Armageddon In Retrospect-- Kurt Vonnegut, Review

Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut is a posthumous collection of his work. It opens with a letter dated May 29, 1945 about his stay as a prisoner of war near Dresden. He decries what happened there.

The short stories in this collection are about war and conflict. There is nothing about peace. Many of them are set in the immediate aftermath of World War II. There is often a simple brutality to these stories. These stories are not so much about combat, but about occupation, prison camps, and the psychology of war.

In the story, Guns Before Butter, we find three American Prisoners of War discussing what food they will eat when they get home. They are so hungry, they can think of little else. In Just You and Me Sammy, we get a story about a collaborator in a German P.O.W. camp.

The stories have a biting humor to them and a degree of sadness. Kurt Vonnegut questions the motives of the firebombing of Dresden by the United States in World War II but not the overall motives for the war.

There are numerous simple drawings, almost doodles between the stories. Some are in color. One says "There should be a secretary of the future." I rather like it.

I think some of the writings were clearly meant to be published posthumously. The Commandant's Desk is an interesting story which questions patriotism and occupation. I think it would have generated quite a bit of vitriol if Kurt Vonnegut was still alive. But, he is dead so there is little that can be said.

In Kurt Vonnegut at Clowes Hall, April 27, 2007 he gives a speech. There are numerous one liners. I think it would have been better if it was heard. The speech feels like he is trying to emulate Mark Twain. In the second part of the speech, he mentions his son Mark Vonnegut is also a writer. Mark Vonnegut wrote the introduction to this book.

A number of stories are clear statements against war and political manipulation. Armageddon In Retrospect seems to make a statement about the cold war. Happy Birthday 1951 is about attempting to live free of war in a war zone.

I enjoyed reading this collection. It was very easy to read. The craft of the writing was beautiful. Not all of the stories will be for everyone, but at least a few of the stories will get you thinking about the meaning war, violence, and political manipulation.

I wrote this short review using folded in half 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch plain white paper. This is just about the size of a hardback book cover. The cover of Armageddon In Retrospect was my tablet. Like most library books it has a plastic cover over the dust jacket. I labeled each section of the paper with a circled number as I finished it. I wrote this on the train with a black ballpoint pen. I am typing it into the computer right now.

Thoughts for Today

I just got Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut. This is a posthumous collection of essays and stories. I really like the picture of Kurt Vonnegut sitting in a chair next to some flowers on the back cover. Unfortunately, I cannot find any public domain images of Kurt Vonnegut.

I also am looking at the April copy of Previews. Previews is the magazine of the comic book industry. It lists all the forthcoming comic books and various parapernalia coming out in May. Most comic book stores carry it to select what they will order for the coming months. It is worth looking at because it lists the bestselling comics, graphic novels, manga, toys, and similar things during the previous months.

Today has been a slow day at the library.

I put Goblin War by Jim C. Hines on hold. It is being billed as light humorous fantasy.

The Last Whale, a blog which is going to be turned into a book in October/November 2008 by Fremantle Press joined me as a freind on Facebook. I think the book is about efforts to end whaling in Australia. The blog has a lot of information on it about Japanese whaling and Greenpeace. http://thelastwhale.blogspot.com/ The Last Whale is also an Entrecard member a part of another social networking tool.

So far, I am finding the Facebook experience to be quite entertaining. It seems to be much more appropriate for me to use than Myspace.

Nikki Leigh asked if I wanted to join her Blog Tour network for authors. It looks kind of interesting. This is it: http://www.nikkileigh.com/blog_tours.htm . I am really not sure if I want to do this yet. I took a look through the different blogs. The majority of the books appear to be vanity presses, self-published material, and romances. I will take a pass at joining the network. It is still a very interesting idea, however.

I still have not done any guest blogger posts. Nor, have I done any interviews of other people. It would be an interesting experience. But, I have not tried it before. I might be open to it. If anyone wants to make a suggestion on the best way to do this, please let me know.