Vonnegutia

 

“Also, Barbara and her husband were having to look after Billy’s business interests, which were considerable, since Billy didn’t seem to give a damn for business any more. All this responsibility at such an early age made her a bitchy flibbertigibbet … “Don’t lie to me, Father,” said Barbara. “I know perfectly well you heard me when I called.” This was a fairly pretty girl, except that she had legs like an Edwardian grand piano.

   - Slaughterhouse Five, pages 28-29 of my Dell paperback

 

Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarified, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don’t see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes – “with babies’ legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim.

   - same, page 87.

 

Forgot how much I enjoy reading Kurt Vonnegut. Read two of his books in the 80s as a high schooler and two others in the 90s as a single lad in a bachelor pad. Always an interesting read, and, as the excerpts above point out (at least to me), every paragraph a small gem of something quite humorous or something that makes me nod and pet my beard saying, “Wow … that’s unexpectedly deep.”

Currently reading Slaughterhouse Five with The Sirens of Titan in the On-Deck Circle.