFA...and I verified it by grabbing my copy off the shelf.

So, in other words, Vonnegut lied.


No. He was obviously referring to the fact that he sent no copies to other people. It was common place in the days before home computers for people to use carbon paper, keeping the carbon of a letter for their files, in case of a need to refer back to what they had written.
 
2012-03-30 03:52:25 PM
TheDirtyNacho: Smelly Pirate Hooker: Teachers in the 1970s: purse-lipped old biddies who are more concerned about children hearing certain words than they are about educating the children

Teachers in 2000s: smokin' hot babes more concerned about getting laid than educating children

So, some improvement.


I've dated a few teachers in recent years. Newsflash: 20-something women enjoy a good farking.


Whoa slow down. You don't say? Holy crap. Call the BBC. Get Brian Williams. Jesus. OMFG.
 
2012-03-30 03:54:07 PM
yequalsy: honk if you demand satisfaction: CliChe Guevara: Danger Mouse: So where did this copy come from? I find it hard to belive that McCarthey who was burnign the books actually saved the letter?

To all the people asking this, RTFA or RTFT. It came from vonneguts own papers. it was found after he died, and reprinted in a biography.

Actually, he published it himself in his non-fiction collection "Palm Sunday". It says so right in TFA...and I verified it by grabbing my copy off the shelf.

So, in other words, Vonnegut lied.


Whar all copies of originals whar?

I'm a total truther about this letter, too.
 
2012-03-30 03:55:47 PM
HallsOfMandos: Tax Boy: Did he remind the students to always wear sunscreen?

Popular misconception - Vonnegut didn't write that.



images.wikia.com
 
2012-03-30 03:56:27 PM
Beluga Heights: TheDirtyNacho: Smelly Pirate Hooker: Teachers in the 1970s: purse-lipped old biddies who are more concerned about children hearing certain words than they are about educating the children

Teachers in 2000s: smokin' hot babes more concerned about getting laid than educating children

So, some improvement.


I've dated a few teachers in recent years. Newsflash: 20-something women enjoy a good farking.

Whoa slow down. You don't say? Holy crap. Call the BBC. Get Brian Williams. Jesus. OMFG.



Amazing right? Some of loudest, craziest in the sack women I dated were teachers.

Come to think of it, the craziest women I dated (in all respects) were teachers. hmmmm.
 
2012-03-30 03:58:11 PM
Also - this letter was written at a time (iirc) when Vonnegut was working with PEN (new window) and so having his books burned hit a bit close to home.
 
2012-03-30 03:58:51 PM
Orange Guy: I always thought there were a couple of good points in Salughterhouse Five.

Link (new window) NSFW



I remember watching her in the PBS production "Steambath".

The high school burning of a book that carries the title "Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade" has a nice touch of irony.
 
2012-03-30 03:59:22 PM
When Mr. Vonnegut passed, I realized I didn't own any of his books (I had always borrowed them from the Library). So I went out, bought a copy of Cat's Cradle and re-read it. Great book, by a great American.

/here's hoping future generations can find his work in the library - as I did.
 
2012-03-30 03:59:47 PM
Tax Boy: HallsOfMandos: Tax Boy: Did he remind the students to always wear sunscreen?

Popular misconception - Vonnegut didn't write that.



[images.wikia.com image 452x339]


Well, Poe's Law and all. How can I tell if you are actually moron or just impersonating one really well?
 
2012-03-30 04:01:51 PM
Every time I go to Letters of Note, they always have another Vonnegut letter.

The man had a hell of a voice in correspondence.
 
2012-03-30 04:06:31 PM
For those wondering why some of us feel Vonnegut changed our lives after reading, here's my response. His writing showed me that we live in world with everything any one could want, if only we could learn to love everyone with the same passion with which we love personal gain. And good music. If you aren't down with the program why don't you take a flying fark at a rolling doughnut. Why don't you take a flying fark at the moooooooooon!
 
2012-03-30 04:06:56 PM
I wonder how the recipient of the letter reacted.

Many people are so star struck by actual authors that they keep any scrap of paper they write on, no matter what is written on it. This guy in North Dakota gets a personal letter from a famous author, he's not going to destroy it. On the other hand, it calls him out on being such a twat, so he's not exactly going to show it around, either. What a wonderful predicament Vonnegut created for the dimwit.

good for lulz, at least.
 
2012-03-30 04:22:09 PM
Just wondering, but...

Are you a member of the turtleneck club?

/Ting-a-ling, you sonofa biatch!
 
2012-03-30 04:29:02 PM
medius: fre

www.frewines.com



/correction? What correction?
 
2012-03-30 04:29:27 PM
I absolutely LOVE lettersofnote this website is one of my all-time favorites.
 
2012-03-30 04:31:51 PM
yequalsy: LandOfChocolate: I'm curious about the provenance of this letter, how did it come to light now?

The letter itself states that there was only one copy and it was sent directly to the school board chairman.

Exactly what I was wondering. If it was the only letter then the recipient must have shared it (or else the letter is a fake).


Here, for the sourcing-impaired:
(Source: Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage; Image: Kurt Vonnegut, via Everything was Vonnegut.)

See, it is quite possible that he carboned everything he sent out, but didn't really consider that the same as a 'copy', it was for archiving. It's also possible that the family of McCarthy found it and sent it back to the Vonnegut estate. I have never heard of lettersofnote publishing a 'fake' letter, there is sourcing for everything they publish.
 
2012-03-30 04:45:02 PM
AngryPanda: Every time I go to Letters of Note, they always have another Vonnegut letter.

The man had a hell of a voice in correspondence.


I have a book at home that is nothing but letters from Groucho Marx. People used to really write back in the day. Now we just fark around at work.
 
2012-03-30 04:45:25 PM
optional - That's a cool story, but Harlan Ellison yells at so many people for so many different things that it doesn't end up being that impressive.


I got to hug him when he came to Cleveland! How many people can say THAT?!?!
 
2012-03-30 04:49:47 PM
Rubberband Girl: optional - That's a cool story, but Harlan Ellison yells at so many people for so many different things that it doesn't end up being that impressive.


I got to hug him when he came to Cleveland! How many people can say THAT?!?!


He actually talked shiat to Ol' Blue Eyes.
Frank F**king Sinatra.
Nobody talks shiat to Sinatra.
 
2012-03-30 04:55:38 PM
Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
 
2012-03-30 05:05:13 PM
StaleCoffee: NateAsbestos: StaleCoffee: Slaughterhouse Five was a great book. Vonnegut is awesome. Didn't know he was a veteran. Learn something every day I guess.

Really? He talked about it all the time, in practically all of his later, more self-referential books.

Well, yeah, but he also talked about having a penis 3 inches wide and 1 inch long so I kinda just didn't take that in as factual. I shamefully admit I have not really read much about his life. I will go atone for that later and do so.


Here's an interesting letter you may be enjoy Link (new window)
 
2012-03-30 05:18:33 PM
Meh... it's not like they burned a copy of the Koran.

/when someone burns a Bible, someone else prints 10 more.
 
2012-03-30 05:22:13 PM
germ78: LandOfChocolate: I'm curious about the provenance of this letter, how did it come to light now?

The letter itself states that there was only one copy and it was sent directly to the school board chairman.

He probably had a copy in his personal records, which they likely found while going through his stuff after he died. Generally, universities like to catalog the works and collections of famous writers after their deaths in order to make research easier.


The letter was originally published in "Palm Sunday", a book of Vonnegut's non-fiction published in 1981.

Vonnegut didn't send the letter to anyone else, but he probably kept a copy for himself, and clearly decided to publish it in the collection 8 years after the school board incident.

/read everything Vonnegut ever wrote
//yes, everything
///Even his son's book, "Eden Express"
 
2012-03-30 05:28:19 PM
Apparently, I have been living in a cave, as I have never heard of this site. It is Awesome.

If we weren't -positive- that Mark Twain was dead, I'd wonder what his Fark handle was:

Idiot of the 33rd degree! (new window)

I now realize how incredible it would be to be told off in writing by Vonnegut, Twain, Thompson... and will now never have the chance. Alas. So it goes.
 
2012-03-30 05:29:50 PM
Oznog: Never read it. I read the synopsis of it and it's baffling to me how this could be remotely readable sci-fi, unless it's a playful parody of the sci-fi genre itself. Let's just make a story that jumps all over different settings for no good reason, with no sensible explanation... because, fark you, readers, I don't OWE you an explanation. I don't owe you anything, because I'm THAT awesome of a writer! Sounds like a way to dodge responsibility for resolving a plotline in a satisfying way.

I suppose in 1969, standards were a bit different and bringing in Nazis was "daring" on the part of the writer. Now, it's cliche. Then we eventually bring in weird-named aliens as magical fairy people to somehow rescue the storyline, by being fundamentally weird.

Ah, but there's swearing in it. And some kind of sex. How revolutionary. That will make me change the way I see the world, yes. IF I lived in 1969 and had never seen the word "fark" or "shiat" written down in printed media.


Of course you were just professing ignorance in order for somebody else to mention that Vonnegut was taken POW during the Battle of the Bulge, and that he witnessed and survived the firebombing of Dresden as a POW because the Nazis imprisoned him in a building called Schlachthof Fünf (Slaughterhouse Five), and that the book reflects these experiences.

/PS I lived in 1969 (and 1973, but I don't see stars as luminous spaghetti) and saw both of those words - the non-filterpwnd versions of them - in print before that.
//TMYK
///For our next Fark review of an unread book, Oznog presents a unique texan take on the Bible...
 
2012-03-30 05:36:40 PM
"I once knew an Episcopalian lady in Newport, Rhode Island who asked me to design and build a doghouse for her Great Dane. The lady claimed to understand God and His Ways of Working perfectly. She could not understand why anyone should be puzzled about what had been or about what was going to be. And yet, when I showed her a blueprint of the doghouse I proposed to build, she said to me, "I'm sorry, but I never could read one of those things." Give it to your husband or your minister to pass on to God," I said, "and, when God finds a minute, I'm sure he'll explain this doghouse of mine in a way that even YOU can understand."

― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
 
FNG [TotalFark]
2012-03-30 05:38:34 PM
Urbn: The lesson we really need to learn here is to keep people named McCarthy away from positions of power

lol.jpg
 
2012-03-30 05:43:56 PM
medius: medius: RyansPrivates: Always makes me proud to be an American.

'cause at least you know you're fre

e


Glad you corrected that, thought you were going to say "french"....
 
2012-03-30 06:09:07 PM
I recently ran into my middle school librarian at a coffee shop. She still has a big hate-on for Judy Blume.
 
2012-03-30 06:13:18 PM
rufus-t-firefly: Great_Milenko: crispyone: Most overrated writer in history

I'm sorry, did I stumble into a JK Rowling thread? Stephen King, perhaps?

Or are we talking about the committee of advertising copy writers who threw together The Hunger Games?

How the fark has no one mentioned Dan Brown?

/shallow and pedantic


Because everyone has completely forgotten about him?
 
2012-03-30 06:19:44 PM
You see, this is why you don't insult people who write for a living. They're generally better than you at a come-back.
 
2012-03-30 06:21:18 PM
FTFA: I am so much trusted with young people and by young people that I have served on the faculties of the University of Iowa, Harvard, and the City College of New York. Every year I receive at least a dozen invitations to be commencement speaker at colleges and high schools.

LIBRUL ELITIST COLLEGE PROFESSOR CORRUPTIN' OUR YOUNGUNS' MINDS!
 
2012-03-30 06:22:33 PM
Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time....

... So it goes.
 
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