anything but that

I just finished reading A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I hadn't even known until monday night that there was a new Vonnegut book....surprise! I thought he had stopped publishing long ago. Anyway, it's an interesting book of essays. Downside? He seems almost stereotypically a curmudgeon. Not that Vonnegut was ever an optimist, it just seems trite to be old and believe that the world is going to hell and that the damn kids are too involved with computers. (That is not just because I am way, way too involved with my computer).

Best part? The plot graphs made of famous novels where the x is beginning to end and the y is good fortune and bad fortune. Kafka's Metamorphosis immediately rockets downward into an infinity symbol. Hamlet absolutely flatlines. Trust me, it's amusing.

One more point of interest. According to Kurt Vonnegut, if you have not read the following, you are a twerp.

"Occurence at Owl Ridge" by Ambrose Bierce.
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

I'm going to get on reading these because I am sure that similar to I, you often have nightmares of finally meeting Kurt Vonnegut and having him call you a twerp.