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[projector clicking]
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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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I'
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[quacking]
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[clicking, whirring]
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[cat meowing]
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[Kurt Vonnegut]
Listen.
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I'
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[explosions, rapid gunfire]
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[water splashing]
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[wind blowing]
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[chirping]
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I'
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[man]
Kurt Vonnegut told me once...
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we don't understand
the first thing about time.
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Before Dresden happened,
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he said he was walking in
the forest,
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put his head against
the trunk of a tree,
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and he saw everything
that happened.
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[whooshing]
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I'
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[heart beating]
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[chirping]
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[man] He really saw it all
before it happened.
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And he wasn't kidding, and he
wasn't speaking metaphorically.
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This is how he experienced...
his life.
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I'
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[Charlie Gibson]
Kurt Vonnegut,
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the author who became an oracle
for the baby boomer generation,
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has died.
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In the end, it was a head injury
that killed Kurt Vonnegut.
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He was 84.
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[clicking]
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[static]
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And now, back in 1970 with
electronic television,
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our last item tonight...
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[clicking]
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I'
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[man] ...is an interview
with a very funny
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and a very remarkable
writer.
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Kurt Vonnegut.
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[man] I can't think of a single
other American author
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even of half Vonnegut's age,
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who has all of his books
in print.
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[Harry Reasoner]
Young people snap up his books
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as fast as they are re-issued.
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He is suddenly a star,
a luminary,
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a guru to youth.
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♪ Time has come today ♪
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[man] One of the pre-imminent
novelists,
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and I would say,
philosophers of our time,
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Kurt Vonnegut.
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Do you really know
the answers to everything?
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I haven't been stumped
very often.
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What would you like to know?
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-Well, |-- I--
-[audience laughs]
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[Kurt Vonnegut] Now,
what are my book about?
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I have written again and again
about ordinary people
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who have tried to behave
decently
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in an indecent society.
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Vonnegut has been the most
profound influence in my life.
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I think he's
the funniest person alive.
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You know, that's why George Bush
hates the Arabs
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-is they invented Algebra.
-[laughter]
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[laughing]
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[Harry Reasoner] What do you
think it is that does make you
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so highly respected
by young people?
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I'm screamingly funny.
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You know, I really am
in the books.
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I think so.
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He is both incredibly funny
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and also dark and brooding
at the same time.
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My books are jokes,
mosaics of jokes,
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about serious matters,
about death, about disease,
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about war and
that sort of thing.
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He made literature fun.
that was huge.
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♪ Now the time has come ♪
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♪ Time ♪
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♪ There's no place to run ♪
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He'll be read to understand
the 20th century
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the way you have to read
Mark Twain
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to understand
the 19th century.
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[man] Vonnegut was a prisoner
of war in Germany
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and he's been getting ready to
write a book about it.
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Now he's done it.
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[woman] Kurt Vonnegut's
Slaughterhouse-Five
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was an instant hit;
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an anti war novel that was
searing, satirical,
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strange and darkly funny.
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[man] The protagonist of
Slaughterhouse-Five
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Billy Pilgrim,
bounces around
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from time to time
in his life.
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[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Listen...
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"Billy Pilgrim has come
unstuck in time.
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"Billy has gone to sleep
a senile widower
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"and awakened on
his wedding day.
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"He's walked through
a door in 1955
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"and come out another one
in 1941.
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"He's gone back through
that door
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"to find himself in 1963.
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"He's seen his birth and
his death may times, he says,
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"and pays random visits to
all the events in between,
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and the trips aren't
necessarily fun."
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[man] Unstuck in time is
Billy Pilgrim's status
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in the novel
Slaughterhouse-Five.
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But it's also
Kurt Vonnegut's status
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as the writer.
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I'd say you and I are about
equally unstuck in time.
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♪ Time ♪
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I'
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♪ Time ♪
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I'
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[indistinct dialog]
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[sighs]
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Can you believe we're really
gonna do this again?
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What is this, the fourth,
fifth time?
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[man]
I think the fifth.
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I know the first interview
was in 2014.
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Then, about a year later, was
the stripey-shirt interview.
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That's the one where I cry.
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[chuckles]
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Then there was, what,
the editing room interview?
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Then the light blue shirt,
I think, was 2017.
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Every time, I thought it was
gonna be the last time.
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I didn't even want to be in
this film in the first place.
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This was gonna be a conventional
author documentary
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with interviews with Kurt,
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his family,
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you know, biographers
and scholars,
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but not me.
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I don't even like documentaries
where the filmmaker
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has to put himself
in the film.
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I mean, who cares?
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But when you take almost
40 years to make a film,
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you owe some kind of
an explanation.
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Full disclosure.
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I was 23 when
I first approached him
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about making this film.
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And I remember he was
just about to turn 60,
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and I would refer to him as
the old man.
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And a couple months ago,
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I turned 60.
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How fucked up is that?
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It all started for me at
the same time as it started for
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almost every Vonnegut reader
I've met,
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which is in high school.
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In my case,
Sunny Hills High School,
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Fullerton, California.
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[Kurt Vonnegut] How many
of you have had the teacher
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at any level of your education
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who made you more excited
to be alive,
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prouder to be alive,
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than you had previously believed
possible?
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Hold up your hands, please.
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There's a door behind which
my life would sort of change
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when I was 16 years old.
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I'
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[Kurt Vonnegut] Please
say the name of that teacher
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to someone sitting
next to you, please.
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[Bob Weide] Valerie Stevenson
was the name of the teacher
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who first led me to Vonnegut.
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I assigned a book to
the students to read, um,
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Breakfast Of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut.
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This is the actual copy
that I, uh, read.
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Looking back now as an educator
of many years,
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I'm just sort of horrified
that I did it.
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It's a pretty edgy book,
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and iconoclastic.
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"To give an idea of
the maturity
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"of my illustrations for
this book,
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here is my picture of
an asshole:"
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Questioning authority--
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"...teachers of children in
the United States of America
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"wrote this date on blackboards
again and again,
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"and asked the children to...
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[Kurt Vonnegut] "...memorize
it with pride and joy:
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"1492!
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"The teachers told the children
that this was when
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"their continent was discovered
by human beings.
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"Actually, millions of human
beings were already living
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"full and imaginative lives
on the continent in 1492.
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"That was simply the year
in which sea pirates
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began to cheat and rob
and kill them."
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What high school kid isn't gonna
gobble this up and say,
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"I've found my author"?
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Nothing was the same after that.
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I'
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I jut became
somewhat obsessed.
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I just so connected to
his philosophies,
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and these serious issues being
handled in this comedic way.
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He was the guy
who made me think
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he thinks what I think
about the world.
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He came in at the beginning of
his senior year
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and proposed that he teach
a course in Vonnegut,
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and didn't seem to think that
that was an unusual thing.
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[chuckles] It was but
he set up his course
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very seriously,
Professor Weide,
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[Bob Weide] I had probably a
dozen students in the class,
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and I graded them all
and gave assignments,
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and we all read his books.
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It was like having a very cool
Vonnegut reading club.
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But, um, that was
the beginning of it.
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I'
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[Kurt Vonnegut]
"If you find your life
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"tangled up with
somebody else's life
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"for no very logical reasons,
writes Bokonon,
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00:09:44,417 --> 00:09:47,712
"that person may be
a member of your karass."
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Okay, here's the first one.
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This is the one that got me
into all this trouble.
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"June 29, 1982.
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00:09:55,053 --> 00:09:56,221
"Dear Mr. Vonnegut,
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00:09:56,262 --> 00:09:57,722
"Earlier this year,
I produced
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00:09:57,764 --> 00:10:00,308
the above-named documentary
for PBS.
215
00:10:00,350 --> 00:10:02,685
"The Marx Brothers now have
their definitive documentary.
216
00:10:03,103 --> 00:10:05,522
"How about allowing Kurt
Vonnegut, Jr., to have his?
217
00:10:05,563 --> 00:10:07,607
"If the documentary had your
authorization,
218
00:10:07,649 --> 00:10:10,819
I'm confident that I could
arrange for financing immediately."
219
00:10:11,444 --> 00:10:13,446
I remind you,
I wrote that letter in 1982.
220
00:10:14,364 --> 00:10:18,034
So, I wrote him this letter,
and days turned into weeks,
221
00:10:18,576 --> 00:10:20,036
and I didn't hear back
and I thought,
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00:10:20,078 --> 00:10:21,704
well, all right, that's that,
I gave it a shot.
223
00:10:24,582 --> 00:10:26,835
And then the day came
and there was a letter
224
00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:29,170
with that familiar handwriting
on it that you see in
225
00:10:29,212 --> 00:10:30,588
Breakfast Of Champions.
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00:10:30,630 --> 00:10:32,257
I thought,
"Holy crap!"
227
00:10:32,298 --> 00:10:34,300
[stammers]
"it's him!"
228
00:10:34,968 --> 00:10:35,969
Ready?
229
00:10:37,846 --> 00:10:39,681
"Dear Robert Weide,
230
00:10:39,722 --> 00:10:42,183
"I've been out of town
for most of this summer,
231
00:10:42,225 --> 00:10:44,602
"and so read your friendly
letter of a month ago
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"only this morning.
233
00:10:45,937 --> 00:10:47,397
"It turns out I that
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00:10:47,438 --> 00:10:49,607
"I already know something
of your work.
235
00:10:49,649 --> 00:10:52,735
"I saw the Marx Brothers
tribute and liked it a lot.
236
00:10:52,777 --> 00:10:54,279
"Who wouldn't?
237
00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,531
"I am honored by your interest
in my work,
238
00:10:56,573 --> 00:10:58,700
"and I will talk to you some,
if you like,
239
00:10:58,741 --> 00:11:01,744
"about making some sort of film
based on it.
240
00:11:01,786 --> 00:11:04,372
"But there is sure no great
footage to start with.
241
00:11:04,414 --> 00:11:06,457
"Anything that is any good
of mine
242
00:11:06,499 --> 00:11:09,502
"is on a printed page,
not film.
243
00:11:09,544 --> 00:11:13,006
"Maybe you have some ideas
as to what to do about that.
244
00:11:13,047 --> 00:11:14,424
"I don't.
245
00:11:14,465 --> 00:11:17,051
"Anyway, give me a ring
if you like.
246
00:11:17,093 --> 00:11:19,095
Cheers--
Kurt Vonnegut."
247
00:11:24,434 --> 00:11:26,561
[Bob Weide]
Oh, I'm guessing this--
248
00:11:26,603 --> 00:11:27,770
[man]
Doesn't have a label on it.
249
00:11:27,812 --> 00:11:28,813
[Bob Weide]
Doesn't have a label?
250
00:11:29,397 --> 00:11:31,149
Where's the-- Oh.
So this is '94.
251
00:11:31,191 --> 00:11:32,609
-Ninety-four. Right.
-This is the later stuff.
252
00:11:32,650 --> 00:11:34,402
That's the more
recent stuff, '94.
253
00:11:34,444 --> 00:11:36,070
We want the old stuff.
254
00:11:36,112 --> 00:11:37,280
-Eighty-eight. That's it.
-Okay. We'll go with this one.
255
00:11:37,322 --> 00:11:38,323
That's should be it.
Yeah, that's it.
256
00:11:39,324 --> 00:11:40,992
[whirring]
257
00:11:42,994 --> 00:11:44,412
[keyboard clacking]
258
00:11:44,787 --> 00:11:45,788
[man]
Here we go.
259
00:11:46,247 --> 00:11:47,415
[man]
Drop it.
260
00:11:48,291 --> 00:11:49,792
So, we're okay
from there, Bob.
261
00:11:49,834 --> 00:11:52,003
[Bob Weide] This is the
very first stuff we shot
262
00:11:52,045 --> 00:11:55,131
on the first day
in, uh, 1988.
263
00:11:56,758 --> 00:11:57,842
There's Kurt.
264
00:11:59,219 --> 00:12:00,762
[indistinct dialog]
265
00:12:00,803 --> 00:12:02,931
There he is, laughing and
smiling and chatting away.
266
00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:04,849
Like he's still here.
267
00:12:04,891 --> 00:12:07,227
-[laughing]
-We'd gotten together
268
00:12:07,268 --> 00:12:10,563
quite a few times, uh,
since that initial letter.
269
00:12:18,655 --> 00:12:21,449
[Bob Weide] But that day sitting
on the train across from him
270
00:12:21,491 --> 00:12:22,867
with the camera next to me,
271
00:12:22,909 --> 00:12:24,619
finally hit me that...
272
00:12:24,661 --> 00:12:26,913
my God, this film is
really gonna happen.
273
00:12:28,456 --> 00:12:29,624
-Are we going?
-[Bob Weide] Yeah.
274
00:12:29,666 --> 00:12:31,834
Yeah. My books are about
loneliness,
275
00:12:31,876 --> 00:12:34,254
and about people being driven
out of the Garden of Eden
276
00:12:34,295 --> 00:12:35,505
one way or another.
277
00:12:36,005 --> 00:12:38,299
The world's full of
lonesome old people
278
00:12:38,341 --> 00:12:39,884
and when trouble comes,
279
00:12:39,926 --> 00:12:42,262
they call either the police
or fire department.
280
00:12:42,303 --> 00:12:44,973
[laughs]
281
00:12:45,014 --> 00:12:48,226
Lonesome? Have no friends?
Dial 911.
282
00:12:48,268 --> 00:12:51,312
Uh, and that's not much of
a solution.
283
00:12:52,105 --> 00:12:54,565
And I say get
an extended family.
284
00:12:56,109 --> 00:12:57,610
[Bob Weide] We were going to
Buffalo, New York.
285
00:12:58,152 --> 00:13:00,363
Kurt had
a speaking engagement there
286
00:13:00,405 --> 00:13:02,115
at a Unitarian church.
287
00:13:02,156 --> 00:13:04,284
Kurt was an agnostic,
certainly,
288
00:13:04,325 --> 00:13:06,077
and a humanist,
289
00:13:06,119 --> 00:13:09,163
but to the extent that he
affiliated with any religion,
290
00:13:09,205 --> 00:13:10,707
it was Unitarianism,
291
00:13:10,748 --> 00:13:13,918
which is really more
community based than God based.
292
00:13:14,627 --> 00:13:17,797
[shouting] Perfectly capable of
projecting in a room this size.
293
00:13:17,839 --> 00:13:20,967
[laughing]
294
00:13:21,009 --> 00:13:24,012
This was the first of many
public appearances I would film,
295
00:13:24,053 --> 00:13:28,266
but the audiences were always
out the door, in the aisle,
296
00:13:28,308 --> 00:13:30,560
and they always ate out of
the palm of his hand.
297
00:13:30,601 --> 00:13:32,937
We are taught to be
enthusiastic,
298
00:13:32,979 --> 00:13:35,481
to pretend we know
what the good news is.
299
00:13:36,274 --> 00:13:39,527
Just think, here you are
two years old,
300
00:13:39,569 --> 00:13:41,362
and mommy
and daddy come up to you,
301
00:13:41,404 --> 00:13:42,697
they're all excited.
302
00:13:42,739 --> 00:13:44,407
Guess what's goin' on?
303
00:13:44,449 --> 00:13:47,076
-[gibberish]
{laughter}
304
00:13:48,745 --> 00:13:51,164
It's your birthday!
305
00:13:52,332 --> 00:13:54,917
-[gibberish]
{laughter}
306
00:13:54,959 --> 00:13:57,545
[Kurt Vonnegut]
But-- [laughs]
307
00:13:57,587 --> 00:13:59,339
What the hell's a birthday?
308
00:13:59,380 --> 00:14:01,799
[laughter]
309
00:14:01,841 --> 00:14:03,926
Why should it be
such good news?
310
00:14:05,219 --> 00:14:09,182
And so we pretend
all these enthusiasms.
311
00:14:09,223 --> 00:14:10,892
Uh... you know,
312
00:14:10,933 --> 00:14:13,436
the Buffalo Bills made it to
the Super Bowl.
313
00:14:13,478 --> 00:14:16,814
-[gibberish]
{laughter}
314
00:14:16,856 --> 00:14:18,941
[applause]
315
00:14:18,983 --> 00:14:20,651
We are so grateful any time
316
00:14:20,693 --> 00:14:22,862
anybody tells
the truth about life
317
00:14:22,904 --> 00:14:25,031
and the basic truth
about life is,
318
00:14:25,073 --> 00:14:27,533
we don't know what
the good news is
319
00:14:27,575 --> 00:14:29,410
and what the bad news is,
320
00:14:29,452 --> 00:14:31,412
and one reason we would like
to go to Heaven
321
00:14:31,454 --> 00:14:35,249
is to ask somebody,
"Hey, what was the good news,
322
00:14:35,291 --> 00:14:38,252
and what was the bad news?"
[laughs]
323
00:14:38,294 --> 00:14:40,296
[applause]
324
00:14:40,338 --> 00:14:42,090
-[man] Like this.
-[laughter]
325
00:14:42,131 --> 00:14:43,424
[indistinct chatter]
326
00:14:47,929 --> 00:14:49,472
[tape fast forwarding]
327
00:14:49,514 --> 00:14:51,974
[snapping]
328
00:14:52,016 --> 00:14:54,685
[Bob Weide] I was always filming
on and off with him over the years,
329
00:14:54,727 --> 00:14:57,021
just thinking, you know,
I'll figure this out later.
330
00:14:57,980 --> 00:14:59,065
[Bob Weide]
Now we're havin' fun.
331
00:14:59,107 --> 00:15:00,191
[chuckling]
332
00:15:00,233 --> 00:15:01,317
[snapping]
333
00:15:01,818 --> 00:15:04,904
[Bob Weide] In 1994,
we went to Indianapolis.
334
00:15:04,946 --> 00:15:06,280
It would be terrible if
335
00:15:06,322 --> 00:15:08,616
I don't even recognize
the house anymore.
336
00:15:09,534 --> 00:15:12,453
That's here Mr. Herman lived,
he was very mean.
337
00:15:13,037 --> 00:15:16,666
Oh, this is--
this is it.
338
00:15:16,707 --> 00:15:19,001
[Kurt Vonnegut] "I took him to
the Indianapolis of my childhood.
339
00:15:20,711 --> 00:15:23,631
"I got out of my rented car,
I did it noisily.
340
00:15:24,715 --> 00:15:26,384
I slammed the door firmly.
341
00:15:27,009 --> 00:15:28,010
[snapping]
342
00:15:31,139 --> 00:15:34,976
Oh, yeah, that's Kurt Vonnegut
and that's Edith Vonnegut.
343
00:15:35,017 --> 00:15:37,186
And, of course, the house
was built in 1923
344
00:15:37,228 --> 00:15:38,479
when I was
one year old.
345
00:15:38,521 --> 00:15:41,524
I'
346
00:15:44,402 --> 00:15:46,362
Yeah. This is my room
all right.
347
00:15:47,572 --> 00:15:49,657
[Bob Weide]
Kurt, in your writing,
348
00:15:49,699 --> 00:15:52,326
there's much talk of
extended family.
349
00:15:52,368 --> 00:15:53,786
Where does this notion
come from?
350
00:15:53,828 --> 00:15:55,413
Well, I used to have one.
351
00:15:55,455 --> 00:15:58,458
I'
352
00:15:59,208 --> 00:16:01,169
There must have been
30 Vonneguts,
353
00:16:01,210 --> 00:16:03,963
all prosperous.
In the phone book here.
354
00:16:05,006 --> 00:16:08,509
[man] Kurt always said he
trusted his writing best
355
00:16:08,551 --> 00:16:11,679
when he sounded like a person
from Indianapolis, Indiana,
356
00:16:11,721 --> 00:16:13,639
which is what he was.
357
00:16:14,265 --> 00:16:16,684
His father and grandfather
were architects.
358
00:16:16,726 --> 00:16:19,729
Other relatives were, uh,
symphony conductors,
359
00:16:19,770 --> 00:16:21,981
and, uh, heads of libraries
360
00:16:22,023 --> 00:16:25,276
who had basically created
Indianapolis.
361
00:16:26,152 --> 00:16:28,279
And it's got Vonnegut
written all over it.
362
00:16:30,239 --> 00:16:32,241
[Kurt Vonnegut]
The family was built around
363
00:16:32,283 --> 00:16:33,784
the Vonnegut Hardware Company,
364
00:16:33,826 --> 00:16:36,329
which was a very successful
hardware store chain.
365
00:16:36,829 --> 00:16:41,167
One of my ancestors invented
the panic bar on doors.
366
00:16:41,209 --> 00:16:43,211
But if there is a fire,
367
00:16:43,252 --> 00:16:45,338
and you are jammed up
against the door,
368
00:16:45,379 --> 00:16:47,924
by a crowd-- Ahhh.
369
00:16:47,965 --> 00:16:49,175
[grunts]
370
00:16:49,217 --> 00:16:50,218
Flies open.
371
00:16:50,718 --> 00:16:53,012
And it must have saved
a hell of a lot of lives.
372
00:16:53,304 --> 00:16:54,764
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Vonnegut was growing up
373
00:16:54,805 --> 00:16:56,557
in this beautiful house
374
00:16:56,599 --> 00:16:59,143
designed by his
architect father.
375
00:16:59,936 --> 00:17:02,688
People have very kindly
left this here all this time,
376
00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:04,941
and that's me,
my hand was pressed here,
377
00:17:04,982 --> 00:17:07,068
including a little bit of
my sweater.
378
00:17:07,527 --> 00:17:09,529
My sister, Alice,
379
00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:12,073
who's no longer among
the living.
380
00:17:12,114 --> 00:17:15,910
And this is my brother, Bernard,
who is nearly 80;
381
00:17:15,952 --> 00:17:18,871
atmospheric physicist who knows
more about tornadoes
382
00:17:18,913 --> 00:17:20,706
than anybody on Earth.
383
00:17:20,748 --> 00:17:21,958
And this is my mother.
384
00:17:24,210 --> 00:17:26,504
And this is my father.
385
00:17:28,089 --> 00:17:29,757
Doesn't make me sad at all,
386
00:17:29,799 --> 00:17:31,551
'cause it was such a happy time
387
00:17:31,592 --> 00:17:33,469
in the lives of
all these people.
388
00:17:35,555 --> 00:17:37,098
[Bob Weide] After spending
so much time with Kurt,
389
00:17:37,139 --> 00:17:40,226
I got fairly close with
his brother, Bernie.
390
00:17:40,268 --> 00:17:42,436
-[beep]
-Hi, uh, Bob,
391
00:17:42,478 --> 00:17:46,524
uh, this is
Bernie Vonnegut calling.
392
00:17:46,566 --> 00:17:48,025
In a closet,
393
00:17:48,067 --> 00:17:52,029
he had some old
16mm home movies
394
00:17:52,071 --> 00:17:53,656
of the Vonnegut family.
395
00:17:53,698 --> 00:17:55,658
[Bernie]
I found the film,
396
00:17:55,700 --> 00:17:57,702
or at least,
uh, some of it.
397
00:17:57,743 --> 00:18:01,122
And I, uh, hope, uh,
you received it.
398
00:18:01,455 --> 00:18:03,624
[Bob Weide] I took it down to
a post production facility
399
00:18:03,666 --> 00:18:05,001
had the stuff cleaned,
400
00:18:05,042 --> 00:18:06,961
and put it up to transfer it
to video tape.
401
00:18:07,461 --> 00:18:09,213
I couldn't believe
what I was seeing.
402
00:18:09,505 --> 00:18:11,132
[projector whirring]
403
00:18:11,173 --> 00:18:14,176
I'
404
00:18:16,012 --> 00:18:18,014
[Bob Weide] It was amazing,
crystal clear,
405
00:18:18,055 --> 00:18:19,473
black and white
home movies.
406
00:18:20,558 --> 00:18:23,352
The family dynamic
is on full display.
407
00:18:23,394 --> 00:18:25,229
Kurt's the baby brother,
of course,
408
00:18:25,271 --> 00:18:27,231
always demanding attention.
409
00:18:27,690 --> 00:18:31,027
He's either laughing or crying
or running around.
410
00:18:31,444 --> 00:18:34,196
And, uh...
a lot of dancing.
411
00:18:34,739 --> 00:18:37,283
[Kurt Vonnegut] The
youngest member of each family
412
00:18:37,325 --> 00:18:38,951
is the family comedian,
413
00:18:39,368 --> 00:18:41,412
'cause it's the only way
the youngest one
414
00:18:41,454 --> 00:18:43,039
can get attention.
415
00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:45,875
And so I would make a joke,
and everybody would look,
416
00:18:45,916 --> 00:18:47,585
"Did he say that?"
you know,
417
00:18:47,627 --> 00:18:49,128
and did he mean it
and all that,
418
00:18:49,170 --> 00:18:51,297
and so I became
specialized that way.
419
00:18:52,089 --> 00:18:53,841
[Bob Weide] Bernard is
nine years older.
420
00:18:53,883 --> 00:18:55,509
It's funny,
when I knew Bernie,
421
00:18:55,551 --> 00:18:59,013
he was this rather serious,
retired academic,
422
00:18:59,055 --> 00:19:01,807
who was a world renowned
atmospheric scientist,
423
00:19:02,308 --> 00:19:03,851
uh, and rather stiff
on camera.
424
00:19:03,893 --> 00:19:07,188
This is an instant of which
I have no memory,
425
00:19:07,229 --> 00:19:11,525
but, uh, I was, uh,
very young.
426
00:19:12,234 --> 00:19:14,153
But here he is,
hamming it up,
427
00:19:14,195 --> 00:19:16,864
and, uh, quite
the snappy dresser.
428
00:19:17,531 --> 00:19:21,243
To Vonnegut readers,
his sister, Alice-- Allie--
429
00:19:21,285 --> 00:19:23,287
Is almost a mythical figure,
430
00:19:23,329 --> 00:19:24,955
very important
in Kurt's life.
431
00:19:25,581 --> 00:19:28,709
He always writes about
how funny she is,
432
00:19:28,751 --> 00:19:29,960
and you see it.
433
00:19:30,586 --> 00:19:32,129
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Same jokes amused us both.
434
00:19:32,672 --> 00:19:34,965
So maybe she taught me
what was funny.
435
00:19:35,007 --> 00:19:38,010
I'
436
00:19:39,261 --> 00:19:40,888
This is my sister,
Allie's, room.
437
00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:44,225
The sleeping porch there
where, with her permission,
438
00:19:44,266 --> 00:19:48,229
we could sleep out on hot nights
in the summer time.
439
00:19:49,438 --> 00:19:52,942
She grew up to be six feet tall,
was a very beautiful blonde...
440
00:19:53,943 --> 00:19:56,153
uh, with terrible posture,
441
00:19:56,195 --> 00:19:58,864
because she was so embarrassed
about being tall.
442
00:20:01,117 --> 00:20:04,203
Yeah, and I really miss her
as we were extremely close.
443
00:20:06,455 --> 00:20:07,707
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Allie Vonnegut was
444
00:20:07,748 --> 00:20:09,959
a constant presence
in his life.
445
00:20:11,210 --> 00:20:13,546
She substituted for
Kurt's mother.
446
00:20:13,587 --> 00:20:16,632
I think she gave him the love
and the nurturing
447
00:20:16,674 --> 00:20:18,300
that he was not given.
448
00:20:19,802 --> 00:20:22,722
Kurt's mother was
society bred,
449
00:20:22,763 --> 00:20:24,432
as his mother was distant,
450
00:20:24,473 --> 00:20:28,060
and really had her own
mental problems to deal with.
451
00:20:28,978 --> 00:20:32,481
His father was not the warmest,
fuzziest guy in the world.
452
00:20:32,523 --> 00:20:33,733
He was a good father,
453
00:20:33,774 --> 00:20:35,901
but he was, uh,
a serious architect.
454
00:20:37,945 --> 00:20:40,448
[Kurt Vonnegut] I wish my parents
had been happier than they were.
455
00:20:41,115 --> 00:20:44,577
And I think it was largely my
mother's unhappiness
456
00:20:44,618 --> 00:20:48,873
that, uh, made the depression
harder for all of us.
457
00:20:48,914 --> 00:20:51,917
I'
458
00:20:57,965 --> 00:20:59,216
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
He grows up in
459
00:20:59,258 --> 00:21:01,677
a very traditional,
supportive family.
460
00:21:01,719 --> 00:21:04,305
He has a happy childhood.
461
00:21:04,346 --> 00:21:06,265
Uh, but then,
462
00:21:06,307 --> 00:21:08,768
all the money
for it disappears
463
00:21:08,809 --> 00:21:10,311
during the Great Depression.
464
00:21:10,352 --> 00:21:13,230
I'
465
00:21:13,272 --> 00:21:15,399
Now, of course,
everybody in Indianapolis
466
00:21:15,441 --> 00:21:17,568
was quite depressed.
467
00:21:17,610 --> 00:21:19,361
Uh, nothing was being built,
468
00:21:19,403 --> 00:21:22,239
and so father finally
had to come home.
469
00:21:23,616 --> 00:21:25,576
But there was virtually
no work.
470
00:21:27,578 --> 00:21:29,455
Oh, I think he was
deeply embarrassed,
471
00:21:29,497 --> 00:21:32,208
and mother always felt that
there must be some way
472
00:21:32,249 --> 00:21:34,335
he could go out there
and get some money.
473
00:21:35,628 --> 00:21:38,798
Yeah. "Get out of her and
get me some money too.
474
00:21:38,839 --> 00:21:41,342
Why don't you do right
like some other men do?"
475
00:21:42,510 --> 00:21:44,804
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
They lost their family home,
476
00:21:44,845 --> 00:21:47,348
and had to go into
a rental property.
477
00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:50,559
[Kurt Vonnegut] We moved out
of here when I was ten years old,
478
00:21:50,601 --> 00:21:52,061
and I really didn't give a damn.
479
00:21:52,102 --> 00:21:54,688
[chuckles]
480
00:21:54,730 --> 00:21:57,608
You know, I thought life was
pretty interesting wherever--
481
00:21:57,650 --> 00:21:59,777
Wherever we were
gonna live next.
482
00:22:00,694 --> 00:22:02,863
Young Kurt was
taken out of, uh,
483
00:22:02,905 --> 00:22:04,949
private school,
put into public schools,
484
00:22:04,990 --> 00:22:06,700
and it took him out of
the bubble.
485
00:22:06,742 --> 00:22:08,244
He read comic books,
486
00:22:08,285 --> 00:22:10,204
he was immersed in
popular culture,
487
00:22:10,246 --> 00:22:12,373
and what it was like
to be a person
488
00:22:12,414 --> 00:22:14,416
not living in
a world of privilege.
489
00:22:15,084 --> 00:22:16,460
[Kurt Vonnegut]
When I was a child,
490
00:22:16,502 --> 00:22:18,796
and there were many
serious things going on,
491
00:22:18,838 --> 00:22:21,632
such as the Great Depression
and all that,
492
00:22:21,674 --> 00:22:24,301
it was Laurel and Hardy
who gave me permission
493
00:22:24,343 --> 00:22:26,971
not to take life seriously.
494
00:22:27,012 --> 00:22:30,349
And it turned out that
it as okay to, uh,
495
00:22:30,391 --> 00:22:32,142
laugh your head off.
496
00:22:32,184 --> 00:22:34,186
[laughing]
497
00:22:35,646 --> 00:22:37,606
Life was a very serious
business,
498
00:22:37,648 --> 00:22:40,693
and it inspired me to try
and write funny books,
499
00:22:40,734 --> 00:22:43,445
that this was a good thing to do
with a life is to be funny.
500
00:22:43,487 --> 00:22:46,490
I'
501
00:22:47,867 --> 00:22:50,035
[Gregory Sumner] One of the
luckiest breaks for Kurt Vonnegut
502
00:22:50,077 --> 00:22:51,912
is that he went to
Shortridge High School,
503
00:22:51,954 --> 00:22:53,956
one of the finest high schools
in the country.
504
00:22:54,832 --> 00:22:56,667
[Kurt Vonnegut] It was an
extraordinary high school,
505
00:22:56,709 --> 00:22:59,712
it was better than any
university I ever went to.
506
00:23:00,254 --> 00:23:02,798
This is where I got my
foundation in chemistry,
507
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:03,966
in ancient history,
508
00:23:04,008 --> 00:23:05,718
and this place had
a daily paper,
509
00:23:05,759 --> 00:23:06,886
The Shortridge Echo.
510
00:23:06,927 --> 00:23:08,554
My parents worked on it,
511
00:23:08,596 --> 00:23:11,515
so that's how long Shortridge
had had a daily newspaper.
512
00:23:11,557 --> 00:23:13,684
I learned to write for peers,
513
00:23:13,726 --> 00:23:15,519
as I would write something
in the paper,
514
00:23:15,561 --> 00:23:18,063
and the next day,
my fellow students would
515
00:23:18,105 --> 00:23:20,149
tell me what the hell
they thought about it.
516
00:23:20,190 --> 00:23:22,568
It was a swell experience
for me,
517
00:23:22,610 --> 00:23:26,155
because I learned to write
journalistic style;
518
00:23:26,196 --> 00:23:28,574
which was to be clear
and don't bluff,
519
00:23:28,616 --> 00:23:32,119
and also to say
as much as possible
520
00:23:32,161 --> 00:23:33,954
as quickly as possible.
521
00:23:33,996 --> 00:23:36,165
And my books are
essentially that way.
522
00:23:36,206 --> 00:23:38,709
I give away the big secrets in
the first page
523
00:23:38,751 --> 00:23:40,961
and tell people
what's going to happen.
524
00:23:42,546 --> 00:23:43,547
[snapping]
525
00:23:46,550 --> 00:23:50,012
Yeah, I suppose I knew about
one person in ten
526
00:23:50,054 --> 00:23:52,431
on this list of people
who died--
527
00:23:52,473 --> 00:23:56,310
Classmates who died in, uh,
Second World War.
528
00:23:57,102 --> 00:23:59,897
Particularly,
close friend of mine was
529
00:23:59,939 --> 00:24:01,941
Hal Plummer,
530
00:24:01,982 --> 00:24:03,859
and he was just on
a training mission,
531
00:24:03,901 --> 00:24:06,654
he cracked up a plane
in San Francisco.
532
00:24:07,196 --> 00:24:08,864
Art Gipe.
533
00:24:08,906 --> 00:24:11,158
Yeah, he died of
spinal meningitis
534
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:13,285
during basic training.
[laughs]
535
00:24:13,327 --> 00:24:17,706
Had one fraternity brother
at Cornell...
536
00:24:17,748 --> 00:24:22,169
uh, who was so excited upon
hearing that
537
00:24:22,211 --> 00:24:24,463
Pearl Harbor
had been bombed,
538
00:24:24,505 --> 00:24:26,006
he was taking a bath
and he somehow
539
00:24:26,048 --> 00:24:28,550
banged his head on a faucet
and died.
540
00:24:28,592 --> 00:24:31,011
[laughing]
541
00:24:32,638 --> 00:24:35,641
I [jazz]
542
00:24:41,522 --> 00:24:43,524
[indistinct chatter]
543
00:24:45,651 --> 00:24:48,404
[Kurt Vonnegut] Marge Murray
was my prom date,
544
00:24:48,779 --> 00:24:50,197
senior prom date.
545
00:24:50,239 --> 00:24:51,824
Wonderful dancer.
546
00:24:51,865 --> 00:24:53,701
Had blond, curly hair, too.
547
00:24:55,077 --> 00:24:56,620
[Bob Weide]
It was really interesting
548
00:24:56,662 --> 00:24:58,831
seeing Kurt interact with his
high school classmates.
549
00:24:58,872 --> 00:25:01,208
Many of them, I assume,
hadn't seen each other
550
00:25:01,250 --> 00:25:02,418
since they were 18,
551
00:25:02,835 --> 00:25:05,587
which I'm sure, for them,
didn't seem that long ago.
552
00:25:05,629 --> 00:25:08,215
[man] Yeah, well, my girlfriend
had me doin' this.
553
00:25:08,257 --> 00:25:09,550
You're too old to have
a girlfriend,
554
00:25:09,591 --> 00:25:10,926
don't bullshit me.
555
00:25:10,968 --> 00:25:12,428
[laughing]
556
00:25:12,469 --> 00:25:14,388
[Bob Weide]
This was the class of 1940.
557
00:25:14,430 --> 00:25:17,016
They had no idea what was
waiting just around the corner.
558
00:25:25,149 --> 00:25:26,734
I didn't know what the hell
they were talking about.
559
00:25:26,775 --> 00:25:27,943
You went through the ringer,
for or yin' out loud.
560
00:25:27,985 --> 00:25:28,986
Yeah.
What happened to you?
561
00:25:33,949 --> 00:25:36,618
I was in North Africa and they
sent me to China, Burma, India,
562
00:25:37,036 --> 00:25:38,704
and that's where it happened.
563
00:25:38,746 --> 00:25:40,330
-They really used you, didn't they?
-They used me. Yeah.
564
00:25:42,875 --> 00:25:44,043
No, I couldn't
565
00:25:44,084 --> 00:25:45,294
-They have--
-I know.
566
00:25:45,335 --> 00:25:46,962
-They have no right to do that.
-I know.
567
00:25:51,425 --> 00:25:52,926
You're a real good guy,
I really like you.
568
00:25:52,968 --> 00:25:54,887
-Mustard gas? Where?
-Yeah. Well, we were...
569
00:25:54,928 --> 00:25:57,473
[Kurt Vonnegut] Second World
War was fought by children.
570
00:25:58,140 --> 00:26:00,184
The movies give
the impression that
571
00:26:00,225 --> 00:26:02,811
war is fought by
middle-aged men.
572
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,939
No, it's startling
how young soldiers are.
573
00:26:06,565 --> 00:26:08,192
[school bell rings]
574
00:26:09,902 --> 00:26:11,904
[explosions]
575
00:26:16,742 --> 00:26:18,911
[Kurt Vonnegut] Anybody
who's been in the ground forces
576
00:26:18,952 --> 00:26:21,789
and been on the front lines...
577
00:26:21,830 --> 00:26:22,915
hates war.
578
00:26:22,956 --> 00:26:24,958
[explosions, rockets firing]
579
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:26,960
[Kurt Vonnegut]
And I was involved in
580
00:26:27,002 --> 00:26:28,879
the biggest defeat of
American arms,
581
00:26:28,921 --> 00:26:30,964
which was the
Battle of the Bulge
582
00:26:32,508 --> 00:26:35,344
'Cause the Germans caught us
totally by surprise.
583
00:26:35,385 --> 00:26:36,887
They were all dressed in white,
584
00:26:36,929 --> 00:26:39,139
we were dressed in uniforms
the color of dog shit,
585
00:26:39,181 --> 00:26:41,016
and there was snow
all over the place.
586
00:26:41,058 --> 00:26:42,309
[laughter]
587
00:26:44,311 --> 00:26:47,147
And my whole division got
captured or wiped out.
588
00:26:48,482 --> 00:26:50,234
And after it was over,
589
00:26:50,275 --> 00:26:53,153
as far as you could see
going down the road,
590
00:26:53,195 --> 00:26:55,739
were American kids with
their hands up like this,
591
00:26:55,781 --> 00:26:58,158
'cause if you took your
hands down, you'd get shot.
592
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,203
I'
593
00:27:02,871 --> 00:27:04,873
[heartbeat]
594
00:27:05,332 --> 00:27:08,043
[Kurt Vonnegut] What there
is to see is so nauseating
595
00:27:08,085 --> 00:27:11,171
so horrifying...
596
00:27:11,213 --> 00:27:13,382
you don't want to
hear about it anymore,
597
00:27:13,423 --> 00:27:15,175
you don't want to
talk about it.
598
00:27:18,887 --> 00:27:21,473
[train clacking]
599
00:27:26,019 --> 00:27:27,062
[bell clanging]
600
00:27:27,104 --> 00:27:28,689
[train whistle blows]
601
00:27:33,694 --> 00:27:36,321
[Kurt Vonnegut] So all the
captured Americans, prisoners of war,
602
00:27:36,363 --> 00:27:37,948
were loaded on those trains
603
00:27:37,990 --> 00:27:40,200
and taken to the interior
of Germany.
604
00:27:49,334 --> 00:27:52,963
I'
605
00:27:56,383 --> 00:27:58,218
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"The skyline was intricate
606
00:27:58,260 --> 00:28:01,388
"and voluptuous and
enchanted and absurd.
607
00:28:01,430 --> 00:28:03,599
"It looked like a Sunday school
picture of Heaven
608
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:05,851
"to Billy Pilgrim.
609
00:28:05,893 --> 00:28:09,730
"Somebody behind him
in the box car said Oz.
610
00:28:09,771 --> 00:28:12,649
"That was I.
That was me.
611
00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:15,819
The only other city I'd seen
was Indianapolis, Indiana."
612
00:28:17,571 --> 00:28:20,824
I'
613
00:28:20,866 --> 00:28:23,911
"The slaughterhouse wasn't
a busy place anymore.
614
00:28:23,952 --> 00:28:26,330
"The prisoners were taken to
the fifth building
615
00:28:26,371 --> 00:28:28,582
"inside the gate.
616
00:28:28,624 --> 00:28:30,709
"It had been built as
a shelter for pigs
617
00:28:30,751 --> 00:28:33,128
"about to be butchered.
618
00:28:33,170 --> 00:28:35,839
"Now it was going to serve as
a home away from home
619
00:28:35,881 --> 00:28:37,966
"for 100 American
prisoners of war.
620
00:28:40,052 --> 00:28:42,262
"The address was this:
621
00:28:42,304 --> 00:28:43,889
schlachthaus funf."
622
00:28:45,807 --> 00:28:48,560
[Bob Weide] Uh, how was your
division put to work in Dresden
623
00:28:48,602 --> 00:28:49,853
when you first got there?
624
00:28:50,771 --> 00:28:52,189
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Privates, my division,
625
00:28:52,231 --> 00:28:55,192
uh, were put to work
in small factories.
626
00:28:56,777 --> 00:28:59,947
The Germans all explained to us
this is an old city,
627
00:29:00,781 --> 00:29:03,283
'cause it had a very long
art history,
628
00:29:03,325 --> 00:29:05,452
and many people
all over the world
629
00:29:05,494 --> 00:29:07,412
were sentimental
about Dresden,
630
00:29:08,330 --> 00:29:10,749
and so they never
expected to get hit.
631
00:29:12,751 --> 00:29:14,753
[engines roaring]
632
00:29:19,675 --> 00:29:21,677
[siren blaring]
633
00:29:27,849 --> 00:29:30,852
[engines roaring]
634
00:29:30,894 --> 00:29:33,105
[Kurt Vonnegut] "Billy Pilgrim
was down in a meat locker
635
00:29:33,146 --> 00:29:35,524
"on the night that Dresden
was destroyed.
636
00:29:35,565 --> 00:29:37,985
[explosions]
637
00:29:43,115 --> 00:29:45,742
"There were sounds like
giant footsteps above.
638
00:29:48,745 --> 00:29:52,416
"Those were sticks of
high explosive bombs.
639
00:29:52,457 --> 00:29:54,710
The giants
walked and walked."
640
00:29:54,751 --> 00:29:56,753
[heartbeat]
641
00:30:08,181 --> 00:30:10,183
[wind blowing]
642
00:30:10,225 --> 00:30:12,978
[metal clanking]
643
00:30:13,437 --> 00:30:14,730
[Kurt Vonnegut]
We all came out
644
00:30:14,771 --> 00:30:16,648
and we all looked around
at the same time.
645
00:30:20,485 --> 00:30:22,487
And the city was gone.
646
00:30:22,529 --> 00:30:25,157
I'
647
00:30:31,496 --> 00:30:33,498
[Kurt Vonnegut] "Dresden
was like the moon now,
648
00:30:33,540 --> 00:30:35,000
"nothing but minerals.
649
00:30:35,042 --> 00:30:36,376
"The stones were hot.
650
00:30:38,420 --> 00:30:40,714
"Everybody else in
the neighborhood was dead.
651
00:30:42,132 --> 00:30:43,342
"So it goes.
652
00:30:44,259 --> 00:30:46,553
[Kurt Vonnegut]
What really destroyed the city
653
00:30:46,595 --> 00:30:49,306
were the thousands of
very small fire bombs,
654
00:30:49,348 --> 00:30:51,308
and started so many fires
655
00:30:51,350 --> 00:30:53,685
they couldn't begin to
deal with them all.
656
00:30:54,603 --> 00:30:57,731
It created one big column
of flame,
657
00:30:57,773 --> 00:31:00,525
uh, roughly the same diameter
as the city.
658
00:31:00,567 --> 00:31:02,861
It generated tornadoes,
659
00:31:02,903 --> 00:31:05,405
and consumed
everything organic.
660
00:31:06,782 --> 00:31:09,785
Only prisoners of war
were allowed in there
661
00:31:09,826 --> 00:31:11,995
to, uh, start digging out
bodies,
662
00:31:12,037 --> 00:31:13,413
and that's what we did.
663
00:31:13,455 --> 00:31:16,458
I'
664
00:31:27,052 --> 00:31:31,264
I know what it's like to carry
the bodies of civilians
665
00:31:31,306 --> 00:31:33,850
while the Germans
watched silently.
666
00:31:36,186 --> 00:31:39,439
I didn't feel, uh,
particularly badly
667
00:31:39,481 --> 00:31:40,565
when I did it.
668
00:31:44,361 --> 00:31:46,071
I didn't feel much of anything.
669
00:31:52,661 --> 00:31:55,288
[train clacking]
670
00:31:59,793 --> 00:32:01,795
[Bob Weide] I think in the past
you've sort of downplayed
671
00:32:01,837 --> 00:32:05,882
that being like a major, pivotal
moment of your life.
672
00:32:05,924 --> 00:32:07,634
What-- What is
the truth as to
673
00:32:07,676 --> 00:32:09,094
living through
something like that?
674
00:32:10,137 --> 00:32:12,097
It was a great adventure
of my life
675
00:32:12,139 --> 00:32:13,807
and certainly something
to talk about.
676
00:32:13,849 --> 00:32:15,475
Indeed, I was there.
677
00:32:16,143 --> 00:32:18,311
The neighborhood dogs,
when I grew up,
678
00:32:18,353 --> 00:32:21,106
uh, had far greater--
[laughs]
679
00:32:21,148 --> 00:32:24,818
Influence on what I am today
than-- than, uh,
680
00:32:24,860 --> 00:32:27,070
the mere firebombing
of Dresden.
681
00:32:28,113 --> 00:32:30,740
[Edie Vonnegut] I think
Kurt-- Yeah, he's full of it.
682
00:32:30,782 --> 00:32:33,827
He's seen too much,
you know, and he's--
683
00:32:33,869 --> 00:32:35,245
Just living through
Dresden,
684
00:32:35,287 --> 00:32:37,956
and his sister dying
and all his friends,
685
00:32:37,998 --> 00:32:40,917
and seen too much anyway.
686
00:32:42,169 --> 00:32:44,421
No, I don't--
Did he really say that?
687
00:32:44,463 --> 00:32:48,216
You should see when he laughs at
the most inappropriate times,
688
00:32:48,258 --> 00:32:50,302
but it-- it seems right
somehow.
689
00:32:50,719 --> 00:32:52,679
Definitely his way of
sublimating.
690
00:32:58,059 --> 00:32:59,352
What, "so it goes?"
691
00:32:59,394 --> 00:33:00,479
[Bob Weide] Yeah,
let's talk about that.
692
00:33:02,189 --> 00:33:03,440
[typewriter clacking]
693
00:33:03,482 --> 00:33:05,025
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"On an average,
694
00:33:05,066 --> 00:33:08,361
"324,000 new babies
are born into the world
695
00:33:08,403 --> 00:33:09,613
"every day.
696
00:33:09,654 --> 00:33:11,490
"10,000 persons,
on an average,
697
00:33:11,531 --> 00:33:12,741
will have starved
to death
698
00:33:12,782 --> 00:33:14,451
or died from
malnutrition."
699
00:33:14,493 --> 00:33:16,119
-[bell dings]
-"So it goes.
700
00:33:16,161 --> 00:33:18,121
"They were all being killed
with their families.
701
00:33:18,163 --> 00:33:20,248
"So it goes.
He tore himself to pieces...
702
00:33:20,290 --> 00:33:22,000
"...throwing up
and throwing up.
703
00:33:22,042 --> 00:33:23,502
"So it goes.
...and every day,
704
00:33:23,543 --> 00:33:25,670
"my government gives me
a count of corpses...
705
00:33:25,712 --> 00:33:27,797
"So it goes.
...tried and shot...
706
00:33:27,839 --> 00:33:29,466
"So it goes.
...the champagne was dead,
707
00:33:29,508 --> 00:33:30,592
"So it goes.
So it goes.
708
00:33:30,634 --> 00:33:31,593
"So it goes.
709
00:33:32,302 --> 00:33:33,428
So it goes."
710
00:33:34,054 --> 00:33:37,891
[Jerome Klinkowitz] It's
intoned 100 times in the novel.
711
00:33:37,933 --> 00:33:40,310
Vonnegut did it to
make it iconic.
712
00:33:40,352 --> 00:33:43,772
Death is so common,
so inevitable,
713
00:33:43,813 --> 00:33:47,609
we can't go to pieces
every time there's a death
714
00:33:47,651 --> 00:33:50,445
or we ourselves will just be
incapable of living.
715
00:33:50,487 --> 00:33:53,532
So you have to just sort of
shrug your shoulders
716
00:33:53,573 --> 00:33:55,408
-and say--
-"So it goes."
717
00:33:55,450 --> 00:33:57,452
I think it's a mantra
in his head.
718
00:33:57,494 --> 00:34:00,038
I think that's how he--
he copes.
719
00:34:03,375 --> 00:34:04,793
Through that book.
720
00:34:05,126 --> 00:34:06,503
He didn't talk about it.
721
00:34:06,545 --> 00:34:09,172
Yeah, that--
I found out about it...
722
00:34:09,214 --> 00:34:10,423
from
Slaughterhouse-Five.
723
00:34:10,715 --> 00:34:12,717
Horrible descriptions of
what was happening
724
00:34:12,759 --> 00:34:13,843
or going on around him.
725
00:34:14,594 --> 00:34:16,805
And it was very light, you know,
the way he wrote it.
726
00:34:17,931 --> 00:34:20,433
[Kurt Vonnegut] Laughter
was a-- was a great relief
727
00:34:20,475 --> 00:34:21,851
day after day,
728
00:34:21,893 --> 00:34:24,396
and it would have been
embarrassing to cry--
729
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:26,940
Cry day after day.
730
00:34:28,525 --> 00:34:31,486
I've said that it-- it--
I prefer laughter to crying
731
00:34:31,528 --> 00:34:34,573
because there's less cleaning up
to do afterward.
732
00:34:34,614 --> 00:34:36,658
Also, you can
shut it down faster.
733
00:34:37,492 --> 00:34:40,537
This business of the stuff
that happened to me in Dresden
734
00:34:40,579 --> 00:34:42,247
really had no impact
735
00:34:42,289 --> 00:34:46,042
is the same person who is
completely traumatized by it.
736
00:34:46,501 --> 00:34:48,587
It all went very fast,
you know,
737
00:34:48,628 --> 00:34:50,463
marvelous
once I was able to see
738
00:34:50,505 --> 00:34:52,299
in such a short time,
739
00:34:52,340 --> 00:34:54,092
and I wouldn't have missed it
for anything.
740
00:34:57,220 --> 00:34:59,514
[Nanny Vonnegut] It is painful
for him to remember things.
741
00:35:00,223 --> 00:35:01,725
Memory is painful.
742
00:35:07,564 --> 00:35:10,066
I think he's doing lots of
artwork now, that helps.
743
00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:11,610
Drawing.
744
00:35:11,651 --> 00:35:12,986
[slide projector clicking]
745
00:35:13,028 --> 00:35:14,654
Bob, this is
Kurt Vonnegut.
746
00:35:14,696 --> 00:35:17,782
I just wanted to tell you
I sent via Federal Express
747
00:35:17,824 --> 00:35:19,743
a whole bunch of pictures
I made
748
00:35:19,784 --> 00:35:22,329
for an art show of mine
back in 1980.
749
00:35:22,370 --> 00:35:24,539
I thought you might be able
to use them
750
00:35:24,581 --> 00:35:27,000
some way in the film.
751
00:35:27,042 --> 00:35:29,586
If not, send them
right back to me. Bye.
752
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:37,969
[Bob Weide]
How would you describe
753
00:35:38,011 --> 00:35:39,262
the artwork of
Kurt Vonnegut?
754
00:35:39,304 --> 00:35:40,430
[Kurt Vonnegut]
God, I don't know.
755
00:35:40,472 --> 00:35:42,307
I think-- I think, uh,
756
00:35:42,349 --> 00:35:44,351
what's such--
such a relief about it
757
00:35:44,392 --> 00:35:46,853
is that I don't have to say
what it's about.
758
00:35:46,895 --> 00:35:48,271
[chuckles]
759
00:35:48,313 --> 00:35:51,149
A friend of mine said,
"You're the only author
760
00:35:51,191 --> 00:35:54,527
who's paintings, uh,
look just like what you write."
761
00:35:58,156 --> 00:36:01,660
My books...
762
00:36:01,701 --> 00:36:03,828
are aggressively unreal.
763
00:36:05,121 --> 00:36:08,458
They make the reader
accept a premise,
764
00:36:08,500 --> 00:36:12,128
and unreasonable premise,
and then keep going.
765
00:36:12,170 --> 00:36:14,005
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Billy Pilgrim could not sleep
766
00:36:14,047 --> 00:36:15,757
"on his daughter's
wedding night,
767
00:36:15,799 --> 00:36:18,051
"though he knew there was
a flying saucer
768
00:36:18,093 --> 00:36:20,220
"from Tralfamadore
up there.
769
00:36:20,261 --> 00:36:22,764
He would see it soon enough
inside and out.
770
00:36:22,806 --> 00:36:24,140
And he would see, too,
771
00:36:24,182 --> 00:36:25,934
where it came from
soon enough."
772
00:36:26,351 --> 00:36:29,354
I'
773
00:36:38,154 --> 00:36:39,823
[Bob Weide]
In '94, we made a trip to
774
00:36:39,864 --> 00:36:42,283
Lake Maxinkuckee
in northern Indiana
775
00:36:42,325 --> 00:36:44,411
where the whole extended
Vonnegut family
776
00:36:44,452 --> 00:36:45,620
all had cottages.
777
00:36:47,205 --> 00:36:49,457
Just seeing these places
778
00:36:49,499 --> 00:36:53,002
brought it home
in a way that, uh...
779
00:36:53,044 --> 00:36:54,754
that really humanized him
for me.
780
00:36:55,922 --> 00:36:59,134
He was opening up about
his experience in Dresden,
781
00:36:59,592 --> 00:37:01,052
his childhood,
782
00:37:01,094 --> 00:37:04,180
seeing the place where he
actually came up with
783
00:37:04,222 --> 00:37:05,932
the idea of Tralfamadore.
784
00:37:07,308 --> 00:37:09,185
I had never read about it
in any book,
785
00:37:09,227 --> 00:37:13,648
he'd never written about it,
but... he, um...
786
00:37:13,690 --> 00:37:15,066
he showed me
where it happened.
787
00:37:16,943 --> 00:37:18,611
This platform here is--
788
00:37:18,653 --> 00:37:20,697
My father designed it
and had it built,
789
00:37:20,739 --> 00:37:22,532
and the family would
gather out here,
790
00:37:22,574 --> 00:37:24,117
particularly at night.
791
00:37:24,159 --> 00:37:26,327
And one night,
cousin Richard
792
00:37:26,369 --> 00:37:29,873
was naming the different stars
and constellations,
793
00:37:29,914 --> 00:37:32,959
and nobody knew whether he was
telling the truth or not.
794
00:37:33,001 --> 00:37:34,627
[chuckles]
And he would say,
795
00:37:34,669 --> 00:37:38,965
"Oh, there is Arcturus and there
is Andromeda and so forth.
796
00:37:39,007 --> 00:37:42,177
And so there was a lull
in the conversation,
797
00:37:42,218 --> 00:37:45,930
and I must have been about
ten years old, I think,
798
00:37:45,972 --> 00:37:50,977
and so I all of a sudden
pointed up to the sky
799
00:37:51,019 --> 00:37:54,272
and said,
"There is Tralfamadore.
800
00:37:54,314 --> 00:37:57,817
I'
801
00:37:57,859 --> 00:38:01,070
[Kurt Vonnegut] "It was a
flying saucer from Tralfamadore.
802
00:38:01,112 --> 00:38:03,990
"The saucer was
100 feet in diameter
803
00:38:04,032 --> 00:38:06,075
"with portholes
around its rim.
804
00:38:06,117 --> 00:38:08,286
"It came down to
hover over Billy,
805
00:38:08,328 --> 00:38:09,996
"and to enclose him
in a cylinder
806
00:38:10,038 --> 00:38:11,331
of pulsing purple life."
807
00:38:11,372 --> 00:38:13,917
[applause]
808
00:38:13,958 --> 00:38:15,543
Where am I?
809
00:38:15,585 --> 00:38:17,921
[man] Welcome to the planet
Tralfamadore, Mr. Pilgrim.
810
00:38:18,671 --> 00:38:19,672
Oh, Finland.
811
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,092
-Tralfama--
-[man] Tralfamadore.
812
00:38:24,761 --> 00:38:25,845
How did I get here?
813
00:38:25,887 --> 00:38:27,722
There is no "how,"
Mr. Pilgrim.
814
00:38:27,764 --> 00:38:29,140
There is no "why."
815
00:38:29,182 --> 00:38:31,267
The moment simply is.
816
00:38:31,309 --> 00:38:33,728
[Kurt Vonnegut] I experimented
with the science fiction idea
817
00:38:33,770 --> 00:38:35,438
using it for relief...
818
00:38:36,231 --> 00:38:40,026
is to get some distance from
an atrocity of this sort
819
00:38:40,068 --> 00:38:43,988
to see how much it really
matters in the long view,
820
00:38:44,030 --> 00:38:46,908
and, uh, the science fiction
thing seemed to work.
821
00:38:47,492 --> 00:38:49,077
And it seemed to be amusing,
822
00:38:49,118 --> 00:38:51,079
and it seemed to lighten
the whole enterprise,
823
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:52,831
so I kept it in.
824
00:38:52,872 --> 00:38:54,290
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Later in life,
825
00:38:54,332 --> 00:38:56,084
"the Tralfamadoreans
would advise Billy
826
00:38:56,125 --> 00:38:58,878
"to concentrate on
the happy moments of his life,
827
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:00,797
"and to ignore
the unhappy ones;
828
00:39:00,839 --> 00:39:02,590
"to stare only at
pretty things
829
00:39:02,632 --> 00:39:04,676
as eternity
failed to go by."
830
00:39:04,717 --> 00:39:07,720
I'
831
00:39:10,139 --> 00:39:12,141
[Bob Weide] Most authors
impart life lessons to
832
00:39:12,183 --> 00:39:14,435
the readers
in their books.
833
00:39:14,477 --> 00:39:16,729
Kurt gave me life lessons
in his living room.
834
00:39:17,438 --> 00:39:20,275
We would talk about
almost anything.
835
00:39:21,776 --> 00:39:23,987
Kurt was very interested
in my dating life.
836
00:39:24,028 --> 00:39:25,947
He'd ask me about what kind of
girls I was meeting,
837
00:39:25,989 --> 00:39:29,158
and he loved living vicariously
through a younger person
838
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:30,201
who was still in
the open market.
839
00:39:31,411 --> 00:39:34,080
I met Linda in '94,
which was the same year
840
00:39:34,122 --> 00:39:35,582
that Kurt and I were in
Indianapolis,
841
00:39:35,623 --> 00:39:36,833
it was later that year.
842
00:39:36,875 --> 00:39:39,502
Vonnegut adored Linda.
843
00:39:39,544 --> 00:39:43,381
[narrator] "Dear Romeo: and
believe me that is some Juliet!
844
00:39:43,423 --> 00:39:46,050
Go for it! That redhead
is a keeper."
845
00:39:46,092 --> 00:39:47,552
'Cause he'd say to me,
"When are you gonna get married?
846
00:39:47,594 --> 00:39:48,928
When are you gonna
marry that girl?"
847
00:39:48,970 --> 00:39:50,930
I said, uh,
"Well, I don't know.
848
00:39:50,972 --> 00:39:52,974
"I kind of feel I'm ready but,
you know,
849
00:39:53,016 --> 00:39:55,810
I think if we get married,
I'm probably ruling out kids."
850
00:39:55,852 --> 00:39:59,230
I was in my late 30s.
851
00:39:59,272 --> 00:40:01,900
Now, Linda's age is
a state secret.
852
00:40:01,941 --> 00:40:04,944
I can't say, but she's got
a few years on me.
853
00:40:04,986 --> 00:40:07,572
If we wanted kids, we would have
had to get on that right away.
854
00:40:07,614 --> 00:40:09,115
And Kurt said,
"Uh-huh."
855
00:40:10,366 --> 00:40:11,659
But I could see him
working on it,
856
00:40:11,701 --> 00:40:14,662
you know, like--
like a math problem.
857
00:40:14,704 --> 00:40:17,332
Thought about if for a while and
then he looked at me and he said,
858
00:40:17,373 --> 00:40:18,458
"You don't need kids."
859
00:40:19,542 --> 00:40:22,420
I said, "Oh, okay.
Well, that's sorted."
860
00:40:23,129 --> 00:40:25,673
[man] This ceremony calls you
a lot of different names,
861
00:40:25,715 --> 00:40:27,842
man and woman...
862
00:40:27,884 --> 00:40:30,011
husband and wife,
bride and groom,
863
00:40:30,053 --> 00:40:32,931
but the most beautiful words are
the ones I recited in Hebrew
864
00:40:32,972 --> 00:40:35,850
which refer to both of you
as lovers and friends.
865
00:40:38,811 --> 00:40:41,272
[no audible dialog]
866
00:40:41,314 --> 00:40:44,317
I'
867
00:40:48,071 --> 00:40:50,782
[narrator]
"Dear Linda and Bob,
868
00:40:50,823 --> 00:40:54,285
"I've just FedExed
your wedding present.
869
00:40:54,327 --> 00:40:58,164
"It is a pair of
Victorian candlesticks
870
00:40:58,206 --> 00:41:03,252
"They are identical with a pair
I inherited from my father.
871
00:41:03,294 --> 00:41:06,756
"I have since given their like
to each of my children.
872
00:41:08,675 --> 00:41:11,761
"They have become
our family totem.
873
00:41:14,389 --> 00:41:16,474
Be happy. Kurt."
874
00:41:16,516 --> 00:41:19,519
I'
875
00:41:34,909 --> 00:41:36,536
[door creaking]
876
00:41:40,873 --> 00:41:43,334
[Kurt Vonnegut] "Our
cottage was sold to a stranger
877
00:41:43,376 --> 00:41:45,503
"at the end of
World War ll.
878
00:41:45,545 --> 00:41:47,797
"The buyer put off taking
possession for a week
879
00:41:47,839 --> 00:41:49,549
"in order that I,
880
00:41:49,590 --> 00:41:52,635
"just married after being
discharged from the army,
881
00:41:52,677 --> 00:41:54,846
might take my bride there
for a honeymoon."
882
00:41:55,179 --> 00:41:58,182
I'
883
00:42:00,727 --> 00:42:02,979
"My bride, who's
name was Jane Cox,
884
00:42:03,021 --> 00:42:05,314
"had me read
The Brothers Karamazov
885
00:42:05,356 --> 00:42:06,774
"during our honeymoon.
886
00:42:06,816 --> 00:42:10,069
"She considered it the greatest
of all novels.
887
00:42:10,111 --> 00:42:12,113
"Jane was a writer too,
by the way.
888
00:42:13,031 --> 00:42:15,867
[Edie Vonnegut] Kurt and Jane
were big book lovers.
889
00:42:15,908 --> 00:42:18,077
He would give her a book and
she would give him a book
890
00:42:18,119 --> 00:42:19,912
it would be inscribed
on the day,
891
00:42:19,954 --> 00:42:22,707
and that was the anchor
in their relationship,
892
00:42:22,749 --> 00:42:24,333
it's a love of literature.
893
00:42:24,959 --> 00:42:28,254
I mean, I know it was,
I've read their love letters.
894
00:42:28,296 --> 00:42:32,341
[narrator] "To Jane, whom I
love and shall love all my life.
895
00:42:32,383 --> 00:42:34,385
[continues reading]
896
00:42:41,017 --> 00:42:44,562
"Presented when we were too
young to even be engaged.
897
00:42:44,604 --> 00:42:45,646
Kurt."
898
00:42:45,980 --> 00:42:47,732
[Nanny Vonnegut] My
image of them is very sweet
899
00:42:47,774 --> 00:42:49,817
'cause she's very
round and small,
900
00:42:49,859 --> 00:42:52,653
and he's very tall and--
and they loved each other.
901
00:42:52,695 --> 00:42:55,990
He was very, very romantic.
She loved that.
902
00:42:57,575 --> 00:42:59,410
I remember her,
when I was little,
903
00:42:59,452 --> 00:43:01,120
saying
there's no other voice,
904
00:43:01,162 --> 00:43:03,122
nobody who can talk
like this man.
905
00:43:03,498 --> 00:43:06,167
Really encouraged him to write,
and said, you have to do this.
906
00:43:07,794 --> 00:43:09,337
[narrator]
"Beloved,
907
00:43:09,378 --> 00:43:10,797
"from your loving me,
908
00:43:10,838 --> 00:43:12,590
"I've drawn
a measure of courage
909
00:43:12,632 --> 00:43:15,384
"that never would have
come to me otherwise.
910
00:43:15,426 --> 00:43:18,596
"You've given me the courage
to be a writer.
911
00:43:18,638 --> 00:43:21,891
"That much of my life
has been decided.
912
00:43:21,933 --> 00:43:24,060
"Regardless of my epitaph,
913
00:43:24,102 --> 00:43:27,939
to be a writer will have been
my personal, ultimate goal."
914
00:43:28,898 --> 00:43:31,359
Kurt and Jane's first son
was born.
915
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:33,069
He was named for Mark Twain,
916
00:43:33,111 --> 00:43:35,822
and things became
quite different for Kurt.
917
00:43:36,322 --> 00:43:37,448
He needed a job.
918
00:43:38,366 --> 00:43:40,409
And here's where his
older brother, Bernard,
919
00:43:40,451 --> 00:43:41,452
came to the rescue.
920
00:43:42,829 --> 00:43:45,832
I'
921
00:43:49,877 --> 00:43:50,878
[snapping]
922
00:43:51,963 --> 00:43:55,091
[Jerome Klinkowitz] Bernard was
already a world famous physicist
923
00:43:55,133 --> 00:43:58,678
working in the research
laboratory at General Electric.
924
00:43:58,719 --> 00:43:59,929
[Ginger Strand]
At GE labs,
925
00:43:59,971 --> 00:44:01,931
Bernard and his colleagues
discovered
926
00:44:01,973 --> 00:44:04,142
a new way
of seeding clouds
927
00:44:04,183 --> 00:44:05,685
with the chemical,
silver iodide,
928
00:44:05,726 --> 00:44:07,854
in order to make
rain or snow.
929
00:44:08,479 --> 00:44:11,816
He was as big a celebrity
in his own field
930
00:44:11,858 --> 00:44:13,985
as his little brother
would become later.
931
00:44:14,277 --> 00:44:17,572
Bernard heard that the GE
News Bureau was looking for
932
00:44:17,613 --> 00:44:21,659
men to write, uh, publicity,
and Kurt took it.
933
00:44:24,495 --> 00:44:28,082
Kurt and Jane moved to
Alplaus, New York.
934
00:44:28,124 --> 00:44:30,209
Most of the people
who lived in Alplaus
935
00:44:30,251 --> 00:44:31,794
worked for General Electric.
936
00:44:32,670 --> 00:44:34,964
GE was a world unto itself.
937
00:44:35,006 --> 00:44:37,633
It had not only a huge factory,
938
00:44:37,675 --> 00:44:41,721
but the extensive research lab
that Bernard worked in.
939
00:44:41,762 --> 00:44:44,807
[Kurt Vonnegut] It was
one hell of a good company.
940
00:44:45,349 --> 00:44:48,269
It was the United States
at its best.
941
00:44:48,311 --> 00:44:49,770
[Ginger Strand]
Kurt's job was to
942
00:44:49,812 --> 00:44:51,439
go around the company
943
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:55,193
and learn about all these
fantastic scientific advances
944
00:44:55,234 --> 00:44:57,111
that the company was making.
945
00:44:57,153 --> 00:44:59,906
So he really was seeing
the future.
946
00:45:03,117 --> 00:45:04,577
Although he kept it a secret,
947
00:45:04,619 --> 00:45:07,622
he had a desk at home
and was working very hard
948
00:45:07,663 --> 00:45:11,459
to compose stories on evenings
and weekends.
949
00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:13,920
He and Jane studied
magazines together
950
00:45:13,961 --> 00:45:17,506
to try to figure out what
editors might want to buy.
951
00:45:17,548 --> 00:45:20,009
[man] He was writing,
writing, writing,
952
00:45:20,051 --> 00:45:22,887
and finally he had
something to write about.
953
00:45:22,929 --> 00:45:24,180
You'll get a kick out of this.
954
00:45:24,222 --> 00:45:26,390
It shows step-by-step
automation.
955
00:45:26,432 --> 00:45:28,976
I'
956
00:45:30,394 --> 00:45:33,356
[Kurt Vonnegut] My father and
my brother were both technocrats,
957
00:45:33,397 --> 00:45:35,858
and thought that engineers could
straighten out the world,
958
00:45:35,900 --> 00:45:37,485
and I believed that
for a long time.
959
00:45:37,944 --> 00:45:40,905
General Electric showed me
a milling machine
960
00:45:40,947 --> 00:45:43,157
which was being run
by punch cards
961
00:45:43,199 --> 00:45:45,159
that could do it better than
a man could.
962
00:45:45,785 --> 00:45:47,078
But they were ashamed.
963
00:45:47,536 --> 00:45:49,288
They were worried about
what they'd done
964
00:45:49,330 --> 00:45:50,998
and they felt guilt
about it,
965
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:54,585
and the whole emphasis now is
throwing people out of work.
966
00:45:55,628 --> 00:45:57,713
I was so optimistic about
science
967
00:45:57,755 --> 00:45:59,048
during the Great Depression
968
00:45:59,090 --> 00:46:02,885
that I almost believed that,
uh, by 1945,
969
00:46:02,927 --> 00:46:04,428
we would have cornered God,
970
00:46:04,470 --> 00:46:06,222
taken a color photograph of him,
971
00:46:06,264 --> 00:46:08,724
and printed it on the cover of
Popular Mechanics.
972
00:46:08,766 --> 00:46:11,477
-[laughter]
-And, uh, instead, of course,
973
00:46:11,519 --> 00:46:13,688
we-- we dropped a bomb
on Hiroshima.
974
00:46:14,855 --> 00:46:18,985
After seeing what
scientific truth could do,
975
00:46:19,026 --> 00:46:20,569
I lost interest in truths,
976
00:46:20,611 --> 00:46:23,698
and I've been trying to think up
neat lies ever since.
977
00:46:23,739 --> 00:46:25,783
[tyepewriter clacking]
978
00:46:26,367 --> 00:46:28,786
[Ginger Strand] Kurt had had
the idea for a novel
979
00:46:28,828 --> 00:46:30,579
about a GE like company.
980
00:46:30,621 --> 00:46:33,791
He began working on what would
become Player Piano,
981
00:46:33,833 --> 00:46:35,418
which he saw as the novel
982
00:46:35,459 --> 00:46:38,045
that would make his
literary reputation.
983
00:46:38,587 --> 00:46:41,799
It's about a future
in which machines
984
00:46:41,841 --> 00:46:44,218
have entirely replaced
human beings.
985
00:46:44,260 --> 00:46:47,805
[Jerome Klinkowitz] People, by
not having meaningful work to do,
986
00:46:47,847 --> 00:46:50,266
begin to think their lives
themselves
987
00:46:50,308 --> 00:46:51,851
are not meaningful.
988
00:46:51,892 --> 00:46:55,396
But he realized he could
never hope to publish this novel
989
00:46:55,438 --> 00:46:58,441
and continue working at GE.
990
00:46:58,482 --> 00:47:01,485
I'
991
00:47:01,777 --> 00:47:04,030
The work he had to do was,
you know,
992
00:47:04,071 --> 00:47:07,158
sitting in a cubicle
typing up public relations.
993
00:47:07,992 --> 00:47:10,619
[Ginger Strand] GE very much
wanted to tell you how to think,
994
00:47:10,661 --> 00:47:11,912
so as he worked there,
995
00:47:11,954 --> 00:47:14,582
he grew more and more
uncomfortable,
996
00:47:14,623 --> 00:47:17,043
with the job of
company man.
997
00:47:17,084 --> 00:47:19,545
And it was, in fact,
Jane who convinced him
998
00:47:19,587 --> 00:47:21,881
to take himself seriously
as a writer.
999
00:47:23,049 --> 00:47:24,967
Kurt's advance for
Player Piano
1000
00:47:25,009 --> 00:47:27,011
was $2500.
1001
00:47:27,470 --> 00:47:29,388
It as a good pay out,
1002
00:47:29,430 --> 00:47:31,474
but a novel takes
a year to write.
1003
00:47:31,515 --> 00:47:34,727
It was a much better living
to write short stories,
1004
00:47:34,769 --> 00:47:37,229
which he could crank out
in a couple of weeks.
1005
00:47:37,271 --> 00:47:41,359
He set himself this goal
of selling five
1006
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,652
before he would allow himself
to quit his job.
1007
00:47:46,155 --> 00:47:47,990
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Writing for the magazines
1008
00:47:48,032 --> 00:47:51,243
they told me an awful lot about
how to tell a story.
1009
00:47:51,285 --> 00:47:53,287
[typewriter clacking]
1010
00:47:54,663 --> 00:47:56,290
I would mail off a story,
1011
00:47:56,332 --> 00:47:58,125
and then wait for
the money to come
1012
00:47:58,167 --> 00:47:59,627
and the money
wouldn't come.
1013
00:48:01,796 --> 00:48:03,964
The story would come back
instead,
1014
00:48:04,006 --> 00:48:06,092
and they would tell me
what was wrong with it.
1015
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,763
I'
1016
00:48:11,389 --> 00:48:12,932
[Nanny Vonnegut]
And it was slow going.
1017
00:48:12,973 --> 00:48:15,559
You wouldn't believe the piles
of rejection letters,
1018
00:48:15,601 --> 00:48:17,144
piles, I mean, this thick.
1019
00:48:18,437 --> 00:48:19,980
[Ginger Strand]
His father never thought
1020
00:48:20,022 --> 00:48:23,442
he would have it in him
to make a living as a writer.
1021
00:48:23,484 --> 00:48:25,653
He probably needed to prove it
to himself
1022
00:48:25,694 --> 00:48:28,739
that he would, in fact,
be able to support his family.
1023
00:48:28,781 --> 00:48:31,784
In spite of the rejection
letters that piled up,
1024
00:48:31,826 --> 00:48:34,286
Jane was
incredibly encouraging.
1025
00:48:34,745 --> 00:48:36,330
[Edie Vonnegut]
She's writing to editors,
1026
00:48:36,372 --> 00:48:38,958
please read this,
it's my husband,
1027
00:48:38,999 --> 00:48:42,044
and no one knows it now,
but he's very gifted.
1028
00:48:42,628 --> 00:48:44,422
[Nanny Vonnegut] They were
very passionate, long letters,
1029
00:48:44,463 --> 00:48:46,340
like, you don't even know
what you gave up.
1030
00:48:46,382 --> 00:48:49,176
She was fierce, just saying
this man is a genius.
1031
00:48:49,218 --> 00:48:50,719
[Mark Vonnegut] I mean,
she believed in him
1032
00:48:50,761 --> 00:48:52,179
in a way I don't think he did.
1033
00:48:52,555 --> 00:48:54,932
He would have given up
without her.
1034
00:48:54,974 --> 00:48:57,601
[Ginger Strand] One day, while
he was still working at GE,
1035
00:48:57,643 --> 00:49:00,646
he came home and there
sitting on the piano
1036
00:49:00,688 --> 00:49:03,524
where Jane had put it
was a check for
1037
00:49:03,566 --> 00:49:05,568
the first short story
that he ever sold
1038
00:49:05,609 --> 00:49:08,279
Report on the Barnhouse Effect
for Collier's.
1039
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:11,323
I'
1040
00:49:15,411 --> 00:49:16,996
[Bob Weide] Why don't
you explain what that is.
1041
00:49:17,037 --> 00:49:22,209
Yeah. Well, this is a letter
dated October 28, 1949.
1042
00:49:22,793 --> 00:49:24,628
And I wrote it to my father.
1043
00:49:24,670 --> 00:49:27,381
[reading]
1044
00:49:27,423 --> 00:49:29,258
"I think I'm on my way.
1045
00:49:29,300 --> 00:49:32,303
[continues reading]
1046
00:49:34,305 --> 00:49:37,349
"I will then quit this
goddamn nightmare job,
1047
00:49:37,391 --> 00:49:39,393
"and never take another one
so long as I live,
1048
00:49:39,435 --> 00:49:40,644
"so help me God.
1049
00:49:40,686 --> 00:49:42,688
[continues reading]
1050
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:46,859
"Love, K," which is
my family nickname.
1051
00:49:46,901 --> 00:49:50,988
And father glued this to
a piece of Masonite
1052
00:49:51,030 --> 00:49:52,323
and varnished it,
1053
00:49:52,364 --> 00:49:56,035
and on the back of
this plaque, uh,
1054
00:49:56,076 --> 00:49:58,621
he has this Shakespearean
quotation.
1055
00:49:58,662 --> 00:50:01,499
"An oath, an oath,
I have an oath in Heaven:
1056
00:50:01,540 --> 00:50:04,001
Shall I lay perjury on my soul?"
1057
00:50:04,043 --> 00:50:07,046
I'
1058
00:50:07,963 --> 00:50:10,257
[Kurt Vonnegut] There was
an enormous magazine industry,
1059
00:50:10,299 --> 00:50:12,968
which paid very high prices
for stories,
1060
00:50:13,010 --> 00:50:14,345
and they needed lots of them.
1061
00:50:14,386 --> 00:50:16,347
They paid tons of money
for them.
1062
00:50:16,388 --> 00:50:18,682
[Ginger Strand] Short stories
were popular entertainment.
1063
00:50:18,724 --> 00:50:21,560
They really were
the television of the era.
1064
00:50:21,852 --> 00:50:23,479
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I had money piled up.
1065
00:50:23,521 --> 00:50:25,523
[laughing]
1066
00:50:25,564 --> 00:50:27,316
I'd never been this rich.
1067
00:50:27,775 --> 00:50:31,362
In a period of a few months,
I had made more money than
1068
00:50:31,403 --> 00:50:33,948
General Electric was prepared
to pay me all year.
1069
00:50:34,406 --> 00:50:35,950
[Ginger Strand]
It quickly became apparent
1070
00:50:35,991 --> 00:50:39,036
that they really had no reason
to stay in Schenectady.
1071
00:50:39,453 --> 00:50:43,165
At the end of 1950,
he handed in his notice to GE
1072
00:50:43,207 --> 00:50:45,834
and decided that he was
going to be a writer full time.
1073
00:50:46,961 --> 00:50:48,963
[birds chirping]
1074
00:50:51,465 --> 00:50:54,969
I'
1075
00:50:55,010 --> 00:50:56,637
[narrator]
"Dear Bob,
1076
00:50:56,679 --> 00:51:00,432
[reading]
1077
00:51:00,474 --> 00:51:03,686
"Have Edie show you
the underpass on route 6-A
1078
00:51:03,727 --> 00:51:06,146
"where she has painted angels.
1079
00:51:06,188 --> 00:51:08,691
"And the stone garage
in West Barnstable
1080
00:51:08,732 --> 00:51:11,860
"where I sold Saabs and
wrote Rosewater.
1081
00:51:11,902 --> 00:51:13,779
"And the Barnstable
Comedy Club
1082
00:51:13,821 --> 00:51:15,364
of which
I was once president
1083
00:51:15,406 --> 00:51:18,200
"and which inspired
Who Am I This Time?
1084
00:51:18,242 --> 00:51:20,578
"And the Madonna in
St. Mary's Church
1085
00:51:20,619 --> 00:51:23,497
"which I gave to the church
in memory of my sister
1086
00:51:23,539 --> 00:51:25,249
after our father died."
1087
00:51:27,209 --> 00:51:29,587
[Bob Weide] Why don't we
start by getting us orientated
1088
00:51:29,628 --> 00:51:30,963
and just telling us
what is--
1089
00:51:31,005 --> 00:51:32,548
What is the significance of
where we are?
1090
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:35,926
[Nanny Vonnegut]
This is Barnstable.
1091
00:51:37,803 --> 00:51:39,346
Sweet little town of
Barnstable.
1092
00:51:40,514 --> 00:51:42,641
This is where they
started their life.
1093
00:51:46,353 --> 00:51:48,689
[Edie Vonnegut] Barnstable
was a great place to write
1094
00:51:48,731 --> 00:51:50,482
and he could get to
New York easily,
1095
00:51:50,524 --> 00:51:51,942
and meet editors.
1096
00:51:51,984 --> 00:51:53,944
But he didn't have
a job, really.
1097
00:51:53,986 --> 00:51:56,989
He cut all his safety nets by
quitting General Electric
1098
00:51:57,031 --> 00:51:58,240
and coming here.
1099
00:51:59,908 --> 00:52:02,202
He was probably
the only writer in town.
1100
00:52:02,244 --> 00:52:04,455
I'
1101
00:52:04,496 --> 00:52:07,708
[Bob Weide]
Edie still lives in Cape Cod
1102
00:52:07,750 --> 00:52:10,252
in the house that the
Vonnegut family grew up in
1103
00:52:10,294 --> 00:52:11,378
in West Barnstable.
1104
00:52:12,046 --> 00:52:15,591
To me, it was thrilling just to
go and-- and film these sites,
1105
00:52:15,633 --> 00:52:19,928
to be able to look at the house
where Kurt Vonnegut lived.
1106
00:52:19,970 --> 00:52:22,973
I'
1107
00:52:34,818 --> 00:52:37,029
If someone had told
the high school me
1108
00:52:37,071 --> 00:52:39,573
that someday I'd spend
several nights in the room where
1109
00:52:39,615 --> 00:52:41,992
Kurt Vonnegut
wrote all those books,
1110
00:52:42,034 --> 00:52:43,786
I think my head
would have exploded.
1111
00:52:45,663 --> 00:52:46,955
There'd be hair everywhere.
1112
00:52:47,247 --> 00:52:50,250
I'
1113
00:52:54,630 --> 00:52:57,591
Okay.
This is Kurt's studio.
1114
00:52:58,842 --> 00:53:01,261
And when he couldn't write,
he would paint doors.
1115
00:53:01,595 --> 00:53:04,765
I remember it being just a mess,
papers everywhere,
1116
00:53:04,807 --> 00:53:07,226
and toxic with smoke.
1117
00:53:07,267 --> 00:53:09,728
He would play the worst music
on the radio.
1118
00:53:09,770 --> 00:53:11,772
Muzak. Elevator music.
1119
00:53:12,523 --> 00:53:14,316
-Do you remember that?
-[chuckles] Yeah.
1120
00:53:14,358 --> 00:53:15,943
-Horrible, annoying music.
-[Edie Vonnegut] It was hideous.
1121
00:53:15,984 --> 00:53:18,946
♪ [Muzak]
1122
00:53:18,987 --> 00:53:22,908
[Edie Vonnegut] He carved
these words, which are Thoreau's,
1123
00:53:22,950 --> 00:53:24,993
and it says,
"Beware of all enterprises
1124
00:53:25,035 --> 00:53:26,829
that require new clothes,"
1125
00:53:26,870 --> 00:53:28,539
which led all of us children
to think
1126
00:53:28,580 --> 00:53:29,790
we never had to get a job,
1127
00:53:29,832 --> 00:53:31,667
-don't you think?
-[chuckling]
1128
00:53:31,709 --> 00:53:34,920
Kurt would write, like,
all stooped over
1129
00:53:34,962 --> 00:53:36,588
on this low table.
1130
00:53:36,630 --> 00:53:38,090
Your posture's too good,
you know,
1131
00:53:38,132 --> 00:53:39,633
-it's gotta be really bent there.
-Okay, and--
1132
00:53:39,675 --> 00:53:42,636
-And his knees were up here.
-His knees were up here,
1133
00:53:42,678 --> 00:53:43,846
and it was beautiful.
1134
00:53:43,887 --> 00:53:45,806
Also, he'd have
his ankles crossed,
1135
00:53:45,848 --> 00:53:47,433
he had really long legs,
1136
00:53:47,474 --> 00:53:49,518
and so he would be
all hunched over.
1137
00:53:49,810 --> 00:53:52,604
[clacking]
1138
00:53:52,646 --> 00:53:54,106
It had a-- a music to it,
1139
00:53:54,148 --> 00:53:57,985
it would stop and...
go fast and then stop
1140
00:53:58,026 --> 00:54:00,404
and... like that.
1141
00:54:01,697 --> 00:54:03,699
[typewriter clacking]
1142
00:54:03,741 --> 00:54:05,117
[Nanny Vonnegut]
He was funny
1143
00:54:05,159 --> 00:54:06,410
and we was always trying
to teach us stuff, too.
1144
00:54:06,452 --> 00:54:07,870
He was very smart.
1145
00:54:07,911 --> 00:54:09,872
He took a break once
and wanted to sit me down
1146
00:54:09,913 --> 00:54:11,999
and give me a little lesson
about life.
1147
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:14,793
And he said, "As soon as you
think life is turning up roses,
1148
00:54:14,835 --> 00:54:16,044
it gonna turn to shit.
1149
00:54:16,086 --> 00:54:18,005
We're being racked up
by technology.
1150
00:54:18,046 --> 00:54:19,631
The magazines got
knocked out,
1151
00:54:19,673 --> 00:54:21,258
not by any
spiritual change
1152
00:54:21,300 --> 00:54:24,636
but by the invention of
practical television.
1153
00:54:25,095 --> 00:54:27,598
[Jerome Klinkowitz] TV is now
controlling the entertainment industry,
1154
00:54:27,639 --> 00:54:29,641
and that's how Vonnegut
starts losing
1155
00:54:29,683 --> 00:54:31,059
his short story markets.
1156
00:54:31,101 --> 00:54:33,187
As he put it,
television came
1157
00:54:33,228 --> 00:54:35,856
and my cash cows all died.
1158
00:54:38,525 --> 00:54:39,902
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Vonnegut realizes
1159
00:54:39,943 --> 00:54:41,945
he's gonna have to write novels
to make money.
1160
00:54:41,987 --> 00:54:45,741
The problem was, he could get
an advance for a novel,
1161
00:54:45,783 --> 00:54:48,660
2500 bucks, 3,000 tops,
1162
00:54:48,702 --> 00:54:51,413
that would take him
two years to write.
1163
00:54:51,455 --> 00:54:54,082
[Ginger Strand] Player
Piano was published in 1952.
1164
00:54:54,374 --> 00:54:57,544
It pretty quickly disappeared
from the literary scene.
1165
00:54:57,586 --> 00:55:02,382
And then he spends 17 years
writing every day
1166
00:55:02,424 --> 00:55:05,344
and striving for
a literary reputation.
1167
00:55:05,385 --> 00:55:07,805
It wasn't practical at all
to be a writer.
1168
00:55:08,430 --> 00:55:10,974
Everyone else's fathers
had jobs.
1169
00:55:11,016 --> 00:55:14,019
I think Kurt and Jane
felt like bumpkins.
1170
00:55:14,061 --> 00:55:16,772
There weren't that many people
that Dad could talk to.
1171
00:55:16,814 --> 00:55:18,941
So he was
a little lonesome here.
1172
00:55:18,982 --> 00:55:20,859
Ultimately, I think it was
good for him.
1173
00:55:20,901 --> 00:55:22,903
I think he wrote
his best books here
1174
00:55:22,945 --> 00:55:25,447
because he didn't have
any distractions.
1175
00:55:25,489 --> 00:55:27,115
[Nanny Vonnegut] He just
always had a story in his head.
1176
00:55:27,157 --> 00:55:30,202
You could tell. He was always
talking about it, an idea.
1177
00:55:30,494 --> 00:55:32,788
Just seeing what my--
the chapters in his life,
1178
00:55:32,830 --> 00:55:34,373
what he'd
already been through,
1179
00:55:34,414 --> 00:55:37,835
what he had survived at 20--
prisoner of war--
1180
00:55:37,876 --> 00:55:40,295
And then his--
his losing his sister.
1181
00:55:40,337 --> 00:55:42,339
[clicking]
1182
00:55:44,132 --> 00:55:45,884
[indistinct dialog]
1183
00:55:46,844 --> 00:55:50,055
[Kurt Vonnegut] The way to
achieve artistic wholeness...
1184
00:55:50,097 --> 00:55:53,392
is to create for
one person... in mind.
1185
00:55:53,433 --> 00:55:55,227
And I thought about it
and realized
1186
00:55:55,269 --> 00:55:57,521
that I write with
my sister in mind.
1187
00:55:59,064 --> 00:56:02,067
I'
1188
00:56:09,366 --> 00:56:11,451
[Edie Vonnegut]
The situation was
1189
00:56:11,493 --> 00:56:13,745
that Kurt's sister, Allie,
had cancer.
1190
00:56:14,037 --> 00:56:16,915
So a tragedy was coming,
it was inevitable,
1191
00:56:16,957 --> 00:56:19,251
she had terminal cancer,
she had it everywhere.
1192
00:56:19,585 --> 00:56:21,169
And she was going to die.
1193
00:56:21,211 --> 00:56:22,754
She had four sons,
1194
00:56:22,796 --> 00:56:25,841
and her husband, Jim, was gonna
take care of the boys.
1195
00:56:25,883 --> 00:56:28,260
And the horrible thing
that happened
1196
00:56:28,302 --> 00:56:31,346
was he would commute on
a train to Manhattan,
1197
00:56:31,388 --> 00:56:33,974
and his train went over
an open drawbridge.
1198
00:56:34,683 --> 00:56:35,893
And he drowned.
1199
00:56:37,394 --> 00:56:39,771
I'
1200
00:56:39,813 --> 00:56:42,983
But Allie was in the hospital.
She wasn't supposed to die
1201
00:56:43,025 --> 00:56:45,152
for another month or
maybe two months.
1202
00:56:46,278 --> 00:56:48,822
And the nurse gave her
the newspaper.
1203
00:56:50,782 --> 00:56:52,951
And she knew that Jim
was on that train.
1204
00:56:55,329 --> 00:56:57,164
She died two days later.
1205
00:56:58,665 --> 00:57:01,668
I'
1206
00:57:03,503 --> 00:57:05,297
[Nanny Vonnegut] I don't
think he can, even now,
1207
00:57:05,339 --> 00:57:06,715
get his arms around it.
1208
00:57:08,967 --> 00:57:12,596
I think Allie's death was
the biggest loss of his life.
1209
00:57:12,638 --> 00:57:15,641
I'
1210
00:57:17,225 --> 00:57:20,187
[Kurt Vonnegut] Sadness is
an interesting emotion.
1211
00:57:21,063 --> 00:57:23,732
You really don't know how
anything's gonna hit you.
1212
00:57:25,442 --> 00:57:27,861
And I can't bear to look at
photo albums,
1213
00:57:27,903 --> 00:57:29,780
'cause they just make me
terribly sad.
1214
00:57:34,159 --> 00:57:38,246
I-- I think of all that's gone
and will never come back.
1215
00:57:38,288 --> 00:57:41,291
I'
1216
00:57:42,584 --> 00:57:43,961
[Nanny Vonnegut]
If you look at the films,
1217
00:57:44,002 --> 00:57:45,629
she's very protective
of him,
1218
00:57:45,671 --> 00:57:48,298
and is hovering over him
and just adored him.
1219
00:57:49,007 --> 00:57:52,260
I mean, that was just the purest
type of love there is.
1220
00:57:53,845 --> 00:57:56,848
I'
1221
00:57:57,766 --> 00:57:59,851
[Edie Vonnegut]
Kurt had to drive up there
1222
00:57:59,893 --> 00:58:02,354
and see Allie
before she died.
1223
00:58:03,063 --> 00:58:06,108
And she was able to say,
1224
00:58:06,149 --> 00:58:07,693
"Keep my boys together."
1225
00:58:09,486 --> 00:58:12,489
I'
1226
00:58:16,159 --> 00:58:19,830
The gesture that Kurt made
to take all four of us,
1227
00:58:19,871 --> 00:58:21,915
was really extraordinary.
1228
00:58:22,624 --> 00:58:24,584
I can't imagine anybody else
doing it.
1229
00:58:24,626 --> 00:58:25,877
He really did it.
1230
00:58:27,504 --> 00:58:29,214
[Mark Vonnegut]
He came back with the kids,
1231
00:58:29,256 --> 00:58:30,590
two dogs
and a pet rabbit.
1232
00:58:31,383 --> 00:58:34,553
And, uh, changed
everybody's life.
1233
00:58:37,472 --> 00:58:39,850
[Edie Vonnegut] And it
seems like destiny now.
1234
00:58:39,891 --> 00:58:42,728
Over night, our house
went from being
1235
00:58:42,769 --> 00:58:46,023
a quiet place with three
well behaved kids,
1236
00:58:46,064 --> 00:58:48,900
to seven kids out of control.
1237
00:58:49,735 --> 00:58:52,738
I'
1238
00:58:53,613 --> 00:58:55,574
There was a lot of
running around,
1239
00:58:55,615 --> 00:58:56,992
playfulness and activity
1240
00:58:57,034 --> 00:58:58,660
and horrible practical joking.
1241
00:58:59,703 --> 00:59:01,121
[Jim Adams] It wasn't long
after we moved over there
1242
00:59:01,163 --> 00:59:02,706
when I started raising hell.
1243
00:59:02,748 --> 00:59:05,667
We'd break into houses,
we'd break windows,
1244
00:59:05,709 --> 00:59:08,795
we'd make bombs and blow up
doors in mailboxes.
1245
00:59:08,837 --> 00:59:11,131
I thought it was terrific fun.
1246
00:59:11,173 --> 00:59:12,549
We were
one-stop shopping for
1247
00:59:12,591 --> 00:59:14,217
the Barnstable
police department.
1248
00:59:14,593 --> 00:59:16,553
They would just pull into
the driveway
1249
00:59:16,595 --> 00:59:18,805
and try to figure out
which kid had done it.
1250
00:59:18,847 --> 00:59:21,099
All the other kids
loved it over there
1251
00:59:21,141 --> 00:59:23,060
because it was just like
free-for-all.
1252
00:59:23,101 --> 00:59:24,186
[Nanny Vonnegut]
It was just total chaos
1253
00:59:24,227 --> 00:59:25,395
from my point of view,
1254
00:59:25,437 --> 00:59:26,605
and it was just great chaos.
1255
00:59:26,646 --> 00:59:28,857
[chuckles]
We were running wild.
1256
00:59:28,899 --> 00:59:31,193
And he was writing
through all this.
1257
00:59:31,234 --> 00:59:34,529
[Edie Vonnegut] Kurt's studio
was off the end of the house.
1258
00:59:34,571 --> 00:59:37,491
And he would come out
and just, "Shut up!"
1259
00:59:37,532 --> 00:59:39,451
"Shut up.
Shut up."
1260
00:59:39,493 --> 00:59:41,078
"All you kids, shut up!"
1261
00:59:43,455 --> 00:59:45,040
[Kurt Adams]
He was moody.
1262
00:59:45,082 --> 00:59:46,875
-[Steve Adams] He was scary.
-[Kurt Adams] Scary moody.
1263
00:59:46,917 --> 00:59:49,795
He'd come storming out of
his study and, ooh.
1264
00:59:49,836 --> 00:59:51,671
You never knew what
you were gonna get.
1265
00:59:51,713 --> 00:59:53,965
You had to be
sort of on guard
1266
00:59:54,007 --> 00:59:56,802
so as not to get his wrath.
1267
00:59:57,511 --> 00:59:59,846
[Bob Weide] ls there any way
that you would describe him as
1268
00:59:59,888 --> 01:00:02,641
-cuddly or...
-[laughs]
1269
01:00:03,725 --> 01:00:04,768
No.
1270
01:00:06,686 --> 01:00:09,064
I don't think he wanted too much
cuddling. [chuckles]
1271
01:00:10,148 --> 01:00:11,817
He cuddled with the dog.
1272
01:00:13,610 --> 01:00:16,696
[Edie Vonnegut] Kurt would roll
around with Sandy on the kitchen floor,
1273
01:00:16,738 --> 01:00:19,282
and I remember always being
a little jealous.
1274
01:00:19,324 --> 01:00:22,119
Why doesn't he wrestle with me
like that? [chuckles]
1275
01:00:24,538 --> 01:00:25,747
[Mark Vonnegut]
He said to us sometimes,
1276
01:00:25,789 --> 01:00:27,541
"Please let me off
the father hook,"
1277
01:00:27,582 --> 01:00:29,334
which is not a good thing
to say to your children,
1278
01:00:29,376 --> 01:00:31,586
but... [laughs]
1279
01:00:31,628 --> 01:00:33,046
Nobody's perfect.
1280
01:00:33,922 --> 01:00:36,341
[Nanny Vonnegut] It was so
intense what he was doing.
1281
01:00:37,342 --> 01:00:40,053
As family, you learn how to
stay clear.
1282
01:00:40,637 --> 01:00:42,848
My mother was a huge force.
1283
01:00:42,889 --> 01:00:45,851
She was his gatekeeper
and guarded that door.
1284
01:00:45,892 --> 01:00:47,352
She sort of
trapped him in there
1285
01:00:47,394 --> 01:00:48,937
and said,
"You have to do this."
1286
01:00:49,271 --> 01:00:50,647
Really encouraged him to write.
1287
01:00:51,606 --> 01:00:54,484
[Jim Adams] Jane was always
washing clothes,
1288
01:00:54,526 --> 01:00:56,069
vacuuming, sweeping.
1289
01:00:56,111 --> 01:00:58,572
Kurt was not a sharer of
domestic duties.
1290
01:00:58,864 --> 01:01:00,073
Kurt didn't do anything.
1291
01:01:00,115 --> 01:01:01,408
He'd come out,
he'd make a sandwich,
1292
01:01:01,449 --> 01:01:04,119
or he'd go on walks,
chew on paper,
1293
01:01:04,161 --> 01:01:05,954
and be scary,
really scary,
1294
01:01:05,996 --> 01:01:08,290
and-- and Jane was
scared of him, too.
1295
01:01:09,124 --> 01:01:10,458
Everybody was scared of him.
1296
01:01:12,460 --> 01:01:15,380
[Edie Vonnegut] I could tell when he
was having a good day and a bad day.
1297
01:01:15,422 --> 01:01:17,591
Definitely. 'Cause he just
wouldn't talk to you.
1298
01:01:18,383 --> 01:01:20,093
And he would be smoking
and, you know,
1299
01:01:20,135 --> 01:01:21,761
his head coming through
that door.
1300
01:01:21,803 --> 01:01:23,889
You just didn't mess with him
'cause it wouldn't be fun.
1301
01:01:23,930 --> 01:01:26,892
I mean, there were times when
he would be just incredibly fun.
1302
01:01:26,933 --> 01:01:29,394
I'
1303
01:01:29,436 --> 01:01:31,021
[Nanny Vonnegut] Oh, when
he had a good writing day,
1304
01:01:31,062 --> 01:01:33,356
he'd be really happy, it was
kind of a manic lifestyle.
1305
01:01:33,398 --> 01:01:35,901
And we'd have these
wonderful music times
1306
01:01:35,942 --> 01:01:38,778
where we'd all be pounding on
music and singing.
1307
01:01:40,947 --> 01:01:43,575
-He'd be doing poetry and--
-He'd be right there,
1308
01:01:43,617 --> 01:01:44,618
right there.
1309
01:01:45,827 --> 01:01:47,704
[Jim Adams] The next day,
it'd just all turn to shit,
1310
01:01:47,746 --> 01:01:49,789
and he's back in his study
and he doesn't want to have
1311
01:01:49,831 --> 01:01:51,166
anything to do with
anybody and...
1312
01:01:52,709 --> 01:01:54,669
[typewriter clacking]
1313
01:01:54,711 --> 01:01:57,005
[Steve Adams] Kurt may not
have been an attentive father
1314
01:01:57,047 --> 01:01:59,799
or father figure,
but I do understand it.
1315
01:01:59,841 --> 01:02:02,844
He was-- He was a writer,
and that's what he was.
1316
01:02:02,886 --> 01:02:05,013
And he had all this crap
going on in his head.
1317
01:02:05,055 --> 01:02:08,934
And therefore, when he's going
from the study to the kitchen,
1318
01:02:08,975 --> 01:02:10,310
what's going on in his mind
1319
01:02:10,352 --> 01:02:12,312
are the books that
everybody's loving.
1320
01:02:12,354 --> 01:02:14,356
[typewriter clacking]
1321
01:02:15,982 --> 01:02:18,693
[Edie Vonnegut] I had no
sense of who he was at all,
1322
01:02:18,735 --> 01:02:20,612
I don't think,
until I read something.
1323
01:02:21,613 --> 01:02:24,991
And it just amazed me that
this man lived downstairs.
1324
01:02:26,034 --> 01:02:27,285
I just loved it.
1325
01:02:28,078 --> 01:02:31,581
It's pretty remarkable that
by the mid 1960s,
1326
01:02:31,623 --> 01:02:33,208
he'd written
Sirens of Titan,
1327
01:02:33,250 --> 01:02:34,793
a mind-blowing
space opera,
1328
01:02:34,834 --> 01:02:37,671
that made a lot of people wonder
what drugs he was on.
1329
01:02:37,712 --> 01:02:40,298
Mother Night,
great morality tale.
1330
01:02:40,340 --> 01:02:41,549
Cat's Cradle,
which made him
1331
01:02:41,591 --> 01:02:43,426
a cult figure on
college campuses.
1332
01:02:43,468 --> 01:02:45,428
This is all pre
Slaughterhouse-Five.
1333
01:02:45,470 --> 01:02:47,722
You know, Slaughterhouse-Five
is okay for me.
1334
01:02:47,764 --> 01:02:49,849
But Cat's Cradle
and Sirens of Titan
1335
01:02:49,891 --> 01:02:51,685
today remain my
favorite books.
1336
01:02:51,726 --> 01:02:53,353
[man]
He really emerged as a writer
1337
01:02:53,395 --> 01:02:55,647
and I have to think it was
because there were no prospects.
1338
01:02:55,689 --> 01:02:57,399
Who cares?
None of this stuff is--
1339
01:02:57,440 --> 01:02:59,276
Is being published as
paperback originals.
1340
01:02:59,317 --> 01:03:02,195
It's disappearing before it
even hits the stands,
1341
01:03:02,237 --> 01:03:04,489
you know, so why not
just go for it?
1342
01:03:04,531 --> 01:03:06,157
It had never occurred to me that
1343
01:03:06,199 --> 01:03:07,575
someone could write a comedy
about the end of the world.
1344
01:03:08,076 --> 01:03:10,078
[Kurt Vonnegut reading]
1345
01:03:20,463 --> 01:03:23,675
I loved him for being fantastic
and creating religions
1346
01:03:23,717 --> 01:03:26,469
and talking about
God's travel plans.
1347
01:03:26,511 --> 01:03:28,638
[Nanny Vonnegut] My mother
was so excited about those.
1348
01:03:28,680 --> 01:03:30,724
I mean, she could not believe
how great these were,
1349
01:03:30,765 --> 01:03:32,475
and it was slow going.
1350
01:03:32,517 --> 01:03:34,978
[Mark Vonnegut] Jane would
do anything to help Kurt along,
1351
01:03:35,020 --> 01:03:36,938
to the point of
going to bookstores
1352
01:03:36,980 --> 01:03:39,691
and under a fake name
ordering his books.
1353
01:03:40,066 --> 01:03:42,902
You could tell that these were
not big financial boons
1354
01:03:42,944 --> 01:03:45,905
because he had to accept,
like, a sexy cover
1355
01:03:45,947 --> 01:03:48,742
for Sirens of Titan when
there's no sex in the book,
1356
01:03:48,783 --> 01:03:50,827
so here you would
write a novel
1357
01:03:50,869 --> 01:03:53,288
and you would get
less than $1,000.
1358
01:03:53,330 --> 01:03:57,083
When I was 12, he sincerely
and utterly came to me
1359
01:03:57,125 --> 01:03:59,002
and asked if he could
borrow $100
1360
01:03:59,044 --> 01:04:01,379
that I had saved up from
my paper route.
1361
01:04:02,380 --> 01:04:04,049
I had money and he didn't.
1362
01:04:04,632 --> 01:04:07,844
The normal answer, uh,
for most people
1363
01:04:07,886 --> 01:04:10,388
would have been to get
a good paying job.
1364
01:04:12,432 --> 01:04:15,435
My favorite one is where he got
a job for Sports Illustrated.
1365
01:04:15,894 --> 01:04:17,896
He wouldn't do the job.
1366
01:04:17,937 --> 01:04:20,899
He would be given a chore
to talk about a horse race.
1367
01:04:20,940 --> 01:04:23,818
[Mark Vonnegut] And he was given
the assignment of writing about
1368
01:04:23,860 --> 01:04:25,528
this horse that broke away,
1369
01:04:25,570 --> 01:04:29,491
and Kurt sat there all morning,
and then he typed out...
1370
01:04:29,532 --> 01:04:31,743
[Edie reading]
1371
01:04:32,827 --> 01:04:34,829
And then leave.
Did you hear that story?
1372
01:04:34,871 --> 01:04:37,290
His attempts to work
regular jobs
1373
01:04:37,332 --> 01:04:38,541
didn't go well.
1374
01:04:38,583 --> 01:04:41,544
I'
1375
01:04:41,586 --> 01:04:42,962
[Kurt Vonnegut] When I
went broke as a writer,
1376
01:04:43,004 --> 01:04:45,090
I got an automobile dealership,
you know.
1377
01:04:45,131 --> 01:04:48,426
It was one of the first Saab
dealers in the United States.
1378
01:04:48,760 --> 01:04:50,637
[Edie Vonnegut] We had
a red one and he used to
1379
01:04:50,678 --> 01:04:53,306
put my mother on the hood
and take pictures of her.
1380
01:04:53,348 --> 01:04:55,100
People wouldn't
pay for their cars
1381
01:04:55,141 --> 01:04:57,352
and he'd have to go
and repossess them.
1382
01:04:57,394 --> 01:05:00,063
I don't think he was
a really good car salesman.
1383
01:05:00,397 --> 01:05:01,731
[man]
How'd you hold the line?
1384
01:05:01,773 --> 01:05:03,733
-We screwed them on the radio.
-[laughing]
1385
01:05:03,775 --> 01:05:05,985
We, uh--
[laughing]
1386
01:05:07,278 --> 01:05:08,738
[Mark Vonnegut]
I don't think
1387
01:05:08,780 --> 01:05:10,073
he could have stayed
employed if he had wanted to
1388
01:05:10,115 --> 01:05:13,118
at Sports Illustrated,
GE or any other job.
1389
01:05:13,159 --> 01:05:14,786
He was meant to be
a writer and, I think,
1390
01:05:14,828 --> 01:05:16,579
for his own mental health,
he had to write.
1391
01:05:17,080 --> 01:05:19,082
[typewriter clacking]
1392
01:05:21,584 --> 01:05:24,671
Well, he was not
selling Saabs at all
1393
01:05:24,712 --> 01:05:26,089
'cause no one came in.
1394
01:05:26,131 --> 01:05:28,591
He took his typewriter
down there and he wrote
1395
01:05:28,633 --> 01:05:31,219
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
in that building.
1396
01:05:33,388 --> 01:05:35,682
I'
1397
01:05:35,723 --> 01:05:38,560
[Jerome Klinkowitz] God Bless You,
Mr. Rosewater was written when Kurt
1398
01:05:38,601 --> 01:05:40,937
was at the low point
of his career.
1399
01:05:40,979 --> 01:05:43,481
And the book is just
money obsessed.
1400
01:05:43,523 --> 01:05:45,525
[narrator reading]
1401
01:05:55,660 --> 01:05:59,747
It's like if a book were written
by a starving man,
1402
01:06:00,582 --> 01:06:02,333
what would the subject be?
Food. [chuckles]
1403
01:06:03,543 --> 01:06:06,045
[Gregory Sumner] One thing that's
interesting and important about
1404
01:06:06,087 --> 01:06:07,422
God Bless You,
Mr. Rosewater,
1405
01:06:07,464 --> 01:06:11,301
is the introduction of
the character Kilgore Trout.
1406
01:06:11,342 --> 01:06:14,929
[narrator] "Trout, the
author of 87 paperback books.
1407
01:06:14,971 --> 01:06:16,598
"Was a very poor man,
1408
01:06:16,639 --> 01:06:19,642
and unknown outside
the science fiction field."
1409
01:06:20,935 --> 01:06:22,645
[man]
Who is Kilgore Trout?
1410
01:06:23,229 --> 01:06:24,939
That's a--
That's a big one.
1411
01:06:24,981 --> 01:06:27,066
He does appear
and reappear
1412
01:06:27,108 --> 01:06:29,360
in many of Vonnegut's books.
1413
01:06:30,487 --> 01:06:32,489
Kilgore Trout is different
in every book.
1414
01:06:32,989 --> 01:06:34,949
So he's not a very
consistent character
1415
01:06:34,991 --> 01:06:37,619
but he is consistently
a science fiction writer.
1416
01:06:39,662 --> 01:06:41,247
[Gregory Sumner]
Trout was based on
1417
01:06:41,289 --> 01:06:44,626
an actual science fiction writer
named Theodore Sturgeon.
1418
01:06:45,460 --> 01:06:46,628
You can get the pun there.
1419
01:06:47,670 --> 01:06:50,006
Vonnegut met him when he was
down on his luck
1420
01:06:50,048 --> 01:06:53,051
up at the Cape writing for
a penny a word.
1421
01:06:53,092 --> 01:06:55,303
So he admired Sturgeon
but he also saw--
1422
01:06:55,345 --> 01:06:57,514
look at the life he's living.
1423
01:06:57,555 --> 01:06:59,557
[Kurt Vonnegut] "Trout's
employer and co-workers
1424
01:06:59,599 --> 01:07:01,351
"had no idea
that he was a writer.
1425
01:07:01,392 --> 01:07:03,394
[continues reading]
1426
01:07:09,234 --> 01:07:11,528
I think, psychologically,
Kilgore Trout
1427
01:07:11,569 --> 01:07:13,530
is what I thought
I might become.
1428
01:07:15,365 --> 01:07:18,117
One woman said that Kilgore
in the different books
1429
01:07:18,159 --> 01:07:21,454
represents my
psychological state.
1430
01:07:22,372 --> 01:07:26,167
I think it's pretty clear that
he's an alter ego of Kurt's.
1431
01:07:26,209 --> 01:07:28,795
He's a doppelganger,
a dark twin.
1432
01:07:29,462 --> 01:07:32,173
[Kurt Vonnegut] I don't mind
people calling me Kilgore.
1433
01:07:32,215 --> 01:07:34,342
Most authors will say that,
you know,
1434
01:07:34,384 --> 01:07:36,427
laymen are so stupid
to think that
1435
01:07:36,469 --> 01:07:38,346
I'm talking about
my own life.
1436
01:07:38,638 --> 01:07:41,349
My position is it's all I have
to talk about,
1437
01:07:41,391 --> 01:07:43,476
and, uh-- uh--
1438
01:07:43,518 --> 01:07:46,646
I'll take full responsibility
for having experienced
1439
01:07:46,688 --> 01:07:48,147
every event in any book.
1440
01:07:50,233 --> 01:07:51,693
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
In 1965,
1441
01:07:51,734 --> 01:07:53,528
when even
the novels weren't selling,
1442
01:07:53,570 --> 01:07:57,115
he had to submit to
the worst humiliation
1443
01:07:57,156 --> 01:07:59,784
any human being can suffer.
1444
01:07:59,826 --> 01:08:02,787
He had to come to Iowa
to teach college.
1445
01:08:03,329 --> 01:08:05,331
-[cow bells clanking]
-[mooing]
1446
01:08:07,125 --> 01:08:10,128
I'
1447
01:08:10,461 --> 01:08:12,338
[man] If you're not
making enough money
1448
01:08:12,380 --> 01:08:13,965
to support yourself
as a writer,
1449
01:08:14,007 --> 01:08:15,633
and you need to have
a teaching job,
1450
01:08:15,675 --> 01:08:17,468
a job in Iowa
is a really good one.
1451
01:08:18,511 --> 01:08:21,598
Most of the other MFA students,
they hadn't read him.
1452
01:08:21,639 --> 01:08:25,018
They had written him off on
the basis of his reputation
1453
01:08:25,059 --> 01:08:27,020
or lack thereof,
1454
01:08:27,061 --> 01:08:29,022
and I thought he was
fascinating.
1455
01:08:29,397 --> 01:08:32,483
It was very compelling to me
to be in the presence of
1456
01:08:32,525 --> 01:08:33,860
someone who said,
1457
01:08:33,901 --> 01:08:37,363
"It's not just all right
to be an entertainer
1458
01:08:37,405 --> 01:08:39,657
and a serious writer,
1459
01:08:39,699 --> 01:08:41,492
but if you're going to be
serious,
1460
01:08:41,534 --> 01:08:43,411
you better also be entertaining.
1461
01:08:45,163 --> 01:08:47,540
[Nanny Vonnegut] And we had a
crummy little house we rented,
1462
01:08:47,582 --> 01:08:50,418
and Andre Debus was
one house next to us.
1463
01:08:51,461 --> 01:08:54,964
For the first time,
he met other writers,
1464
01:08:55,006 --> 01:08:56,924
uh, of his stature.
1465
01:08:56,966 --> 01:08:59,302
Nelson Algren,
Richard Gates,
1466
01:08:59,344 --> 01:09:01,262
Vance Bourjaily.
1467
01:09:01,304 --> 01:09:03,348
He suddenly felt like, oh,
1468
01:09:03,389 --> 01:09:06,559
he was part of
the writing community.
1469
01:09:07,602 --> 01:09:10,188
[Jerome Klinkowitz] It became two
of the happiest years of his life.
1470
01:09:10,229 --> 01:09:13,066
It led to the breakthrough of
him discovering
1471
01:09:13,107 --> 01:09:15,693
how to use his own voice
in fiction.
1472
01:09:15,735 --> 01:09:17,904
Hanging around these other
creative people,
1473
01:09:17,945 --> 01:09:19,739
they gave him some ideas about
1474
01:09:19,781 --> 01:09:22,408
how you can tell
a rather untellable story.
1475
01:09:23,951 --> 01:09:26,412
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"I taught in the afternoon.
1476
01:09:26,454 --> 01:09:28,164
"In the mornings,
I wrote.
1477
01:09:28,206 --> 01:09:30,500
"I was not to be disturbed.
1478
01:09:30,541 --> 01:09:33,169
I was working on my famous book
about Dresden."
1479
01:09:33,211 --> 01:09:35,797
[typewriter clacking]
1480
01:09:40,927 --> 01:09:42,512
"Listen:
1481
01:09:42,553 --> 01:09:43,888
"Billy Pilgrim has come...
1482
01:09:43,930 --> 01:09:45,932
[typewriter clacking]
1483
01:09:49,686 --> 01:09:51,270
[Bob Weide] When it
came time to sit down
1484
01:09:51,312 --> 01:09:52,939
and write your book
on Dresden,
1485
01:09:52,980 --> 01:09:55,483
didn't you find some difficulty
in recalling?
1486
01:09:58,486 --> 01:10:01,364
I'
1487
01:10:01,406 --> 01:10:03,408
[Kurt Vonnegut] "When I got
home from the Second World War,
1488
01:10:03,449 --> 01:10:05,243
"23 years ago,
1489
01:10:05,284 --> 01:10:07,704
"I thought it would be easy
for me to write about
1490
01:10:07,745 --> 01:10:09,455
"the destruction
of Dresden,
1491
01:10:09,497 --> 01:10:11,249
"since all I would have to do
would be to
1492
01:10:11,290 --> 01:10:12,959
"report what I had seen.
1493
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:15,002
"And I thought, too, that it
would be a masterpiece
1494
01:10:15,044 --> 01:10:17,046
"or at least make me
a lot of money.
1495
01:10:17,088 --> 01:10:20,717
"But not many words about
Dresden came from my mind then.
1496
01:10:20,758 --> 01:10:23,136
"And not many words
come now, either,
1497
01:10:23,177 --> 01:10:25,763
"when I've become an old fart
with his memories
1498
01:10:25,805 --> 01:10:26,806
and his Pall Malls."
1499
01:10:27,390 --> 01:10:30,101
[Bob Weide] He was always
working his way up to
1500
01:10:30,143 --> 01:10:31,602
Slaughterhouse-Five,
1501
01:10:31,644 --> 01:10:34,647
and he just couldn't find
the key.
1502
01:10:34,689 --> 01:10:36,232
[Kurt Vonnegut] "When
I was somewhat younger
1503
01:10:36,274 --> 01:10:38,401
"working on my famous
Dresden book,
1504
01:10:38,443 --> 01:10:41,612
"I asked an old war buddy
named Bernard V. O'Hare
1505
01:10:41,654 --> 01:10:42,989
if I could come to see him."
1506
01:10:43,030 --> 01:10:45,241
[David Ulin] O'Hare's
wife, Mary, she says,
1507
01:10:45,283 --> 01:10:49,203
"You're gonna write a book
that is going to glorify war,
1508
01:10:49,245 --> 01:10:50,913
"and people are going to
read it and think
1509
01:10:50,955 --> 01:10:52,957
it's fine to send all
these kids off to war."
1510
01:10:52,999 --> 01:10:55,168
And it's an eye-opening moment
for Vonnegut.
1511
01:10:57,712 --> 01:11:00,715
The war in Vietnam is not like
these other wars.
1512
01:11:01,841 --> 01:11:04,969
[Lyndon Johnson]
Yet war is always the same.
1513
01:11:05,344 --> 01:11:09,140
It is young men dying in
the fullness of their promise.
1514
01:11:12,018 --> 01:11:13,853
[David Ulin] Mary O'Hare,
she shamed him and said,
1515
01:11:13,895 --> 01:11:15,605
"Write about what
really happened.
1516
01:11:17,106 --> 01:11:18,399
You were babies."
1517
01:11:22,195 --> 01:11:23,738
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I would hate to tell you
1518
01:11:23,780 --> 01:11:25,323
what this lousy little book
cost me,
1519
01:11:25,364 --> 01:11:27,658
in money and anxiety
and time.
1520
01:11:28,618 --> 01:11:31,871
When you go through
all the various drafts
1521
01:11:31,913 --> 01:11:34,415
and iterations of
Slaughterhouse-Five through the years,
1522
01:11:34,457 --> 01:11:37,418
you become very aware of
Vonnegut's struggle
1523
01:11:37,460 --> 01:11:38,586
and his perseverance.
1524
01:11:39,420 --> 01:11:41,839
He's trying everything
to get it right.
1525
01:11:42,965 --> 01:11:45,218
Some drafts are written
first person,
1526
01:11:45,259 --> 01:11:47,970
sometimes it's Vonnegut's
point of view,
1527
01:11:48,012 --> 01:11:50,515
sometimes it's a made up name.
1528
01:11:51,224 --> 01:11:53,518
Sometimes the narrator
is already dead,
1529
01:11:53,559 --> 01:11:55,186
and narrating from the grave.
1530
01:11:55,228 --> 01:11:57,104
Billy Pilgrim's name
keeps changing.
1531
01:12:00,691 --> 01:12:02,568
The title of the book
keeps changing.
1532
01:12:04,278 --> 01:12:07,323
He's constantly auditioning
different openings for the book,
1533
01:12:07,365 --> 01:12:10,076
different prefaces
and forwards.
1534
01:12:10,993 --> 01:12:13,788
He's often doodling and
drawing on the pages
1535
01:12:13,830 --> 01:12:15,456
as if to clear his head.
1536
01:12:17,166 --> 01:12:19,418
At one point, he gives up
trying to write it
1537
01:12:19,460 --> 01:12:20,586
as a novel altogether,
1538
01:12:20,628 --> 01:12:22,421
and he tries to write it
as a play.
1539
01:12:22,839 --> 01:12:25,633
In-- In one version, uh,
middle-age Billy Pilgrim
1540
01:12:25,675 --> 01:12:28,261
receives a crank phone call
from a drunken Vonnegut
1541
01:12:28,302 --> 01:12:29,971
who taunts Billy
by telling him
1542
01:12:30,012 --> 01:12:32,682
he's a fictional character in
a book Vonnegut is writing.
1543
01:12:32,723 --> 01:12:35,518
And remember, this is, you know,
in the days before computers,
1544
01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:37,270
so he's not
cutting and pasting.
1545
01:12:37,311 --> 01:12:39,856
Every new attempt is
a page one rewrite.
1546
01:12:40,189 --> 01:12:41,941
Sometimes he's
halfway through the novel
1547
01:12:41,983 --> 01:12:43,609
before he starts
all over again.
1548
01:12:43,651 --> 01:12:46,153
Sometimes he changes course
after an opening paragraph.
1549
01:12:46,612 --> 01:12:48,364
But he just won't give up.
1550
01:12:48,698 --> 01:12:52,869
You just see him persevering
and rewriting again and again,
1551
01:12:52,910 --> 01:12:54,996
and he just can't
crack the code.
1552
01:12:56,497 --> 01:12:59,667
It's like he's not just trying
to get a bead on the book;
1553
01:12:59,709 --> 01:13:01,836
it's almost like he's
trying to purge
1554
01:13:01,878 --> 01:13:04,255
the whole Dresden experience
from his soul
1555
01:13:04,297 --> 01:13:05,298
once and for all.
1556
01:13:06,465 --> 01:13:08,467
And just when you think
Dresden
1557
01:13:08,509 --> 01:13:10,636
is about to claim yet
one more victim...
1558
01:13:13,180 --> 01:13:14,265
he nails it.
1559
01:13:14,307 --> 01:13:17,310
I'
1560
01:13:21,105 --> 01:13:24,317
[Edie Vonnegut] In 1969 when
Slaughterhouse-Five came out,
1561
01:13:25,109 --> 01:13:26,944
that was the big kaboom.
1562
01:13:26,986 --> 01:13:28,487
The current idol of
the country's
1563
01:13:28,529 --> 01:13:30,406
sensitive and
intelligent young people,
1564
01:13:30,448 --> 01:13:32,533
is 47 years old.
1565
01:13:32,575 --> 01:13:34,869
Slaughterhouse-Five
was the breakthrough
1566
01:13:34,911 --> 01:13:38,122
because it was the right place
at the right time.
1567
01:13:38,164 --> 01:13:41,584
It was in the ugliest phase of
the Vietnam War
1568
01:13:41,626 --> 01:13:45,421
in the ugliest phase of our
domestic crises at home.
1569
01:13:46,297 --> 01:13:48,049
[Harry Reasoner]
His gentle fantasies of peace
1570
01:13:48,090 --> 01:13:51,177
and his dark humor are
as current among the young
1571
01:13:51,218 --> 01:13:53,763
as was J.D. Sa|inger's work
in the 1950s.
1572
01:13:54,221 --> 01:13:55,806
[Edie Vonnegut]
Fans would come to the door,
1573
01:13:55,848 --> 01:13:57,725
and wanting to know if
he lived here,
1574
01:13:57,767 --> 01:13:59,310
and they would end up
coming in,
1575
01:13:59,352 --> 01:14:01,938
and sometimes they'd stay
for three or four days.
1576
01:14:04,106 --> 01:14:05,816
[Nanny Vonnegut]
The sudden money coming in
1577
01:14:05,858 --> 01:14:07,443
was a total shock.
1578
01:14:08,069 --> 01:14:09,654
And he just couldn't
believe it.
1579
01:14:09,695 --> 01:14:11,113
I remember at the dinner table,
he said,
1580
01:14:11,155 --> 01:14:13,407
I have money coming out of
my ears. [laughs]
1581
01:14:14,033 --> 01:14:17,036
It was, like, fun and new,
like he had arrived.
1582
01:14:17,078 --> 01:14:19,538
I'
1583
01:14:19,580 --> 01:14:21,916
[Edie Vonnegut] All of our friends
wanting to come over and visit,
1584
01:14:21,958 --> 01:14:24,085
'cause Life magazine
was here.
1585
01:14:24,126 --> 01:14:27,129
I'
1586
01:14:27,713 --> 01:14:30,007
This is the biggest thing that
came to this town.
1587
01:14:30,758 --> 01:14:32,927
And then when that
article came out
1588
01:14:32,969 --> 01:14:35,012
there was these big pictures
of our kitchen,
1589
01:14:35,054 --> 01:14:37,932
and our father
getting a haircut and...
1590
01:14:37,974 --> 01:14:40,726
me standing there with
a paintbrush.
1591
01:14:40,768 --> 01:14:43,437
It was just extraordinary.
1592
01:14:45,856 --> 01:14:48,192
[Nanny Vonnegut] And I was getting
attention, Edie was getting attention,
1593
01:14:48,234 --> 01:14:50,820
everybody loved us because
we were with this doofus,
1594
01:14:50,861 --> 01:14:52,863
our father.
[laughs]
1595
01:14:52,905 --> 01:14:54,740
[Jim Adams] Norman Mailer
came to the house
1596
01:14:54,782 --> 01:14:57,284
and Jane was
excited about that.
1597
01:14:57,326 --> 01:14:59,370
I'll never forget, she came into
the kitchen and,
1598
01:14:59,412 --> 01:15:01,122
"Jimmy, you got any pot?"
1599
01:15:01,163 --> 01:15:02,790
[laughing]
1600
01:15:02,832 --> 01:15:04,208
[Nanny Vonnegut]
Peter Fonda,
1601
01:15:04,250 --> 01:15:06,085
he wanted to buy
the rights to Cat's Cradle,
1602
01:15:06,127 --> 01:15:07,962
so he made a pilgrimage.
[laughs]
1603
01:15:08,004 --> 01:15:09,213
We couldn't believe it.
1604
01:15:09,255 --> 01:15:11,048
It was just after
Easy Rider,
1605
01:15:11,090 --> 01:15:14,677
and I had a girlfriend that
didn't really think I was that great.
1606
01:15:14,719 --> 01:15:16,470
But I told her,
"Hey, listen,
1607
01:15:16,512 --> 01:15:18,931
Peter Fonda's gonna be
over at our house.
1608
01:15:18,973 --> 01:15:20,975
She says, "Really? Okay."
And we-- we all came back,
1609
01:15:21,017 --> 01:15:23,394
and we all sat around and we're
talking with Peter Fonda,
1610
01:15:23,811 --> 01:15:25,813
and it-- it did the trick.
1611
01:15:25,855 --> 01:15:27,356
[Laughig]
1612
01:15:27,398 --> 01:15:28,566
Thanks, Kurt.
1613
01:15:28,607 --> 01:15:30,234
[man] Do you mind being
middle-aged?
1614
01:15:30,276 --> 01:15:31,861
[Kurt Vonnegut] Yes, I mind.
I think a terrible mistake
1615
01:15:31,902 --> 01:15:33,195
has been made somehow.
1616
01:15:33,237 --> 01:15:35,448
I suspect that I'm
21 years old,
1617
01:15:35,489 --> 01:15:37,408
that I've been
misclassified,
1618
01:15:37,742 --> 01:15:41,495
somehow,
or time has slipped.
1619
01:15:41,537 --> 01:15:43,497
[Jerome Klinkowitz] When he paperback
of Slaughterhouse-Five came out,
1620
01:15:43,539 --> 01:15:46,917
all the previous novels were
reissued in a uniform edition.
1621
01:15:46,959 --> 01:15:49,503
It was just making it clear that
Slaughterhouse-Five
1622
01:15:49,545 --> 01:15:51,088
did not exist in a vacuum.
1623
01:15:51,130 --> 01:15:54,341
This spoke for 20 years of
a writing career,
1624
01:15:54,383 --> 01:15:58,512
and a coherent, very interesting
human being behind them.
1625
01:15:58,554 --> 01:16:00,181
[Harry Reasoner] Vonnegut
spends most of his time
1626
01:16:00,222 --> 01:16:02,892
in he tranquility of
Cape Cod where he lives.
1627
01:16:02,933 --> 01:16:04,602
But now he can be found
in New York
1628
01:16:04,643 --> 01:16:06,729
in a theater in
Greenwich Village
1629
01:16:06,771 --> 01:16:08,939
agonizing over his new play,
1630
01:16:08,981 --> 01:16:10,816
Happy Birthday,
Wanda June.
1631
01:16:10,858 --> 01:16:13,444
I'
1632
01:16:13,486 --> 01:16:15,988
[Nanny Vonnegut] That was a big
family excitement going to that opening,
1633
01:16:16,030 --> 01:16:18,240
to be in New York City and
getting all dressed up.
1634
01:16:18,741 --> 01:16:20,659
Oh, my mother was so proud.
1635
01:16:20,701 --> 01:16:22,661
It was just very exciting.
1636
01:16:23,037 --> 01:16:25,956
I knew he would be great,
but I never envisioned,
1637
01:16:25,998 --> 01:16:28,000
like, that kind of movie star
type of thing,
1638
01:16:28,042 --> 01:16:29,543
people wanting to take
your pictures.
1639
01:16:29,585 --> 01:16:30,836
That was fun.
1640
01:16:30,878 --> 01:16:32,046
That was a lot of fun.
1641
01:16:32,713 --> 01:16:34,340
But it wasn't
a lot of fun when--
1642
01:16:34,381 --> 01:16:35,674
When he didn't want to
come home.
1643
01:16:36,509 --> 01:16:39,720
I'
1644
01:16:40,012 --> 01:16:42,431
[Edie Vonnegut] There was
a woman photographing him
1645
01:16:42,473 --> 01:16:44,558
and they started
a relationship.
1646
01:16:45,184 --> 01:16:47,186
And she was a lot younger
than my mother.
1647
01:16:47,645 --> 01:16:50,272
[camera shutter clicking]
1648
01:16:51,357 --> 01:16:53,192
And he stayed with her.
1649
01:16:54,235 --> 01:16:55,945
And eventually married her.
1650
01:16:57,279 --> 01:17:00,449
And left my mother here
on the Cape.
1651
01:17:00,491 --> 01:17:02,701
[man on P.A.] ...for Toronto
now boarding flight one.
1652
01:17:02,743 --> 01:17:03,911
[snapping]
1653
01:17:03,953 --> 01:17:05,162
[indistinct dialog]
1654
01:17:06,288 --> 01:17:09,250
[Kurt Vonnegut] Big problem has
probably been noticed in this church.
1655
01:17:09,291 --> 01:17:11,168
A lot of people are
getting divorced.
1656
01:17:11,627 --> 01:17:13,170
What's the trouble?
1657
01:17:13,212 --> 01:17:14,839
Well, the people who are getting
divorced don't know why.
1658
01:17:15,381 --> 01:17:17,633
I don't know, I really--
I love you a lot.
1659
01:17:18,134 --> 01:17:20,094
'Cause I love you more than
when we were married.
1660
01:17:20,845 --> 01:17:22,221
But something's wrong.
1661
01:17:24,056 --> 01:17:26,475
I'
1662
01:17:26,517 --> 01:17:28,144
[Kurt Vonnegut] I like
the house, I like the kids,
1663
01:17:28,185 --> 01:17:29,812
and it's gonna be
a terrible strain on the kids,
1664
01:17:29,854 --> 01:17:31,021
but I'm sorry.
1665
01:17:31,063 --> 01:17:33,023
I just can't go on this way.
1666
01:17:33,858 --> 01:17:35,484
I can't describe
what's wrong,
1667
01:17:35,526 --> 01:17:37,361
all I know is
something's wrong.
1668
01:17:39,780 --> 01:17:41,532
[Nanny Vonnegut] He always
keeps repeating to me,
1669
01:17:41,574 --> 01:17:43,951
watch out for
the empty nest syndrome.
1670
01:17:43,993 --> 01:17:46,245
It's devastating when
all the kids are gone.
1671
01:17:46,287 --> 01:17:49,456
And I think he couldn't handle
the quiet around here.
1672
01:17:51,250 --> 01:17:54,044
[Kurt Adams] It was pretty
clear that Kurt's famous now,
1673
01:17:54,086 --> 01:17:57,590
and he's left his drab life
behind on Cape Cod.
1674
01:17:57,631 --> 01:18:00,217
And now he's living
the celebrity life
1675
01:18:00,259 --> 01:18:02,386
in the fast lane
of Manhattan.
1676
01:18:03,679 --> 01:18:06,140
[Edie Vonnegut] It must have
been a very heady time for him.
1677
01:18:06,640 --> 01:18:09,602
His books selling,
movies being made,
1678
01:18:09,643 --> 01:18:12,062
It must have just been
incredibly seductive.
1679
01:18:14,064 --> 01:18:16,609
[Mark Vonnegut] I wish it didn't
hurt him in the way it hurt him,
1680
01:18:16,650 --> 01:18:18,611
but, um,
I think fame is
1681
01:18:18,652 --> 01:18:20,988
a horrible destructive thing
to do to people.
1682
01:18:22,281 --> 01:18:25,242
[Jim Adams] It wasn't until he
died that I stopped doing this,
1683
01:18:25,284 --> 01:18:26,994
but I thought that
I hated him.
1684
01:18:27,620 --> 01:18:29,663
I hated the way
he treated Jane.
1685
01:18:29,705 --> 01:18:31,749
Jane supported him
and loved him,
1686
01:18:31,790 --> 01:18:34,293
and did everything in her power
to back him up,
1687
01:18:34,335 --> 01:18:36,754
and, uh...
1688
01:18:36,795 --> 01:18:38,088
he threw it all away.
1689
01:18:40,674 --> 01:18:44,011
[Nanny Vonnegut] My parents
were partners in this for 20 years,
1690
01:18:44,053 --> 01:18:47,348
and I don't think my mother
ever expected that
1691
01:18:47,389 --> 01:18:49,016
she wouldn't
always be part of it.
1692
01:18:49,058 --> 01:18:51,936
She was the kind of woman who
wanted to meet everybody.
1693
01:18:51,977 --> 01:18:54,063
You know, she wanted to meet
John Updike,
1694
01:18:54,104 --> 01:18:56,815
and Doctorow and
George Plimpton,
1695
01:18:56,857 --> 01:18:59,235
she would have been perfect at
all those cocktail parties.
1696
01:18:59,276 --> 01:19:01,528
Here they had finally
worked to this point,
1697
01:19:01,570 --> 01:19:03,530
and she was waiting to,
you know,
1698
01:19:03,572 --> 01:19:05,199
enjoy the benefits, too.
1699
01:19:06,242 --> 01:19:08,827
The beauty of Jane is
she was not devastated.
1700
01:19:08,869 --> 01:19:10,829
She thought this would
all end fine,
1701
01:19:10,871 --> 01:19:14,083
and, uh, to a certain extent,
she was right.
1702
01:19:14,124 --> 01:19:15,417
[Edie Vonnegut]
In the end,
1703
01:19:15,459 --> 01:19:17,086
she found
a wonderful man to live with.
1704
01:19:20,547 --> 01:19:22,007
[Nanny Vonnegut]
She was not bitter at all,
1705
01:19:22,049 --> 01:19:26,053
and always, uh,
believed in him as a writer,
1706
01:19:26,095 --> 01:19:27,346
was so proud of him
1707
01:19:27,388 --> 01:19:29,265
every time he came out with
a new book
1708
01:19:29,306 --> 01:19:30,557
when they weren't married.
1709
01:19:31,517 --> 01:19:33,686
She'd be laughing, you know,
sitting in the backyard
1710
01:19:33,727 --> 01:19:36,188
and just shaking her head,
like, guy's still got it.
1711
01:19:36,230 --> 01:19:38,065
[chuckles]
He's so funny.
1712
01:19:38,816 --> 01:19:41,068
They were in touch
to the end.
1713
01:19:41,110 --> 01:19:44,113
I'
1714
01:19:45,864 --> 01:19:47,574
But this chapter
1715
01:19:47,616 --> 01:19:49,952
being on the Cape
as a whole family...
1716
01:19:49,994 --> 01:19:51,245
was over just like that.
1717
01:19:53,747 --> 01:19:55,833
[woman] I want you to tell me
that you loved me once.
1718
01:19:56,458 --> 01:19:57,876
Oh, for Christ's sake.
1719
01:19:57,918 --> 01:20:00,462
I mean it. I must have that
and so must Paul.
1720
01:20:00,963 --> 01:20:04,049
Tell him that
he was conceived in love
1721
01:20:04,091 --> 01:20:05,926
even if you hate me now.
1722
01:20:06,760 --> 01:20:09,430
Tell us both that
somewhere in our lives
1723
01:20:09,471 --> 01:20:10,723
was love.
1724
01:20:11,515 --> 01:20:12,975
[Bob Weide]
In 2001,
1725
01:20:13,017 --> 01:20:14,893
my wife, Linda, and I were
on the phone with Kurt.
1726
01:20:14,935 --> 01:20:16,812
I remember Linda
saying to Kurt,
1727
01:20:16,854 --> 01:20:18,480
"What do we gotta do
to get you out here?"
1728
01:20:18,522 --> 01:20:19,898
Kurt said,
"Well, I'll come out if
1729
01:20:19,940 --> 01:20:21,608
"Bob directs Happy Birthday,
Wanda June,
1730
01:20:21,650 --> 01:20:23,736
and if you play Penelope."
1731
01:20:23,777 --> 01:20:25,821
Stay or go,
talk or sulk,
1732
01:20:25,863 --> 01:20:27,406
laugh or cry as you wish,
1733
01:20:27,448 --> 01:20:28,782
do whatever seems
called for.
1734
01:20:28,824 --> 01:20:30,534
My mind is gone.
1735
01:20:30,576 --> 01:20:32,536
-[laughter]
-Bye!
1736
01:20:32,578 --> 01:20:34,204
[applause]
1737
01:20:34,246 --> 01:20:35,873
[Bob Weide] Linda was
sensational in it, of course.
1738
01:20:35,914 --> 01:20:39,168
But we hit a bit of a snag
because...
1739
01:20:39,209 --> 01:20:42,504
a few weeks before we opened,
in the middle of rehearsal,
1740
01:20:42,546 --> 01:20:45,174
came September 11, 2001.
1741
01:20:45,215 --> 01:20:49,470
And so he apologetically said
that he wasn't gonna make it up.
1742
01:20:57,061 --> 01:21:00,439
Yeah, after 9/11, he wasn't
a big fan of flying,
1743
01:21:00,481 --> 01:21:02,274
so usually when we
got together
1744
01:21:02,316 --> 01:21:04,151
it was in New York,
which was fine with me.
1745
01:21:04,193 --> 01:21:06,987
I'
1746
01:21:07,029 --> 01:21:10,115
There were a lot of lunches,
a lot of walks on the east side.
1747
01:21:10,741 --> 01:21:12,826
And fans would always
recognize him,
1748
01:21:12,868 --> 01:21:14,411
and come up to him and say,
"Oh, Mr. Vonnegut,
1749
01:21:14,453 --> 01:21:15,579
I've read all your books,"
1750
01:21:15,621 --> 01:21:17,873
or "Your work has
saved my life."
1751
01:21:17,915 --> 01:21:19,500
And I'd be with him
thinking,
1752
01:21:19,792 --> 01:21:21,126
"Why am I with him?"
1753
01:21:21,710 --> 01:21:22,711
I should be that guy.
1754
01:21:23,420 --> 01:21:25,381
And he would always
engage them,
1755
01:21:25,422 --> 01:21:27,883
he would always ask their name
and where they're from.
1756
01:21:27,925 --> 01:21:31,095
He was sort of
the anti Salinger writer.
1757
01:21:31,136 --> 01:21:33,639
But by this time, he was
something of a New York landmark.
1758
01:21:33,680 --> 01:21:36,517
He had lived in the city
longer than he had in
1759
01:21:36,558 --> 01:21:38,227
Indianapolis or Cape Cod.
1760
01:21:38,560 --> 01:21:40,312
Ever since he moved there
in 1970
1761
01:21:40,354 --> 01:21:41,730
when his first marriage
went bust.
1762
01:21:41,772 --> 01:21:45,025
I'
1763
01:21:45,067 --> 01:21:48,946
♪ Yeah, this is
a mean old world ♪
1764
01:21:48,987 --> 01:21:52,032
♪ Baby, to live in
by yourself ♪
1765
01:21:52,616 --> 01:21:54,785
[Gregory Sumner] The '70s
were a tough time for him.
1766
01:21:54,827 --> 01:21:56,495
Divorce,
sudden celebrity,
1767
01:21:56,537 --> 01:21:58,122
sudden fame and wealth.
1768
01:21:58,163 --> 01:22:00,290
He's sort of almost having
a nervous breakdown
1769
01:22:00,332 --> 01:22:03,210
in a culture that is having
a nervous breakdown.
1770
01:22:03,252 --> 01:22:06,296
♪ Someday, someday,
baby ♪
1771
01:22:06,338 --> 01:22:09,425
♪ I'll be six feet
in my bed ♪
1772
01:22:09,466 --> 01:22:10,926
[man on TV]
Bruce Jenner.
1773
01:22:10,968 --> 01:22:12,052
Wheaties is
the breakfast of champions.
1774
01:22:12,094 --> 01:22:13,637
He didn't quite know
where he was going
1775
01:22:13,679 --> 01:22:15,097
after Slaughterhouse-Five.
1776
01:22:15,139 --> 01:22:16,765
It has been proved
1777
01:22:16,807 --> 01:22:20,853
that if a writer is blocked,
is unable to write,
1778
01:22:20,894 --> 01:22:23,814
the psychological consequences
are terrible.
1779
01:22:23,856 --> 01:22:25,941
Frequently,
nervous breakdowns.
1780
01:22:26,358 --> 01:22:28,026
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Everybody was hanging on
1781
01:22:28,068 --> 01:22:29,611
every word he was writing.
1782
01:22:29,653 --> 01:22:31,905
No matter what he wrote,
it was gonna go to number one
1783
01:22:31,947 --> 01:22:34,408
on The New York Times
best seller list.
1784
01:22:34,450 --> 01:22:35,742
And all of a sudden,
1785
01:22:35,784 --> 01:22:38,287
having this responsibility
locked him up.
1786
01:22:38,871 --> 01:22:40,581
He thought he could have
1787
01:22:40,622 --> 01:22:42,916
Breakfast of Champions written
in a year and a half.
1788
01:22:42,958 --> 01:22:44,751
It took him four years.
1789
01:22:47,796 --> 01:22:48,797
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"This is a tale of...
1790
01:22:48,839 --> 01:22:50,841
[continues reading]
1791
01:22:58,223 --> 01:23:01,810
[Gregory Sumner] It's such a
relentless interrogation of our
1792
01:23:01,852 --> 01:23:06,482
junk history and our junk
culture in the early '70s.
1793
01:23:06,523 --> 01:23:08,108
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"We Americans require
1794
01:23:08,150 --> 01:23:09,693
"symbols which are
richly colored
1795
01:23:09,735 --> 01:23:11,403
"and three dimensional
and juicy,
1796
01:23:11,445 --> 01:23:13,572
"which have not been
poisoned by great sins
1797
01:23:13,614 --> 01:23:15,324
"our nation has committed,
1798
01:23:15,365 --> 01:23:17,868
"such as slavery and genocide,
and criminal neglect,
1799
01:23:17,910 --> 01:23:20,078
or by tin-horned
commercial greed and cunning."
1800
01:23:20,120 --> 01:23:21,955
[Gregory Sumner] He tells
you right at the beginning
1801
01:23:21,997 --> 01:23:24,041
I'm trying to get the junk
out of my mind
1802
01:23:24,082 --> 01:23:28,003
the debased language and
the lies and the racism.
1803
01:23:28,045 --> 01:23:29,755
All the poisons that
I've taken in,
1804
01:23:29,796 --> 01:23:31,089
I want to get rid of them.
1805
01:23:31,131 --> 01:23:33,133
[Kurt Vonnegut singing ditty]
1806
01:23:42,184 --> 01:23:45,854
For me, the real effect of
Breakfast Of Champions was
1807
01:23:45,896 --> 01:23:49,608
the use of the art,
the use of the drawings.
1808
01:23:49,650 --> 01:23:52,236
[Kurt Vonnegut] "Kilgore Trout's
nation was by far the richest
1809
01:23:52,277 --> 01:23:54,321
"and the most powerful country
on the planet,
1810
01:23:54,363 --> 01:23:56,031
"and it disciplined
other countries
1811
01:23:56,073 --> 01:23:58,075
"by threatening to shoot
big rockets at them
1812
01:23:58,116 --> 01:24:00,744
"or to drop things on them
from airplanes,
1813
01:24:00,786 --> 01:24:03,997
"and still the people went on
fucking all the time.
1814
01:24:04,039 --> 01:24:05,958
Fucking was how babies
were made."
1815
01:24:06,291 --> 01:24:08,168
[David Ulin]
He was blurring lines,
1816
01:24:08,210 --> 01:24:10,462
but he was doing it in ways
that were funny,
1817
01:24:10,504 --> 01:24:11,672
that were accessible.
1818
01:24:11,713 --> 01:24:13,840
Thinking beyond what
one would assume
1819
01:24:13,882 --> 01:24:15,509
could be done on the page.
1820
01:24:15,551 --> 01:24:17,010
[Kurt Vonnegut]
In my new book,
1821
01:24:17,052 --> 01:24:18,929
I confront Kilgore Trout.
1822
01:24:18,971 --> 01:24:21,265
I finally acknowledge
that I did invent him,
1823
01:24:21,306 --> 01:24:23,850
and he had imagination enough
to know that
1824
01:24:23,892 --> 01:24:26,853
maybe he was somebody
in somebody else's book.
1825
01:24:26,895 --> 01:24:28,897
[Kurt Vonnegut reading]
1826
01:24:39,491 --> 01:24:42,953
Since anything I say in writing
happens to him,
1827
01:24:42,995 --> 01:24:44,663
because he is my creation,
1828
01:24:44,705 --> 01:24:46,832
and I give him his freedom,
and this is, uh--
1829
01:24:46,873 --> 01:24:49,084
I will never use him
in a book again.
1830
01:24:49,126 --> 01:24:50,669
[Kurt Vonnegut] "I'm
approaching my 50th birthday,
1831
01:24:50,711 --> 01:24:52,588
Mr. Trout," I said.
1832
01:24:52,629 --> 01:24:54,590
"I'm cleansing and
renewing myself
1833
01:24:54,631 --> 01:24:57,009
"for the very different sorts
of years to come.
1834
01:24:57,050 --> 01:25:00,304
"I'm going to set at liberty
all the literary characters
1835
01:25:00,345 --> 01:25:03,599
"who have served me so loyally
during my writing career.
1836
01:25:03,640 --> 01:25:05,809
"You are the only one
I am telling.
1837
01:25:05,851 --> 01:25:08,687
"Arise, Mr. Trout,
you are free.
1838
01:25:08,729 --> 01:25:09,730
You're free."
1839
01:25:10,439 --> 01:25:12,232
[David Ulin] I mean,
it's a remarkable moment
1840
01:25:12,274 --> 01:25:14,776
He as the, kind of,
creator of those stories
1841
01:25:14,818 --> 01:25:16,445
was as important to the stories
1842
01:25:16,486 --> 01:25:18,614
as the characters
he was writing about.
1843
01:25:19,573 --> 01:25:21,575
[Kurt Vonnegut reading]
1844
01:25:27,247 --> 01:25:28,749
"You're afraid you'll
kill yourself
1845
01:25:28,790 --> 01:25:30,083
the way your mother did,
I said."
1846
01:25:30,125 --> 01:25:32,210
[typewriter clacking]
1847
01:25:32,252 --> 01:25:33,378
"I know, I said."
1848
01:25:34,630 --> 01:25:35,631
[snapping]
1849
01:25:36,506 --> 01:25:38,508
[birds chirping]
1850
01:25:46,767 --> 01:25:49,144
Would have been 1943,
I guess.
1851
01:25:53,190 --> 01:25:54,941
She died in this house.
1852
01:25:54,983 --> 01:25:57,986
I'
1853
01:25:59,905 --> 01:26:01,281
[Kurt Vonnegut]
It was Mother's Day.
1854
01:26:01,657 --> 01:26:04,368
My sister and I,
uh, found her.
1855
01:26:05,535 --> 01:26:06,870
It was upstairs.
1856
01:26:07,412 --> 01:26:09,206
Indeed, she was dead.
1857
01:26:10,332 --> 01:26:11,833
It was a Marilyn Monroe thing,
1858
01:26:11,875 --> 01:26:14,044
it was a combination of
pills and alcohol.
1859
01:26:14,086 --> 01:26:15,337
A lot of pills.
1860
01:26:15,712 --> 01:26:18,465
Suicide is supposedly
a disgrace,
1861
01:26:18,507 --> 01:26:21,385
and whenever I've said that
my mother killed herself,
1862
01:26:21,426 --> 01:26:24,721
other relatives would say,
no, no, it didn't happen.
1863
01:26:25,263 --> 01:26:27,140
It was a family secret.
1864
01:26:27,891 --> 01:26:30,852
She never recovered from
profound unhappiness.
1865
01:26:32,104 --> 01:26:33,730
And it was too damn bad.
1866
01:26:36,400 --> 01:26:38,068
[Bob Weide] What then
became of your father
1867
01:26:38,110 --> 01:26:39,361
after your mother's death?
1868
01:26:40,112 --> 01:26:42,572
[Kurt Vonnegut] He didn't
like life very much after that.
1869
01:26:44,241 --> 01:26:47,285
Certainly, the starch went
out of him pretty much.
1870
01:26:47,703 --> 01:26:49,496
As it should have,
I mean, you know,
1871
01:26:49,538 --> 01:26:52,332
people can stand so much
and no more.
1872
01:26:54,584 --> 01:26:58,088
To have you wife
dislike life that much,
1873
01:26:58,463 --> 01:27:01,425
you know, he-- he was
principle maker of her life.
1874
01:27:02,259 --> 01:27:05,262
I'
1875
01:27:06,888 --> 01:27:09,057
He wound up all alone here.
1876
01:27:12,352 --> 01:27:14,938
It's too bad that one of us
couldn't have stayed with him.
1877
01:27:19,151 --> 01:27:20,152
That's about it.
1878
01:27:22,738 --> 01:27:25,532
[Kurt Vonnegut] "Arise,
Mr. Trout, you are free.
1879
01:27:25,574 --> 01:27:27,451
"You're free.
1880
01:27:27,492 --> 01:27:29,619
"His voice was
my fathers' voice.
1881
01:27:29,661 --> 01:27:33,457
"I heard my father
and I saw my mother.
1882
01:27:33,498 --> 01:27:35,709
"My mother stayed
far, far away,
1883
01:27:35,751 --> 01:27:38,295
"because she had left me
a legacy of suicide.
1884
01:27:40,255 --> 01:27:42,591
"Here was what Kilgore Trout
cried out to me
1885
01:27:42,632 --> 01:27:43,842
"in my father's voice:
1886
01:27:45,177 --> 01:27:46,178
"'Make me young.'
1887
01:27:50,182 --> 01:27:51,183
"'Make me young.'
1888
01:27:54,686 --> 01:27:55,937
'Make me young.
1889
01:28:00,317 --> 01:28:03,320
I'
1890
01:28:08,909 --> 01:28:10,994
[Kurt Vonnegut]
A writer is very fortunate
1891
01:28:11,036 --> 01:28:13,622
in that he can cure himself
every day.
1892
01:28:13,914 --> 01:28:16,625
Uh, if he is able to write
every day,
1893
01:28:16,666 --> 01:28:21,046
he has done himself some sort of
great psychological favor.
1894
01:28:21,087 --> 01:28:22,464
[narrator]
"Dear Robert,
1895
01:28:22,506 --> 01:28:24,090
I'll be going to England
for two weeks,
1896
01:28:24,132 --> 01:28:25,675
to hustle
Dead eye Dick.
1897
01:28:25,717 --> 01:28:27,052
[bell dings]
1898
01:28:27,093 --> 01:28:28,553
"Dear Bob,
1899
01:28:28,595 --> 01:28:32,098
I hack away at a new novel
called Galapagos.
1900
01:28:32,140 --> 01:28:34,476
-[bell dings]
-"Dear Whyaduck,
1901
01:28:34,518 --> 01:28:36,937
"Yes, I've finished
another book,
1902
01:28:36,978 --> 01:28:38,355
“ Hocus Focus.
1903
01:28:38,396 --> 01:28:40,482
"I don't know if
I like it or not.
1904
01:28:40,524 --> 01:28:42,984
"At least it isn't about
World War Two.
1905
01:28:43,026 --> 01:28:44,277
"That's an improvement.
1906
01:28:44,319 --> 01:28:45,320
[bell dings]
1907
01:28:46,863 --> 01:28:48,240
-Huh?
-[man] You gonna read--
1908
01:28:48,281 --> 01:28:50,659
I don't think anybody else is,
I might as well,
1909
01:28:50,700 --> 01:28:52,452
-because--
-[laughter]
1910
01:28:54,162 --> 01:28:56,581
God, it's so boring,
there's so much--
1911
01:28:56,623 --> 01:28:58,625
[laughter]
1912
01:28:59,793 --> 01:29:02,712
A lot of people got off the
Kurt Vonnegut band wagon,
1913
01:29:02,754 --> 01:29:04,881
I don't think they read him
as much after
1914
01:29:04,923 --> 01:29:06,258
Breakfast Of Champions.
1915
01:29:06,299 --> 01:29:09,135
I can see his latter novels
as a reflection of
1916
01:29:09,177 --> 01:29:11,096
what's happening in
Kurt Vonnegut's life.
1917
01:29:11,137 --> 01:29:13,014
The books become
more personal.
1918
01:29:13,056 --> 01:29:15,892
He has this dream of
extended family
1919
01:29:15,934 --> 01:29:17,811
as the thing we'd most lost.
1920
01:29:17,853 --> 01:29:19,980
And the thing we most need
to re-create.
1921
01:29:20,313 --> 01:29:22,732
Some of it worked,
some of it didn't.
1922
01:29:25,610 --> 01:29:28,822
When he sort of stumbled a bit
in some of his '70s work,
1923
01:29:28,864 --> 01:29:30,782
they were so happy
to crush him.
1924
01:29:30,824 --> 01:29:32,450
He as so hurt by it.
1925
01:29:34,035 --> 01:29:35,370
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Kurt Vonnegut said,
1926
01:29:35,412 --> 01:29:37,956
"Enduring the critical
reception to Slapstick
1927
01:29:37,998 --> 01:29:40,125
"he felt like he was
sleeping on his feet
1928
01:29:40,166 --> 01:29:41,793
in a boxcar in Germany
again."
1929
01:29:42,460 --> 01:29:45,589
They took that book as
the occasion to attack
1930
01:29:45,630 --> 01:29:47,173
all of his work, to say,
1931
01:29:47,215 --> 01:29:49,759
"See?
We were right all along.
1932
01:29:49,801 --> 01:29:52,637
He's a bad writer
from start to finish."
1933
01:29:52,679 --> 01:29:54,556
I read a number of reviews,
1934
01:29:54,598 --> 01:29:57,934
and have watched
the critics turn.
1935
01:29:58,310 --> 01:30:00,520
We live decade by decade now,
1936
01:30:00,562 --> 01:30:03,732
and, uh, people write books
about this decade
1937
01:30:03,773 --> 01:30:05,317
and then the next decade,
1938
01:30:05,358 --> 01:30:09,362
and I belong to the '60s,
I guess, and not the '70s.
1939
01:30:10,238 --> 01:30:11,698
People dismissed him,
1940
01:30:11,740 --> 01:30:15,035
or wrote about him as
an easy writer.
1941
01:30:15,410 --> 01:30:17,954
As anyone who's tried to write
knows,
1942
01:30:17,996 --> 01:30:20,123
it's not easy to be
easy to read.
1943
01:30:20,874 --> 01:30:22,834
[Gregory Sumner]
The accessibility of his style,
1944
01:30:22,876 --> 01:30:24,794
which I think is a strength,
1945
01:30:24,836 --> 01:30:26,880
it's become a badge of shame.
1946
01:30:26,922 --> 01:30:28,882
Just because
a junior in high school
1947
01:30:28,924 --> 01:30:31,134
can read Cat's Cradle
and enjoy it
1948
01:30:31,176 --> 01:30:32,636
and get something out of it
1949
01:30:32,677 --> 01:30:34,387
that doesn't make it not
profound.
1950
01:30:35,472 --> 01:30:38,266
Vonnegut was championed by
the people,
1951
01:30:38,308 --> 01:30:39,601
not by the critics.
1952
01:30:41,019 --> 01:30:42,228
[woman]
Ladies and gentlemen,
1953
01:30:42,270 --> 01:30:43,605
Mr. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
1954
01:30:43,647 --> 01:30:46,274
[cheering, applause]
1955
01:30:49,027 --> 01:30:51,905
[David Ulin] As the novels
maybe became less fulfilling
1956
01:30:51,947 --> 01:30:53,323
in a certain sense,
1957
01:30:53,365 --> 01:30:55,951
he was able to move into writing
those speeches,
1958
01:30:55,992 --> 01:30:59,037
and addressing the material
that way.
1959
01:31:00,580 --> 01:31:02,791
The most sensible and
constructive thought
1960
01:31:02,832 --> 01:31:04,376
we can hold on this day,
1961
01:31:04,417 --> 01:31:08,171
is that we are not members of
different generations.
1962
01:31:08,213 --> 01:31:10,757
We are also close together
in time
1963
01:31:10,799 --> 01:31:12,634
that we should
think of ourselves
1964
01:31:12,676 --> 01:31:14,219
as brothers and sisters.
1965
01:31:14,260 --> 01:31:17,013
Whenever my children complain
about the planet to me,
1966
01:31:17,055 --> 01:31:19,808
I say, "Shut up,
I just got here myself."
1967
01:31:19,849 --> 01:31:21,851
[laughter, applause]
1968
01:31:25,063 --> 01:31:27,065
[Jerome Klinkowitz] He
wanted to keep himself current
1969
01:31:27,107 --> 01:31:29,150
to let people know
he was still there
1970
01:31:29,192 --> 01:31:30,819
standing behind his ideas.
1971
01:31:30,860 --> 01:31:34,155
The two experiences
that will try you most
1972
01:31:34,197 --> 01:31:36,533
are loneliness and boredom.
1973
01:31:36,825 --> 01:31:39,160
We are all so lonesome
so much of the time
1974
01:31:39,202 --> 01:31:41,496
because we were meant to live
in extended families,
1975
01:31:41,538 --> 01:31:45,000
to have dozens or even hundreds
of relatives near by.
1976
01:31:45,041 --> 01:31:48,837
Do what you can to get
yourselves extended families
1977
01:31:48,878 --> 01:31:51,965
no matter how arbitrary
they may be.
1978
01:31:52,007 --> 01:31:54,718
We all need more people
in our lives,
1979
01:31:54,759 --> 01:31:58,179
and they do not have to be
high grade people, either.
1980
01:31:58,221 --> 01:32:00,640
They can be imbeciles
'cause what matters--
1981
01:32:00,682 --> 01:32:03,018
-[laughter]
-ls numbers.
1982
01:32:03,059 --> 01:32:04,769
Good lord, I certainly
wish you well.
1983
01:32:04,811 --> 01:32:06,813
[applause]
1984
01:32:07,731 --> 01:32:11,067
As my generation of critics
sort of came up,
1985
01:32:11,109 --> 01:32:13,945
I think Vonnegut began to be
taken much more seriously,
1986
01:32:13,987 --> 01:32:15,947
and I think that's probably true
in academia as well,
1987
01:32:15,989 --> 01:32:17,615
that, you know,
he began to be taught,
1988
01:32:17,657 --> 01:32:19,159
he began to be
sort of regarded as
1989
01:32:19,200 --> 01:32:20,702
a kind of touchstone
in a certain way
1990
01:32:20,744 --> 01:32:22,328
because we all
grew up with him.
1991
01:32:22,370 --> 01:32:24,831
[Kurt Vonnegut] As I told
you, I studied anthropology,
1992
01:32:24,873 --> 01:32:27,417
and I had to give it up.
1993
01:32:27,459 --> 01:32:29,878
I just couldn't stand
primitive people,
1994
01:32:29,919 --> 01:32:31,171
they were so stupid.
1995
01:32:31,212 --> 01:32:33,214
[laughing]
1996
01:32:34,382 --> 01:32:35,925
[Nanny Vonnegut]
If go |-- see him speak,
1997
01:32:35,967 --> 01:32:38,762
and I see the--
the auditorium is packed,
1998
01:32:38,803 --> 01:32:41,639
and out the doors,
it-- it staggers me,
1999
01:32:41,681 --> 01:32:43,975
but I really do have to
share him with the whole world.
2000
01:32:44,017 --> 01:32:46,978
I'
2001
01:32:49,647 --> 01:32:51,733
[Nanny Vonnegut] He invited
me on a trip to Indianapolis
2002
01:32:51,775 --> 01:32:53,318
to have a family outing.
2003
01:32:53,359 --> 01:32:55,320
You know, I thought it was
gonna be the two of us.
2004
01:32:56,112 --> 01:32:58,073
And then at the last minute,
he said,
2005
01:32:58,114 --> 01:33:00,533
"Oh, by the way, they're
shooting a documentary.
2006
01:33:01,201 --> 01:33:02,911
I was so angry.
2007
01:33:02,952 --> 01:33:05,038
I actually wouldn't have gone on
that trip if I had known that.
2008
01:33:06,331 --> 01:33:09,084
But turned out,
it was... all right.
2009
01:33:09,626 --> 01:33:10,627
[snapping]
2010
01:33:12,128 --> 01:33:13,963
-Oop!
-[laughter]
2011
01:33:14,005 --> 01:33:16,925
[Nanny Vonnegut] I had
never seen him so at ease.
2012
01:33:17,258 --> 01:33:20,970
They had found each other as
the subject and the filmmaker.
2013
01:33:21,304 --> 01:33:22,806
It felt like a friendship.
2014
01:33:24,724 --> 01:33:27,352
[laughter]
2015
01:33:28,978 --> 01:33:31,564
I was happy to see my father
enjoying himself.
2016
01:33:32,524 --> 01:33:33,817
-[man 1] Mark.
-[man 2] Marker.
2017
01:33:33,858 --> 01:33:37,320
...and said,
"There is Tralfamadore."
2018
01:33:37,362 --> 01:33:39,155
[Bob Weide] Can you just
do that line one more time.
2019
01:33:39,197 --> 01:33:41,825
-Up your ass. What the--
-[laughing]
2020
01:33:43,993 --> 01:33:45,703
[steady tone]
2021
01:33:45,745 --> 01:33:47,747
[Kurt Vonnegut] "She had me
read The Brothers Karamazov
2022
01:33:47,789 --> 01:33:49,415
during our honeymoon."
2023
01:33:49,457 --> 01:33:50,792
[Bob Weide] Would you go
back to, "She had me read"?
2024
01:33:50,834 --> 01:33:53,294
-[Kurt Vonnegut] Oh, shut up.
-[laughter]
2025
01:33:55,672 --> 01:33:57,340
[Bob Weide] You know,
when you're a Vonnegut fan,
2026
01:33:57,382 --> 01:34:00,009
you run into so many other
people who love Vonnegut,
2027
01:34:00,051 --> 01:34:01,719
who've read all of his works,
2028
01:34:01,761 --> 01:34:04,180
but I find that for the masses
who haven't read his books,
2029
01:34:04,222 --> 01:34:06,516
that Kurt eventually became
2030
01:34:06,558 --> 01:34:09,060
so much a part of
our culture
2031
01:34:09,102 --> 01:34:11,020
uh, pop culture,
2032
01:34:11,062 --> 01:34:13,022
that there are these people who
know him for these odd things,
2033
01:34:13,064 --> 01:34:16,901
like there were a series of
commercials done for coffee
2034
01:34:16,943 --> 01:34:18,153
It's called
The Coffee Achievers.
2035
01:34:18,194 --> 01:34:20,947
[man] You are the new
American society.
2036
01:34:20,989 --> 01:34:23,324
The movers and the shakers.
2037
01:34:23,366 --> 01:34:25,994
♪ Hold on tight
to your dreams ♪
2038
01:34:26,035 --> 01:34:28,121
And then there's what,
in some ways,
2039
01:34:28,163 --> 01:34:30,582
the most memorable thing
that Vonnegut's ever done.
2040
01:34:30,623 --> 01:34:33,042
You've got a major paper
comin' up on Kurt Vonnegut.
2041
01:34:33,084 --> 01:34:34,711
You haven't even read
any of the books.
2042
01:34:34,752 --> 01:34:35,920
[sighs] I tried.
2043
01:34:35,962 --> 01:34:37,172
[knocking]
2044
01:34:38,089 --> 01:34:39,424
I don't understand
a word of it.
2045
01:34:39,465 --> 01:34:41,467
So how you gonna write
the paper then, huh?
2046
01:34:43,178 --> 01:34:45,013
Hi. I'm Kurt Vonnegut.
2047
01:34:45,054 --> 01:34:46,514
I'm looking for
Thornton Melon.
2048
01:34:48,183 --> 01:34:51,019
Uh, wanna come in?
2049
01:34:51,060 --> 01:34:53,980
When I was in high school
and making my way through
2050
01:34:54,022 --> 01:34:55,273
Vonnegut's canon,
2051
01:34:55,315 --> 01:34:56,900
eventually, I read
Mother Night,
2052
01:34:56,941 --> 01:34:59,861
and I remember
closing that book,
2053
01:34:59,903 --> 01:35:02,071
and decided right then and there
in high school
2054
01:35:02,113 --> 01:35:04,824
that I wanted to make a movie
out of this book.
2055
01:35:07,118 --> 01:35:09,245
And I did, 20 years later.
2056
01:35:09,954 --> 01:35:12,624
Kurt gave me the rights to
the book on a handshake,
2057
01:35:12,665 --> 01:35:15,710
and I wrote the screenplay to
Mother Night on spec.
2058
01:35:15,752 --> 01:35:18,671
Took five years
'til we got it made.
2059
01:35:18,713 --> 01:35:21,382
The director of the film
was my best friend,
2060
01:35:21,424 --> 01:35:23,092
Keith Gordon.
2061
01:35:23,134 --> 01:35:24,719
Coincidentally, Keith had his
own connection with Vonnegut
2062
01:35:24,761 --> 01:35:26,429
because Keith used to be
an actor.
2063
01:35:27,013 --> 01:35:29,098
And Keith played
Rodney Dangerfield's son
2064
01:35:29,140 --> 01:35:30,433
in Back To School.
2065
01:35:30,475 --> 01:35:32,560
Hey, Keith.
Sorry we're late.
2066
01:35:32,602 --> 01:35:34,395
Welcome.
Thank you for doing this.
2067
01:35:34,437 --> 01:35:36,231
-Thank you.
-I appreciate it.
2068
01:35:36,272 --> 01:35:38,733
[Bob Weide] Kurt came up to
Montreal to visit the set one day.
2069
01:35:38,775 --> 01:35:41,069
We were trying to figure out
a way to use him.
2070
01:35:42,612 --> 01:35:45,615
I'
2071
01:35:49,160 --> 01:35:52,121
[man] it wasn't the fear of
death that froze me.
2072
01:35:52,163 --> 01:35:54,916
I had taught myself to
think of death as a friend.
2073
01:35:54,958 --> 01:35:57,961
I'
2074
01:36:08,346 --> 01:36:09,973
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Congratulations,
2075
01:36:10,014 --> 01:36:12,016
we're honored to have had
anything to do with it.
2076
01:36:12,058 --> 01:36:13,059
Bye.
2077
01:36:14,769 --> 01:36:16,562
[Bob Weide] Of course,
it didn't make a dime.
2078
01:36:16,604 --> 01:36:18,690
[chuckles]
Nobody went to see it.
2079
01:36:19,399 --> 01:36:20,733
I remember Kurt said to me,
2080
01:36:20,775 --> 01:36:23,111
"Well, maybe you just wrote
a lousy script."
2081
01:36:24,070 --> 01:36:25,697
And I said, "Well, you know
what they say:
2082
01:36:25,738 --> 01:36:27,448
Garbage in, garbage out."
2083
01:36:28,366 --> 01:36:30,702
Throughout all of this,
I always had other jobs.
2084
01:36:31,035 --> 01:36:32,578
I mean,
I had bills to pay.
2085
01:36:32,620 --> 01:36:35,623
I'
2086
01:36:38,876 --> 01:36:40,336
After the Marx Brothers film,
2087
01:36:40,378 --> 01:36:42,213
I did several more
documentaries.
2088
01:36:42,255 --> 01:36:43,965
Mainly on comedians
that I loved.
2089
01:36:44,257 --> 01:36:45,925
Every time I took
another gig,
2090
01:36:45,967 --> 01:36:47,719
there's always
a tinge of guilt
2091
01:36:47,760 --> 01:36:49,762
that I wasn't finishing
my Vonnegut film.
2092
01:36:50,388 --> 01:36:52,181
One day in 1998,
2093
01:36:52,223 --> 01:36:53,683
I got a call from my friend,
Larry David.
2094
01:36:53,725 --> 01:36:57,020
[I Curb Your Enthusiasm theme]
2095
01:37:00,565 --> 01:37:02,066
Get in the car.
2096
01:37:02,108 --> 01:37:03,359
-Are you my Caucasian?
-I'm your fuckin' Caucasian.
2097
01:37:03,401 --> 01:37:04,527
-All right!
-Yeah!
2098
01:37:04,569 --> 01:37:06,988
-Here, watch this.
-Ow! [groans]
2099
01:37:07,030 --> 01:37:09,324
-[clattering]
-Shit!
2100
01:37:09,365 --> 01:37:11,909
Bob, this is Kurt.
I thought you were a failure.
2101
01:37:11,951 --> 01:37:14,829
How wrong I was.
Hooray.
2102
01:37:16,039 --> 01:37:18,207
[Bob Weide]
I had no idea at the time
2103
01:37:18,249 --> 01:37:20,043
that that would then
lead to a series
2104
01:37:20,084 --> 01:37:21,586
called
Curb Your Enthusiasm.
2105
01:37:21,878 --> 01:37:23,546
After every season,
I kept saying, that's it,
2106
01:37:23,588 --> 01:37:24,797
I'm leaving, I'm leaving,
I'm leaving.
2107
01:37:24,839 --> 01:37:26,674
Okay, now
the Vonnegut documentary.
2108
01:37:31,095 --> 01:37:33,222
I'
2109
01:37:33,264 --> 01:37:35,475
[narrator]
"Dearest Whyaduck,
2110
01:37:35,516 --> 01:37:38,311
"Where indeed is your
Slaughterhouse-Five?
2111
01:37:39,771 --> 01:37:41,981
"Have you considered
cutting off an ear
2112
01:37:42,023 --> 01:37:43,775
and sending it to
a prostitute?
2113
01:37:45,026 --> 01:37:46,652
These things take time.
2114
01:37:48,321 --> 01:37:50,907
[Bob Weide] This is all stuff
that he sent me over the years.
2115
01:37:50,948 --> 01:37:53,284
Whenever he would do, like,
a speech at a college,
2116
01:37:53,326 --> 01:37:55,036
or anything on TV,
2117
01:37:55,078 --> 01:37:57,121
he would always have them make
a VHS tape and send it to me.
2118
01:37:57,789 --> 01:38:00,375
He started to think of me
as his archivist.
2119
01:38:00,416 --> 01:38:02,085
Hi, Bob, this is Kurt.
2120
01:38:02,126 --> 01:38:04,003
I just want to make sure
the address is still right.
2121
01:38:04,045 --> 01:38:06,255
There's videotape
I'd like to send you.
2122
01:38:07,673 --> 01:38:09,967
We are here on Earth
to fart around.
2123
01:38:10,385 --> 01:38:13,304
And don't let anybody
tell you any different.
2124
01:38:13,346 --> 01:38:15,348
[laughter, applause]
2125
01:38:17,016 --> 01:38:20,686
It's like Harpo Marx's coat,
it's just bottomless.
2126
01:38:20,728 --> 01:38:22,355
Uh, How To Get
A Job Like Mine,
2127
01:38:22,397 --> 01:38:24,899
Distinguished Speakers
Series, 2003.
2128
01:38:24,941 --> 01:38:26,901
If you really want to
hurt your parents,
2129
01:38:26,943 --> 01:38:30,071
and you don't have nerve enough
to become a homosexual...
2130
01:38:30,113 --> 01:38:32,740
[laughter]
2131
01:38:34,951 --> 01:38:37,412
...the least you can do is go
into the arts.
2132
01:38:37,453 --> 01:38:39,539
[laughter, applause]
2133
01:38:41,958 --> 01:38:43,835
[Bob Weide] I didn't want
to do a bait and switch.
2134
01:38:43,876 --> 01:38:46,379
I didn't want him to think
that I had said,
2135
01:38:46,421 --> 01:38:47,630
"Hey, I'm a big a fan of yours,
2136
01:38:47,672 --> 01:38:48,965
I'd like to make
a film on you,"
2137
01:38:49,006 --> 01:38:50,299
and then we'd become friends,
2138
01:38:50,591 --> 01:38:53,219
and then that I would just
ditch the film.
2139
01:38:53,261 --> 01:38:55,805
But no matter how much time
I'd put in,
2140
01:38:55,847 --> 01:38:58,391
I never seem to get any closer
to the finish line.
2141
01:38:59,517 --> 01:39:01,519
I should say I'm not
the only one
2142
01:39:01,561 --> 01:39:03,771
who was stuck in the mud
on a long term project.
2143
01:39:05,148 --> 01:39:07,024
Well, this--
this very morning,
2144
01:39:07,900 --> 01:39:11,237
I mailed off the last 30 pages
of a book.
2145
01:39:11,696 --> 01:39:13,573
[woman] ls there a title for
your new book yet?
2146
01:39:13,614 --> 01:39:15,658
Yeah, it's called, uh,
Timequake.
2147
01:39:16,451 --> 01:39:18,494
And, uh...
2148
01:39:18,536 --> 01:39:21,664
But that's pretty good,
I'm-- I'm 73 years old
2149
01:39:21,706 --> 01:39:23,082
and, uh...
2150
01:39:24,375 --> 01:39:26,419
I didn't think I'd last
this long, you know?
2151
01:39:26,461 --> 01:39:28,171
[chuckling]
2152
01:39:28,212 --> 01:39:29,672
[David Ulin] Timequake was
a struggle for him to write
2153
01:39:29,714 --> 01:39:32,341
because he had said
it was gonna be his last book
2154
01:39:32,383 --> 01:39:34,010
that he was gonna retire,
2155
01:39:34,051 --> 01:39:35,219
so I think he didn't want to
end his career on a kind of
2156
01:39:35,261 --> 01:39:37,013
half-assed resign note.
2157
01:39:38,514 --> 01:39:40,600
Basically,
the Timequake is at--
2158
01:39:40,641 --> 01:39:42,435
In 2001 there is a timequake
2159
01:39:42,477 --> 01:39:45,938
which is a kind of earthquake
in the time continuum.
2160
01:39:45,980 --> 01:39:48,566
Where the universe resets
ten years,
2161
01:39:48,608 --> 01:39:50,985
and everything goes back
to 1991,
2162
01:39:51,027 --> 01:39:54,739
and everyone has to go through
the ten years again.
2163
01:39:54,780 --> 01:39:58,117
I remember him telling me
back in the, uh, early '90s
2164
01:39:58,159 --> 01:39:59,452
that he was working on
this book,
2165
01:39:59,494 --> 01:40:01,204
and then I'd say,
"How's the book coming?"
2166
01:40:01,245 --> 01:40:03,039
And he says, "Oh, I don't think
it's ever gonna get finished.
2167
01:40:03,080 --> 01:40:04,790
I'm not really blocked.
2168
01:40:04,832 --> 01:40:08,127
I'm, uh, writing stuff
I don't like.
2169
01:40:08,169 --> 01:40:10,671
I had a book scheduled
to be published,
2170
01:40:10,713 --> 01:40:11,923
I just didn't like it.
2171
01:40:11,964 --> 01:40:13,174
[David Ulin]
He had finished
2172
01:40:13,216 --> 01:40:14,383
a conventional version
of the novel,
2173
01:40:14,425 --> 01:40:15,968
he had fulfilled
the contract,
2174
01:40:16,010 --> 01:40:17,428
and then he said
2175
01:40:17,470 --> 01:40:19,889
he didn't want to go out
like Mick Jagger--
2176
01:40:19,931 --> 01:40:22,433
[laughs]
playing Satisfaction,
2177
01:40:22,475 --> 01:40:24,227
you know, for
the eight millionth time.
2178
01:40:24,268 --> 01:40:26,312
So he went in and,
you know, he had a better idea
2179
01:40:26,354 --> 01:40:27,939
and he went in and
changed the whole book.
2180
01:40:27,980 --> 01:40:30,066
[Bob Weide] And when he
finally sat down and wrote
2181
01:40:30,107 --> 01:40:31,776
the final version of
Timequake,
2182
01:40:31,817 --> 01:40:35,655
it was a book about him
trying to write this novel.
2183
01:40:35,696 --> 01:40:39,033
So you'd have a passage from
the body of the story
2184
01:40:39,075 --> 01:40:41,911
and then you'd have a passage
of Kurt telling you
2185
01:40:41,953 --> 01:40:45,915
the difficulty he was having
in writing this book.
2186
01:40:45,957 --> 01:40:47,500
[Gregory Sumner] Vonnegut
finished Timequake,
2187
01:40:47,542 --> 01:40:50,044
turned it in sheepishly
to the publisher,
2188
01:40:50,086 --> 01:40:51,879
and said it's a disaster,
it didn't work.
2189
01:40:51,921 --> 01:40:53,631
Nobody's gonna
want to read it.
2190
01:40:53,673 --> 01:40:55,675
[applause]
2191
01:41:00,555 --> 01:41:03,140
They had an opening at
the Borders flagship store.
2192
01:41:03,432 --> 01:41:05,142
The line was around the block.
2193
01:41:06,143 --> 01:41:08,854
Very interesting to me how he
continually kind of thought
2194
01:41:08,896 --> 01:41:10,439
they're not gonna like
what I'm doing,
2195
01:41:10,481 --> 01:41:12,233
and then they have, like,
a record crowd turned out,
2196
01:41:12,275 --> 01:41:14,151
and people still love Vonnegut.
2197
01:41:14,193 --> 01:41:17,363
I actually have an idea for
one more book.
2198
01:41:17,405 --> 01:41:19,407
[laughter]
2199
01:41:19,740 --> 01:41:21,951
-But I--
-[applause]
2200
01:41:23,619 --> 01:41:26,330
It's about my
homosexual relationship
2201
01:41:26,372 --> 01:41:27,707
-with O.J. Simpson.
-[laughter]
2202
01:41:31,877 --> 01:41:33,087
[woman]
Mr. Vonnegut,
2203
01:41:33,129 --> 01:41:34,589
I drove from Cincinnati
to meet you--
2204
01:41:34,630 --> 01:41:36,132
[Kurt Vonnegut] Oh, I
heard about you people.
2205
01:41:36,173 --> 01:41:37,967
I was wondering if I could get
a picture with you?
2206
01:41:38,009 --> 01:41:39,844
-[Kurt Vonnegut] Of course.
-[camera shutter clicks]
2207
01:41:39,885 --> 01:41:40,970
Oh, thank you so much.
2208
01:41:41,762 --> 01:41:43,306
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Vonnegut shows that
2209
01:41:43,347 --> 01:41:45,850
it's not the final book
that's the point,
2210
01:41:45,891 --> 01:41:48,144
it's the struggle
to write the book,
2211
01:41:48,185 --> 01:41:49,854
and that's the text.
2212
01:41:49,895 --> 01:41:53,149
The point is not the end,
it's the journey.
2213
01:41:53,441 --> 01:41:56,444
I'
2214
01:41:56,485 --> 01:41:59,405
[Bob Weide] I think most critics
and scholars agree that
2215
01:41:59,447 --> 01:42:01,282
the best thing about
Timequake
2216
01:42:01,324 --> 01:42:03,492
is that I'm in it.
2217
01:42:05,411 --> 01:42:07,413
[narrator reading]
2218
01:42:09,540 --> 01:42:11,250
[Bob Weide]
Vonnegut write about
2219
01:42:11,292 --> 01:42:13,878
a farewell clambake
for Kilgore Trout,
2220
01:42:13,919 --> 01:42:15,963
and he mentions all the people
in attendance.
2221
01:42:16,547 --> 01:42:17,965
And they're all his friends.
2222
01:42:18,549 --> 01:42:20,176
[narrator reading]
2223
01:42:25,306 --> 01:42:26,682
[Bob Weide]
And there I am.
2224
01:42:26,724 --> 01:42:28,517
[narrator]
"They were Robert Weide,
2225
01:42:28,559 --> 01:42:31,103
"who in the summer of 1996
2226
01:42:31,145 --> 01:42:33,439
is making a movie of
Mother Night."
2227
01:42:33,481 --> 01:42:36,150
I remember sending Kurt
a fax the next day
2228
01:42:36,192 --> 01:42:38,569
thanking him for including me
in the book.
2229
01:42:40,488 --> 01:42:42,573
I-- I think I took it all
in stride.
2230
01:42:46,118 --> 01:42:48,120
Yeah, finding myself in
a Vonnegut book
2231
01:42:48,162 --> 01:42:49,330
was a pretty happy thing.
2232
01:42:50,498 --> 01:42:52,667
The sad thing about
Timequake
2233
01:42:52,708 --> 01:42:55,336
is that Kurt suffered
another loss
2234
01:42:55,378 --> 01:42:56,754
right before he
finished the book.
2235
01:42:56,796 --> 01:42:58,547
[answering machine beeps]
2236
01:42:58,589 --> 01:43:01,008
[Kurt Vonnegut] Hi, Bob,
it's, uh, Friday morning.
2237
01:43:01,050 --> 01:43:05,221
Uh, Bernie died at 10:00
Eastern Standard Time here,
2238
01:43:05,262 --> 01:43:06,972
it's utterly peaceful.
2239
01:43:07,014 --> 01:43:08,349
I thought you'd like to know.
2240
01:43:08,391 --> 01:43:10,726
[laughing]
2241
01:43:12,728 --> 01:43:17,400
Uh, his ashes are going to be
scattered over Mount Greylock
2242
01:43:17,441 --> 01:43:20,277
where the first
cloud seeding experiment
2243
01:43:20,319 --> 01:43:22,905
with dry ice
was performed.
2244
01:43:22,947 --> 01:43:24,573
He loved that idea.
2245
01:43:24,615 --> 01:43:25,616
Bye.
2246
01:43:28,119 --> 01:43:29,912
[narrator] "I was
the baby of the family.
2247
01:43:31,831 --> 01:43:33,833
[narrator reading]
2248
01:43:38,504 --> 01:43:40,047
[Bob Weide]
After Timequake,
2249
01:43:40,089 --> 01:43:43,426
I found myself with a question
which sounds rhetorical,
2250
01:43:43,467 --> 01:43:45,803
but I was wondering about
a literal answer.
2251
01:43:46,846 --> 01:43:49,348
What happens when
a writer stops writing?
2252
01:43:50,433 --> 01:43:52,393
[waves crashing]
2253
01:43:52,435 --> 01:43:55,062
[seagulls squawking]
2254
01:44:03,028 --> 01:44:05,114
[John Irving] When I was
a neighbor to Kurt
2255
01:44:05,156 --> 01:44:07,533
in Sagaponack
in Long island,
2256
01:44:08,075 --> 01:44:10,035
he frequently came to visit.
2257
01:44:10,578 --> 01:44:13,038
And often when I would
get up in the morning,
2258
01:44:13,080 --> 01:44:14,165
and I get up early,
2259
01:44:15,040 --> 01:44:16,125
Kurt would be there.
2260
01:44:16,667 --> 01:44:18,252
He'd be on the porch.
2261
01:44:18,919 --> 01:44:22,673
Um... waiting for somebody
to get up.
2262
01:44:23,382 --> 01:44:25,676
Waiting to come in
and have a cup of coffee.
2263
01:44:26,385 --> 01:44:29,221
Uh, and another Pall Mall.
2264
01:44:30,556 --> 01:44:33,267
When I asked, "How long
have you been here?"
2265
01:44:34,226 --> 01:44:36,604
"Oh, I've just had a butt
or two," he would say,
2266
01:44:36,645 --> 01:44:38,564
or I just-- I just got here.
2267
01:44:39,565 --> 01:44:41,150
There were enough butts
out there,
2268
01:44:41,192 --> 01:44:43,652
so you had to believe...
2269
01:44:43,694 --> 01:44:45,780
he'd arrived
when it was still dark.
2270
01:44:47,615 --> 01:44:49,867
I'
2271
01:44:49,909 --> 01:44:51,410
[man] Mr. Vonnegut,
thanks for coming by.
2272
01:44:51,702 --> 01:44:52,828
Oh, my pleasure.
2273
01:44:52,870 --> 01:44:54,246
How's life?
2274
01:44:54,789 --> 01:44:57,041
Well, it's practically over,
thank God, I'm--
2275
01:44:57,082 --> 01:44:58,918
-[laughing]
-Heaven's sakes.
2276
01:44:58,959 --> 01:45:00,336
I'm practically 83.
2277
01:45:00,377 --> 01:45:01,962
There won't be
that much more of--
2278
01:45:02,004 --> 01:45:03,798
For me to put up with,
I don't t think.
2279
01:45:05,216 --> 01:45:07,593
[Morley Safer] When Kurt
got older and more cranky
2280
01:45:07,635 --> 01:45:08,928
and falling apart,
2281
01:45:08,969 --> 01:45:10,638
which I'm going through myself
right now,
2282
01:45:11,639 --> 01:45:14,099
he used to say
we live too long.
2283
01:45:14,809 --> 01:45:16,477
We really live too long.
2284
01:45:18,103 --> 01:45:21,607
Some of you may know about
my class action suit.
2285
01:45:21,649 --> 01:45:23,275
Against Brown Williamson.
2286
01:45:23,818 --> 01:45:27,446
It's uh-- They're manufacturers
of Pall Mall cigarettes
2287
01:45:27,488 --> 01:45:28,989
in Louisville.
2288
01:45:29,031 --> 01:45:32,785
And-- [clears throat] I have
been chain smoking these
2289
01:45:33,452 --> 01:45:35,412
since I was 14 years old.
2290
01:45:37,039 --> 01:45:39,834
And on their package,
they promised to kill me.
2291
01:45:39,875 --> 01:45:42,503
[laughter]
2292
01:45:45,464 --> 01:45:47,967
And I'm about to turn 83.
2293
01:45:48,008 --> 01:45:50,010
[laughter, applause]
2294
01:45:51,846 --> 01:45:54,139
[man] He had a totally
fulfilled career.
2295
01:45:54,181 --> 01:45:56,475
Totally fulfilled life.
That's why it's haunting.
2296
01:45:57,017 --> 01:45:58,477
You know, you've done what
you're gonna do,
2297
01:45:58,519 --> 01:46:00,187
and now you're just
hangin' around
2298
01:46:00,229 --> 01:46:02,523
to find out what
specialist you see next week.
2299
01:46:04,024 --> 01:46:05,442
[man]
So there he is,
2300
01:46:05,484 --> 01:46:07,278
he's not working
on a major book,
2301
01:46:07,319 --> 01:46:09,488
he was quite lonely.
2302
01:46:09,530 --> 01:46:10,656
And he would reach out.
2303
01:46:10,698 --> 01:46:13,701
It was almost like
somebody, um,
2304
01:46:13,742 --> 01:46:16,829
in a prison cell
in a funny way.
2305
01:46:16,871 --> 01:46:18,622
You know, he would send
these faxes.
2306
01:46:19,790 --> 01:46:22,418
Anything he wanted to write
he could have gotten published,
2307
01:46:22,459 --> 01:46:24,795
but these were just
little things for his friends.
2308
01:46:24,837 --> 01:46:26,213
Oh, here's a favorite one
of mine.
2309
01:46:27,047 --> 01:46:29,049
[reading]
2310
01:46:32,052 --> 01:46:34,889
That's from a Martian Visitor.
Look at this.
2311
01:46:34,930 --> 01:46:36,932
[reading]
2312
01:46:40,269 --> 01:46:41,854
Look at this one.
Here's a simple one.
2313
01:46:42,187 --> 01:46:44,023
[reading]
2314
01:46:44,815 --> 01:46:47,818
I'
2315
01:46:48,360 --> 01:46:49,945
[Bob Weide] The things that
were depressing him
2316
01:46:49,987 --> 01:46:50,988
were no secret.
2317
01:46:51,405 --> 01:46:54,158
There was his
domestic situation,
2318
01:46:54,199 --> 01:46:55,326
as he referred to it.
2319
01:46:56,452 --> 01:46:58,078
We had a lot of conversations,
2320
01:46:58,120 --> 01:47:00,456
and there were a lot of faxes
about his second marriage,
2321
01:47:00,497 --> 01:47:04,209
which was not exactly playing
out happily ever after.
2322
01:47:06,211 --> 01:47:08,547
He was also outraged
about how we were
2323
01:47:08,589 --> 01:47:10,215
poisoning the environment,
2324
01:47:10,257 --> 01:47:12,885
and the inevitable
consequences of that.
2325
01:47:13,886 --> 01:47:15,137
But there was one other thing.
2326
01:47:15,471 --> 01:47:17,264
The last thing I ever wanted...
2327
01:47:18,223 --> 01:47:19,725
was to be alive...
2328
01:47:20,059 --> 01:47:21,477
when the three most important,
2329
01:47:21,518 --> 01:47:23,938
most powerful people on
the face of the Earth...
2330
01:47:25,439 --> 01:47:27,483
were named Bush,
Dick and Colin.
2331
01:47:27,524 --> 01:47:29,526
[laughter]
2332
01:47:30,653 --> 01:47:34,615
[Bob Weide] He was not a big
fan of the Bush administration.
2333
01:47:34,949 --> 01:47:36,283
Either one, actually.
2334
01:47:36,325 --> 01:47:38,994
Um, and especially
the war with Iraq.
2335
01:47:39,620 --> 01:47:40,621
Either one.
2336
01:47:41,038 --> 01:47:43,040
[explosions]
2337
01:47:47,086 --> 01:47:49,213
[Mark Vonnegut] He truly
believed in the American dream.
2338
01:47:49,254 --> 01:47:51,924
He believed, uh, that
this could be wonderful
2339
01:47:51,966 --> 01:47:56,053
and I do think it was
the invasion of Iraq
2340
01:47:56,929 --> 01:47:59,390
that he said... it's over.
2341
01:48:00,057 --> 01:48:01,934
I don't' think there's
any question
2342
01:48:01,976 --> 01:48:04,687
but that experiencing war
had a profound effect.
2343
01:48:05,396 --> 01:48:09,108
And there's a certain resolution
in saying I've said it all.
2344
01:48:09,608 --> 01:48:11,735
You're testing yourself
to say it.
2345
01:48:11,777 --> 01:48:14,029
There wasn't any way he would
ever stop writing.
2346
01:48:16,240 --> 01:48:17,825
[man]
What he did,
2347
01:48:17,866 --> 01:48:21,745
which is very unusual for
a world famous writer to do,
2348
01:48:21,787 --> 01:48:24,581
he started writing
occasional essays
2349
01:48:24,623 --> 01:48:28,293
for a little magazine called
In These Times.
2350
01:48:28,335 --> 01:48:31,338
I'
2351
01:48:31,380 --> 01:48:33,966
[keyboard clacking]
2352
01:48:34,717 --> 01:48:36,677
My relationship
with Kurt began,
2353
01:48:36,719 --> 01:48:38,971
I, uh, asked him to do
an interview
2354
01:48:39,013 --> 01:48:40,472
for In These Times.
2355
01:48:40,514 --> 01:48:43,517
It was about Bush
and the war in Iraq.
2356
01:48:43,559 --> 01:48:46,895
In that, uh, first interview,
he used the phrase
2357
01:48:46,937 --> 01:48:48,731
"psychopathic personality."
2358
01:48:48,772 --> 01:48:50,774
[narrator reading]
2359
01:48:57,573 --> 01:48:59,992
"They cannot care
because they are nuts."
2360
01:49:00,743 --> 01:49:02,661
He was angry as
an American.
2361
01:49:02,703 --> 01:49:05,372
He was angry as a vet.
2362
01:49:05,414 --> 01:49:09,084
His own good name as an American
was being trashed.
2363
01:49:09,126 --> 01:49:12,755
When I saw a photograph
of the Iraqi kids,
2364
01:49:12,796 --> 01:49:17,009
with their hands up like this
having been shelled and bombed
2365
01:49:17,051 --> 01:49:18,677
until they were half-witted,
2366
01:49:19,636 --> 01:49:21,638
I said, those are
my brothers there.
2367
01:49:22,514 --> 01:49:25,350
And I didn't think it was
amusing or wonderful at all
2368
01:49:25,392 --> 01:49:29,354
to see kids in that situation.
2369
01:49:29,396 --> 01:49:31,607
[applause]
2370
01:49:31,648 --> 01:49:33,776
[Joe Bleifuss]
He wanted to speak out,
2371
01:49:33,817 --> 01:49:36,236
and so within a month of his
first interview,
2372
01:49:36,278 --> 01:49:38,489
he was sending me
things to publish.
2373
01:49:38,822 --> 01:49:41,283
He wrote about things that were
important to him,
2374
01:49:41,325 --> 01:49:42,951
but with every essay,
2375
01:49:42,993 --> 01:49:46,580
it would always bring in
a variety of things,
2376
01:49:46,622 --> 01:49:49,875
So sometimes Kilgore Trout
would just appear.
2377
01:49:51,668 --> 01:49:53,212
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
I doubt if he was paid for it,
2378
01:49:53,253 --> 01:49:55,005
and he just wrote
what was on his mind.
2379
01:49:56,173 --> 01:49:57,633
Turned out,
2380
01:49:57,674 --> 01:50:00,469
they were so good
that a small press,
2381
01:50:00,511 --> 01:50:03,388
Seven Stories Press
in New York collected them.
2382
01:50:03,430 --> 01:50:06,350
We canceled, at his request,
that book twice,
2383
01:50:06,391 --> 01:50:09,311
because he was afraid that what
if he did this little
2384
01:50:09,353 --> 01:50:11,271
kind of off-hand book at
the end of his life
2385
01:50:11,313 --> 01:50:13,607
that included criticizing
his government,
2386
01:50:13,649 --> 01:50:15,317
criticizing his country.
2387
01:50:15,359 --> 01:50:17,069
I mean, he really
thought about that,
2388
01:50:17,111 --> 01:50:18,987
and he was very
concerned about that.
2389
01:50:19,029 --> 01:50:22,032
I'
2390
01:50:23,242 --> 01:50:25,369
The book hit the best seller
list immediately,
2391
01:50:25,410 --> 01:50:28,330
and we sold a quarter of a
million copies very, very quickly,
2392
01:50:28,372 --> 01:50:30,207
we could barely keep up with it.
2393
01:50:30,249 --> 01:50:32,000
This was Kurt's
first best seller
2394
01:50:32,042 --> 01:50:34,211
in about 10, 15 years.
2395
01:50:34,253 --> 01:50:36,421
All of a sudden, he's all over
the back page of
2396
01:50:36,463 --> 01:50:37,923
the New York Times
Book Review,
2397
01:50:37,965 --> 01:50:39,842
which had never been
his biggest fan,
2398
01:50:39,883 --> 01:50:42,344
saying this is just amazing.
2399
01:50:42,386 --> 01:50:45,430
As an adolescent,
he made my life bearable.
2400
01:50:45,472 --> 01:50:47,516
His latest is
A Man Without A Country
2401
01:50:47,558 --> 01:50:49,059
Please welcome to the show
Kurt Vonnegut.
2402
01:50:49,101 --> 01:50:51,311
[cheering, applause]
2403
01:50:51,603 --> 01:50:54,898
You know, I-- I always felt
in your writing
2404
01:50:54,940 --> 01:50:57,985
that you were admiring of man,
2405
01:50:58,402 --> 01:50:59,778
but disappointed in him.
2406
01:51:00,154 --> 01:51:03,115
Yes, well, I-- I think
we are terrible animals.
2407
01:51:03,157 --> 01:51:04,491
-And I think--
-[person laughs]
2408
01:51:04,533 --> 01:51:06,285
I think our planet's
immune system
2409
01:51:06,326 --> 01:51:08,579
is trying to get rid of us
and should.
2410
01:51:08,620 --> 01:51:09,913
.Uh..
-[applause]
2411
01:51:09,955 --> 01:51:11,623
You know, Mr. Vonnegut,
if I may,
2412
01:51:11,665 --> 01:51:14,960
it's sad for me to see you
lose your edge.
2413
01:51:15,002 --> 01:51:17,004
[laughter]
2414
01:51:20,382 --> 01:51:23,051
It was an opportunity for
people far and wide
2415
01:51:23,093 --> 01:51:25,053
to let him know how much
they loved him.
2416
01:51:25,095 --> 01:51:26,722
I don't think anybody realized
2417
01:51:26,763 --> 01:51:28,682
he was our greatest
living writer.
2418
01:51:28,724 --> 01:51:30,017
-Kurt Vonnegut.
-[cheering, applause]
2419
01:51:33,228 --> 01:51:35,230
[clicking]
2420
01:51:35,272 --> 01:51:38,275
I'
2421
01:51:40,235 --> 01:51:42,237
[projector clicking]
2422
01:51:50,996 --> 01:51:53,999
I'
2423
01:51:55,500 --> 01:51:57,878
Kurt was gonna be spending
the summer
2424
01:51:57,920 --> 01:52:00,964
at his summer place in Sagaponack
in Long Island, New York,
2425
01:52:01,006 --> 01:52:02,591
he'd get out of the city
every year,
2426
01:52:03,258 --> 01:52:06,261
and asked me if I wanted to
come and hang out.
2427
01:52:06,887 --> 01:52:08,472
I said, "Yeah, you bet."
2428
01:52:09,932 --> 01:52:12,100
And I remember
my initial instinct was,
2429
01:52:12,142 --> 01:52:14,811
hey, this is great, I'll get
a small camera crew
2430
01:52:14,853 --> 01:52:16,063
and it'd be great
to see Kurt
2431
01:52:16,104 --> 01:52:17,814
sort of walking around
Sagaponack
2432
01:52:17,856 --> 01:52:20,067
and going to the post office
to get his mail every day,
2433
01:52:20,108 --> 01:52:21,944
and this'|| be great for
the documentary.
2434
01:52:22,569 --> 01:52:24,988
And then soon after,
I realized
2435
01:52:25,030 --> 01:52:26,949
I-- I don't want to do that.
2436
01:52:28,158 --> 01:52:29,868
This is time for us to hang out.
2437
01:52:29,910 --> 01:52:31,620
I don't know if he's gonna feel
it's intrusive
2438
01:52:31,662 --> 01:52:34,164
to have a cameraman there to be
filming for the documentary
2439
01:52:34,206 --> 01:52:36,208
but suddenly I felt
it was intrusive.
2440
01:52:37,167 --> 01:52:38,752
It was kind of
a turning point for me
2441
01:52:38,794 --> 01:52:40,003
in the making of this film,
2442
01:52:40,754 --> 01:52:42,297
because prior to that,
2443
01:52:42,339 --> 01:52:45,050
I'd always been concerned that
2444
01:52:45,092 --> 01:52:49,221
the friendship might, um,
infringe on the film.
2445
01:52:49,763 --> 01:52:51,431
This was the first time
I realized that
2446
01:52:51,473 --> 01:52:53,350
things had flipped
so entirely now
2447
01:52:53,392 --> 01:52:54,768
that I was worried about
2448
01:52:54,810 --> 01:52:57,062
the film infringing on
the friendship.
2449
01:52:58,146 --> 01:53:00,899
And, um, that was
a realization for me
2450
01:53:00,941 --> 01:53:03,485
that I was maybe in trouble.
2451
01:53:03,527 --> 01:53:05,946
Because part of me had...
2452
01:53:06,697 --> 01:53:09,157
almost given up on the film
at that time.
2453
01:53:13,453 --> 01:53:15,414
[woman]
And the Emmy goes to...
2454
01:53:19,126 --> 01:53:21,920
uh, Robert Weide, uh,
Curb Your Enthusiasm.
2455
01:53:21,962 --> 01:53:23,964
[applause]
2456
01:53:25,716 --> 01:53:27,843
[Bob Weide] Hey, Ma, this
is for you and for Dad.
2457
01:53:27,884 --> 01:53:29,303
And for, uh, my wife, Linda,
2458
01:53:29,344 --> 01:53:31,388
to whom I just lost
a $100 bet.
2459
01:53:31,430 --> 01:53:32,764
-[laughter]
-Um--
2460
01:53:32,806 --> 01:53:34,099
[answering machine beeps]
2461
01:53:34,141 --> 01:53:36,226
Hi, Linda, this is Kurt,
2462
01:53:36,268 --> 01:53:38,603
just thinking about how happy
you guys must be.
2463
01:53:38,645 --> 01:53:41,982
My goodness,
and how deservedly happy.
2464
01:53:42,024 --> 01:53:44,443
Wow, when somebody's happy,
I-- [chuckles]
2465
01:53:44,484 --> 01:53:46,111
Makes me happy too.
2466
01:53:46,153 --> 01:53:48,655
So crazy about you two,
I hope you love each other
2467
01:53:48,697 --> 01:53:50,073
as much as
I love both of you.
2468
01:53:50,824 --> 01:53:51,783
Bye.
2469
01:53:51,825 --> 01:53:54,828
I'
2470
01:53:59,624 --> 01:54:02,377
[Bob Weide]
In 2018,
2471
01:54:02,419 --> 01:54:06,423
Linda was diagnosed with
progressive supranuclear palsy,
2472
01:54:06,840 --> 01:54:07,966
or PSP.
2473
01:54:09,301 --> 01:54:11,303
Touch your nose,
go back and forth.
2474
01:54:11,720 --> 01:54:12,763
The other side.
2475
01:54:12,804 --> 01:54:14,181
Neither of us had heard of it
2476
01:54:14,222 --> 01:54:15,932
but that's because
it's very rare.
2477
01:54:17,100 --> 01:54:20,687
It's sort of a cousin
to Parkinson's,
2478
01:54:20,729 --> 01:54:23,273
but very aggressive
and very fast moving.
2479
01:54:24,149 --> 01:54:26,485
Her speech, her balance,
2480
01:54:26,526 --> 01:54:29,112
her walking
have all taken a hit.
2481
01:54:30,072 --> 01:54:32,449
Um, there's no known cure.
2482
01:54:33,325 --> 01:54:36,161
But she's participating in
some clinical trials
2483
01:54:36,203 --> 01:54:39,164
which hopefully will provide
some relief.
2484
01:54:41,583 --> 01:54:43,085
We never saw this coming.
2485
01:54:44,211 --> 01:54:46,838
But, you know...
2486
01:54:46,880 --> 01:54:48,382
what'd you ever see coming?
2487
01:54:51,843 --> 01:54:52,886
Fate happens.
2488
01:54:57,182 --> 01:54:58,141
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Why me?
2489
01:55:00,185 --> 01:55:04,648
"That is a very earthling
question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim.
2490
01:55:04,689 --> 01:55:06,650
"Why you?
Why us, for that matter?
2491
01:55:06,691 --> 01:55:07,818
"Why anything?
2492
01:55:09,403 --> 01:55:12,781
"Because this moment
simply is.
2493
01:55:12,823 --> 01:55:15,158
"Have you ever seen bugs
trapped in amber?
2494
01:55:17,619 --> 01:55:19,538
"Well, here we are,
Mr. Pilgrim,
2495
01:55:19,579 --> 01:55:21,456
"trapped in the amber
of this moment.
2496
01:55:24,292 --> 01:55:25,585
There is no why."
2497
01:55:31,508 --> 01:55:32,968
[answering machine beeps]
2498
01:55:33,009 --> 01:55:35,846
Hi, Bob, this is Kurt
and, uh,
2499
01:55:35,887 --> 01:55:37,347
so exciting to know that
2500
01:55:37,389 --> 01:55:39,808
you are probably in this town
right now.
2501
01:55:39,850 --> 01:55:43,728
I look forward to seeing you
on Thursday if not before.
2502
01:55:43,770 --> 01:55:46,773
Anyway, do not play
Three-card Monte.
2503
01:55:46,815 --> 01:55:51,027
The people who conduct
these games are criminals,
2504
01:55:51,069 --> 01:55:53,155
and, uh, there's no way
you can win.
2505
01:55:53,697 --> 01:55:56,032
I'
2506
01:55:56,074 --> 01:55:57,993
[Bob Weide] We had a dinner
just like any other dinner.
2507
01:55:58,452 --> 01:56:01,121
I had a little digital camera
with me,
2508
01:56:01,163 --> 01:56:03,290
and jut for fun, I took
a little-- [clicks tongue]
2509
01:56:03,331 --> 01:56:05,083
Picture of him sitting at
the table.
2510
01:56:05,417 --> 01:56:09,087
And then we walked back to
his place on 48th Street.
2511
01:56:09,921 --> 01:56:11,882
So we said goodbye and I said,
"Oh, wait a minute.
2512
01:56:11,923 --> 01:56:13,884
Hold on.
Let me take a picture."
2513
01:56:14,217 --> 01:56:16,511
And I took a picture of him at
the bottom of the steps
2514
01:56:16,553 --> 01:56:17,929
looking at me.
2515
01:56:17,971 --> 01:56:20,474
And I don't know what
compelled me to do this,
2516
01:56:20,515 --> 01:56:22,976
because it wasn't anything did
on a regular basis.
2517
01:56:23,018 --> 01:56:25,228
To this day, it's not something
I do that often,
2518
01:56:25,270 --> 01:56:27,355
to say to another guy,
I love you,
2519
01:56:27,397 --> 01:56:28,773
but that's what came out of
my mouth.
2520
01:56:28,815 --> 01:56:31,651
I said, I love you, and
I probably added man.
2521
01:56:31,693 --> 01:56:33,028
I love you, man,
2522
01:56:33,069 --> 01:56:35,238
which takes the edge off of
the corniness.
2523
01:56:35,280 --> 01:56:36,990
Hey, love you, man.
Something like that.
2524
01:56:37,324 --> 01:56:38,742
Anyway, I said, I love you.
2525
01:56:39,075 --> 01:56:40,202
And he said,
"Love you, too."
2526
01:56:41,244 --> 01:56:42,412
Oh, isn't that nice.
2527
01:56:45,373 --> 01:56:47,083
That was the last time
I saw him alive.
2528
01:56:48,627 --> 01:56:51,630
I'
2529
01:56:51,671 --> 01:56:55,258
[Nanny Vonnegut] My brother called
to tell me that Dad had fallen.
2530
01:56:55,800 --> 01:56:59,304
He hit his head and it--
it's really bad.
2531
01:57:00,555 --> 01:57:02,224
That day that he fell,
2532
01:57:02,265 --> 01:57:04,976
he called me,
we had a conversation.
2533
01:57:06,394 --> 01:57:07,979
And, um...
2534
01:57:08,021 --> 01:57:09,105
Oh, my God.
2535
01:57:11,566 --> 01:57:14,528
He called because there was
always among us
2536
01:57:14,569 --> 01:57:18,073
the worry about, you know,
cancer, breast cancer, whatever.
2537
01:57:18,114 --> 01:57:19,658
He said, "Darling--
[clears throat]
2538
01:57:21,618 --> 01:57:25,038
Um... sorry if I can
remember this right.
2539
01:57:26,748 --> 01:57:28,750
"Are your boobs okay?"
[laughs]
2540
01:57:30,710 --> 01:57:32,087
"Are your boobs okay?"
2541
01:57:33,088 --> 01:57:35,131
"Yes, Dad,
my boobs are fine."
2542
01:57:36,716 --> 01:57:37,884
"Okay, I love you."
2543
01:57:42,013 --> 01:57:43,014
Yeah.
2544
01:57:44,516 --> 01:57:46,518
[reporter] Author Kurt Vonnegut
has died.
2545
01:57:46,560 --> 01:57:48,103
He was one of the most
influential writers
2546
01:57:48,144 --> 01:57:49,771
of the 20th century.
2547
01:57:49,813 --> 01:57:51,606
He wrote classics such as
Slaughterhouse-Five,
2548
01:57:51,648 --> 01:57:52,983
and Cat's Cradle.
2549
01:57:53,024 --> 01:57:55,193
He was know for his
satirical commentary,
2550
01:57:55,235 --> 01:57:58,071
and he took aim at culture,
society and institutions.
2551
01:57:58,530 --> 01:58:00,657
Kurt Vonnegut was
84 years old.
2552
01:58:04,494 --> 01:58:06,580
[Kurt Vonnegut] This is what I
would like to be read at my funeral
2553
01:58:06,621 --> 01:58:07,872
and I think maybe some of you
2554
01:58:07,914 --> 01:58:09,583
would like this to be read
at yours.
2555
01:58:10,417 --> 01:58:12,210
"I have finished my course.
2556
01:58:12,877 --> 01:58:15,922
"I have ceased to enjoy
and suffer.
2557
01:58:16,798 --> 01:58:19,384
"Please transfer your love
and your benevolence
2558
01:58:19,426 --> 01:58:21,177
"to your living fellow men.
2559
01:58:22,429 --> 01:58:25,098
"The memory of the one
as well as of the other
2560
01:58:25,140 --> 01:58:27,309
is appreciated and honored."
2561
01:58:27,350 --> 01:58:30,395
I'
2562
01:58:31,855 --> 01:58:33,940
[Bob Weide]
I keep above my desk
2563
01:58:33,982 --> 01:58:36,401
the Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary.
2564
01:58:36,901 --> 01:58:39,362
And Kurt's name
is included in it.
2565
01:58:40,322 --> 01:58:41,781
And I love the fact that
it said,
2566
01:58:41,823 --> 01:58:45,243
"Kurt Vonnegut,
1922 to blank."
2567
01:58:49,789 --> 01:58:51,416
Here was empirical evidence,
2568
01:58:51,458 --> 01:58:53,251
here was verification that
he was still with us.
2569
01:58:55,545 --> 01:58:57,839
'Cause that second year
wasn't filled in yet.
2570
01:59:01,426 --> 01:59:03,428
Maybe by finishing this film,
2571
01:59:03,470 --> 01:59:06,306
it acknowledges that...
2572
01:59:06,348 --> 01:59:07,349
he's gone.
2573
01:59:09,017 --> 01:59:10,852
But I feel like I owe him this.
2574
01:59:13,146 --> 01:59:14,606
Hi, Bob, this is Kurt.
2575
01:59:17,233 --> 01:59:19,402
So grateful for
the documentary.
2576
01:59:22,364 --> 01:59:24,074
I wanted to thank you for
your friendship.
2577
01:59:27,243 --> 01:59:28,244
Love you.
2578
01:59:29,329 --> 01:59:30,330
Bye.
2579
01:59:31,706 --> 01:59:33,541
[laughing]
2580
01:59:35,627 --> 01:59:38,630
I'
2581
01:59:41,341 --> 01:59:42,801
[Bob Weide]
Are you gonna buy Pall Malls?
2582
01:59:42,842 --> 01:59:43,843
-You gotta by Pall Malls.
-[Nanny Vonnegut] Yeah.
2583
01:59:44,594 --> 01:59:46,971
Do you have Pall Mall?
Cigarettes?
2584
01:59:49,474 --> 01:59:50,600
[laughs]
2585
01:59:50,642 --> 01:59:52,435
I'm doing this
just to amuse you.
2586
01:59:52,477 --> 01:59:54,562
I know--
I haven't smoked since...
2587
01:59:54,604 --> 01:59:55,647
third grade.
2588
01:59:56,773 --> 01:59:59,776
I'
2589
02:00:06,491 --> 02:00:09,035
[Kurt Vonnegut] When things
are going sweetly and peacefully,
2590
02:00:09,077 --> 02:00:12,455
please pause a moment
and then say out loud,
2591
02:00:14,040 --> 02:00:16,126
"If this isn't nice,
what is?"
2592
02:00:18,169 --> 02:00:19,212
Candlesticks.
2593
02:00:21,381 --> 02:00:23,299
That feeling that you get
when she's around,
2594
02:00:23,341 --> 02:00:24,926
when she's in the room,
when she's with you,
2595
02:00:24,968 --> 02:00:27,220
I'm the lucky guy who now
gets to feel that
2596
02:00:27,262 --> 02:00:28,555
for the rest of my life.
2597
02:00:28,596 --> 02:00:30,265
[applause, cheering]
2598
02:00:31,099 --> 02:00:32,684
[Kurt Vonnegut]
It's the impermanence...
2599
02:00:32,726 --> 02:00:34,227
of life.
2600
02:00:34,728 --> 02:00:36,563
I mean, this day is
as real as any day
2601
02:00:36,604 --> 02:00:38,231
we're going to live,
2602
02:00:38,273 --> 02:00:41,443
and yet we have an idea that
we're headed for other days,
2603
02:00:41,484 --> 02:00:42,736
even better days.
2604
02:00:42,777 --> 02:00:44,779
[cheering applause]
2605
02:00:47,240 --> 02:00:48,366
[Kurt Vonnegut]
And this is it.
2606
02:00:48,408 --> 02:00:49,701
This is all there is.
2607
02:00:50,368 --> 02:00:53,371
I'
2608
02:01:21,566 --> 02:01:22,901
[Bob Weide]
Vonnegut writes,
2609
02:01:22,942 --> 02:01:25,653
"The British mathematician,
Stephen Hawking,
2610
02:01:26,029 --> 02:01:27,322
"found it tantalizing
2611
02:01:27,363 --> 02:01:29,657
"that we could not remember
the future.
2612
02:01:30,116 --> 02:01:31,451
"But remembering the future...
2613
02:01:31,493 --> 02:01:34,496
[narrator]
"...is child's play for me now.
2614
02:01:34,537 --> 02:01:37,957
"I know what will become of
my helpless, trusting babies
2615
02:01:37,999 --> 02:01:40,502
"because they are
grown ups now.
2616
02:01:40,543 --> 02:01:43,463
"I know how my closest friends
will end up
2617
02:01:43,505 --> 02:01:46,925
"because so many of them
are retired or dead now.
2618
02:01:48,843 --> 02:01:51,346
"I say, be patient.
2619
02:01:51,387 --> 02:01:53,598
"Your future will soon
come to you
2620
02:01:53,640 --> 02:01:55,850
"and lie down at your feet,
2621
02:01:55,892 --> 02:01:58,603
"like a dog who knows
and loves you
2622
02:01:58,645 --> 02:02:00,021
"no matter what you are.
2623
02:02:03,858 --> 02:02:06,778
"And the dog of my future
lying at my feet
2624
02:02:08,404 --> 02:02:09,989
is snoring now."
2625
02:02:13,785 --> 02:02:16,788
I'
2626
02:02:52,240 --> 02:02:54,075
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Should I myself die,
2627
02:02:54,367 --> 02:02:55,702
God forbid--
2628
02:02:55,743 --> 02:02:57,245
[laughter]
2629
02:02:57,287 --> 02:02:58,872
I hope you'll say...
2630
02:02:58,913 --> 02:03:00,498
he's up in Heaven now.
2631
02:03:01,833 --> 02:03:03,585
That's my favorite joke.
2632
02:03:09,048 --> 02:03:10,466
[bird chirping]
2633
02:03:13,636 --> 02:03:17,223
I'
2634
02:03:24,439 --> 02:03:26,774
[Kurt Vonnegut] I do
believe time repeats itself.
2635
02:03:27,233 --> 02:03:29,360
Our lives are somewhat
like pendulums
2636
02:03:29,402 --> 02:03:33,072
that we, uh, start at birth
and swing to death.
2637
02:03:33,114 --> 02:03:35,241
And back and forth
throughout all eternity.
2638
02:03:36,159 --> 02:03:39,370
And that would suit me if
I got the cycles of my life
2639
02:03:39,412 --> 02:03:40,705
through all eternity.
2640
02:03:41,289 --> 02:03:43,333
I don't want to die
and go away entirely,
2641
02:03:43,374 --> 02:03:45,627
I'd like to come back and
come back and come back
2642
02:03:45,668 --> 02:03:47,128
on almost any terms.
2643
02:03:47,170 --> 02:03:50,798
I'
2644
02:04:17,200 --> 02:04:20,119
I'
2645
02:04:47,855 --> 02:04:49,148
Oh, Jesus!
2646
02:04:49,190 --> 02:04:51,150
Oh, what a thing to say
in church.
2647
02:04:51,192 --> 02:04:52,610
[laughter]
2648
02:04:53,277 --> 02:04:55,363
[laughing]
2649
02:05:07,709 --> 02:05:10,712
I'
2650
02:05:11,879 --> 02:05:14,090
[laughter]
2651
02:05:20,054 --> 02:05:23,057
I'
2652
02:05:54,130 --> 02:05:55,590
[snapping]
2653
02:06:13,232 --> 02:06:14,233
Hooray!
2654
02:06:15,526 --> 02:06:16,944
Do it again.
2655
02:06:20,865 --> 02:06:21,949
[chirping]