Kurt Vonnegut Letter
Since Vonnegut is popping up on all the cool blogs, thought I'd post this.
My friend and former colleague James is a Vonnegut fan. This letter was sent to a friend of his who pointed out some typos in Hocus Pocus. Note the Al Hirschfeld-like hidden autograph.
Vonnegut wrote an insightful essay about one of my comedy obsessions Bob & Ray--quoted in this other guy's essay.
Their mellifluous broadcast baritones, ad man boosterism and fondness for baroque American names (Elmer W. Litzinger, Spy) masking emptiness and vacuity.
“Their jokes turn out to be universal, although deeply rooted in old-time radio, because so much of life presents itself as the same dilemma: how to seem lusty and purposeful when less than nothing is going on.”
posted by Brian Bannon @ 7:53 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
That's pretty awesome. Now, who actually wrote to him with mistakes? Not sure I understand the connection. Or does that matter, really? Point is, he wrote back, sent a hand-drawn caricature, and was generous and funny.
See? What a guy.
and this:
"When you get up in the morning, you don't think, groaning, of the exercise you must do. You think, brightly, of listening to some Bob & Ray. You exercise in order to listen to Bob & Ray."
Reminds me of what I used to think about All-Story:
http://simpsonandsnatch.blogspot.com/2005/11/christmas-present-idea.html
I have no real connection. Our old IT guy at The Story ("The Source for NPU N Minutes!")had a friend whose amateur copy editor of a mom wrote Vonnegut out of concern for his vision's clarity I suppose. From his reply, the tone of her letter was actually quite pleasant. Still, a humble man admits his errors and thanks the critic for the attention.
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