I have linked to brainpickings before, but this week, I have been reading it almost incessantly. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I have economics textbooks coming out of my ears.
In particular, I have been reading about what Maria Popova has to say about Kurt Vonnegut – and that is a heady combination indeed. And so today’s links are five posts about Vonnegut by Popova (and a bonus sixth one at the end!)
- “I think it’s important to live in a nice country rather than a powerful one. Power makes everybody crazy.”
An excerpt from a letter to his daughter.
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.. - “When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten.”
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A part of his daily routine, as outlined to his wife.
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.. - “I have just demonstrated to you that Shakespeare was as poor a storyteller as any Arapaho.”
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Hamlet from his viewpoint.
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.. - “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”
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This was the second piece that I read this week about Vonnegut, and the advice about how to write better is masterful.
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.. - “Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”
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And this was the first.
And because it is Friday, and because why not, a short poem by Vonnegut.
EconForEverybody 