last summer in korea i did some flash animation training three days a week at an animation studio in seoul, and it required that i ride the subway an hour each way to get there. that gave me lots of time to read on the train, so i went to a large bookstore in downtown seoul and looked for something to read. they didn't have a huge selection of english language books there, but they did carry many of the classics. i stumbled by chance on slaughterhouse five by kurt vonnegut, a book i only knew because my friends in high school, who unlike me were in honors english, were required to read. i just remembered complaints about chapters they were supposed to have read or essays that were due soon. over the years since high school i've realized that many or all of the books they make you read then are actually required for a reason. a lot of the time they're actually really good. so i picked up slaughterhouse five and figured i'd give it a try.

i loved it. and from that day on i was hooked on kurt vonnegut. over the next six months or so i devoured book after book, whatever i could get my hands on. before i knew it i'd bought and read nearly everything he'd ever written.

in his excellent book timequake, he writes:

I am Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, whose headquarters in Amherst, New York, I have never seen. I succeeded the late author and biochemist Dr. Isaac Asimov in that functionless capacity. That we have an organization, a boring business, is to let others know that we are numerous. We would prefer to live our lives as Humanists and not talk about it, or think about it more than we think about breathing.

Humanists try to behave decently and honorably without any expectation of rewards or punishment in an afterlife. The creator of the Universe has been to us unknowable so far. We serve as well as we can the highest abstraction of which we have some understanding, which is our community.

I spoke at a Humanist Association memorial service for Dr. Asimov a few years back. I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." That was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of Humanists.

When I myself am dead, God forbid, I hope some wag will say about me, "He's up in Heaven now."

I was saddened this morning to find the news that the truly great author kurt vonnegut passed away yesterday. reading his work over the past year gave me a great deal of joy, delight, and comfort. i wish i could have personally thanked him for that, but unfortunately i missed that chance. there is one thing i can say for sure, "He's up in Heaven now."

tagged: author kurt vonnegut