Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
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Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
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Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#2[deleted]
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#3Vonnegut is brilliant. I have read almost everything that he has published and love finding new interviews like this.
It is very important to remember the Dresden bombing which was a horrible war crime. Unfortunately, even up to this day there has been little self reflection on the Dresden bombing from official government sources. Same for the horrible and similarly unnecessary nuclear bombings of japan. So it is a good thing one of the best American writers ever born got to witness it, so that it cannot be swept under the rug.
Another thing I got from the interview is that it must have been so nice to have these magazines to pay writers good money for short stories. Getting the equivalent of six weeks' salary for a short story is absolutely amazing. And this mind you is not some type of government sponsorship or charitable grant it is all free enterprise -- the magazine made money giving writers so much for their short stories. Most of the best american fiction writers got started writing stories for magazines.
I do hope eventually something like this develops on the internet for the modern world.
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#4Vonnegut is brilliant. I have read almost everything that he has published and love finding new interviews like this. It is very important to remember the Dresden bombing which was a horrible war crime. Unfortunately, even up to this day there has been little self reflection on the Dresden bombing from official government sources. Same for the horrible and similarly unnecessary nuclear bombings of japan. So it is a g…
Vonnegut is really special.
I always like coming back to his Shape of Stories talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
Here's a longer one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGru_4z1Vc
It's interesting to see the difference in him with age. He seems to giggle more as an older man.
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#5Vonnegut is brilliant. I have read almost everything that he has published and love finding new interviews like this. It is very important to remember the Dresden bombing which was a horrible war crime. Unfortunately, even up to this day there has been little self reflection on the Dresden bombing from official government sources. Same for the horrible and similarly unnecessary nuclear bombings of japan. So it is a g…
I disagree. The german and japanese people were complicit.
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#6One thing I noticed is how little the interviewer spoke, and when he did, how short his questions were. Vonnegut does the majority of the talking while the interviewer just keeps laying down graceful transitions for him to expand upon. I'm part of a startup that's doing customer discovery, and this seems like a brilliant lesson in interviewing.
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#7One thing I noticed is how little the interviewer spoke, and when he did, how short his questions were. Vonnegut does the majority of the talking while the interviewer just keeps laying down graceful transitions for him to expand upon. I'm part of a startup that's doing customer discovery, and this seems like a brilliant lesson in interviewing.
Customer discovery?
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#8Vonnegut is brilliant. I have read almost everything that he has published and love finding new interviews like this. It is very important to remember the Dresden bombing which was a horrible war crime. Unfortunately, even up to this day there has been little self reflection on the Dresden bombing from official government sources. Same for the horrible and similarly unnecessary nuclear bombings of japan. So it is a g…
I recently ran across a review (from 2013) of Kurt Vonnegut's collected letters. He was working in public relations for General Electric (in the early 1950s, I gather) when he sold his first story to Collier's (a large-circulation magazine of the time). He wrote to his father that if he could sell five stories a year, he would make more than a year's pay at GE.
But he wrote in 1986, "the magazines had gone out of business, and I was suddenly in the position of having to write a whole book in order to get what used to be my fee for just one story."
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#9Vonnegut is brilliant. I have read almost everything that he has published and love finding new interviews like this. It is very important to remember the Dresden bombing which was a horrible war crime. Unfortunately, even up to this day there has been little self reflection on the Dresden bombing from official government sources. Same for the horrible and similarly unnecessary nuclear bombings of japan. So it is a g…
My favourite American author by a long shot. He never took himself too seriously which lent his works a sense of whimsy which I felt was very engaging. And then while you were engaged, he would sneak in something profound which shook you to the core. Quite a genius
Re: Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)
#10One thing I noticed is how little the interviewer spoke, and when he did, how short his questions were. Vonnegut does the majority of the talking while the interviewer just keeps laying down graceful transitions for him to expand upon. I'm part of a startup that's doing customer discovery, and this seems like a brilliant lesson in interviewing.
Customer discovery?
The process of uncovering a problem that is shared across a group of prospective customers. Usually done when you're trying to figure out if a product idea has any legs