Read Vonnegut

New Vonnegut Blog: WritingKurtVonnegut.com

2011-02-23T14:23:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post today about the new Vonnegut blog, WritingKurtVonnegut.com. The blog is by Charles J. Shields who has, what MediaBistro.com are calling, the 'enviable job' of writing a Kurt Vonnegut biography.

Shields is now posting regular updates at his blog and I highly recommend you check it out! The biography, which will be aptly titled, And So it Goes, will be published in 2011 by Henry Holt & Co. Shields has revealed that the blog will be treated as a ‘journal’, with new posts every Saturday, so if you’d like to follow this work in progress, WritingKurtVonnegut.com is a must.

Readers who are interested in Vonnegut's life may also enjoy the numerous auto-biography style publications by the author, including Wampeters, Foma, & Granfalloons, as well as Love as Always, Kurt: Vonnegut as I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw. While the latter has received a mixed press, it's certainly an interesting read for Vonnegut 'completists'.

New Domain: ReadVonnegut.com

2011-01-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note, but if you're visiting us through our old domain (kurtvonnegutsettings.blogspot.com), we now have a new, much snappier domain: ReadVonnegut.com!

The change reflects how the site has grown in recent months, as well as how we'll begin covering more Vonnegut related material. Comments, thoughts and opinions on the new domain are more than welcome!

Over the next few months, there will hopefully be a few more positive changes here, so make sure to update your bookmarks to ReadVonnegut.com.

Less is More with Vonnegut?

2011-01-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

Lou Harry at the Indiana Business Journal (IBJ) has entered the debate surrounding Vonnegut’s posthumous short story collection, While Mortals Sleep. Harry makes clear that while he’s very much a fan of Vonnegut’s work, he has “mixed feelings about the Tupac-like influx of posthumous releases”. Harry of course isn’t the first writer to express such misgivings. Deidre Wengen, of PhillyBurbs.com has already suggested she has mixed feelings about While Mortals Sleep.

However, now that While Mortals Sleep has been released in the US (UK readers will have to wait until October to obtain a copy), you can now make up your own mind about the collection of stories. You can also join the debate about the book over on the IBJ website.

Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Need of Donations

2011-01-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

Why not start 2011 with a donation to the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library? A post on the library’s Facebook page indicates that the charitable organization is in need of $283,000, to help pay for the various events and programs taking place this year.

Particular highlights include ‘Teaching Teachers How to Teach Vonnegut’, as well as the annual ‘Night of Vonnegut’ event. Last year’s event featured readings from Vonnegut’s work by local actors, as well as an auction of art work.

If you’d like to make a donation, you can do so on the Memorial Library website. There are various donation levels, from ‘Friends of the Vonnegut Library’ to the ‘Rosewater Circle’, so there’s something to suit every purse. Alternatively, if you live locally, you can even volunteer to help out at the library.

While Mortals Sleep Receives Mixed Reviews

2011-01-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

While Mortals Sleep, the latest selection of Vonnegut short stories to be published posthumously, appears to have divided both critics and fans. Deidre Wengen, over at PhillyBurbs.com, has observed that while she eagerly went out and bought Armageddon in Retrospect (the first of Vonnegut’s posthumous titles), she’s concerned as to whether “it would have been better to stop after the first posthumous publication”. While Mortals Slee will feature six previously unpublished short stories by Vonnegut, as well as an introduction by Dave Eggers, the author of You Shall Know our Velocity.

Posthumous publications are always tricky, so it’s no wonder that fans of Vonnegut’s work, such as Wengen, have some concerns about While Mortals Sleep. Over at The National Post though, Mark Medley has named the collection of short stories as one of his ‘Most Anticipated Books of 2011’. However, Medley does suggest that he’ll “ read anything with Vonnegut’s name on it”.Given the mixed opinions about While Mortals Sleep, it’s probably best to reserve judgement until the book at least hits the shelves.

2011: A Vonnegut Year?

2011-01-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

A little late perhaps, but I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful 2011! While Vonnegut may be gone, he’s certainly not forgotten, with While Mortals Sleep, a collection of six previously unpublished stories, appearing in January.

Alongside this, there’s also the opening of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis, Indiana. The library already plays host to a variety of meetings related to the author and in April, they’ll be hosting the ‘2nd Annual Night of Vonnegut Event’.

If you know of any other Vonnegut related happenings taking place in 2011, make sure to leave a comment, as we’d love to feature them here!

New Vonnegut Book Reviews

2010-12-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

Both The Guardian and Seattle PI (via BlogCritics.org) have published reviews of Look at the Birdie and Galapagos, respectively.

The Guardian’s review, by M John Harrison suggests Look at the Birdie contains “many of the characteristics we associate with Vonnegut the novelist”, observing that the short story collection “is in itself a story, about an author pursuing a market he wasn't interested in”. While Harrison praises the collection, overall, he does admit that these early Vonnegut stories lack some of the absurdity of the author’s novels, such as Cat’s Cradle and Player Piano.

Similarly, Jessica Schneider observes (rightly or wrongly) that “Galapagos is arguably the last good novel Kurt Vonnegut wrote”, the reviewer ranks the book below some of the author’s other work, including Slaughterhouse-Five. It seems that when reviewing Vonnegut’s work, it’s difficult to get away from comparing it to seminal novels like Slaughterhouse-Five, but Schneider does take the time to highlight some of the enjoyable aspects of Galapagos. In particular, Schneider praises “how innovative Vonnegut is when it comes to story-telling structure”, before going on to note that it’s difficult to summarise novels by the author.

Have you read either of these books by Vonnegut? What do you think of Harrison’s and Schneider’s comments – Make sure to let us know your thoughts by filling in the form below.

Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library Opens

2010-12-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

A little bit of a late post, but the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis, Indiana, is now open on weekends! The library, which is the culmination of lots hard work, patience and fundraising, is crammed full of Vonnegut related items, including the author’s celebrated art. The Memorial Library aims to champion “the literary, artistic, and cultural contributions of the late writer, artist, and Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut” and will be open full-time in 2011. For now though, visitors can drop by on weekends.

If you’d like to support the project, you can make a donation on the library website. A variety of Vonnegut events have already been held at the center, including free lectures and a book club, where readers get together to discuss the author’s novels. You can find out more about the library by visiting VonnegutLibrary.org, or the center’s Facebook page.

Image taken from Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Website.

Look at the Birdie Receives Praise

2010-11-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Look at the Birdie, a collection of fourteen short stories by Vonnegut, have received praise from TheAustralian.com’s Stephen Romei. The collection, which was published in Australia earlier this month, contains stories written by Vonnegut in the 1950s, which weren’t published in his lifetime. Romei compares Look at the Birdie to other posthumous works, such as Nabokov’s The Original of Laura and proposes that while readers often feel apprehensive when approaching new works from deceased authors, “such fears are quickly dispelled in Look at the Birdie.”

Romei provides synopses of several of the stories including in Look at the Birdie, and readers interested in exploring more of the book may like to check out the full version of Look at the Birdie over at the LA Times website. While the short story collection has only just been published in Australia, it's been available in the US since October 2009, and in the UK since September 2010.

Vonnegutt Discuss Author’s Influence

2010-11-01T03:44:00.000-07:00

Vonnegutt, a band which combine “classic emcee skills coupled with evolving lyrics…pop sensibility (and) a dose of rock dynamics” have recently discussed their Kurt-influenced name with Jelani Sims. Frontman Kyle Lucas has explained that Vonnegut is his favourite author, although as the group formed in 2007 (the year Vonnegut passed away), their chosen name quickly drew criticism from some quarters. As Lucas explained, ‘Vonnegutt’ was chosen as a way of honouring the writer, “but people blew it out of proportion”.

Vonnegutt aren’t the first group of musicians to express their interest in Vonnegut's literature. On Whirlwind Heat’s album, Flamingo Honey, there’s a track titled ‘Ice-Nine’, after the chemical in Cat's Cradle. Wilco has also paid tribute to the author, in April 2007, by commemorating Vonnegut on their website. Vonnegut has also been directly involved with music – composing a requiem which was first performed in New York, as well as appearing on Simon Heselev’s ‘Tock Tick’, which features the author reading a section from Slaughterhouse Five.

Vonnegut has frequently discussed music in his novels and short stories and suggested in an article for the Sunday Herald that if he “should ever die”, his epitaph should read:

“THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED

FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

WAS MUSIC”

Slaughterhouse Five Adaptation by Action! Theatre Company

2010-10-19T03:32:00.000-07:00

Action! Theatre Company, a theatrical group based in Los Angeles, is currently performing an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. The show, which stars Don Schlossman as Billy Pilgrim and Lily Vonnegut as Montana Wildhack, is nearing the end of its run at the Studio Stage Theatre in LA. Adapted by Eric Simonson, the play stays true to the novel, presenting the fractured timeline of Billy Pilgrim as he travels between Dresden, Ilium and the Planet Tralfamadore.

Reviews of Simonson’s Slaughterhouse Five have been on the whole positive. However, Neal Weaver of BackStage.com has noted that the expansive subject matter of Vonnegut’s novel does put some “strain” on the play, observing that Simonson’s adaptation is an “ambitious project, but it's only partially successful.” The play is scheduled for a further three shows, before it ends on October 23rd. Tickets are priced at $22, with concessions at $15, and can be purchased from BrownPaperTickets.com.

Speak Faces School Ban, Alongside Slaughterhouse Five

2010-10-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Laurie Halse Anderson’s 1999 novel, Speak, is facing an attempt to ban her novel in Republic, Missouri, alongside Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Halse Anderson’s novel, which was a National Book Award finalist, explores the controversial topic of teenage rape. Due to its subject matter, the book has been condemned by university professor, Wesley Scroggins, as “soft pornography”. Scroggins also took the time to lambaste Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, suggesting in an article for News-Leader.com that it “is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. “ In particular, Scroggins raised concerns about the “f-word… (being) plastered on almost every other page”.

Slaughterhouse Five has faced multiple banning attempts and is featured in the American Library Association's 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-1999 list, alongside Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies. When discussing the use of profane language in Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut has suggested he was glad he had “the freedom to make soldiers talk the way they do talk.” Halse Anderson has commented on the recent banning attempt in Missouri, suggesting that she has “found a way to kind of love people who are so afraid of the world and afraid for their children that they think banning a book is an answer”. However, Halse Anderson also noted that she disagrees “with them completely about how they're going about it”

Harrison Bergeron Revisited as Part of National Review Series

2010-10-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

The National Review, a conservative news magazine, has revisited Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, as part of its series of NROriginals. The Review, which was founded by William F. Buckley Jr, republished Vonnegut’s story in 1965, after it first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, in 1961. In a brief piece for the National Review website, John J. Miller commented that while Vonnegut is perhaps best known as a “left-wing” writer, ““Harrison Bergeron” is one of the most conservative short stories you’ll ever read”.

“Harrison Bergeron”, explores the idea of social equality by proposing a dystopian view of the future in which all those with talents outside of the norm, such as athleticism, intelligence and even gracefulness, have been “handicapped”, or shackled, in order to prevent others from feeling inferior to them. Readers interested in Vonnegut’s tale may wish to read the full text, you can do so on the National Review website. Alternatively, there is also a film adaptation available, entitled 2081, which stars Armie Hammer (of The Social Network) as Harrison Bergeron and features music by the Kronos Quartet. Below, you can find the trailer for 2081:

[Image from The Moderate Voice]

Update on Kurt Vonnegut Settings

2010-10-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Regular visitors might have noticed that it’s been a little while since the last update on the blog. I’m currently eleven pages into a settings guide for Jailbird and have noticed that while it’s wonderful providing regular guides to Vonnegut’s novels and short stories, keeping the updates both regular and thorough is rather difficult!

Rest assured that this post isn't politely suggesting that the blog will be bowing out - far from it. Instead, as well as providing settings guides and Kilgore Trout stories, there will also be news items/articles/various odd finds relating to Vonnegut. Essentially, from now on, there will be shorter items regularly posted on the blog, with settings guides hopefully appearing every few weeks.

So, there we have it: A quick blog post, hopefully signalling the fact that they’ll be more entertaining posts on there way soon. As always, if you have any suggestions, tips, or cooking recipes ala Deadeye Dick, you’re more than welcome to get in touch.

Image from: vonnegutsasterisk.blogspot.com.

Bagombo Snuff Box Short Story Guide

2010-09-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

In “Bagombo Snuff Box”, the reader is introduced to Eddie Laird, a World War Two Veteran who’s back in town after thirty years away. Laird visits his ex-wife, Amy, who’s now married to Harry, a “credit manager for a department store”.

Laird impresses Amy and her husband with his tales of life abroad, particularly with his accounts of his time in Bagombo, where had had “twenty-six rooms and twelve servants”. However, when Laird gives Amy a snuff box allegedly from Bagombo, his story begins to unravel. Amy’s son, Stevie, takes a look at the snuff box and begins questioning Laird’s knowledge of Bagombo, after admitting that Stevie is supposedly right about the real location of the place, Laird leaves his ex-wife’s home in shame. At the end of the story, Laird phones his wife in Levittown, Long Island, New York. Through the course of the phone call it’s revealed that Laird, instead of being a globe trotting adventurer, is involved in selling potato chips and has three children.

Bagombo

Laird impresses Amy and Harry with his tales of the high life in Bagombo. In particular, Harry begins to envy Laird’s living quarters in the place, with Laird admitting that twelve servants and over twenty rooms just couldn’t make him happy. The snuff box which Laird gives to Amy, and is allegedly from Bagombo, causes the family to doubt Laird’s story, after Steve spots the words “Made in Japan” on the bottom of the box. It seems that there’s no such place as Bagombo.

Bagombo Snuff Box Facts

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story collection, Bagombo Snuff Box, takes its title from this tale.

Locations in Bagombo Snuff Box
Below is a list of locations mentioned in Vonnegut's short story. However, it's worth noting that I'm not 100% sure the "Cunningham Field" referred to in the story is the one now apparently in North Carolina. Any more information on this would be greatly appreciated.

United States of America
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
Cunningham Field, North Carolina
Dubuque, Iowa
Levittown, Long Island, New York

Algeria
Algiers

Canada
Klondike, Yukon

France
Paris

Indonesia
Sumatra

Iraq
Baghdad

Italy
Rome

Africa

Amazon Rainforest, South America

Bagombo

Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia & Malaysia)

Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

India

Japan

Madagascar

Singapore

The Cruise of the Jolly Roger

2010-09-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

First published in a local West Barnstaple magazine, Vonnegut's The Cruise of the Jolly Roger has been described by Jerome Klinkowitz as an "innocuous little story". In today's blog post, you'll find a summary of the short story, as well as information on the settings discussed.

The Cruise of the Jolly Roger Summary

Major Nathan Durant has returned to the United States, after being injured by an enemy projectile while fighting in Korea. Along and feeling without purpose in the army hospital, Durant borrows the dream of a fellow patient and decides to travel to Cape Cod in a cabin cruiser christened “The Jolly Roger”. Durant meets with artists in Chatham, Cape Cod, but is ready to return to the hospital after he finds himself unable to articulate his experiences of war. After realising that an old army buddy, who died during World War Two, lived in a nearby village, Durant decides to stick around and make a few enquiries about his friend, George Pefko. After being informed that Pefko has a small plot of land named after him, known as the George Pefko Memorial Square, Durant watches the village’s parade with Annie, a local girl from a nearby law office. Tom, a boy who’s part of the parade, lays down flowers on Pefko’s square, and when asked by Annie why he’s doing so, he replies:

“He died fighting so we could be safe and free. And we’re thanking him with flowers, because it was a nice thing to do.”

After seeing the “beauty and importance of a village at peace”, Durant gets back his “old spark”, which he believed had left him after leaving the army, and invites Annie to lunch.

Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

During The Cruise of the Jolly Roger, Durant visits Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Cape Cod. However, Durant swiftly leaves, after finding himself “depressed by the tranquillity and permanence, by the feeling of deep, still lakes of time”. In Vonnegut’s short story, there are references to “summer people”, e.g, people who only live on Cape Cod during the tourist season. This also occurs on Martha’s Vineyard, which has a year-round population of 15,000, but during the summer, a population of over 75,000 residents.

The Cruise of the Jolly Roger Facts

Vonnegut wrote the story in 1953, after leaving his job in PR, at General Electric.
As described in Jerome Klinkowitz’s Keeping Literary Company, when compiling a bibliography of the author’s work, Vonnegut hinted that Klinkowitz had yet to find “three or four small pieces of his work”. One of the stories Klinkowitz finally managed to track down was The Cruise of the Jolly Roger.

Full List of Settings in The Cruise of the Jolly Roger

United States of America
New London, Connecticut
Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Chatham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
George Pefko Memorial Square
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Korea

Katherine Burger Interview

2010-08-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Chances are that if you’re familiar with Kurt Vonnegut, you’ll have come across references to Knox Burger, before. Burger published Vonnegut’s first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect” and has been celebrated by a range of authors, including Kurt. Vonnegut has suggested that Burger “discovered and encouraged more good young writers than any other editor of his time” and the author’s short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House, is dedicated to Burger.

Katherine Burger, the daughter of Knox Burger, was kind enough to answer a few questions for the blog, relating to her father and Vonnegut, as well as her home on Bethune Street, which readers of Mother Night will no doubt know as Howard Campbell’s NY apartment. Katherine currently lives in Campbell’s “home” and you can find out more about this fictional setting – and real life building – by reading the interview. If you’d like to find out more about Katherine’s work as a playwright and artist, make sure to visit KatherineBurger.net.

It would be wonderful if you could tell me a little bit about yourself, such your work as a playwright, and how you find living in New York?
I am a playwright and visual artist. My website is katherineburger.net. I also am the Director of the Artist In Residence Program at the Byrdcliffe Art Colony in Woodstock NY, and live there almost half the year. New York City is an amazing place, but full of stimuli and rather exhausting. It's nice to live in the (relatively) quiet woods for the summer.

Your father was the first person to publish a story by Kurt Vonnegut and Welcome to the Monkey House is dedicated to him. Did Vonnegut and your father work together throughout their lives?
My father wasn't Kurt's agent. Their relationship was more one of friendship, after some early literary business. They first met at Cornell. My family spent summers with the Vonneguts when my sister and I were children, and Knox and Kurt remained friends all their lives.

Do you have any stories you could share about Vonnegut and your father?
I think that their stories belonged to them, so I guess not.

Do you think your parents' interest in the arts may have inspired you to pursue a similar path?
Absolutely. Both of my parents were writers, my mother is also an artist, and my father's father was an artist, Carl Burger. He illustrated "Old Yeller" and many other books, and became an author in his 70's. So writing and the arts run in the family on both sides.

How do you find living in Howard Campbell's home? Could you tell me what the building is like?
The building was built is the 1860's I believe.* I used to know the exact date; you can probably research it. It's a townhouse, originally built for one family, now divided into 3 apartments. I grew up in the ground floor, garden apartment, and have rented out the top floor and 1/2 from my mother for around 20 years, the apartment where Kurt put Howard Campbell. I don't think of it as his home, however.

Do you often receive enquiries about your residence?
No.

*27 Bethune Street was built in the 1830s.

You can find out more about Knox Burger by visiting Wikipedia or the New York Times website. I'd like to thank Katherine for taking the time to answer the above questions.

Forthcoming Posts on Kurt Vonnegut Settings

2010-08-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, it’s been a little while since the last novel addition to the blog. Recent posts have included information on London Bubble Theatre Company’s Sirens of Titan adaptation, as well as a new batch of Kilgore Trout stories.

Over the next few weeks, a guide to the settings in Jailbird will be posted on the blog, as well as some exclusive information on the settings in Bubble’s Sirens of Titan play – which was very kindly provided by Owen at the theatre company.

Last but not least, an interview with Katherine Burger – artist and daughter of Knox Burger, Vonnegut’s lifelong friend – will also be making its way online soon. So, make sure to keep reading the blog over the next few weeks to keep up to date with all the latest Kurt Vonnegut related developments.

The image in today's post refers to Nixon's famous declaration, "I'm not a crook", when discussing the Watergate scandal. Watergate is the focus of Vonnegut's Jailbird. For more details on Nixon's speech, you may be interested in this Washington Post article.

Kilgore Trout in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

2010-08-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

Today's post is another from Marek Vit's wonderful Kurt Vonnegut Corner, detailing the Kilgore Trout stories in God Bless You, Mr Rosewater. The original post used to be located here: www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kt_ros.html, but as Geocities is no longer available, Marek has allowed me to repost the stories here. I hope you enjoy them!

The page numbers referred to in this post are from the following edition of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: New York: November 1978; Dell Publishing Co.

2BR0TB
Trout's favorite formula was to describe a perfectly hideous society, not unlike his own, and then, toward the end, to suggest ways in which it could be improved. In 2BR0TB he hypothecated an America in which almost all of the work was done by machines, and the only people who could get work had three or more Ph.D's. There was a serious overpopulation problem, too.

All serious diseases had been conquered. So death was voluntary, and the government, to encourage volunteers for death, set up a purple-roofed Ethical Suicide Parlor at every major intersection, right next door to an orange-roofed Howard Johnson's. There were pretty hostesses in the parlor, and Barca-Loungers, and Muzak, and a choice of fourteen painless ways to die. The suicide parlors were busy places, because so many people felt silly and pointless, and because it was supposed to be an unselfish, patriotic thing to do, to die. The suicides also got free last meals next door.

And so on. Trout had a wonderful imagination.

One of the characters asked a death stewardess if he would go to Heaven, and she told him that of course he would. He asked if he would see God, and she said, "Certainly, honey."
And he said, "I sure hope so. I want to ask Him something I never was able to find out down here."
"What's that?" she said, strapping him in.
"What the hell are people for?"
(pages 20-21)

Venus on the Half-Shell
Queen Margaret of the planet Shaltoon let her gown fall to the floor. She was wearing nothing underneath. Her high, firm, uncowled bosom was proud and rosy. Her hips and thighs were like an inviting lyre of pure alabaster. They shone so whitely they might have had a light inside. "Your travels are over, Space Wanderer," she whispered, her voice husky with lust. "Seek no more, for you have found. The answer is in my arms."

"It's a glorious answer, Queen Margaret, God knows," the Space Wanderer replied. His palms were perspiring profusely. "I am going to accept it gratefully. But I have to tell you, if I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, that I will have to be on my way again tomorrow."

"But you have found your answer, you have found your answer," she cried, and she forced his head between her fragrant young breasts.

He said something she did not hear. She thrust him out at arm's length. "What was that you said?"
"I said, Queen Margaret, that what you offer is an awfully good answer. It just doesn't happen to be the one I'm primarily looking for."
(pages 114-115)

Oh Say Can You Smell?
"You know--" said Eliot, "Kilgore Trout once wrote a whole book about a country that was devoted to fighting odors. That was the national purpose. There wasn't any disease, and there wasn't any crime, and there wasn't any war, so they went after odors."
. . .
"This country," said Eliot, "had tremendous research projects devoted to fighting odors. They were supported by individual contributions given to mothers who marched on Sundays from door to door. The ideal of the research was to find a specific chemical deodorant for every odor. But then the hero, who was also the country's dictator, made a wonderful scientific breakthrough, even though he wasn't a scientist, and they didn't need the projects any more. He went right to the root of the problem."
"Uh huh," said the Senator. He couldn't stand stories by Kilgore Trout, was embarassed by his son. "He found one chemical that would eliminate all odors?"

"No. As I say, the hero was dictator, and he simply eliminated noses."
(page 156)

The First District Court of Thankyou
It was called, The First District Court of Thankyou, which was a court you could take people to, if you felt they hadn't been properly grateful for something you had done. If the defendant lost his case, the court gave him a choice between thanking the plaintiff in public, or going into solitary confinement on bread and water for a month. According to Trout, eighty per cent of those convicted chose the black hole.
(page 163)

Pan-Galactic Three-Day Pass
It was an exciting story, all about a man who was serving on a sort of Space-Age Lewis and Clark expedition. The hero's name was Sergeant Raymond Boyle.

The expedition had reached what appeared to be the absolute and final rim of the universe. There didn't seem to be anything beyond the solar system they were in, and they were setting up equipment to sense the faintest signals that might be coming from the slightest anything in all that black velvet nothing out there.

Sergeant Boyle was an Earthling. He was the only Earthling on the expedition. In fact, he was the only creature from the Milky Way. The other members were from all over the place. The expedition was a joint effort supported by about two hundred galaxies. Boyle wasn't a technician. He was an English teacher. The thing was that Earth was the only place in the whole known universe where language was used. It was a unique Earthling invention. Everybody else used mental telepathy, so Earthlings could get pretty good jobs as language teachers just about anywhere they went.

The reason creatures wanted to use language instead of mental telepathy was that they found out they could get so much more done with language. Language made them so much more active. Mental telepathy, with everybody constantly telling everybody everything, produced a sort of generalized indifference to all information. But language, with its slow, narrow meanings, made it possible to think about one thing at a time--to start thinking in terms of projects.

Boyle was called out of his English class, was told to report at once to the commanding officer of the expedition. He couldn't imagine what it was all about. He went into the C.O.'s office, saluted the old man. Actually the C.O. didn't look anything like an old man. He was from the planet Tralfamadore, and was about as tall as an Earthling beer can. Actually, he didn't look like a beercan, either. He looked like a little plumber's friend.

He wasn't alone. The chaplain of the expedition was there, too. The padre was from the planet Glinko-X-3. He was an enormous sort of Portuguese man-o'-war, in a tank of sulfuric acid on wheels. The chaplain looked grave. Something awful had happened.
The chaplain told Boyle to be brave, and then the C.O. said there was very bad news from home. The C.O. said there had been a death back home, that Boyle was being given an emergency three-day pass, that he should get ready to leave right away.

"Is it--is it--Mom?" said Boyle, fighting back the tears. "Is it Pop? Is it Nancy?" Nancy was the girl next door. "Is it Gramps?"
"Son--" said the C.O., "brace yourself. I hate to tell you this: It isn't who has died. It's what has died."
"What's died?"
"What's died, my boy, is the Milky Way."
(pages 173-174)

Photo by Kenn Wilson.

The Sirens of Titan Review – London Bubble Theatre Company

2010-08-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

Back in June, we covered the London Bubble Theatre Company’s announcement of a new adaptation of The Sirens of Titan. Early information about the production suggested that visitors would have “an opportunity to stroke the Harmoniums of Mercury, and a chance to learn how to survive on Goofball oxygen supplies” and Bubble’s production of Vonnegut’s early novel promised interactivity and enjoyment.

Given that The Sirens of Titan has been described by Douglas Adams as a “tour de force” and by Esquire as not only asking “the ultimate question about the meaning of life”, but answering it, you’d be forgiven for thinking Bubble had taking on a production they might struggle with. However, given that the theatre company performed the Odyssey last year, it seems that Bubble has no qualms with creating bold and what could be considered adventurous performances. Indeed, given that Vonnegut even penned his own take on the Odyssey (initially entitled Penelope, before becoming Happy Birthday Wanda June), it makes sense that Bubble has now gotten to grips with this often-extraordinary American writer.

Bubble specialises in outdoor theatre – and throughout the course of the evening, theatre-goers are invited to visit the various locations in Vonnegut’s 1959 novel. The sets are impressive, with Mercury and Titan in particular proving to be the highlight of the show. The show benefits from the atmosphere naturally created by a still summer evening in a London Park, with the torch lit set of Titan proving to be a fitting climax to the production.

Sets aside, there are elements of the play which may unsettle some die-hard Vonnegut readers. The light-hearted and giddy nature of the characters sometimes tiptoes into the territory of Alan Rudolph’s version of Breakfast of Champions, which was described by Vonnegut as “painful”. While it’s difficult to express the mixture of humour and horror present in The Sirens of Titan – Vonnegut’s novels are after all, known for their satire - more perhaps could have been done to present the darker tones of the book to the audience. However, moments such as when Winston Niles Rumfoord (played faultlessly by Greg Page) delivers Vonnegut’s now-famous “There is no reason why good cannot triumph over evil…” are both inspiring and spine-tingling.

Last year, Bubble Theatre Company lost 60% of its funding and it’s positive to see that the troupe of actors, writers and designers remains dedicated to bringing fantastic and impossible pieces of literature to the stage. While some elements of the production perhaps aren't as true to the novel as they could be, Bubble's adaptation is just that - a new and refreshing take on Vonnegut's classic tale. Of course, the opportunity to taste goofballs on Mars and witness the inventive materialisations of Ruumford will more than entertain both Vonnegut readers and playgoers.

Souvenir Summary and Settings

2010-07-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

"Souvenir" begins with a description of Joe Bane, a pawnbroker whose only satisfaction in life comes from selling items for "a great deal more" than he originally paid for them. Eddie, a former US soldier turned farmer, visits Bane’s store and enquires about selling a jewel encrusted watch, with an engraving in German on the back, for $500. Eddie explains that he obtained the watch on the day World War II ended in Europe.

Eddie suggests that on the day of the victory, he and his friend Buzzer were venturing across Sudetenland (a historical region now located in the Czech Republic), with no real aim other than the idea of returning home. Eddie and Buzzer are approached by a young, blond civilian and an older man who offer to buy their US soldier uniforms in order to safely escape the advancing Russian army. The civilians offer Eddie and Buzzer the watch, but as the Russian army approaches, the blond kills Buzzer. The older German, who the blond boy hints is "a famous German general", shoots himself and Eddie escapes with the watch.

Back in the store, Eddie realises the importance of he watch and informs Bane he no longer wishes to sell it. Bane had previously offered Eddie just $100 for the watch and now suggests he’ll pay the full $500. However, Eddie has already left. At the end of the story, it’s revealed that the engraving on the back of the watch is a personal message from Adolf Hitler, commemorating General Heinz Guderian for his role in the Third Reich.

Sudetenland, Czech Republic

Eddie and Buzzer are informed by Canadian prisoners that they are in Sudetenland. It’s revealed that both Eddie and Buzzer planned on undertaking "a brief sightseeing tour of the neighbourhood near the camp” then await “the arrival of some official liberators". While in Sudetenland, the soldiers travel with a "plaintive parade of German refugees" fleeing the Russian army. The steadily moving stream of refugees, along with Eddie and Buzzer, stops when it becomes clear the Russians have the area surrounded. The theme of soldiers travelling on the day of victory appears in numerous Kurt Vonnegut novels and short stories, including Slaughterhouse Five. More information about Sudetenland can be found by visiting the following Wikipedia page.

"Souvenir" Facts:

"Souvenir" was first published in Argosy, in October, 1952.
Vonnegut does not name the city which Eddie visits and where Bane’s shop is based.

Full List of Locations in "Souvenir"

Czechoslovakia (Now Czech Republic/Slovakia)

Sudetenland

Czech Republic

Prague

Poor Little Rich Town Summary and Guide

2010-07-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

“Poor Little Rich Town”, first published in Collier’s, tells the story of Newell Cady and residents in the New York village, Spruce Falls. As a man with “know-how of a priceless variety”, specifically; how businesses can cut waste and improve efficiency, Cady is constantly looking to improve his surroundings and workplace. After being appointed to the position of vice-president at the Federal Apparatus Corporation and sent to the company’s headquarters in Ilium, New York, Cady takes up residence in Spruce Falls.

As soon as Cady moves into the village, the local residents, eager to cash in on the prosperity Cady will bring (it’s believed he’ll attract wealthy executives to the area), welcome him with open arms. It is only when Cady begins re-arranging the Spruce Falls’ residents businesses and lives to meet with his idea of efficiency that the villagers start to question his methods. As Upton Beaton, the “patriarch of Spruce Falls” suggests: “A village isn’t like a factory, where you can walk in and see what’s being made at a glance, and then look at the books and see if it’s a good or bad operation. We’re not manufacturing or selling anything. We’re trying to live together.”

Spruce Falls, New York

The majority of the short story takes place in Spruce Falls, a small village which “experienced a real estate boom” during the 1920’s. It was believed that “warm mineral springs” surrounding Spruce Falls had a healing effect and mansions were built to attract “rich invalids and hypochondriacs”. Unfortunately for the speculators in Spruce Falls, visitors who bathed in the springs often suffered from a rash, dubbed as “Spruce Falls disease”.

Since this setback, the citizens of Spruce Falls have been eager to attract new, wealth residents to the village. When Cady moves into Spruce Falls, he quickly begins improving efficiency at several locations in the area, including:

Chief Atkins’ fire department
Mrs Dickie’s post office
Spruce Falls’ annual Hobby Show (in the Spruce Falls church basement)
Hal Brayton’s grocery shop
Spruce Falls Grade School

“Poor Little Rich Town” Settings Facts:

Ilium, New York, appears in the short story. This fictional New York town is also mentioned in Slaughterhouse Five and Cat’s Cradle.
“Poor Little Rich Town” was published in Collier’s on the 25th October, 1952. Other short stories featured in Collier’s include Vonnegut’s first published piece, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect”, which appeared in the magazine in September, 1950.

Full List of Locations Mentioned in “Poor Little Rich Town”

United States of America
Federal Apparatus Corporation, Ilium, New York
Ilium, New York
Manhattan, New York
New York City, New York
Saratoga, New York
Spruce Falls Grade School, Spruce Falls, New York
Spruce Falls, New York

Cambodia
Angkor Thom

Kilgore Trout in Slaughterhouse Five

2010-07-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today's post on Kilgore Trout's stories in Slaughterhouse Five is taken from Marek Vit's wonderful Kurt Vonnegut Corner, which used to be available at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kt_sh5.html. Unfortunately, as Geocities has closed its free web services, parts of Marek's website were subsequently left without a home. Marek has kindly allowed me to republish parts of his website and this post is second installment of Marek's website, as back in June Kurt Vonnegut Settings published Kilgore Trout's stories in Galapagos. If you'd like to find out more about the novel discussed here, then please visit this blog's Slaughterhouse Five guide.

Please note: The page numbers referred to in this blog post are taken from the 1971, Dell Publishing Co. version of Slaughterhouse Five.

Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension
The book was called Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension, by Kilgore Trout. It was about people, whose mental diseases couldn't be treated because the causes of the diseases were all in the fourth dimension, and three-dimensional Earthling doctors couldn't see those causes at all, or even imagine them.
One thing Trout said that Rosewater liked very much was that there really were vampires and were-wolves and goblins and angels and so on, but that they were in the fourth dimension. So was William Blake, Rosewater's favorite poet, according to Trout. So were heaven and hell.
(page 104)

The Gospel from Outer Space
It was The Gospel from Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space, shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian, by the way. The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.
But the Gospels actually taught this:

Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being of the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again:

Oh, boy -- they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!

And then that thought had a brother: "There are right people to lynch." Who? People not well connected. So it goes.
The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.

So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was. And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!
(pages 108-110)

Untitled 1 - (Money Tree)
Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.
So it goes.
(page 167)

The Gutless Wonder
This, too, was the title of a book by Trout, The Gutless Wonder. It was about a robot who had bad breath, who became popular after his halitosis was cured. But what made the story remarkable, since it was written in 1932, was that it predicted the widespread use of burning jellied gasoline on human beings.

It was dropped on them from airplanes. Robots did the dropping. They had no conscience, and no circuits which would allow them to imagine what was happening to the people on the ground.

Trout's leading robot looked like a human being, and could talk and dance and so on, and go out with girls. And nobody held it against him that he dropped jellied gasoline on people. But they found his halitosis unforgivable. And then he cleared that up, and he was welcomed to the human race.
(pages 167-168)

The Big Board
. . . It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212.

These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and comodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when they were returned to Earth.

The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo--to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat, or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms.

The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it, too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl.

It worked. Olive oil went up.
(pages 201-202)

Untitled 2 - (Jesus And the Time Machine)
Another Kilgore Trout book there in the window was about a man who built a time machine so he could go back and see Jesus. It worked, and he saw Jesus when Jesus was only twelve years old. Jesus was learning the carpentry trade from his father.

Two Roman soldiers came into the shop with a mechanical drawing on papyrus of a device they wanted built by sunrise the next morning. It was a cross to be used in the execution of a rabble-rouser.
Jesus and his father built it. They were glad to have the work. And the rabble-rouser was executed on it. So it goes.
...

The time-traveller in the book went back to Bible times to find out one thing in particular: Whether or not Jesus had really died on the cross, or whether he had been taken down while still alive, whether he had really gone on living. The hero had a stethoscope along.

Billy skipped to the end of the book, where the hero mingled with the people who were taking Jesus down from the cross. The time-traveller was the first one up the ladder, dressed in clothes of the period, and he leaned close to Jesus so people couldn't see him use the stethoscope, and he listened.

There wasn't a sound inside the emaciated chest cavity. The Son of God was dead as a doornail.
So it goes.

The image of Kilgore Trout used in this post can be found at PJFarmer.com.

The Sirens of Titan - in London This Summer

2010-06-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

And now for something completely different.

A few weeks ago, the London Bubble Theatre Company were kind enough to contact me with details of their forthcoming adaptation of The Sirens of Titan. While there have been previous adaptations of Vonnegut’s second novel, it seems that the London Theatre Company is going quite a few steps further, by offering playgoers a “promenade-theatre” experience. The show promises “an entrance to the Rumfoord Mansion, an opportunity to stroke the Harmoniums of Mercury, and a chance to learn how to survive on Goofball oxygen supplies”.

You can catch Sirens of Titan at a variety of London parks over the summer – perfect for Vonnegut fans that are based in the UK. Tickets are also priced at a fair £9-£16 and more details can be found by visiting the London Bubble Theatre Company website. You can also follow Twitter updates about the play here.

Slaughterhouse Five Summary and Settings

2010-06-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

This post covers the locations mentioned in Slaughterhouse Five and offers a summary of the novel.

Slaughterhouse Five Summary

First published in 1969, Slaughterhouse Five remains one of Kurt Vonnegut’s best known works. The novel follows Billy Pilgrim, a wartime chaplain, prisoner of war, optometrist and zoo exhibit, who has become “unstuck in time” and travels between different parts of his life. The novel also features the Tralfamadorians, creatures who cause, and have seen, the end of the Universe, but do nothing about it, instead preferring to “spend eternity looking at pleasant moments”, and Kilgore Trout, a science fiction writer who appears in other novels by Vonnegut. Zipping from Dresden, Cape Ann, Ilium and Tralfamadore, Vonnegut’s novel explores the concept of free will and war.

Tralfamadore and Tralfamadorians

The Tralfamadorians are described as “two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber’s friends.” The creatures, from the planet Tralfamadore, have both suction cups and shafts and their eyes are located in small palms on top of the latter. Unlike Earthlings, the Tralfamadorians can “see in four dimensions” and pity humans for only being able to see in three.

Billy Pilgrim was “kidnapped” by the Tralfamadorians in 1967. As he was taken through a “time warp”, Billy could be on Tralfamadore for “years”, without being away for more than a “microsecond” on Earth. Billy explains to his daughter, Barbara, that Tralfamadore can’t be seen from Earth, nor can Earth be detected from the home planet of the Tralfamadorians, as both are “very small” and “far apart”.

Chapter Four focuses on Billy’s kidnapping and there is a description of both the spaceship bound for Tralfamadore and the Tralfamadorians. The ship is “one hundred feet in diameter” and makes a noise like an “owl song”. Once on the ship, the Tralfamadorians talk with Billy “by means of a computer”, as they have no voice boxes and communicate telepathically. Billy is anaesthetised and placed in a cabin, while the ship travels to Tralfamadore.

During the journey to Tralfamadore, Billy attempts to read a Tralfamadorian novel, which is laid out “in brief clumps of symbols separated by stars.” A Tralfamadorian explains that, what they “love in” their “books are the depths of many marvellous moments seen all at one time”.

When Billy arrives on Tralfamadore, he is placed on display in a zoo. Surrounded by a geodesic dome (as the atmosphere outside is cyanide), the Tralfamadorians attempt to recreate a human’s natural habitat, using furnishings stolen from Sears and Roebuck. Billy’s habitat includes a phonograph, a bar, a couch and a colour television, which doesn’t work. Billy is visited by a Tralfamadorian guide and crowd, who ask Billy questions, such as “are you happy here?” Billy is later joined in the Tralfamadorian zoo by Montana Wildhack, “a motion picture star”, whom Billy has a child with.

Ilium, New York

In Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut continues to ‘flesh out’ Ilium, New York. Billy attended Ilium High School, studied to become an optometrist at the Ilium School of Optometry and lives in a “lovely Georgian home” in the town. Billy’s office is in a shopping centre in Ilium, which he was made manager of by father-in-law. Through Billy, we learn more about the stores and buildings in Ilium. In 1967, it’s noted that a Pavilion of the Arts, Peace Lagoon, Ilium Government Center and “high-rise apartment buildings” will be built in “Ilium’s black ghetto”.

Kilgore Trout is also a resident of Ilium, in a “rented basement…about two miles from Billy’s nice white home”. Trout is a “circulation man for the Ilium Gazette”, one of at least two newspapers in Ilium, as it’s revealed Billy has been writing to the Ilium News Leader about the Tralfamadorians.

Billy’s mother lives in Pine Knoll, a retirement home “on the edge of Ilium” and other buildings in the town are mentioned, such as the Ilium YMCA and the General Forge and Foundry, which also appears in Cat’s Cradle. On a similar note, Billy’s wife, Valencia is buried in Ilium, which could be the same cemetery where Dr Felix Hoenikker and his wife are buried (in Cat’s Cradle).

Stalag IV-B: The Prison Camp in Slaughterhouse Five

Before heading to Dresden, the American soldiers are taken to a prison camp. The reader is first presented with the camp when Billy enters a delousing station, before moving back and forth in time. When he returns to the prison camp, Billy and his fellow POWs are taken to the English officers shed, which has been turned into a “banquet hall” and prepared for a “musical version of Cinderella”.

Billy is admitted to the hospital in the prison camp, where he is watched over by Edgar Derby, a fourty-four year old teacher from Indianapolis. After venturing from the hospital, Billy ventures upon some Americans who have become ill after the welcome feast. Soon after this, the American soldiers are sent to Dresden.

The prison camp depicted in Slaughterhouse Five is Stalag IV-B (or Stalag IVB), located near Mühlberg, Brandenburg. Vonnegut himself was sent to this camp, which was one of the largest in Europe and held soldiers from several nations. As Vonnegut notes in a letter to his family, on May 29th, 1945, after travelling from Limberg:

“We were released from the box cars on New Year's Day. The Germans herded us through scalding delousing showers. Many men died from shock in the showers after ten days of starvation, thirst and exposure. But I didn't.”

Vonnegut’s full letter can be read here.

Slaughterhouse Five

After arriving in Dresden, the soldiers are taken to their new residence in the city, slaughterhouse five, or “Schlachthof-Funf”. The slaughterhouse has been split into five buildings and is described as “a one-story cement-block cube with sliding doors in front and back”. Billy’s slaughterhouse has bunks, stoves and a latrine, and is shared by “one hundred American prisoners of war.” The slaughterhouse has a communal kitchen and Billy, Edgar and a “young Dresden boy”, Werner Gluck, who acts as their guard, go in search of it. Instead of at first finding the kitchen, the trio find a communal shower, in use by teenage female refugees from Breslau. Whilst in the slaughterhouse, the prisoners of war are visited by Howard Campbell, an American Nazi who is also in Mother Night, who asks them to join “The Free American Corps”.

Billy, and others within slaughterhouse five, survived the Dresden bombings in 1945, in a “meat locker” below the building. After emerging from the shelter, the survivors found Dresden to be “like the moon” with “nothing but minerals”.

The Slaughterhouse in Reality

According to PFC Jim Donnini, in Shadows of Slaughterhouse Five, the slaughterhouse’s address is as follows:

Kfg. - Arbeits-Kdo
Dresden - links
Schlachthof V
Ruf 86 88 50

An exhibition centre and fair, known as the Messe Dresden, now stands on the former location of slaughterhouse five. Although, the cellar in which Vonnegut and, in the novel Billy stayed, are believed to have been left untouched. I believe that the full address of the Messe Dresden (former site of slaughterhouse five) is Messering 6
01067 Dresden, Germany. Using Google Maps, this is the location of slaughterhouse five:

View Larger Map

Dotted around Dresden are steel capsules about the war and bombings – slaughterhouse five has its own, which you can find more about, here. The page is in German, but can easily be translated using Google.
If you’d like to know more about the slaughterhouse and soldiers who stayed in it, then I recommend you take a look at Shadows of Slaughterhouse Five by Ervin E. Szpek, Jr., Frank J. Idzikowski.

Dresden

Throughout Slaughterhouse Five Vonnegut appears to struggle with writing about the city. As suggested in the opening chapter of the novel, the author believed it would be “easy…to write about the destruction of Dresden”. However, as the narrator notes:

“But not many words about Dresden came from my mind then – not enough of them to make a book, anyway. And not many words come now, either, when I have become an old fart with his memories and his Pall Malls, with his sons full grown”.

Pre-bombing, Dresden is described as “a beautiful city” by one of the English men in the prison camp, and by the narrator as “the loveliest city that most of the Americans had ever seen”. Walking through Dresden, Billy is “enchanted” by the city’s architecture:

“Merry amoretti wove garlands above windows. Roguish fauns and naked nymphs peeked down at Billy from festooned cornices. Stone monkeys frisked among scrolls and seashells and bamboo.”

During the bombing, one of the guards in the meat locker where Billy and other POWs are sheltering is described as “one big flame”. After the bombing, Dresden’s “intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd” skyline is described as “black with smoke”. One of the reoccurring images of Slaughterhouse Five is the depiction of Dresden looking like “the surface of the moon” after the fire bombing. Little else is said about Dresden after the bombing, apart from the sheer horror of finding the dead enclosed in an “accidental dome”.
After working on the “corpse mines” in Dresden, Billy and other fellow soldiers awake to find their stable-residence in the suburbs of the city unlocked. As the author notes “World War Two in Europe was over.”

Slaughterhouse Five Settings Facts

In the novel, Vonnegut adds further detail to Ilium, a town which also features in Cat's Cradle.
From my research, it seems the buildings near slaughterhouse five, or indeed, the slaughterhouse itself, has been turned into a music venue. Further information about whether this is correct would be greatly appreciated.
Vonnegut includes information about Tralfamadore in The Sirens of Titan and other novels.

Settings Mentioned in Slaughterhouse Five

United States
Alplaus, New York
Ausable Chasm, Keeseville, New York
Baltimore, Maryland
Berlin, Germany
Boston, Massachusetts
Bright Angel Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Camden, New Jersey
Cape Ann, Massachusetts
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Cicero, Illinois
Cody, Park County, Wyoming
Dayton, Ohio
Delaware River, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware
Delaware Valley, Philadelphia
General Electric, Schenectady, New York
General Forge and Foundry, Ilium, New York
Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts
Hudson River, New York, New Jersey
Hyannis Port, Hyannis & Barnstable, Massachusetts
Ilium Government Center, Ilium, New York
Ilium High School, Ilium, New York
Ilium Merchants National Bank and Trust, Ilium, New York
Ilium School of Optometry, Ilium, New York
Ilium YMCA, Ilium, New York
Indianopolis, Indiana,
Kennedy Compound, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Lake George, New York
Lake Placid, New York
Missisippi
New York City, New York
New York's World Fair, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York
Newport, Rhode Island
Palm Springs, California
Pavilion of the Arts, Ilium, New York
Peace Lagoon, Ilium, New York
Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
Philadelphia, Pennyslvania
Pine Knoll retirement home, Ilium, New York
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Rocky Mountains, Canada & United States
Royalton Hotel, 44 West 44th Street, Manhattan, New York
San Pedro Bay, California
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Schenectady, New York
Sears & Roebuck warehouse, Iowa City, Iowa
South Carolina
Sugarbush Mountain, Vermont
Times Square, New York
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
Veteran's Hospital, Lake Placid, New York
Wisconsin

Germany
Berlin,
Buchenwald, Weimar
Chemnitz, Saxony
Dresden Frauenkirche, Dresden, Saxony
Dresden, Saxony
Frankfurt, Hesse
Hamburg
Konigstein, Saxony
Kreuzkirche Tower, Dresden
Leipzig, Saxony
Plauen, Saxony
River Elbe, Halle
Schlachthof V, Dresden, Saxony
Stalag IV-B, Mühlberg, Brandenburg

Austria
Salzburg, Salzburg
Vienna

France
Dunkirk, Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Marseilles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Japan
Hiroshima, Chūgoku, Sanyō
Tokyo

Vietnam
Hill 875, Dak To
North Vietnam

Canada
Montreal, Quebec

England
Coventry

Finland
Helsinki, Uusimaa

Italy
Genoa, Liguria

Libya
Tobruk

Poland
Kłodzko, Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Wrocław, Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Russia
Leningrad

Turkey
Istanbul, Marmara

Luxembourg

Palestine

Switzerland

Historical/Fictional/Planets/Stars/The Universe
Sodom and Gomorrah
Zircon-212

June Updates: So it Goes

2010-06-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since my last update (which covered "The Package"), but just in case you lose heart, today's post is basically to suggest the next locations guide will focus on Slaughterhouse Five.

Often considered as Vonnegut's "best" novel, in a true case of ghastly reflected-glory, this time-travel-meets-Dresden-war-and-Tralfamadore-extraordinaire will form a bit of a landmark on Kurt Vonnegut Settings. What sort of landmark, I'm not quite sure, but nonetheless, it'll probably be pretty special.

So, there we have it, stay tuned for a locations guide to Slaughterhouse Five and hopefully, over the next few weeks, I'll be able to bring you some more of Marek's wonderful Kilgore Trout related work.

The image used in this blog post is of the slaughterhouse where Vonnegut stayed during the bombing of Dresden. The photograph was taken by KeithGard.

The Package Summary and Guide

2010-06-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today's post covers "The Package", a short story by Kurt Vonnegut which was first published in Collier's and consequently Bagombo Snuff Box.

“The Package” Summary

“The Package” offers insight into the lives of Earl and Maude Fenton, who have just returned from a world cruise to their seemingly perfect, “package” home, which comes complete with a variety of gadgets and buttons to press. As soon as Earl returns home, he receives a phone call from his former fraternity brother, Charley Freeman. Fenton invites Freeman into his home and at the same time, allows a photographer and writer from Home Beautiful to capture various images and provide a write-up of the Fenton’s flawless home.

“The Package” explores the Fenton’s attitude to supposed social divides, with Earl feeling increasingly uncomfortable and even intolerant of Freeman’s (a former “rich kid”) presence in his home. The Fentons make excuses for Freeman to leave, but it is only after his former college friend has left that he realises Freeman had gone past any concern for wealth or social classes. A friend of the Fentons reveals that Freeman has spent the past thirty years in China, having invested in a hospital. Freeman was then “locked up” by “the Commies” and “finally” thrown out of China. After hearing about Freeman’s life, the Fentons become aware of their own foolishness and Earl attempts to “start today all over again” by pressing a button in their hi-tech home.

The Fenton’s “Package” Home

The Fenton’s home is described as a “machine for living”, which features various switch panels and walls that control parts of the home. Throughout Vonnegut’s short story, Fenton absentmindedly presses these buttons, referring to them as “thingamajigs”. During the short story, Fenton observes that the decorator the couple hired “really thought of everything”, even including “an apron, a chef’s hat and asbestos gloves” in a “closet next to the terrace doors”. Earl and Maude’s home contains a solarium, a rumpus room, a workshop and a den, as well as a dining and living room – amongst other rooms.

The “young, pretty woman writer” from Home Beautiful, who wishes to cover the Fenton’s home, describes it as “a complete package for living - everything anybody could possibly want for a full life.” Unfortunately for the Fentons, the home does not appear to contain a button which would allow them to “start today all over again”.

World Cruise: India, Burma, the Philippines and Japan

The Fentons are asked by the Home Beautiful writer to discuss “the situation in Asia”. Fenton reveals that both he and Maude have “two months looking the situation over” (in India, Burma, the Philippines and Japan) and have come to the conclusion that “there’s nothing wrong with Asia that a little spunk and common sense and know-how won’t cure.” Freeman suggests that such a view is “an oversimplification”, causing Fenton to furiously react that in the two months he spent in Asia, he “actually got out and rubbed elbows with the people over there”. It is revealed at the end of “The Package” that Freeman has spent the past thirty years in China and has returned to the United States after being “locked up” and “thrown out” of the country by “Commies”.

“The Package” Facts

The Package was first published in Collier’s, on the 26th of July, 1952.
It appears that there isn’t a “San Bonito Boulevard” in California – if anyone has any further information about this location, then please do get in touch.

Complete List of Settings in Kurt Vonnegut’s “The Package”

United States of America
Grand Central Station, 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York
San Bonito Boulevard
Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California

Egypt
Great Pyramid, Giza

India
Taj Mahal, Agra

Italy
The Colosseum, Rome

Republic of the Philippines
Manila

Burma

China

Denmark

Japan

Mars

Kilgore Trout's Stories in Galapagos

2010-06-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Galapagos

New York: August 1988; Dell Publishing Co.

Today's blog post lists the short stories by Kilgore Trout, mentioned in Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos. This article was originally published by Marek Vit, at www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kt_gal.html, but as the website is no longer available, Marek has kindly allowed me to repost the article, here. Hopefully, I can bring you more of Marek's wonderful work, in the future. Please see below for more about Kilgore Trout's short stories in Galapagos.

Untitled 4 - (Sports Robots)

... I just want to add that my father, who was a science-fiction writer, once wrote a novel about a man whom everybody laughed at because he was building sports robots. He created a golf robot who could make a hole in one every time, and a tennis robot who served an ace every time, and so on.

At first, people couldn't see any use for robots like that, and the inventor's wife walked out on him, the way Father's wife, incidentally, had walked out on him--and his children tried to put him into a nuthouse. But then he let advertisers know that his robots would also endorse automobiles or beer or razors or wristwatches or perfume or whatever. He made a fortune, according to my father, because so many sports enthusiasts wanted to be exactly like those robots.
Don't ask me why.
(pages 70-71)

The Era of Hopeful Monsters

It was about a planet where the humanoids ignored their most serious survival problems until the last possible moment. And then, with all the forests being killed and all the lakes being poisoned by acid rain, and all the groundwater made unpotable by industrial wastes and so on, the humanoids found themselves the parents of children with wings or antlers or fins, with a hundred eyes, with no eyes, with huge brains, with no brains, and on and on. These were Nature's experiments with creatures which might, as a matter of luck, be better planetary citizens than the humanoids. Most died, or had to be shot, or whatever, but a few were really quite promising, and they intermarried and had young like themselves.
(pages 82-83)

The photo used in this blog post was taken by Kenn Wilson.

Happy Birthday Wanda June Summary and Settings

2010-05-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Wanda June Summary

Happy Birthday, Wanda June presents the return of Harold Ryan and Colonel Looseleaf, two ‘classic’ American heroes. Ryan, an explorer and Looseleaf, who dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, have been in the Amazon Rain Forest for the past eight years and return home, with Ryan in particular expecting a welcome celebrating the duo’s triumph over other lands. When the two war veterans arrive back in the United States, they’re surprised that their families and even the perceptions surrounding heroic acts have moved on. Ryan’s wife, Penelope, has rejected the past violent glories of her husband, instead preferring the company of Dr. Norbert Woodly, a “healer” to Ryan’s “killer”. Looseleaf’s family has also moved on.

Ryan and Looseleaf find themselves in each others company once again, trying to make sense of the changing world. Ryan attempts to find something physical to attack and conquer, whereas Looseleaf begins to question the heroic connotations of bombing Nagasaki, noting that “anybody who’d drop an atom bomb on a city has to be pretty dumb.” The play ends with a stand-off between Ryan and Dr. Woodly, with the former realising his own “irrelevance”. However, Woodly’s character is also at fault, with Penelope noting that they’re “both disgusting – with your pride, your pride”. Happy Birthday Wanda June explores the relationship between war and traditionally conceived perceptions of heroes and challenges the apparent relationship between violence and valour.

Sugar Creek, Midland City, Ohio

Readers who are familiar with Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, such as Breakfast of Champions, will have felt a tinge of recognition when Colonel Looseleaf discusses Sugar Creek. In Happy Birthday, Wanda June Looseleaf briefly discusses his role in his local scout troop, suggesting that the only scout badge he remembers getting is Public Health. As Looseleaf explains: “That was a bitch. The Boy Scout Manual said I was supposed to find out what my town did about sewage. Jesus, they dumped it all in Sugar Creek”. Sugar Creek is the gloopy, polluted creek Kilgore Trout crosses on the way into Midland City, in Breakfast of Champions. Vonnegut discusses the pollution of the creek in the novel, noting that The Maritimo Brothers Construction Company, which is meant to be safely disposing waste from the Barrytron plant (a plastics company), is really siphoning the waste into Sugar Creek. Much like Trout, who unwittingly discovers the sheer scale of the pollution after his feet are encased in a plastic substance, Looseleaf learns about the waste disposal habits of Midland City, the hard way.

Looseleaf’s town, Midland City, is also home to the likes of Rudy Waltz, the protagonist of Deadeye Dick, as well as Dwayne and Celia Hoover (of Breakfast of Champions and Deadeye Dick).

Theater De Lys (now Lucille Lortel Theater), 121 Christopher Street, New York

Happy Birthday, Wanda June opened at the Theater De Lys (now known as the Lucille Lortel Theater) on October 7th, 1970. According to Vonnegut, the “reviews were mixed”, but the play ran for one month at this off-broadway theater, clocking up 47 performances, before Happy Birthday Wanda June was moved to Edison Theatre on West Forty-Seventh Street. Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut features an interview between Vonnegut and Mel Gussow, during which Vonnegut discusses how Happy Birthday, Wanda June was first brought to the stage. Vonnegut explains that before the script was finished, movie executive Lester Goldsmith had already hired the theater (the De Lys) and cast Michael Kane as director. In the interview (which you can read here), Vonnegut discusses the set of Happy Birthday, Wanda June, noting that one of the main mise-en-scene challenges was Harold’s collection of stuffed animals. However, Vonnegut suggests that “the Museum of Natural History crashed through out of friendliness with an elephant, a rhinoceros and a water buffalo”, for the play’s set. The Theater De Lys, or the Lucille Lortel Theater as it’s now known as relatively small, seating 299. In a letter from 2001, which is available on the WhyaDuck website (which is home to a wide range of Kurt Vonnegut related multimedia, as well as the wonderful Curb Your Enthusiasm), Vonnegut suggests that Happy Birthday, Wanda June would still have been running at the Lucille Lortel Theater, “if Equity (a trade union for artists and performers) hadn't called an off-Broadway strike which went on for months”.

You can take a look at the Lucille Lortel Theater using the Google map, below.

View Larger Map

Edison Theatre, 240 West 47th Street, Manhattan, New York

After a short run at the Lucille Lortel Theater, Happy Birthday, Wanda June was moved to the Edison Theatre, along with the original cast. Here, the play had a much longer run – spanning just under four months, with a total of 96 performances. The Edison Theatre closed on the 24th of February, 1941 and is now known as the Edison Ballroom. You can check out the location using the Google Map, below (you may need to adjust the view slightly).

View Larger Map

In the prologue of Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Vonnegut suggests that there were 143 performances, but the archive records for the Lucille Lortel Theater and Edison Theatre indicate a total of 143 performances. If anyone knows whether this is an archive error, or there was indeed one extra performance, it would be wonderful to hear from you.

Heaven: Home of Wanda June and Major Siegfried Von Konigswald

Admittedly, this a rather odd location to include, but throughout Happy Birthday, Wanda June Vonnegut depicts various scenes in "Heaven". The opening of Act One, Scene Four, is Wanda June's monologue, where she suggests that "nobody is mad" in heaven, as they're "all too busy playing shuffleboard" (enthusiasts of the game include Hitler and Jesus Christ). Wanda June goes on to suggest that Heaven offers its inhabitants "merry-go-rounds that don't cost anything to ride on", Ferris wheels and a "par-three golf course". In Heaven, Wanda June and the former SS officer, Major Siegfried Von Konigswald, have formed a "Harold Ryan Fan Club", which they attempt to get Ryan's ex-wife, Mildred, to join. Mildred declines, on the grounds that Alcoholics Anonymous takes up all of her time. In the final monologue from Heaven, Mildred reveals that a tornado has occurred in Heaven, which "tore up fifty-six houses, a dance pavilion and a Ferris wheel". Fortunately, no one died, but simply "bounced around a lot", before returning to playing shuffleboard.

Orleans Arena Theatre (now The Playhouse),120 Main Street, Orleans, Massachusetts

The original version of Happy Birthday, Wanda June, which Vonnegut titled Penelope, was first performed at the Orleans Arena Theatre, now known as “The Playhouse.” The theatre, while it has been rechristened, is still in its original location (from what I can tell) and regularly puts on a variety of performances.

Mhravitch, Yugoslavia

In Act One, Scene Six of the play, Ryan recalls how he slayed the "Beast of Yugoslavia", Major Siegfried Von Konigswald. Ryan informs his son, Paul, that while watching an inn in Mhravitch, Yugoslavia, he spotted Von Konigswald entering the building. Ryan was part of a "guerilla band" in Yugoslavia and he and his fellow soldiers entered the village at midnight. Ryan discusses murdering the German soldiers, before finally murdering Von Konigswald. In Scene Eight, Paul suggests he'll visit Mhravitch, but Ryan informs him the village is no longer there, as "the Germans shot everybody who live there, then levelled it...They wished revenge for the slaying of the Beast of Yugoslavia". It is worth pointing out that there is no village in Yugoslavia with the name "Mhravitch", nor has there ever been (so far as I can tell).

Happy Birthday, Wanda June Facts

Happy Birthday, Wanda June, was originally titled Penelope.
The New York theaters the play was first performed in are just a short distance from the locations mentioned in Mother Night.
Readers who would like to know more about Sugar Creek, or Midland City, should consider consulting other Vonnegut novels, such as Breakfast of Champions.

Full List of Locations Mentioned in Happy Birthday, Wanda June

United States of America

Boston, Massachusetts

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Dubuque, Iowa

East St Louis, Illinois

Edison Theatre, 240 West 47th Street, New York

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Oklahoma

Omaha, Nebraska

Orleans Arena Theatre, (now The Playhouse) 120 Main Street, Orleans, Massachusetts

Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia

Schenectady, New York

Sugar Creek, Midland City, Ohio

Theater De Lys (now Lucille Lortel Theater), 121 Christopher Street, New York

Times Square, Manhattan, New York

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

Antartica

South Pole

Africa

Kenya

England

Newcastle upon Tyne

Japan

Nagasaki

South America

Amazon Rain Forest

Yugoslavia

Mhravitch

Spain

Heaven

Vietnam

Image from the Lortel Archives, available at: http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/view_image.cfm?id=683

Any Reasonable Offer Summary and Settings

2010-05-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Any Reasonable Offer Summary

Kurt Vonnegut's "Any Reasonable Offer" charts the relations between a real estate agent, his pushy clients and two very convincing phonies (“Colonel” Peckham and his wife). Colonel Peckham and his wife suggest that in order to purchase any of the luxurious homes they visit with the agent they first have to live in them, in order to “get the newness” out. After the Peckham’s spend time in the properties of Mr Hurty and Mrs Hellbrunner (two of the real estate agent’s clients), they head home to Philadelphia. It’s only when the agent tries to reach Colonel Peckham that he realises that the couple never intended to purchase any of the properties and merely wished to holiday in them for free. In a humorous twist, at the end of the story the real estate agent reveals he’s “getting the newness” out of “the Van Tuyl estate” in Newport, Rhode Island, just like the Peckhams did with his client’s properties.

Mrs Hellbrunner’s “Fortified Castle”

The narrator of "Any Reasonable Offer", a real estate agent, almost despairs at the prospect of trying to sell Mrs Hellbrunner’s home, which he describes as suitable for a “special sort of person”, or an “escaped maniac”. The real estate agent reveals the house has been on the market for three years and features several rooms (twenty-seven, in total), as well as unique features such as “turrets with slits for crossbow men” and “a dry moat”. Colonel Peckham and his wife express an interest in Mrs Hellbrunner’s “fortified castle”, but do not mention any intention of purchasing it, only suggesting that “it’s perfectly astonishing what you can get for a hundred thousand.”

Mr Hurty’s Place

The reader is first introduced to the Peckhams when they turn up at the estate agent’s office, asking to view Mr Hurty’s $85,000 home. The Peckhams, again, express an interest in the “Hurty place”, with Mrs Peckham suggesting she is “glad there’s a greenhouse” on the estate and Colonel Peckham commenting that he’s pleased Mr Hurty has “an honest-to-God swimming pool”. After the Peckhams have spent three days constantly at the property, Mr Hurty and the real estate agent apply pressure on the couple to purchase the place, suggesting that a brewer from Toledo is interested in buying it. However, this move backfires, as the Peckhams reply that they “couldn’t possibly be interested in anything” that would attract the attentions of “a retired brewer from Toledo”.

Van Tuyl Estate in Newport, Rhode Island

Finally, at the end of the story it’s revealed that the narrator has taken a leaf out of the Peckhams’ book and decided to holiday at the Van Tuyl estate, which is up for sale. The property has “almost everything”, including a golf course, tennis courts and a private beach. The narrator suggests he doesn’t plan on haggling on the price of property, noting that when “the times comes”, he’ll “either take it or leave it”.

"Any Reasonable Offer" Facts

"Any Reasonable Offer" was first published in Collier’s, on the 19th of January in 1952. Thanasphere, another short story in Bagombo Snuff Box was also published in Collier's in the early 1950s
It is the third story in Bagombo Snuff Box, with “Mnemonics” preceding it.
The term "any reasonable offer" in real estate refers to respectable offers on a property, although there is sometimes contention between what an agent and a potential purchaser views as "reasonable".

"Any Reasonable Offer" Locations

United States
National Steel Foundry, Philadelphia
Newport, Rhode Island
Toledo, Ohio

Thailand
Bangkok

Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle – San Lorenzo and Other Settings

2010-05-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

This post covers San Lorenzo and Ilium, as well as other settings discussed in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.

Cat’s Cradle Summary
Cat’s Cradle was written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1963 and depicts both a world frozen by “ice-nine” and the religion of Bokononism. The story follows John, an author who initially begins writing a book about the events of Hiroshima, but is soon caught up in the lives of the Hoenikker family (Angela, Newt and Frank), whose father helped create the atom bomb. John is asked to write an article about a resident of San Lorenzo, Julian Castle, but this is sidetracked by events which take place on the island. San Lorenzo’s president, “Papa”, dies after swallowing ice-nine, a chemical which can freeze an entire body of water and melts at 45.8 °C. Frank asks John to become “Papa’s” successor, but before the narrator can do so, disaster strikes and “Papa’s” Castle begins to collapse. The ice-nine riddled body of “Papa” slides into the water below, freezing the oceans and stopping life in its tracks. While living through the effects of ice-nine, the narrator writes a memoir of the events of San Lorenzo, which is the novel itself, Cat’s Cradle. The novel ends with Bokonon, the creator of Bokononism, writing the final sentence of The Books of Bokonon and it’s hinted that the narrator freezes himself by taking “some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men” and making “a statue” of himself” “grinning horribly and thumbing my nose at You Know Who”.

San Lorenzo: The Fictional Setting in Cat’s Cradle

Arguably the main setting of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, the various buildings and geographical features of San Lorenzo are referenced throughout the novel. Indeed, one of the first introductions to San Lorenzo the reader is offered in Vonnegut’s tale is the supplement in the NY Sunday Times. When the narrator, John, manages to tear himself away from the image of Mono Aamons Monzano which is printed in the supplement, we’re informed that the republic “was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide”. In “An Underprivileged Nation” the reader is offered a glimpse of the island from the air; according to the narrator, San Lorenzo “was an amazingly regular rectangle”, with “cruel and useless stone needles…thrust up from the sea” surrounding it.

San Lorenzo has a population of 450,000 (although this of course isn’t the case by the end of Vonnegut’s novel) and as the narrator explains later on in Cat’s Cradle “there were four hundred and fifty inhabitants for each uninhabitable square mile” in the republic. The citizens of San Lorenzo live in poverty, although various leaders, including “Papa Monzano” attempted to “raise the people from misery and muck”. However, even though San Lorenzo appears to be doomed to failure, The Sunday Times includes an outline of “Papa”’s and Frank Hoenikker’s “master plan”, which would include:

New roads
Hotels
Hospitals
Clinics
Rail roads
“The works”

In the novel it’s soon revealed that Frank managed to become the Minister of Science and Progress in the Republic of San Lorenzo, because “the son of a bitch had a piece of ice-nine with him.”

House of Hope and Mercy, Casa Mona and Frank’s Home

(Please see below for the flag of San Lorenzo)
When John and his party of granfalloon and karass members land on the island, emphasis is given to just a few areas. Later on in Cat’s Cradle, at Frank’s home, the narrator asks Frank’s Major-Domo, Stanley, to explain what the small blips of light on the skyline are. Stanley suggests they are the “House of Hope and Mercy (hospital) in the Jungle, “Papa’s” Palace and Fort Jesus”. The hospital is run by Julian Castle, who grimly explains to his son, Philip Castle, in front of several dead bodies that “someday this will all be yours”. As opposed to following in the family business, Philip Castle becomes a “mosaicist, historian, self-indexer, pissant and hotel-keeper”. As the owner of the Casa Mona hotel, Castle has just one guest (John) after H. Lowe Crosby declares him a “pissant”. The narrator’s room, like all others in the hotel, overlooks the “Boulevard of the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy, Monzano Airport, and Bolivar harbour beyond”, blocking out “the squalor and misery of the city” located behind the Casa Mona.

The narrator doesn’t stay at the Casa Mona hotel long though and, as the book progresses, John heads to Frank’s home in San Lorenzo. The house was designed by Nestor Aamons, who was the architect of Philip Castle’s hotel. While more could be said about Frank’s home, the main feature is of course the waterfall, where Frank asks the narrator to become the next president of San Lorenzo and also where, after the ice-nine has turned the water into an “igloo”, Frank, Newt, the Crosbys and John hole up like “the Swiss Family Robinson”.

Papa’s Palace

The next stop on our tour of San Lorenzo is “Papa’s” Palace. Described as “low and black and cruel”, the palace features battlements and a giant hook, “reserved for Bokonon himself”. The castle wasn’t built by “Papa”, but by Tum-bumwa, the “demented” former Emperor of San Lorenzo. “Papa’s” room is also austere, with white walls and no pictures or decorations, just “several rugged benches and a card table”. “Papa’s” bed, a “golden dinghy”, is perhaps the boldest feature in the suite and is the lifeboat of the Lady’s Slipper, the ship “which brought Bokonon and Corporal McCabe to San Lorenzo”. Also located in the room is a route to a former dungeon-cum-shelter, where the narrator and Mona weather out the worst of the natural disasters caused by the ice-nine. After one of the aerial display planes crashes into “Papa’s” Castle, it’s the end for both San Lorenzo and the world. Different parts of the tower crash into the sea and finally, “Papa’s” body is flung into the ocean, causing the sea to become ice-nine and the earth to become “blue-white pearl”.

Mount McCabe

One of the most startling sections of the novel is the bowl in Mount McCabe that’s filled with the dead. In the centre of the bowl is a note from Bokonon, suggesting that he told the citizens of San Lorenzo to “have the good manners to die”, as it seemed likely that God “was through with them”. Although, as Mona explains, Bokonon’s note shouldn’t have been taken too seriously, as the holy man “would never take his own advice, because he knew it was worthless”.

The final location to discuss is the aforementioned Mount McCabe. At it’s highest point, Mount McCabe is 11,000 feet above sea level and is described as “a fearful hump, a blue whale, with one queer stone plug on its back for a peak.” It’s hinted that the narrator climbs Mount McCabe after Bokonon reveals the final sentence of The Books of Bokonon:

“If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.”

Ilium, New York

Ilium, a location which is discussed in a variety of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, also appears in Cat’s Cradle. Ilium is described as “a family town” that has “very little juvenile delinquency”. Dr Felix Hoenikker’s works at the General Forge and Foundry in Ilium, with Dr Asa Breed. Whilst in Ilium researching Dr Hoenikker, the narrator visits the Del Prada Hotel and spends time in the bar, known as the Cape Cod Room. The bartender at the hotel explains the Cape Cod Room didn’t “always have…fugging nets and seashells around” and was formerly known as “the Najavo Tepee” and, before that, “the Pompeii Room”.

Frank, Dr Hoenikker’s son, was employed at Jack’s Hobby Shop, in Ilium, where he sold, made models and slept with Jack’s wife. Other parts of Ilium mentioned in the novel include Ilium High, Ilium Music Store, Ilium Power and Light and the town’s cemetery. Opposite the cemetery, Marvin Breed, Dr Asa Breed’s brother, works as a tombstone salesman.

Cat’s Cradle Location Facts

Ilium is also discussed in Vonnegut’s Player Piano and Slaughter House Five (as well as other novels).
Little Rock in Arkansas is also mentioned in Mother Night, as Reverend Doctor Lionel Jason David Jones, runs an embalming school there.
Bolivar, in San Lorenzo, has had many other names, including “Santa Maria” and “Port Glory”.
The Rumfoord Estate (from Sirens of Titan) is mentioned in the novel.

Full List of Locations Mentioned in Cat's Cradle

United States of America
4918 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana
Alamogordo, New Mexico
Avram Breed and Sons, Ilium, New York
Cape Cod, Massachusetts,
Central Park, New York
Chicago
Cornell University, New York
Del Prada Hotel, Ilium, New York,
Embassy of the Russian Federation, 2650 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington DC
Evanston, Cook County, Illinois
General Forge and Foundry, Ilium, New York
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hyannis, Barnstaple, Massachusetts
Ilium Cemetery, Ilium, New York
Ilium High, Ilium, New York
Ilium Music Store, Ilium, New York
Ilium Power and Light, Ilium, New York
Ilium, New York
Jack's Hobby Shop, Ilium, New York
Kansas
Louisville, Kentucky
Miami
Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Tennessee
New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts
Newport, Rhode Island
Pearl Harbour, Oahu, Hawaii
Rumfoord Estate, Newport, Rhode Island
Sarasota, Florida
Shelter Island, Long Island, New York
Spencer County, Indiana
Western Hemisphere University of the Bible of Little Rock, Arkansas

San Lorenzo
American Embassy
Bolivar
Boulevard of the Hundred Martyrs of Democracy
Casa Mona Hotel
Fort Jesus Training Camp
House of Hope and Mercy Hospital
Monzano Airport, Bolivar
Mount McCabe
"Papa's" Palace
San Lorenzo Cathedral
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Bolivar

Italy
Calabria
Strait of Messina
Florence
Sicily

Japan
Hiroshima
Tokyo

United Kingdom
London School of Economics and Political Science, London
Newcastle upon Tyne

Belgium
Ypres

China
Hong Kong

Cuba
Havana

Egypt
Port Said

France
Place Pigalle, Paris

Germany
Buchenwald, Ettersberg

Haiti
Port-au-Prince

India
Bombay Harbour (Now Mumbai Harbour)

Poland
Auschwitz

Puerto Rico
San Juan

Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Tobago

Russia
Moscow

Switzerland
Zurich

Turkey
Istanbul

Afghanistan

Australia

Basque

Bolivia

Cape Verde Islands

Chile

Denmark

Greece

Liberia

Netherlands

Pakistan

Portugal

Spain

Ukraine

Union of South Africa (now Republic of South Africa)

Yugoslavia

Updates and Fictional Islands...

2010-05-04T14:01:00.003-07:00

Greetings!

Firstly, I must apologise that the next installment of the blog is a little late. I'm currently working on a settings guide for Cat's Cradle and given the fictional nature of the island* the novel is set on (well, a large proportion of the novel is set on), it's taking a little while.

Alongside this, I'll also make sure to post a few more Kurt Vonnegut short story guides, as well as information on Vonnegut's novels.

So, that's where we are, right now. Thank you for visiting and stay tuned (or, online), for the next update. Finally, I'll leave you with a word from Vonnegut:

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance."

*Speaking of fictional islands, you may be interested in this Guardian April Fools' Day gag.

Thanasphere Summary and Settings

2010-04-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

“Thanasphere” was first published in Collier’s weekly in September, 1950. The short story opens Vonnegut’s Bagombo Snuff Box, which features 24 short stories. Read on for a summary of “Thanasphere”, as well as information on the settings and locations mentioned in the short story.

Thanasphere Summary

The US Air Force sends Major Rice, a man with no family ties, 2000 miles above the earth to report on weather conditions. Both Dr Bernard Groszinger and Lieutenant General Franklin Dane are directing Rice on his mission and are present when Rice begins sending strange messages back to the base in Boston, Massachusetts. While in space, Rice begins seeing the deceased, “shimmering like northern lights”, including his wife Margaret and Dr Groszinger’s mother. Instead of returning safely to earth, Rice crashes his ship into the ocean. Rice’s final words before his transmissions are jammed are "If only you could see it, if—".

The Great Smokies: Launch pad of Major Rice

Part of the action in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Thanasphere” takes place near the Great Smokies (otherwise known Great Smoky Mountains National Park). In particular, Sevier County in Tennessee is affected by Major Rice’s spacecraft, which is presumably launched from an “Air Force experimental station” located ten miles northwest of Elkmont, in the forest. This would place the Air Force base west(ish) of Caton:

View Larger Map

1577 Damon Place, Scotia, New York: Home of Pamela Ritter

Given the recent work with Google Maps and the New York locations Vonnegut mentions in works such as Timequake, I presumed 1577 Damon Place would be a
“real” location. Strangely this isn’t so – It would be interesting to know why Vonnegut invented this particular location. If this isn’t the case and you know of a Damon Place, please do get in touch.

Fort Leavenworth: Possible Home of Major Rice and Iona Potapov

The notorious Fort Leavenworth prison is mentioned briefly in “Thanasphere”: General Dane suggests that unless Major Rice quits his “little game” of reporting on the deceased who are floating up in space, Dane will “slap” him “on a rock pile in Leavenworth so fast” he’ll “leave (his) teeth up there.” Fort Leavenworth is also the home of George Kraft/ Iona Potapov, the spy who befriends Howard Campbell in New York, in Mother Night. Small world!

Thanasphere: A new Name for the Stratosphere

No post about the settings mentioned in “Thanasphere” would be worth writing if it didn't mention the actual Thanasphere. As Dr Bernard Groszinger explains; “Thanatos, that’s Greek for ‘death’, I think. Maybe instead of ‘dead space’, you’d prefer ‘Thanasphere’. Has a nice scientific ring to it, don’t you think?”

Thanasphere Facts

The distance between Major Rice’s ship and the earth is described as “the distance from New York to Salt Lake City”.
The air force project is named “Project Cyclops”.
Groszinger’s mother’s favourite quotation is “something from Goethe”.

All Locations Mentioned in “Thanasphere”

Please see below for a full list of locations discussed and referred to in Vonnegut’s “Thanasphere”:

United States of America
1577 Damon Place, Scotia, New York
Albany, New York
Boston, Massachusetts
Dallas, Texas
Elkmont, Tennessee
Evansville, Indiana
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Glenwood, Iowa
Great Smokies, North Carolina/Tennessee
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Omaha, Nebraska
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sevier County, Tennessee
Washington, D.C

United Kingdom
Liverpool

Universe
Stratosphere/Thanasphere

Timequake Summary and Settings: Locations Mentioned in Vonnegut’s Final Novel

2010-04-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Usually, these posts begin with a brief mention of how if you haven’t read the novel discussed in this post, it’s probably best to do so. That aside, please see below for a summary of Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake, as well as information on the locations mentioned – including Kurt Vonnegut’s childhood home and the shelter which Kilgore Trout briefly stays in in the novel.

Timequake Summary

Timequake, published in 1997, was one of Kurt Vonnegut’s final books and his final novel (God Bless You, Dr Kevorkian, amongst others, were published later on). Timequake charts the “timequake” of the original novel, which sends humanity back in time, from 2001 to 1991, causing them to repeat their actions, with no say in the matter.

The novel also reveals the difficulty of writing “Timequake One”, with Vonnegut discussing throughout the different styles of both the aforementioned first version of the novel, as well as its successor, “Timequake Two”, which is the final, published version of the book. Timequake darts between the original story of Kilgore Trout as an unlikely savour of humanity, as well as anecdotes and autobiographical pieces from Vonnegut’s life.

American Academy of Arts and Letters – Home of “The Sisters B-36”

As explained in “Timequake Two”, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, on West 155th St, Manhattan, is the dumping ground of Kilgore Trout’s “The Sisters B-36 story”. The ominous American Academy of Arts and Letters building is also the home (well, work place) of a variety of characters, including Zoltan Pepper, Dudley Prince and Zoltan’s wife, Monica Pepper, who spray-painted “FUCK ART” across the Academy’s front door, in an effort “to make the place look as abandoned and looted as the ruins of Columbia University two miles to the south.”

Next door to the American Academy of Arts and Letters is the former Museum of the American Indian, which in the novel has been turned into a homeless shelter and currently houses Kilgore Trout. In fact, Trout and Monica Pepper are just separated by a “companion wall”. I’ve searched around for information on the homeless shelter and, from what I can find, the only homeless shelter (currently open) is the Church of the Intercession, on 550 West 155th Street. If you’d like to follow Kilgore’s route, then you can click here, or alternatively see if you can find your way using Google Streetview, beginning at the dumping spot of “The Sisters B-36”, the American Academy of Arts and Letters:

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4365 North Illinois St, Indiana, Kurt Vonnegut’s Home

Early on in Timequake, Vonnegut suggests that he once “seized the opportunity” to discuss his birthplace, as a speaker at Butler University. As the author notes; “I said, ‘If I had it to do all over, I would choose to be born again in a hospital in Indianapolis. I would choose to spend my childhood again at 4365 North Illinois St, about ten blocks from here…” Vonnegut’s family home was built and designed by his father, Kurt Vonnegut Senior. Using Google Maps you can glimpse the area of Vonnegut’s home – but I’m not entirely sure it’s still there, some help would be appreciated on this topic, as Google seems to believe Vonnegut Sr built a house in the middle of the road:

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Kurt Vonnegut’s high school, Shortridge High School, is located just a few streets away from his childhood home. The country club which Vonnegut’s sister Allie was sent to (Woodstock Golf and County Club) can also be found by Googling the following address: 1301 West 38th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46208-4195 (or clicking the address).

Xanadu – Rhode Island Writers Retreat

As Vonnegut explains, in “Timequake One”, Trout is sent to a writers’ retreat called Xanadu in Point Zion, Rhode Island. Vonnegut suggests that there are four guest suites in the retreat, “named in honor of an American winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature”. The John Steinbeck suite is located in the carriage house and Sinclair Lewis’ room namesake is on the third floor. Ernest Hemingway and Eugene O’Neill occupy the second floor. According to the Prologue of Timequake, Trout dies in the Ernest Hemingway Suite, at the age of eight-four, after proving a hit at the Xanadu clambake.

Timequake Location Facts

New York (state) is mentioned in Timequake 35 times.
In comparison, Indiana is discussed by Vonnegut 17 times.
There are an estimated 10 partial street addresses (and full addresses) listed in the novel.
Tralfamadore, the homeplanet of the Tralfamadorians, is mentioned in Timequake.

Complete List of Locations Mentioned in Timequake

Vonnegut touches on a variety of towns, cities, countries and stars in Timequake and unfortunately, I don’t have time to focus on them all. However, please see below for a full list of the locations mentioned in the novel. The categorisation for this book is rather messy, simply because of the fictional locations section – but I believe it isn’t too bad:

United States of America
1/1 Gallery, Denver, Colorado
4365 North Illinois St, Indianapolis, Indiana
5033 North Pennsylvania St, Indianapolis, Indiana
Albany, New York
American Academy of Arts and Letters, West 155th St, Manhattan, New York
American Humanist Association, Amhersy, New York
Apollo Theater, Indianapolis, Indiana
Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of NY, Albany, New York
Baltimore, Maryland
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 12504
Barnstable Village, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Bellevue Hospital, New York
Blocks' Department Store, Indianapolis, Indiana
Boston
Brown County, Indiana
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
Cape Cod Junior College, Massachusetts
Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York
Chicago
City College of New York, New York
Cohoes, New York
Colorado
Columbia Broadcasting System, West 52nd St, New York
Columbia University, New York
Convent Avenue, New York
Cornell, Ithaca, New York
Corpus Christi, Texas
Crown Hill Cemetary, Indianapolis, Indiana
Culver, Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Louisiana
Del Mar, San Diego County, California
Detroit, Michigan
Episcopal House of Worship, East 29th St, Manhattan, New York
Ford's Theater, Washington D.C
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (174) (210)
Hudson River, New York
Indian Head Mills, New England
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis, Indiana
Ithaca, New York
Kentucky Derby, Louisville, Kentucky
Kokomo, Indiana
Lake Cayuga, New York
Lexington, Kentucky
Long Island, New York
Los Angeles, California
Maryland
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Mississipi
Museum of the American Indian, Manhattan, New York
National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland
Nebraska
New Jersey
New Orleans, Louisiana
New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue, New York
New York State Maximum Security Adult Correctional Facility, Athena, New York
North Carolina
Northampton, Massachusetts
Ohio
Peru, Indiana
Xanadu, Point Zion, Rhode Island
Postal Convenience Station, one block south of Second Avenue, New York
Rhode Island University, Rhode Island
Richmond, Indiana
Rochester, New York
Rockefeller University, New York
San Diego, California
Santa Barbara, California
Schenectady, New York
Scudder's Lane, Route 6A, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Second Avenue, New York
Shenectady, New York
Shortridge High School, Indianapolis, Indiana
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
South Fork of Long Island, New York
Springfield, Illinois
St Louis, Missouri
St Peter's Hospital, Albany, New York
St. Paul, Minnesota
Staten Island College, New York
Stewart's Book Store, Louisville, Kentucky
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Terre Haute, Indiana
The Oxford, Denver
Tudor Hall, Indianapolis
Turtle Bay, Manhattan, New York
UN Headquarters, New York
Union College Shenectady, New York
University of Chicago
University of Illinois, Urbana
University of Iowa
Wall St, New York
Washington, D.C
Washington University, St Louis
West 155th Street, New York
West 28th St, Indianapolis
Woodstock Golf and County Club, Indiana
Zanesville High School, Zanesville, Ohio

Fictional/Planets/Stars/The Universe
Banalulu
Booboo, Crab Nebula
Dissapointment Lake, Nova Scotia
Grover's Corners
Planet Pluto
Polaris
Puke
Trafalmadore
Camelot

United Kingdom
Leicestershire
London
Newcastle upon Tyne
Oxford
Stonehenge
Westminster Abbey, London

Canada
Manitoba
Montreal, Quebec - Mother Night filming
Newfoundland
Toronto
Hudson Bay

British Overseas Territory
Bermuda
Bermuda Triangle
Dead Man's Rock, Bermuda

Japan
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Yokohama

France
Normandy
Somme

Germany
Munich
Berlin

Austria
Vienna

The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Zaire

Nigeria
Southern Nigeria

Norway
Oslo

Russia
Moscow

Sweden
Stockholm

Ukraine
Chernobyl

Indonesia

Luxembourg

Mali

Republic of the Philippines

Swaziland

Vietnam

The Big Trip Up Yonder Summary and Locations

2010-04-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Technically, I’ve already diluted the purpose of this blog, as Kurt Vonnegut’s story, “The Big Trip Up Yonder” is indeed a short story and not a novel, so I hope no one minds the following coverage of it. First published in Galaxy, a science fiction magazine in January 1954, the mighty Project Gutenberg has decreed that the story isn’t copyrighted and thus available to download for free, here. I’d recommend you read the story first (it is after all, very short), but feel free to skip right ahead and visit some of the locations mentioned in the title.

The Big Trip Up Yonder Summary

In 2158 A.D, Old Gramps Ford and his sizeable family are all cooped together in their ramshackle Alden Village home, with Gramps regularly cutting members of the family who misbehave out of his last will and testament. One family member, Mortimer, or “Morty” cracks and pours half of Gramps’ anti-gerasone drug, which keeps everyone who takes it alive and kicking for hundreds of years (hence Gramps’ huge family; the youngest is 73) down to the drain. Another member of the family, Lou, catches Morty and proceeds to fill the bottle up again. After a series of unfortunate events, the bottle cracks and Gramps, believing Lou was trying to kill him, flees the home. Chaos ensues and the huge family is arrested. The story ends with Gramps returning to his home and the family members locked up (and enjoying the roominess) of prison.

A Tragedy in Council Bluffs, Iowa

In “The Big Trip Up Yonder” old Gramps Ford and the family are gathered around the “five-foot television screen” and watching the news. One of the leading item’s in the shows round up of events is a “stark tragedy in Council Bluffs, Iowa”, with the news commentator observing that “200 rescue workers” are all trying to save one man, Elbert Haggedorn, aged 183. This is the one, solitairy mention of Council Bluffs in “Big Trip up Yonder”, so it’s unfortunately unknown as to whether the rescue workers did save Mr. Haggerdorn. As Council Bluffs is an rather large city, it wouldn’t be very helpful to link to Google Maps. However, if you’re interested in Council Bluffs, you may wish to check out the following Flickr Group – Council Bluffs, Iowa. There’s also a satellite image of Council Bluffs alongside nearby Omaha, below:

The Indianapolis Speedway Checkered Flag

The Big Trip Up Yonder, as suggested in the title, presumably refers to Gramp’s journey to the other side, or, to put it crudely, death. At the beginning of the short story, Gramps suggests; “when they wave that checkered flag at the Indianapolis Speedway and old Gramps gets ready for the Big Trip Up Yonder.” In Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut suggests he grew up at 4365 N Illinois St, Indianapolis, IN 46208, which is located approximately 7.5 miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

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When it comes to writing up Timequake, I’ll make sure to include a streetview of Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s home (which his father designed and built), but you can also access streetview by visiting Google Maps.

Home, Cramped Home: Building 257, Alden Village, New York City, Connecticut,

The location of the Ford family home is rather a strange one, given that’s it in New York City, but also in the state of Connecticut. However, given that the story is set in 2185 A.D and the age-defying (well, age-pausing) drug, anti-gerasone exists, it’s of course possible that NYC could have shifted around a bit. By the looks of it, Alden Village does indeed refer to a location in New York (state) and according to a 2000 census, an estimated 2,666 people live in the village. You can have a look around the area old Gramps and his family call home by following this link (the map will open in a new window, so you can keep browsing this site - if you like).

Full List of Locations Mentioned in “The Big Trip Up Yonder”

United States of America
Alden Village Green, New York City, Connecticut,
Building 257, Alden Village, New York City, Connecticut,
Chicago, Illinois
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Indianapolis Speedway, Indiana
Schenectady, New York
Wyandotte College, Michigan

[The Big Trip Up Yonder Image was illustrated by Kossin]

Locations in God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian

2010-04-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

If you have yet to read Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian, then please bear in mind that this article contains information about the collection of short stories which may spoil/adjust your perception. This post offers a summary of God Bless you, Dr Kevorkian, as well as maps/Google Streetview images of some of the location's mentioned by Kurt Vonnegut in the short story collection.

God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian Summary

God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian was first published in 1999 and is a collection of short stories, published in order to help fund the public radio station, WNYC. The title discusses Vonnegut's trips to the "vacant lot between the far end of the tunnel and the Pearly Gates." Vonnegut meets both the recently deceased, such as Carla (sic) Faye Tucker, as well as Adolf Hitler and William Shakespeare.

Huntsville, Texas: "A Home Away From Home"

The core location in God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian is the lethal injection facility in Huntsville Texas, where Dr. Jack Kevorkian ensures Vonnegut is "only three-quarters dead". Throughout the collection of stories, Vonnegut is whisked from a gurney in Huntsville to the "vacant lot" near the Pearly Gates and back again:

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WNYC: Enhancer of "Informed wit and Wisdom"

WNYC is an essential part of the short stories, as Kurt Vonnegut suggests in the Introduction of God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian. As Vonnegut explains, "WNYC satisfies people's right to know", so it makes sense to include it in this post:

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The Lion's Head Bar, Greenwich Village

The Lion's Head Bar, which closed in 1996, which is best remembered as a watering hole for writers such as Norman Mailer and Frederick Exley. In God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian, Vonnegut meets with John Wesley Joyce (Joice), who informs the author that he wasn't best pleased with his bar's clientèle, suggesting that he tried to "interfere" with their constant chatter by installing a jukebox. Interestingly, the Lion's Head was located just a few streets away from Howard W Campbell's New York apartment in Mother Night.

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"Entschuldigen Sie" at the UN Headquarters

In the last part of this whistle stop tour of some of the locations mentioned in the short stories, it'd be useful to mention Hitler's hopes for a "modest monument" to be erected on the UN Headquarters grounds. You can check out the headquarters for yourself, using the map below:

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Entire List of Locations Mentioned in God Bless you, Dr. Kevorkian

United States
Brooklyn, New York
California
Charlottesville, Virginia
Columbia University, New York
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Huntsville, Texas
Indianapolis, Indiana
Larchmont, New York
Lion's Head Bar, New York
Michigan
Newtown, Pennsylvania
Ohio
Queens, New York
San Francisco, California
Terre Haute, Indiana
Torrington, Connecticut
UN Headquarters, New York
WNYC, New York

England
London

Uganda

Australia

Tasmania

Kosovo

Rwanda

Russia
Smolensk

[Image Found on Seven Stories Website]

Mother Night: Novel Settings and Locations

2010-04-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

This post details some of the key locations in Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night. If you have yet to read the novel, then there may be some information in here you'd prefer to find out on your own.

Mother Night Summary

Mother Night charts the life and times of Howard W Campbell Jr., an American born Nazi propagandist who also appears in Kurt Vonnegut's later novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. In Mother Night, Campbell acts as a narrator and details how after broadcasting propaganda for the Nazi's during the war, he becomes a resident of Greenwich Village, New York and finally, awaits trial for war crimes in "a nice new jail in Old Jerusalem". At the end of the novel, it's revealed that while Campbell would be granted freedom, as it could be proved he was working as a double-agent during WWII, Campbell hangs himself regardless, for "crimes against himself".

27 Bethune Street: Home of Howard W Campbell Jr.

Mother Night darts from various locations in New York, Germany and Israel. The bulk of the story is set in the "Big Apple", as the attic apartment in which Howard Campbell lives after the war is located on 27 Bethune Street, New York. Campbell describes his attic apartment as littered with army surplus items (he owns several copies of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" due to bulk purchasing army trunks) and also as "a cozy little burrow". Towards the end of the novel, Campbell is taken to "an unmarked office in the Empire State Building". You can retrace Campbell's walk back from the Empire State Building to 27 Bethune Street, where he meets Bernard O'Hare once again, by using the map below:

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Carbon Copies to: 395 Bleecker St.

The assumed location of the editor of The White Christian Minuteman, Reverend Doctor Lionel Jason David Jones, also exists. Jones lives at 395 Bleecker Street, New York. At the moment, this property is currently on the rental market for $6,000 a month. So it goes, eh? You can trace Jones' drive from 395 Bleecker Street to Campbell's apartment using the Google map below:

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Fort Leavenworth: Home of a "Remarkable Art Career"

George Kraft, aka Iona Potapov, ends up imprisoned in Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas. Towards the end of the novel Kraft/Potapov is arrested and informs the authorities that the situation does not concern him. When Kraft/Potapov suggests that the "main thing" he is a painter, "the boss" tells him to "be sure to bring your paintbox to prison". Up until 2005, Fort Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States. As with the other locations, here's a map of the penitentary:

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Below you can find a complete list of the locations referred to in Mother Night. As this website grows, I will be "bulking out" some of these locations and where possible, providing maps such as the above.

A Complete List of Locations & Settings in Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night:

United States
27 Bethune Street, New York
395 Bleecker St, New York
Atlanta, Georgia
Bernardsville, New York
Chicago, Illinois
Empire State Building, New York
Fifth Avenue, New York
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Greenwich Village, New York
Haverhill, Massachusetts
Hinkleyville, Maine
Indianapolis, Indiana
Iowa City, Iowa
Little Rock, Arkansas
Mount Vernon, New York
New Jersey
Peekskill, New York
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
San Francisco, California
Scharff Brothers Funeral Home, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Schenectady, New York
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Washington, D.C (District of Columbia)

Japan
Iwo Jima, Tokyo

Mexico
Acapulco, Guerrero
Mexico City (Federal District)

Spain
Minorca, Balearic Islands

Greece
Rhodes, Dodecanese Islands

India/Pakistan
Andaman Islands, Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Vale of Kashmir, Kashmir

Tanzania
Zanzibar

France
Ardennes
Omaha Beach, Normandy

Belgium/Luxembourg/France
Ardennes

Hungary

Germany
Dresden, Saxony
Hersfeld, Hesse
Ohrdruf, Thuringia
Tiergarten, Berlin
West Berlin
Wiesbaden, Hesse

Israel
Jerusalem
Tel Aviv, Gush Dan

Russia
Moscow

Poland
Auschwitz
Riesengebirge
Warsaw

Crimea

Ukraine

Turkey
Mount Ararat

Kurt Vonnegut Novel Settings: The Present and Future

2010-04-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

As this blog post represents my meandering into the world of "blogging", perhaps I should bring something witty, informative and useful to the table. Fortunately for me, most writers have these skills well and truely squared off, so I'll simply discuss what I'd like to include in A Collection of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Novel Settings and what I will, hopefully, get around to typing out.

As the "About" section of this blog suggests, I aim for this small space on the internet to be home to a variety of information about the locations, cities and streets in Kurt Vonnegut's novels. Ideally, I'll begin with the big guns, namely Ilium, New York, home to Doctor Paul Proteus and others, as well as Midland City, the land of Deadeye Dick's, draino swigging Celia's and of course, Dwayne/Wayne Hoover/Hoobler. Honestly though, who knows how this lovely little project will turn out?

Thank you for reading, God bless.