Remembering Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

Perhaps the most telling incident in Kurt Vonnegut’s life was one that never took place.

A decade ago, stories began spreading via the Internet about Vonnegut’s extraordinary commencement address at MIT. “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '98 - wear sunscreen,” was his memorable opening, and the talk only got zanier from there. He praised the benefits of flossing and dancing in your living room; told the graduates to “do one thing every day that scares you”; and he admonished them to “keep old love letters, but throw away old bank statements.”

The only problem was that the famous Vonnegut address never happened. The comments had been lifted from a newspaper column by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune. MIT had not even invited Vonnegut to give the commencement speech that year; instead offering its podium to Kofi Annan, whose talk (according to a MIT spokesperson) was "a lot longer and maybe not as clever."

But the fact that the public associated this delightful and touching example of truth-telling to the youth of America with Vonnegut tells you much about the aura surrounding the great writer. For millions of his readers, Vonnegut was the father-figure -- or as time passed, the grandfather-figure — they longed to have. He combined all the attributes  you wanted in a mentor: honesty, humor, wisdom, compassion and a dose of unpredictability that kept you on your toes.

We think of Vonnegut as one of the great figures of the 1960s counterculture, and his most famous works, such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle, date from that era. But Vonnegut wrote his first novel, Player Piano, while Harry Truman was in office. And though he peppered his books with futuristic ideas and concepts drawn from science fiction, Vonnegut spent most his career looking backward, especially at the events of World War II, which figure prominently in much of his writing.

Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool. You can follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tedgioia.

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