Kurt Vonnegut - The Man and His Work :: Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut The Man and His WorkOne of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the said(prenominal) author is getting to know the author as a person. People dont identify with Gregor Samsa they identify with Kafka. Witness the have it away exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. Its similar that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.Kafkas work is a reaction to his mental anguish, which is kind of like Vonnegut, who has dealt with the bulk of his personal hardships throughout his career, but those hardships are not his sole motivation. And, while hes lead an interesting life, it doesnt seem nearly as dramatic or romantic as Hemingways. Plus, Vonnegut is much more overt than either of the two about his authorial involvement in his work.But what really forces Vonnegut to impose his straw man on the text is his complete inability to remove himself at all from the act of communication at the core of any work of literature. He revels in that involvement. He has mentioned his desire, what he implies is a universal need of all human beings, for whatever soul-deep fun. He uses this term as a synonym for greatness. And this has lead to some nasty comments in fiction workshops about stories that Ive written complaints of flat characters, cartoonish plotlines, non-directed criticism, overall pessimism and over-sentimentality for all things lowbrow. Needless to say, sometimes I feel, to varying degrees of pretension, like Kurt Vonnegut, juniorKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana to Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. and Edith Lieber Vonnegut. He had an older brother named Bernard and an older sister named Alice. Kurt, Sr. was a well-known architect in the city and Edith was the daughter of a wealthy local family. The Vonneguts had been in Indianapolis for several generations, and were well-off, respected members o f the community. Unlike the characters in most of his books, Vonneguts early childhood was super privileged. It wasnt until the stock market crash of 1929 that he experienced the type of life that he would go on to write about in the future the bosom Middle Class.This was devastating to his family.According to Understanding Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. the depression moved in and made itself at home in the Vonnegut household.