Vonnegut

This morning it was wickedly cold, and instead of driving to Topeka and running a half marathon in zero degrees, I decided to indulge in a morning of reading. I think I made a good choice.

I read this Vonnegut book, which I picked up at a used bookstore in Flagstaff.

If Vonnegut had a blog (which he wouldn't have), it would be something like this, but not as good.

I read it in one sitting, which wasn't necessarily the best way to read it, so I will have to read it in other ways later on.

This made me laugh out loud:

I am going to sue the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, manufacturers of Pall Mall cigarettes, for a billion bucks! Starting when I was only twelve years old, I have never chain-smoked anything but unfiltered Pall Malls. And for many years now, right on the package, Brown and Williamson have promised to kill me.

But I am now eighty-two. Thanks a lot, you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.

The book is sometimes funny, and sometimes hopelessly depressing. I agree with Vonnegut about most things, so I will probably become hopeless at some point, as he did. Right now, I still think there is hope that the human race will start caring, and turn things around, but that is probably because I am naive and in denial.

Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself. Finally you just get too tired, and the news is too awful, and humor doesn't work anymore.

I hope I die before I get too tired.