Just powered through this on my downtime at work, and it was really good actually.
For some reason I've been pretty stand off-ish of Vonnegut, but now I'm curious about him and his works so;
Vonnegut thread
>>8061659
It's widely considered the high point of his work so it's all downhill from there.
Um, it's ok I guess, but not really that good. Like the Goosebumps of actual literature. Ice nine and Bokonism were kind of funny ideas, but that's it. Vonnegut's prose is dreadful
>>8061659
Vonnegut's stuff is very entertaining and well written, but very accessible so dont expect much praise for him in /lit/ because of this.
Slaughterhouse-five was good
>>8062454
I read that and sirens of titan. They were fun light reads but I wouldn't call Vonnegut a great author by any stretch.
>>8061659
I like Vonnegut's short stories a lot better. His novels are short as they are, and short stories really fit his style.
>>8062454
John Green likes it, therefore I don't.
I'm reading it right now. Vonnegut seems to have a superstitious terror for the nuclear bomb. I guess the world was really hysterical over the threat of nuclear war at the time.
>>8061659
good stuff for youths. read welcome to the monkey house. also check out some heinlein for similar fare.
>>8062743
Most writers of that time have a superstitious terror for the nuclear bomb. We simply grew up in a world with it, so for us it's no big deal. But back then the idea of the weapon so powerful it can destroy humanity was actually terrifying.
As someone who loves Vonnegut I think his books are what YA novels should be like. I know people on /lit/ like to call his stuff YA to insult his books and make me sad but the even sadder reality is that his stuff is so far above the majority of YA.
>>8062787
I wouldn't quite call it YA, but it is just a step above it content/style-wise.
>>8062535
how about you think for yourself?
>>8062916
It's more efficient to let idiots like that do the filtering for me.
>>8062069
You're actually a moron considering Sirens of Titan is widely considered to be the ACTUAL pinnacle of his work
>>8062743
The nuclear bomb was the first thing humanity made that could allow us to completely destroy ourselves. It also exemplifies the general shift in theory of war in the 20th century from conflict between elites (i.e. X is the rightful ruler of the throne!, X has an ancestral claim on Y's land!) to conflict between societies and civilizations, which had started with the advent of nationalism. The nuclear bomb is the ultimate tool for this since it's blast area is so large that it kills everyone indiscriminately.
>>8064310
You're actually retarded in that there are at least three of his books whose blurbs call them his best.
It's an easy read and starts off good but slows up a bit around half way. The ending makes it worth pressing with though.
>>8062069
That's Sirens of Titan
>>8065250
>Taking book blurbs seriously
You must love reading YA then. I bet you have a ton of "tour de force"s on your shelf.
