God Bless You, Uncle Kurt
From this corner, The passing of Kurt Vonnegut doesn't just feel like a literary loss of epic proportions. More than any other author, Vonnegut felt like a friend to me, or more accurately, like my favorite uncle: The one with the crotchety-but-compassionate voice of wry, offhanded wit that managed to expand your mind massively even while you laughed your ass off. Like his role model in letters Samuel Clemens , Vonnegut was a master at calling bullsh%t on the greedheads, warriors, paper-pushers, and hypocrites who all-too-frequently run this world. He did so without ever letting his own--or his readers'--foibles and frailties skate by, and he wasn't above interspersing intense insights with the occasional fart joke or flight of science fiction fancy. Kurt Vonnegut's work forever changed the way I look at the world. His writing provided a big source of bonding between my girlfriend (now wife) and me back in the day. In high school I'd read--and like any rational hum...