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[projector clicking]

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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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♪

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[quacking]

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[clicking, whirring]

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[cat meowing]

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[Kurt Vonnegut]
Listen.

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♪

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[explosions, rapid gunfire]

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[water splashing]

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[wind blowing]

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[chirping]

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♪

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[man]
Kurt Vonnegut told me once...

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we don't understand
the first thing about time.

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Before Dresden happened,

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he said he was walking in
the forest,

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put his head against
the trunk of a tree,

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and he saw everything
that happened.

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[whooshing]

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♪

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[heart beating]

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[chirping]

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[man] He really saw it all
before it happened.

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And he wasn't kidding, and he
wasn't speaking metaphorically.

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This is how he experienced...
his life.

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♪

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[Charlie Gibson]
Kurt Vonnegut,

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the author who became an oracle
for the baby boomer generation,

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has died.

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In the end, it was a head injury
that killed Kurt Vonnegut.

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He was 84.

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[clicking]

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[static]

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And now, back in 1970 with
electronic television,

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our last item tonight...

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[clicking]

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♪

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[man]
...is an interview with
a very funny

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and a very remarkable
writer.

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Kurt Vonnegut.

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[man] I can't think of a single
other American author

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even of half Vonnegut's age,

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who has all of his books
in print.

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[Morley Safer]
Young people snap up his books

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as fast as they are re-issued.

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He is suddenly a star,
a luminary,

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a guru to youth.

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♪ Time has come today

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[man] One of the pre-imminent
novelists,

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and I would say,
philosophers of our time,

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Kurt Vonnegut.

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Do you really know
the answers to everything?

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I haven't been stumped
very often.

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What would you like to know?

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-Well, I-- I--
-[audience laughs]

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[Kurt Vonnegut] Now,
what are my book about?

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I have written again and again
about ordinary people

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who have tried to behave
decently

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in an indecent society.

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Vonnegut has been the most
profound influence in my life.

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I think he's
the funniest person alive.

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You know, that's why George Bush
hates the Arabs

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-is they invented Algebra.
-[laughter]

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[laughing]

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[Morley Safer]
What do you think it is
that does make you

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so highly respected
by young people?

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I'm screamingly funny.

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You know, I really am
in the books.

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I think so.

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He is both incredibly funny

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and also dark and brooding
at the same time.

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My books are jokes,
mosaics of jokes,

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about serious matters,
about death, about disease,

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about war and
that sort of thing.

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He made literature fun.
that was huge.

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♪ Now the time has come

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♪ Time

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♪ There's no place to run

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He'll be read to understand
the 20th century

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the way you have to read
Mark Twain

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to understand
the 19th century.

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[man] Vonnegut was a prisoner
of war in Germany

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and he's been getting ready to
write a book about it.

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Now he's done it.

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[woman] Kurt Vonnegut's
Slaughterhouse-Five

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was an instant hit;

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an anti war novel that was
searing, satirical,

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strange and darkly funny.

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[man] The protagonist of
Slaughterhouse-Five

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Billy Pilgrim,
bounces around

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from time to time
in his life.

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[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Listen...

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"Billy Pilgrim has come
unstuck in time.

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"Billy has gone to sleep
a senile widower

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"and awakened on
his wedding day.

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"He's walked through
a door in 1955

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"and come out another one
in 1941.

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"He's gone back through
that door

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"to find himself in 1963.

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"He's seen his birth and
his death may times, he says,

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"and pays random visits to
all the events in between,

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and the trips aren't
necessarily fun."

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[man] Unstuck in time is
Billy Pilgrim's status

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in the novel
Slaughterhouse-Five.

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But it's also
Kurt Vonnegut's status

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as the writer.

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I'd say you and I are about
equally unstuck in time.

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♪ Time

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♪

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♪ Time

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♪

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[indistinct dialog]

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[sighs]

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Can you believe we're really
gonna do this again?

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What is this, the fourth,
fifth time?

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[man]
I think the fifth.

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I know the first interview
was in 2014.

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Then, about a year later, was
the stripey-shirt interview.

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That's the one where I cry.

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[chuckles]

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Then there was, what,
the editing room interview?

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Then the light blue shirt,
I think, was 2017.

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Every time, I thought it was
gonna be the last time.

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I didn't even want to be in
this film in the first place.

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This was gonna be a conventional
author documentary

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with interviews with Kurt,

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his family,

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you know, biographers
and scholars,

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but not me.

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I don't even like documentaries
where the filmmaker

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has to put himself
in the film.

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I mean, who cares?

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But when you take almost
40 years to make a film,

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you owe some kind of
an explanation.

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Full disclosure.

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I was 23 when
I first approached him

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about making this film.

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And I remember he was
just about to turn 60,

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and I would refer to him as
the old man.

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And a couple months ago,

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I turned 60.

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How fucked up is that?

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It all started for me at
the same time as it started for

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almost every Vonnegut reader
I've met,

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which is in high school.

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In my case,
Sunny Hills High School,

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Fullerton, California.

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[Kurt Vonnegut]
How many of you
have had the teacher

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at any level of your education

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who made you more excited
to be alive,

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prouder to be alive,

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than you had previously believed
possible?

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Hold up your hands, please.

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There's a door behind which
my life would sort of change

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when I was 16 years old.

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♪

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[Kurt Vonnegut]
Please say the name of
that teacher

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to someone sitting
next to you, please.

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[Bob Weide] Valerie Stevenson
was the name of the teacher

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who first led me to Vonnegut.

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I assigned a book to
the students to read, um,

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Breakfast Of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut.

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This is the actual copy
that I, uh, read.

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Looking back now as an educator
of many years,

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I'm just sort of horrified
that I did it.

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It's a pretty edgy book,

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and iconoclastic.

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"To give an idea of
the maturity

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"of my illustrations for
this book,

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here is my picture of
an asshole:"

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Questioning authority--

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"...teachers of children in
the United States of America

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"wrote this date on blackboards
again and again,

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"and asked the children to...

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[Kurt Vonnegut]
"...memorize it with
pride and joy:

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"1492!

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"The teachers told the children
that this was when

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"their continent was discovered
by human beings.

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"Actually,
millions of human beings
were already living

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"full and imaginative lives
on the continent in 1492.

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"That was simply the year
in which sea pirates

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began to cheat and rob
and kill them."

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What high school kid isn't gonna
gobble this up and say,

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"I've found my author"?

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Nothing was the same after that.

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♪

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I jut became
somewhat obsessed.

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I just so connected to
his philosophies,

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and these serious issues being
handled in this comedic way.

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He was the guy
who made me think

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he thinks what I think
about the world.

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He came in at the beginning of
his senior year

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and proposed that he teach
a course in Vonnegut,

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and didn't seem to think that
that was an unusual thing.

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[chuckles] It was but
he set up his course

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very seriously,
Professor Weide,

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[Bob Weide]
I had probably a dozen students
in the class,

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and I graded them all
and gave assignments,

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and we all read his books.

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It was like having a very cool
Vonnegut reading club.

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But, um, that was
the beginning of it.

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♪

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[Kurt Vonnegut]
"If you find your life

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"tangled up with
somebody else's life

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"for no very logical reasons,
writes Bokonon,

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"that person may be
a member of your karass."

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Okay, here's the first one.

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This is the one that got me
into all this trouble.

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"June 29, 1982.

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"Dear Mr. Vonnegut,

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"Earlier this year,
I produced

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the above-named documentary
for PBS.

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"The Marx Brothers now have
their definitive documentary.

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"How about allowing
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.,
to have his?

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"If the documentary had your
authorization,

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I'm confident that
I could arrange for
financing immediately."

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I remind you,
I wrote that letter in 1982.

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So, I wrote him this letter,
and days turned into weeks,

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and I didn't hear back
and I thought,

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well, all right, that's that,
I gave it a shot.

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And then the day came
and there was a letter

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with that familiar handwriting
on it that you see in

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Breakfast Of Champions.

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I thought,
"Holy crap!"

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[stammers]
"It's him!"

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Ready?

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"Dear Robert Weide,

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"I've been out of town
for most of this summer,

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"and so read your friendly
letter of a month ago

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"only this morning.

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"It turns out I that

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"I already know something
of your work.

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"I saw
the Marx Brothers tribute
and liked it a lot.

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"Who wouldn't?

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"I am honored by your interest
in my work,

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"and I will talk to you some,
if you like,

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"about making some sort of film
based on it.

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"But there is sure no great
footage to start with.

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"Anything that is any good
of mine

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"is on a printed page,
not film.

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"Maybe you have some ideas
as to what to do about that.

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"I don't.

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"Anyway, give me a ring
if you like.

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Cheers--
Kurt Vonnegut."

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[Bob Weide]
Oh, I'm guessing this--

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[man]
Doesn't have a label on it.

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[Bob Weide]
Doesn't have a label?

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Where's the-- Oh.
So this is '94.

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-Ninety-four. Right.
-This is the later stuff.

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That's the more
recent stuff, '94.

253
00:11:34.476 --> 00:11:36.086
We want the old stuff.

254
00:11:36.217 --> 00:11:37.261
-Eighty-eight. That's it.
-Okay. We'll go with this one.

255
00:11:37.392 --> 00:11:38.393
That's should be it.
Yeah, that's it.

256
00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:41.048
[whirring]

257
00:11:43.050 --> 00:11:44.486
[keyboard clacking]

258
00:11:44.834 --> 00:11:45.879
[man]
Here we go.

259
00:11:46.314 --> 00:11:47.489
[man]
Drop it.

260
00:11:48.359 --> 00:11:49.796
So, we're okay
from there, Bob.

261
00:11:49.926 --> 00:11:51.972
[Bob Weide]
This is the very first stuff
we shot

262
00:11:52.102 --> 00:11:55.192
on the first day
in, uh, 1988.

263
00:11:56.803 --> 00:11:57.891
There's Kurt.

264
00:11:59.283 --> 00:12:00.763
[indistinct dialog]

265
00:12:00.894 --> 00:12:02.983
There he is, laughing and
smiling and chatting away.

266
00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:04.811
Like he's still here.

267
00:12:04.941 --> 00:12:07.204
-[laughing]
-We'd gotten together

268
00:12:07.335 --> 00:12:10.642
quite a few times, uh,
since that initial letter.

269
00:12:18.738 --> 00:12:21.436
[Bob Weide]
But that day sitting on
the train across from him

270
00:12:21.566 --> 00:12:22.829
with the camera next to me,

271
00:12:22.959 --> 00:12:24.613
finally hit me that...

272
00:12:24.744 --> 00:12:26.963
my God, this film is
really gonna happen.

273
00:12:28.530 --> 00:12:29.618
-Are we going?
-[Bob Weide] Yeah.

274
00:12:29.749 --> 00:12:31.838
Yeah. My books are about
loneliness,

275
00:12:31.968 --> 00:12:34.231
and about people being driven
out of the Garden of Eden

276
00:12:34.362 --> 00:12:35.580
one way or another.

277
00:12:36.059 --> 00:12:38.279
The world's full of
lonesome old people

278
00:12:38.409 --> 00:12:39.889
and when trouble comes,

279
00:12:40.020 --> 00:12:42.196
they call either the police
or fire department.

280
00:12:42.326 --> 00:12:44.938
[laughs]

281
00:12:45.068 --> 00:12:48.202
Lonesome? Have no friends?
Dial 911.

282
00:12:48.332 --> 00:12:51.379
Uh, and that's not much of
a solution.

283
00:12:52.162 --> 00:12:54.643
And I say get
an extended family.

284
00:12:56.166 --> 00:12:57.689
[Bob Weide] We were going to
Buffalo, New York.

285
00:12:58.212 --> 00:13:00.344
Kurt had
a speaking engagement there

286
00:13:00.475 --> 00:13:02.085
at a Unitarian church.

287
00:13:02.216 --> 00:13:04.218
Kurt was an agnostic,
certainly,

288
00:13:04.348 --> 00:13:06.089
and a humanist,

289
00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:09.136
but to the extent that he
affiliated with any religion,

290
00:13:09.266 --> 00:13:10.702
it was Unitarianism,

291
00:13:10.833 --> 00:13:14.010
which is really more
community based than God based.

292
00:13:14.706 --> 00:13:17.753
[shouting] Perfectly capable of
projecting in a room this size.

293
00:13:17.884 --> 00:13:20.974
[laughing]

294
00:13:21.104 --> 00:13:24.020
This was the first of many
public appearances I would film,

295
00:13:24.151 --> 00:13:28.242
but the audiences were always
out the door, in the aisle,

296
00:13:28.372 --> 00:13:30.548
and they always ate out of
the palm of his hand.

297
00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:32.899
We are taught to be
enthusiastic,

298
00:13:33.029 --> 00:13:35.553
to pretend we know
what the good news is.

299
00:13:36.337 --> 00:13:39.514
Just think, here you are
two years old,

300
00:13:39.644 --> 00:13:41.342
and mommy
and daddy come up to you,

301
00:13:41.472 --> 00:13:42.647
they're all excited.

302
00:13:42.778 --> 00:13:44.388
Guess what's goin' on?

303
00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:47.130
-[gibberish]
-[laughter]

304
00:13:48.784 --> 00:13:51.221
It's your birthday!

305
00:13:52.396 --> 00:13:54.877
-[gibberish]
-[laughter]

306
00:13:55.008 --> 00:13:57.532
[Kurt Vonnegut]
But-- [laughs]

307
00:13:57.662 --> 00:13:59.273
What the hell's a birthday?

308
00:13:59.403 --> 00:14:01.753
[laughter]

309
00:14:01.884 --> 00:14:03.973
Why should it be
such good news?

310
00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:09.152
And so we pretend
all these enthusiasms.

311
00:14:09.283 --> 00:14:10.893
Uh... you know,

312
00:14:11.024 --> 00:14:13.417
the Buffalo Bills made it to
the Super Bowl.

313
00:14:13.548 --> 00:14:16.768
-[gibberish]
-[laughter]

314
00:14:16.899 --> 00:14:18.901
[applause]

315
00:14:19.032 --> 00:14:20.642
We are so grateful any time

316
00:14:20.772 --> 00:14:22.818
anybody tells
the truth about life

317
00:14:22.949 --> 00:14:24.994
and the basic truth
about life is,

318
00:14:25.125 --> 00:14:27.518
we don't know what
the good news is

319
00:14:27.649 --> 00:14:29.390
and what the bad news is,

320
00:14:29.520 --> 00:14:31.392
and one reason we would like
to go to Heaven

321
00:14:31.522 --> 00:14:35.222
is to ask somebody,
"Hey, what was the good news,

322
00:14:35.352 --> 00:14:38.225
and what was the bad news?"
[laughs]

323
00:14:38.355 --> 00:14:40.270
[applause]

324
00:14:40.401 --> 00:14:42.055
-[man] Like this.
-[laughter]

325
00:14:42.185 --> 00:14:43.491
[indistinct chatter]

326
00:14:47.974 --> 00:14:49.410
[tape fast forwarding]

327
00:14:49.540 --> 00:14:51.978
[snapping]

328
00:14:52.108 --> 00:14:54.676
[Bob Weide]
I was always filming on and off
with him over the years,

329
00:14:54.806 --> 00:14:57.070
just thinking, you know,
I'll figure this out later.

330
00:14:58.027 --> 00:14:59.159
[Bob Weide]
Now we're havin' fun.

331
00:14:59.289 --> 00:15:00.160
[chuckling]

332
00:15:00.290 --> 00:15:01.422
[snapping]

333
00:15:01.901 --> 00:15:04.860
[Bob Weide] In 1994,
we went to Indianapolis.

334
00:15:04.991 --> 00:15:06.253
It would be terrible if

335
00:15:06.383 --> 00:15:08.690
I don't even recognize
the house anymore.

336
00:15:09.604 --> 00:15:12.520
That's here Mr. Herman lived,
he was very mean.

337
00:15:13.086 --> 00:15:16.524
Oh, this is--
this is it.

338
00:15:16.654 --> 00:15:19.048
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"I took him to the
Indianapolis of my childhood.

339
00:15:20.615 --> 00:15:23.705
"I got out of my rented car,
I did it noisily.

340
00:15:24.706 --> 00:15:26.447
I slammed the door firmly.

341
00:15:27.056 --> 00:15:28.057
[snapping]

342
00:15:31.234 --> 00:15:34.977
Oh, yeah, that's Kurt Vonnegut
and that's Edith Vonnegut.

343
00:15:35.108 --> 00:15:37.153
And, of course, the house
was built in 1923

344
00:15:37.284 --> 00:15:38.415
when I was
one year old.

345
00:15:38.546 --> 00:15:41.592
♪

346
00:15:44.465 --> 00:15:46.423
Yeah. This is my room
all right.

347
00:15:47.642 --> 00:15:49.644
[Bob Weide]
Kurt, in your writing,

348
00:15:49.774 --> 00:15:52.299
there's much talk of
extended family.

349
00:15:52.429 --> 00:15:53.735
Where does this notion
come from?

350
00:15:53.865 --> 00:15:55.345
Well, I used to have one.

351
00:15:55.476 --> 00:15:58.522
♪

352
00:15:59.262 --> 00:16:01.134
There must have been
30 Vonneguts,

353
00:16:01.264 --> 00:16:04.050
all prosperous.
in the phone book here.

354
00:16:05.094 --> 00:16:08.489
[man] Kurt always said he
trusted his writing best

355
00:16:08.619 --> 00:16:11.622
when he sounded like a person
from Indianapolis, Indiana,

356
00:16:11.753 --> 00:16:13.711
which is what he was.

357
00:16:14.321 --> 00:16:16.671
His father and grandfather
were architects.

358
00:16:16.801 --> 00:16:19.717
Other relatives were, uh,
symphony conductors,

359
00:16:19.848 --> 00:16:21.981
and, uh, heads of libraries

360
00:16:22.111 --> 00:16:25.375
who had basically created
Indianapolis.

361
00:16:26.246 --> 00:16:28.335
And it's got Vonnegut
written all over it.

362
00:16:30.293 --> 00:16:32.208
[Kurt Vonnegut]
The family was built around

363
00:16:32.339 --> 00:16:33.775
the Vonnegut Hardware Company,

364
00:16:33.905 --> 00:16:36.430
which was a very successful
hardware store chain.

365
00:16:36.908 --> 00:16:41.130
One of my ancestors invented
the panic bar on doors.

366
00:16:41.261 --> 00:16:43.176
But if there is a fire,

367
00:16:43.306 --> 00:16:45.308
and you are jammed up
against the door,

368
00:16:45.439 --> 00:16:47.876
by a crowd-- Ahhh.

369
00:16:48.007 --> 00:16:49.138
[grunts]

370
00:16:49.269 --> 00:16:50.313
Flies open.

371
00:16:50.792 --> 00:16:53.099
And it must have saved
a hell of a lot of lives.

372
00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:54.709
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Vonnegut was growing up

373
00:16:54.839 --> 00:16:56.537
in this beautiful house

374
00:16:56.667 --> 00:16:59.235
designed by his
architect father.

375
00:17:00.019 --> 00:17:02.673
People have very kindly
left this here all this time,

376
00:17:02.804 --> 00:17:04.936
and that's me,
my hand was pressed here,

377
00:17:05.067 --> 00:17:07.156
including a little bit of
my sweater.

378
00:17:07.591 --> 00:17:09.506
My sister, Alice,

379
00:17:09.637 --> 00:17:12.074
who's no longer among
the living.

380
00:17:12.205 --> 00:17:15.904
And this is my brother, Bernard,
who is nearly 80;

381
00:17:16.035 --> 00:17:18.820
atmospheric physicist who knows
more about tornadoes

382
00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:20.648
than anybody on Earth.

383
00:17:20.778 --> 00:17:22.041
And this is my mother.

384
00:17:24.260 --> 00:17:26.567
And this is my father.

385
00:17:28.134 --> 00:17:29.744
Doesn't make me sad at all,

386
00:17:29.874 --> 00:17:31.528
'cause it was such a happy time

387
00:17:31.659 --> 00:17:33.530
in the lives of
all these people.

388
00:17:35.619 --> 00:17:37.099
[Bob Weide] After spending
so much time with Kurt,

389
00:17:37.230 --> 00:17:40.102
I got fairly close with
his brother, Bernie.

390
00:17:40.233 --> 00:17:42.235
-[beep]
-Hi, uh, Bob,

391
00:17:42.365 --> 00:17:46.456
uh, this is
Bernie Vonnegut calling.

392
00:17:46.587 --> 00:17:47.979
In a closet,

393
00:17:48.110 --> 00:17:51.983
he had some old
16mm home movies

394
00:17:52.114 --> 00:17:53.550
of the Vonnegut family.

395
00:17:53.681 --> 00:17:55.465
[Bernie]
I found the film,

396
00:17:55.596 --> 00:17:57.511
or at least,
uh, some of it.

397
00:17:57.641 --> 00:18:01.254
and I, uh, hope, uh,
you received it.

398
00:18:01.558 --> 00:18:03.604
[Bob Weide] I took it down to
a post production facility

399
00:18:03.734 --> 00:18:04.996
had the stuff cleaned,

400
00:18:05.127 --> 00:18:07.042
and put it up to transfer it
to video tape.

401
00:18:07.521 --> 00:18:09.305
I couldn't believe
what I was seeing.

402
00:18:09.566 --> 00:18:11.090
[projector whirring]

403
00:18:11.220 --> 00:18:14.223
♪

404
00:18:16.095 --> 00:18:17.966
[Bob Weide] It was amazing,
crystal clear,

405
00:18:18.097 --> 00:18:19.533
black and white
home movies.

406
00:18:20.621 --> 00:18:23.319
The family dynamic
is on full display.

407
00:18:23.450 --> 00:18:25.191
Kurt's the baby brother,
of course,

408
00:18:25.321 --> 00:18:27.323
always demanding attention.

409
00:18:27.758 --> 00:18:31.110
He's either laughing or crying
or running around.

410
00:18:31.501 --> 00:18:34.287
And, uh...
a lot of dancing.

411
00:18:34.809 --> 00:18:37.246
[Kurt Vonnegut]
The youngest member
of each family

412
00:18:37.377 --> 00:18:39.030
is the family comedian,

413
00:18:39.422 --> 00:18:41.381
'cause it's the only way
the youngest one

414
00:18:41.511 --> 00:18:43.034
can get attention.

415
00:18:43.165 --> 00:18:45.863
And so I would make a joke,
and everybody would look,

416
00:18:45.994 --> 00:18:47.561
"Did he say that?"
you know,

417
00:18:47.691 --> 00:18:49.128
and did he mean it
and all that,

418
00:18:49.258 --> 00:18:51.391
and so I became
specialized that way.

419
00:18:52.174 --> 00:18:53.828
[Bob Weide] Bernard is
nine years older.

420
00:18:53.958 --> 00:18:55.482
It's funny,
when I knew Bernie,

421
00:18:55.612 --> 00:18:59.007
he was this rather serious,
retired academic,

422
00:18:59.138 --> 00:19:01.879
who was a world renowned
atmospheric scientist,

423
00:19:02.358 --> 00:19:03.838
uh, and rather stiff
on camera.

424
00:19:03.968 --> 00:19:07.146
This is an instant of which
I have no memory,

425
00:19:07.276 --> 00:19:11.585
but, uh, I was, uh,
very young.

426
00:19:12.281 --> 00:19:14.109
But here he is,
hamming it up,

427
00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:16.938
and, uh, quite
the snappy dresser.

428
00:19:17.591 --> 00:19:21.203
To Vonnegut readers,
his sister, Alice-- Allie--

429
00:19:21.334 --> 00:19:23.249
is almost a mythical figure,

430
00:19:23.379 --> 00:19:25.033
very important
in Kurt's life.

431
00:19:25.642 --> 00:19:28.645
He always writes about
how funny she is,

432
00:19:28.776 --> 00:19:30.038
and you see it.

433
00:19:30.647 --> 00:19:32.214
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Same jokes amused us both.

434
00:19:32.736 --> 00:19:34.912
So maybe she taught me
what was funny.

435
00:19:35.043 --> 00:19:38.089
♪

436
00:19:39.308 --> 00:19:41.005
This is my sister,
Allie's, room.

437
00:19:41.267 --> 00:19:44.226
The sleeping porch there
where, with her permission,

438
00:19:44.357 --> 00:19:48.317
we could sleep out on hot nights
in the summer time.

439
00:19:49.536 --> 00:19:53.017
She grew up to be six feet tall,
was a very beautiful blonde...

440
00:19:54.018 --> 00:19:56.151
uh, with terrible posture,

441
00:19:56.282 --> 00:19:58.936
because she was so embarrassed
about being tall.

442
00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.246
Yeah, and I really miss her
as we were extremely close.

443
00:20:06.509 --> 00:20:07.684
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Allie Vonnegut was

444
00:20:07.815 --> 00:20:10.034
a constant presence
in his life.

445
00:20:11.297 --> 00:20:13.516
She substituted for
Kurt's mother.

446
00:20:13.647 --> 00:20:16.606
I think she gave him the love
and the nurturing

447
00:20:16.737 --> 00:20:18.347
that he was not given.

448
00:20:19.870 --> 00:20:22.699
Kurt's mother was
society bred,

449
00:20:22.830 --> 00:20:24.440
as his mother was distant,

450
00:20:24.571 --> 00:20:28.139
and really had her own
mental problems to deal with.

451
00:20:29.053 --> 00:20:32.448
His father was not the warmest,
fuzziest guy in the world.

452
00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:33.710
He was a good father,

453
00:20:33.841 --> 00:20:35.973
but he was, uh,
a serious architect.

454
00:20:38.019 --> 00:20:40.543
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I wish my parents had been
happier than they were.

455
00:20:41.196 --> 00:20:44.591
And I think it was largely my
mother's unhappiness

456
00:20:44.721 --> 00:20:48.812
that, uh, made the depression
harder for all of us.

457
00:20:48.943 --> 00:20:51.989
♪

458
00:20:58.039 --> 00:20:59.214
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
He grows up in

459
00:20:59.345 --> 00:21:01.651
a very traditional,
supportive family.

460
00:21:01.782 --> 00:21:04.263
He has a happy childhood.

461
00:21:04.393 --> 00:21:06.221
Uh, but then,

462
00:21:06.352 --> 00:21:08.745
all the money
for it disappears

463
00:21:08.876 --> 00:21:10.269
during the Great Depression.

464
00:21:10.399 --> 00:21:13.228
♪

465
00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:15.361
Now, of course,
everybody in Indianapolis

466
00:21:15.491 --> 00:21:17.537
was quite depressed.

467
00:21:17.667 --> 00:21:19.365
Uh, nothing was being built,

468
00:21:19.495 --> 00:21:22.281
and so father finally
had to come home.

469
00:21:23.673 --> 00:21:25.632
But there was virtually
no work.

470
00:21:27.634 --> 00:21:29.462
Oh, I think he was
deeply embarrassed,

471
00:21:29.592 --> 00:21:32.203
and mother always felt that
there must be some way

472
00:21:32.334 --> 00:21:34.380
he could go out there
and get some money.

473
00:21:35.685 --> 00:21:38.775
Yeah. "Get out of her and
get me some money too.

474
00:21:38.906 --> 00:21:41.430
Why don't you do right
like some other men do?"

475
00:21:42.605 --> 00:21:44.781
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
They lost their family home,

476
00:21:44.912 --> 00:21:47.436
and had to go into
a rental property.

477
00:21:48.219 --> 00:21:50.526
[Kurt Vonnegut]
We moved out of here
when I was ten years old,

478
00:21:50.657 --> 00:21:52.006
and I really didn't give a damn.

479
00:21:52.136 --> 00:21:54.704
[chuckles]

480
00:21:54.835 --> 00:21:57.577
You know, I thought life was
pretty interesting wherever--

481
00:21:57.707 --> 00:21:59.840
wherever we were
gonna live next.

482
00:22:00.754 --> 00:22:02.843
Young Kurt was
taken out of, uh,

483
00:22:02.973 --> 00:22:04.932
private school,
put into public schools,

484
00:22:05.062 --> 00:22:06.673
and it took him out of
the bubble.

485
00:22:06.803 --> 00:22:08.239
He read comic books,

486
00:22:08.370 --> 00:22:10.198
he was immersed in
popular culture,

487
00:22:10.329 --> 00:22:12.331
and what it was like
to be a person

488
00:22:12.461 --> 00:22:14.507
not living in
a world of privilege.

489
00:22:15.159 --> 00:22:16.465
[Kurt Vonnegut]
When I was a child,

490
00:22:16.596 --> 00:22:18.772
and there were many
serious things going on,

491
00:22:18.902 --> 00:22:21.601
such as the Great Depression
and all that,

492
00:22:21.731 --> 00:22:24.255
it was Laurel and Hardy
who gave me permission

493
00:22:24.386 --> 00:22:26.954
not to take life seriously.

494
00:22:27.084 --> 00:22:30.305
And it turned out that
it as okay to, uh,

495
00:22:30.436 --> 00:22:32.089
laugh your head off.

496
00:22:32.220 --> 00:22:34.265
[laughing]

497
00:22:35.702 --> 00:22:37.617
Life was a very serious
business,

498
00:22:37.747 --> 00:22:40.707
and it inspired me to try
and write funny books,

499
00:22:40.837 --> 00:22:43.405
that this was a good thing to do
with a life is to be funny.

500
00:22:43.536 --> 00:22:46.582
♪

501
00:22:47.975 --> 00:22:50.020
[Gregory Sumner]
One of the luckiest breaks
for Kurt Vonnegut

502
00:22:50.151 --> 00:22:51.892
is that he went to
Shortridge High School,

503
00:22:52.022 --> 00:22:54.024
one of the finest high schools
in the country.

504
00:22:54.895 --> 00:22:56.636
[Kurt Vonnegut] It was an
extraordinary high school,

505
00:22:56.766 --> 00:22:59.813
it was better than any
university I ever went to.

506
00:23:00.335 --> 00:23:02.772
This is where I got my
foundation in chemistry,

507
00:23:02.903 --> 00:23:03.947
in ancient history,

508
00:23:04.078 --> 00:23:05.819
and this place had
a daily paper,

509
00:23:05.949 --> 00:23:06.863
The Shortridge Echo.

510
00:23:06.994 --> 00:23:08.561
My parents worked on it,

511
00:23:08.691 --> 00:23:11.477
so that's how long Shortridge
had had a daily newspaper.

512
00:23:11.607 --> 00:23:13.653
I learned to write for peers,

513
00:23:13.783 --> 00:23:15.481
as I would write something
in the paper,

514
00:23:15.611 --> 00:23:18.048
and the next day,
my fellow students would

515
00:23:18.179 --> 00:23:20.137
tell me what the hell
they thought about it.

516
00:23:20.268 --> 00:23:22.575
It was a swell experience
for me,

517
00:23:22.705 --> 00:23:26.143
because I learned to write
journalistic style;

518
00:23:26.274 --> 00:23:28.537
which was to be clear
and don't bluff,

519
00:23:28.668 --> 00:23:32.062
and also to say
as much as possible

520
00:23:32.193 --> 00:23:33.934
as quickly as possible.

521
00:23:34.064 --> 00:23:36.153
And my books are
essentially that way.

522
00:23:36.284 --> 00:23:38.678
I give away the big secrets in
the first page

523
00:23:38.808 --> 00:23:41.028
and tell people
what's going to happen.

524
00:23:42.595 --> 00:23:43.596
[snapping]

525
00:23:46.642 --> 00:23:49.993
Yeah, I suppose I knew about
one person in ten

526
00:23:50.124 --> 00:23:52.431
on this list of people
who died--

527
00:23:52.561 --> 00:23:56.391
classmates who died in, uh,
Second World War.

528
00:23:57.174 --> 00:23:59.829
Particularly,
close friend of mine was

529
00:23:59.960 --> 00:24:01.918
Hal Plummer,

530
00:24:02.049 --> 00:24:03.833
and he was just on
a training mission,

531
00:24:03.964 --> 00:24:06.706
he cracked up a plane
in San Francisco.

532
00:24:07.228 --> 00:24:08.838
Art Gipe.

533
00:24:08.969 --> 00:24:11.145
Yeah, he died of
spinal meningitis

534
00:24:11.275 --> 00:24:13.277
during basic training.
[laughs]

535
00:24:13.408 --> 00:24:17.673
Had one fraternity brother
at Cornell...

536
00:24:17.804 --> 00:24:22.156
uh, who was so excited upon
hearing that

537
00:24:22.286 --> 00:24:24.419
Pearl Harbor
had been bombed,

538
00:24:24.550 --> 00:24:25.986
he was taking a bath
and he somehow

539
00:24:26.116 --> 00:24:28.510
banged his head on a faucet
and died.

540
00:24:28.641 --> 00:24:31.078
[laughing]

541
00:24:32.688 --> 00:24:35.691
♪ [jazz]

542
00:24:41.567 --> 00:24:43.569
[indistinct chatter]

543
00:24:45.745 --> 00:24:48.487
[Kurt Vonnegut] Marge Murray
was my prom date,

544
00:24:48.835 --> 00:24:50.140
senior prom date.

545
00:24:50.271 --> 00:24:51.794
Wonderful dancer.

546
00:24:51.925 --> 00:24:53.753
Had blond, curly hair, too.

547
00:24:55.145 --> 00:24:56.625
[Bob Weide]
It was really interesting

548
00:24:56.756 --> 00:24:58.801
seeing Kurt interact with his
high school classmates.

549
00:24:58.932 --> 00:25:01.151
Many of them, I assume,
hadn't seen each other

550
00:25:01.282 --> 00:25:02.544
since they were 18,

551
00:25:02.936 --> 00:25:05.591
which I'm sure, for them,
didn't seem that long ago.

552
00:25:05.721 --> 00:25:08.202
[man] Yeah, well, my girlfriend
had me doin' this.

553
00:25:08.332 --> 00:25:09.508
You're too old to have
a girlfriend,

554
00:25:09.638 --> 00:25:10.857
don't bullshit me.

555
00:25:10.987 --> 00:25:12.423
[laughing]

556
00:25:12.554 --> 00:25:14.382
[Bob Weide]
This was the class of 1940.

557
00:25:14.513 --> 00:25:17.080
They had no idea what was
waiting just around the corner.

558
00:25:25.219 --> 00:25:26.829
I didn't know what the hell
they were talking about.

559
00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:27.917
You went through the ringer,
for cryin' out loud.

560
00:25:28.048 --> 00:25:29.049
Yeah.
What happened to you?

561
00:25:34.054 --> 00:25:36.709
I was in North Africa and they
sent me to China, Burma, India,

562
00:25:37.100 --> 00:25:38.711
and that's where it happened.

563
00:25:38.841 --> 00:25:40.408
-They really used you,
didn't they?
-They used me. Yeah.

564
00:25:43.063 --> 00:25:44.020
No, I couldn't

565
00:25:44.151 --> 00:25:45.282
-They have--
-I know.

566
00:25:45.413 --> 00:25:47.023
-They have no right to do that.
-I know.

567
00:25:51.506 --> 00:25:52.899
You're a real good guy,
I really like you.

568
00:25:53.029 --> 00:25:54.901
-Mustard gas? Where?
-Yeah. Well, we were...

569
00:25:55.031 --> 00:25:57.556
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Second World War
was fought by children.

570
00:25:58.208 --> 00:26:00.167
The movies give
the impression that

571
00:26:00.297 --> 00:26:02.909
war is fought by
middle-aged men.

572
00:26:03.605 --> 00:26:05.999
No, it's startling
how young soldiers are.

573
00:26:06.608 --> 00:26:08.262
[school bell rings]

574
00:26:09.959 --> 00:26:11.961
[explosions]

575
00:26:16.836 --> 00:26:18.881
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Anybody who's been in
the ground forces

576
00:26:19.012 --> 00:26:21.797
and been on the front lines...

577
00:26:21.928 --> 00:26:22.885
hates war.

578
00:26:23.016 --> 00:26:24.931
[explosions, rockets firing]

579
00:26:25.061 --> 00:26:26.933
[Kurt Vonnegut]
And I was involved in

580
00:26:27.063 --> 00:26:28.848
the biggest defeat of
American arms,

581
00:26:28.978 --> 00:26:31.024
which was the
Battle of the Bulge

582
00:26:32.591 --> 00:26:35.332
'Cause the Germans caught us
totally by surprise.

583
00:26:35.463 --> 00:26:36.899
They were all dressed in white,

584
00:26:37.030 --> 00:26:39.119
we were dressed in uniforms
the color of dog shit,

585
00:26:39.249 --> 00:26:40.947
and there was snow
all over the place.

586
00:26:41.077 --> 00:26:42.383
[laughter]

587
00:26:44.385 --> 00:26:47.214
And my whole division got
captured or wiped out.

588
00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:50.217
And after it was over,

589
00:26:50.347 --> 00:26:53.133
as far as you could see
going down the road,

590
00:26:53.263 --> 00:26:55.744
were American kids with
their hands up like this,

591
00:26:55.875 --> 00:26:58.094
'cause if you
took your hands down,
you'd get shot.

592
00:26:58.225 --> 00:27:01.271
♪

593
00:27:02.925 --> 00:27:04.971
[heartbeat]

594
00:27:05.406 --> 00:27:08.017
[Kurt Vonnegut]
What there is to see
is so nauseating

595
00:27:08.148 --> 00:27:11.151
so horrifying...

596
00:27:11.281 --> 00:27:13.370
you don't want to
hear about it anymore,

597
00:27:13.501 --> 00:27:15.242
you don't want to
talk about it.

598
00:27:18.941 --> 00:27:21.552
[train clacking]

599
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:27.036
[bell clanging]

600
00:27:27.167 --> 00:27:28.734
[train whistle blows]

601
00:27:33.782 --> 00:27:36.306
[Kurt Vonnegut]
So all the captured Americans,
prisoners of war,

602
00:27:36.437 --> 00:27:37.917
were loaded on those trains

603
00:27:38.047 --> 00:27:40.267
and taken to the interior
of Germany.

604
00:27:49.363 --> 00:27:53.019
♪

605
00:27:56.370 --> 00:27:58.024
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"The skyline was intricate

606
00:27:58.154 --> 00:28:01.288
"and voluptuous and
enchanted and absurd.

607
00:28:01.418 --> 00:28:03.464
"It looked like a Sunday school
picture of Heaven

608
00:28:03.594 --> 00:28:05.684
"to Billy Pilgrim.

609
00:28:05.814 --> 00:28:09.513
"Somebody behind him
in the box car said Oz.

610
00:28:09.644 --> 00:28:12.473
"That was I.
That was me.

611
00:28:12.603 --> 00:28:15.868
The only other city I'd seen
was Indianapolis, Indiana."

612
00:28:17.608 --> 00:28:20.655
♪

613
00:28:20.786 --> 00:28:23.745
"The slaughterhouse wasn't
a busy place anymore.

614
00:28:23.876 --> 00:28:26.226
"The prisoners were taken to
the fifth building

615
00:28:26.356 --> 00:28:28.402
"inside the gate.

616
00:28:28.532 --> 00:28:30.578
"It had been built as
a shelter for pigs

617
00:28:30.709 --> 00:28:32.972
"about to be butchered.

618
00:28:33.102 --> 00:28:35.670
"Now it was going to serve as
a home away from home

619
00:28:35.801 --> 00:28:38.020
"for 100 American
prisoners of war.

620
00:28:40.022 --> 00:28:42.155
"The address was this:

621
00:28:42.285 --> 00:28:43.939
schlachthaus funf."

622
00:28:45.898 --> 00:28:48.509
[Bob Weide]
Uh, how was your division
put to work in Dresden

623
00:28:48.639 --> 00:28:49.945
when you first got there?

624
00:28:50.859 --> 00:28:52.165
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Privates, my division,

625
00:28:52.295 --> 00:28:55.255
uh, were put to work
in small factories.

626
00:28:56.865 --> 00:29:00.042
The Germans all explained to us
this is an old city,

627
00:29:00.869 --> 00:29:03.263
'cause it had a very long
art history,

628
00:29:03.393 --> 00:29:05.439
and many people
all over the world

629
00:29:05.569 --> 00:29:07.484
were sentimental
about Dresden,

630
00:29:08.398 --> 00:29:10.792
and so they never
expected to get hit.

631
00:29:12.794 --> 00:29:14.796
[engines roaring]

632
00:29:19.714 --> 00:29:21.760
[siren blaring]

633
00:29:27.896 --> 00:29:30.681
[engines roaring]

634
00:29:30.812 --> 00:29:32.945
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Billy Pilgrim was down in
a meat locker

635
00:29:33.075 --> 00:29:35.469
"on the night that Dresden
was destroyed.

636
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:38.037
[explosions]

637
00:29:43.042 --> 00:29:45.784
"There were sounds like
giant footsteps above.

638
00:29:48.656 --> 00:29:52.225
"Those were sticks of
high explosive bombs.

639
00:29:52.355 --> 00:29:54.662
The giants
walked and walked."

640
00:29:54.793 --> 00:29:56.795
[heartbeat]

641
00:30:08.241 --> 00:30:10.156
[wind blowing]

642
00:30:10.286 --> 00:30:13.072
[metal clanking]

643
00:30:13.507 --> 00:30:14.725
[Kurt Vonnegut]
We all came out

644
00:30:14.856 --> 00:30:16.727
and we all looked around
at the same time.

645
00:30:20.557 --> 00:30:22.429
And the city was gone.

646
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:25.214
♪

647
00:30:31.394 --> 00:30:33.396
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Dresden was like
the moon now,

648
00:30:33.527 --> 00:30:34.876
"nothing but minerals.

649
00:30:35.007 --> 00:30:36.443
"The stones were hot.

650
00:30:38.314 --> 00:30:40.795
"Everybody else in
the neighborhood was dead.

651
00:30:42.101 --> 00:30:43.406
"So it goes.

652
00:30:44.320 --> 00:30:46.540
[Kurt Vonnegut]
What really destroyed the city

653
00:30:46.670 --> 00:30:49.282
were the thousands of
very small fire bombs,

654
00:30:49.412 --> 00:30:51.284
and started so many fires

655
00:30:51.414 --> 00:30:53.764
they couldn't begin to
deal with them all.

656
00:30:54.678 --> 00:30:57.725
It created one big column
of flame,

657
00:30:57.856 --> 00:31:00.467
uh, roughly the same diameter
as the city.

658
00:31:00.597 --> 00:31:02.817
It generated tornadoes,

659
00:31:02.948 --> 00:31:05.472
and consumed
everything organic.

660
00:31:06.865 --> 00:31:09.780
Only prisoners of war
were allowed in there

661
00:31:09.911 --> 00:31:11.957
to, uh, start digging out
bodies,

662
00:31:12.087 --> 00:31:13.349
and that's what we did.

663
00:31:13.480 --> 00:31:16.526
♪

664
00:31:27.146 --> 00:31:31.237
I know what it's like to carry
the bodies of civilians

665
00:31:31.367 --> 00:31:33.892
while the Germans
watched silently.

666
00:31:36.242 --> 00:31:39.375
I didn't feel, uh,
particularly badly

667
00:31:39.506 --> 00:31:40.637
when I did it.

668
00:31:44.424 --> 00:31:46.121
I didn't feel much of anything.

669
00:31:52.693 --> 00:31:55.348
[train clacking]

670
00:31:59.874 --> 00:32:01.789
[Bob Weide] I think in the past
you've sort of downplayed

671
00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:05.836
that being like a major, pivotal
moment of your life.

672
00:32:05.967 --> 00:32:07.621
What-- What is
the truth as to

673
00:32:07.751 --> 00:32:09.144
living through
something like that?

674
00:32:10.189 --> 00:32:12.060
It was a great adventure
of my life

675
00:32:12.191 --> 00:32:13.757
and certainly something
to talk about.

676
00:32:13.888 --> 00:32:15.542
Indeed, I was there.

677
00:32:16.195 --> 00:32:18.284
The neighborhood dogs,
when I grew up,

678
00:32:18.414 --> 00:32:21.069
uh, had far greater--
[laughs]

679
00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:24.812
influence on what I am today
than-- than, uh,

680
00:32:24.943 --> 00:32:27.162
the mere firebombing
of Dresden.

681
00:32:28.207 --> 00:32:30.731
[Edie Vonnegut]
I think Kurt--
Yeah, he's full of it.

682
00:32:30.861 --> 00:32:33.777
He's seen too much,
you know, and he's--

683
00:32:33.908 --> 00:32:35.214
just living through
Dresden,

684
00:32:35.344 --> 00:32:37.912
and his sister dying
and all his friends,

685
00:32:38.043 --> 00:32:40.959
and seen too much anyway.

686
00:32:42.221 --> 00:32:44.440
No, I don't--
Did he really say that?

687
00:32:44.571 --> 00:32:48.183
You should see when he laughs at
the most inappropriate times,

688
00:32:48.314 --> 00:32:50.403
but it-- it seems right
somehow.

689
00:32:50.794 --> 00:32:52.753
Definitely his way of
sublimating.

690
00:32:58.106 --> 00:32:59.325
What, "so it goes?"

691
00:32:59.455 --> 00:33:00.543
[Bob Weide] Yeah,
let's talk about that.

692
00:33:02.241 --> 00:33:03.329
[typewriter clacking]

693
00:33:03.459 --> 00:33:04.852
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"On an average,

694
00:33:04.983 --> 00:33:08.247
"324,000 new babies
are born into the world

695
00:33:08.377 --> 00:33:09.422
"every day.

696
00:33:09.552 --> 00:33:11.293
"10,000 persons,
on an average,

697
00:33:11.424 --> 00:33:12.555
will have starved
to death

698
00:33:12.686 --> 00:33:14.340
or died from
malnutrition."

699
00:33:14.470 --> 00:33:15.950
-[bell dings]
-"So it goes.

700
00:33:16.081 --> 00:33:17.952
"They were all being killed
with their families.

701
00:33:18.083 --> 00:33:20.041
"So it goes.
He tore himself to pieces...

702
00:33:20.172 --> 00:33:21.825
"...throwing up
and throwing up.

703
00:33:21.956 --> 00:33:23.305
"So it goes.
...and every day,

704
00:33:23.436 --> 00:33:25.481
"my government gives me
a count of corpses...

705
00:33:25.612 --> 00:33:27.614
"So it goes.
...tried and shot...

706
00:33:27.744 --> 00:33:29.398
"So it goes.
...the champagne was dead,

707
00:33:29.529 --> 00:33:30.443
"So it goes.
So it goes.

708
00:33:30.573 --> 00:33:31.661
"So it goes.

709
00:33:32.271 --> 00:33:33.533
So it goes."

710
00:33:34.142 --> 00:33:37.885
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
It's intoned 100 times
in the novel.

711
00:33:38.016 --> 00:33:40.279
Vonnegut did it to
make it iconic.

712
00:33:40.409 --> 00:33:43.760
Death is so common,
so inevitable,

713
00:33:43.891 --> 00:33:47.590
we can't go to pieces
every time there's a death

714
00:33:47.721 --> 00:33:50.419
or we ourselves will just be
incapable of living.

715
00:33:50.550 --> 00:33:53.422
So you have to just sort of
shrug your shoulders

716
00:33:53.553 --> 00:33:55.381
-and say--
-"So it goes."

717
00:33:55.511 --> 00:33:57.426
I think it's a mantra
in his head.

718
00:33:57.557 --> 00:34:00.081
I think that's how he--
he copes.

719
00:34:03.432 --> 00:34:04.868
Through that book.

720
00:34:05.173 --> 00:34:06.479
He didn't talk about it.

721
00:34:06.609 --> 00:34:09.047
Yeah, that--
I found out about it...

722
00:34:09.177 --> 00:34:10.526
from
Slaughterhouse-Five.

723
00:34:10.787 --> 00:34:12.659
Horrible descriptions of
what was happening

724
00:34:12.789 --> 00:34:13.921
or going on around him.

725
00:34:14.661 --> 00:34:16.880
And it was very light, you know,
the way he wrote it.

726
00:34:18.012 --> 00:34:20.406
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Laughter was a--
was a great relief

727
00:34:20.536 --> 00:34:21.842
day after day,

728
00:34:21.972 --> 00:34:24.453
and it would have been
embarrassing to cry--

729
00:34:25.541 --> 00:34:27.021
cry day after day.

730
00:34:28.588 --> 00:34:31.460
I've said that it-- it--
I prefer laughter to crying

731
00:34:31.591 --> 00:34:34.550
because there's less cleaning up
to do afterward.

732
00:34:34.681 --> 00:34:36.770
Also, you can
shut it down faster.

733
00:34:37.597 --> 00:34:40.513
This business of the stuff
that happened to me in Dresden

734
00:34:40.643 --> 00:34:42.254
really had no impact

735
00:34:42.384 --> 00:34:46.127
is the same person who is
completely traumatized by it.

736
00:34:46.562 --> 00:34:48.564
It all went very fast,
you know,

737
00:34:48.695 --> 00:34:50.436
marvelous
once I was able to see

738
00:34:50.566 --> 00:34:52.264
in such a short time,

739
00:34:52.394 --> 00:34:54.135
and I wouldn't have missed it
for anything.

740
00:34:57.312 --> 00:34:59.575
[Nanny Vonnegut]
It is painful for him
to remember things.

741
00:35:00.272 --> 00:35:01.795
Memory is painful.

742
00:35:07.627 --> 00:35:10.020
I think he's doing lots of
artwork now, that helps.

743
00:35:10.151 --> 00:35:11.674
Drawing.

744
00:35:11.805 --> 00:35:12.806
[slide projector clicking]

745
00:35:12.936 --> 00:35:14.503
Bob, this is
Kurt Vonnegut.

746
00:35:14.634 --> 00:35:17.593
I just wanted to tell you
I sent via Federal Express

747
00:35:17.724 --> 00:35:19.552
a whole bunch of pictures
I made

748
00:35:19.682 --> 00:35:22.163
for an art show of mine
back in 1980.

749
00:35:22.294 --> 00:35:24.426
I thought you might be able
to use them

750
00:35:24.557 --> 00:35:26.820
some way in the film.

751
00:35:26.950 --> 00:35:29.649
If not, send them
right back to me. Bye.

752
00:35:36.830 --> 00:35:37.961
[Bob Weide]
How would you describe

753
00:35:38.092 --> 00:35:39.224
the artwork of
Kurt Vonnegut?

754
00:35:39.354 --> 00:35:40.399
[Kurt Vonnegut]
God, I don't know.

755
00:35:40.529 --> 00:35:42.270
I think-- I think, uh,

756
00:35:42.401 --> 00:35:44.316
what's such--
such a relief about it

757
00:35:44.446 --> 00:35:46.796
is that I don't have to say
what it's about.

758
00:35:46.927 --> 00:35:48.276
[chuckles]

759
00:35:48.407 --> 00:35:51.149
A friend of mine said,
"You're the only author

760
00:35:51.279 --> 00:35:54.587
who's paintings, uh,
look just like what you write."

761
00:35:58.199 --> 00:36:01.637
My books...

762
00:36:01.768 --> 00:36:03.900
are aggressively unreal.

763
00:36:05.206 --> 00:36:08.427
They make the reader
accept a premise,

764
00:36:08.557 --> 00:36:12.039
and unreasonable premise,
and then keep going.

765
00:36:12.170 --> 00:36:13.823
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Billy Pilgrim could not sleep

766
00:36:13.954 --> 00:36:15.564
"on his daughter's
wedding night,

767
00:36:15.695 --> 00:36:17.871
"though he knew there was
a flying saucer

768
00:36:18.001 --> 00:36:20.047
"from Tralfamadore
up there.

769
00:36:20.178 --> 00:36:22.658
He would see it soon enough
inside and out.

770
00:36:22.789 --> 00:36:23.964
and he would see, too,

771
00:36:24.094 --> 00:36:26.009
where it came from
soon enough."

772
00:36:26.401 --> 00:36:29.404
♪

773
00:36:38.239 --> 00:36:39.806
[Bob Weide]
In '94, we made a trip to

774
00:36:39.936 --> 00:36:42.243
Lake Maxinkuckee
in northern Indiana

775
00:36:42.374 --> 00:36:44.376
where the whole extended
Vonnegut family

776
00:36:44.506 --> 00:36:45.681
all had cottages.

777
00:36:47.248 --> 00:36:49.424
Just seeing these places

778
00:36:49.555 --> 00:36:52.993
brought it home
in a way that, uh...

779
00:36:53.123 --> 00:36:54.821
that really humanized him
for me.

780
00:36:55.996 --> 00:36:59.217
He was opening up about
his experience in Dresden,

781
00:36:59.652 --> 00:37:01.044
his childhood,

782
00:37:01.175 --> 00:37:04.134
seeing the place where he
actually came up with

783
00:37:04.265 --> 00:37:06.006
the idea of Tralfamadore.

784
00:37:07.399 --> 00:37:09.183
I had never read about it
in any book,

785
00:37:09.314 --> 00:37:13.622
he'd never written about it,
but... he, um...

786
00:37:13.753 --> 00:37:15.145
he showed me
where it happened.

787
00:37:16.973 --> 00:37:18.584
This platform here is--

788
00:37:18.714 --> 00:37:20.673
my father designed it
and had it built,

789
00:37:20.803 --> 00:37:22.501
and the family would
gather out here,

790
00:37:22.631 --> 00:37:24.067
particularly at night.

791
00:37:24.198 --> 00:37:26.331
And one night,
cousin Richard

792
00:37:26.461 --> 00:37:29.856
was naming the different stars
and constellations,

793
00:37:29.986 --> 00:37:32.946
and nobody knew whether he was
telling the truth or not.

794
00:37:33.076 --> 00:37:34.643
[chuckles]
And he would say,

795
00:37:34.774 --> 00:37:38.952
"Oh, there is Arcturus and there
is Andromeda and so forth.

796
00:37:39.082 --> 00:37:42.172
And so there was a lull
in the conversation,

797
00:37:42.303 --> 00:37:45.915
and I must have been about
ten years old, I think,

798
00:37:46.046 --> 00:37:50.964
and so I all of a sudden
pointed up to the sky

799
00:37:51.094 --> 00:37:54.228
and said,
"There is Tralfamadore.

800
00:37:54.359 --> 00:37:57.666
♪

801
00:37:57.797 --> 00:38:00.887
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"It was a flying saucer
from Tralfamadore.

802
00:38:01.017 --> 00:38:03.803
"The saucer was
100 feet in diameter

803
00:38:03.933 --> 00:38:05.892
"with portholes
around its rim.

804
00:38:06.022 --> 00:38:08.111
"It came down to
hover over Billy,

805
00:38:08.242 --> 00:38:09.896
"and to enclose him
in a cylinder

806
00:38:10.026 --> 00:38:11.289
of pulsing purple life."

807
00:38:11.419 --> 00:38:13.856
[applause]

808
00:38:13.987 --> 00:38:15.554
Where am I?

809
00:38:15.684 --> 00:38:17.991
[man] Welcome to the planet
Tralfamadore, Mr. Pilgrim.

810
00:38:18.731 --> 00:38:19.732
Oh, Finland.

811
00:38:20.907 --> 00:38:23.170
-Tralfama--
-[man] Tralfamadore.

812
00:38:24.824 --> 00:38:25.825
How did I get here?

813
00:38:25.955 --> 00:38:27.696
There is no "how,"
Mr. Pilgrim.

814
00:38:27.827 --> 00:38:29.089
There is no "why."

815
00:38:29.219 --> 00:38:31.265
The moment simply is.

816
00:38:31.396 --> 00:38:33.702
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I experimented with
the science fiction idea

817
00:38:33.833 --> 00:38:35.530
using it for relief...

818
00:38:36.314 --> 00:38:40.013
is to get some distance from
an atrocity of this sort

819
00:38:40.143 --> 00:38:43.973
to see how much it really
matters in the long view,

820
00:38:44.104 --> 00:38:46.976
and, uh, the science fiction
thing seemed to work.

821
00:38:47.542 --> 00:38:49.065
And it seemed to be amusing,

822
00:38:49.196 --> 00:38:51.024
and it seemed to lighten
the whole enterprise,

823
00:38:51.154 --> 00:38:52.721
so I kept it in.

824
00:38:52.852 --> 00:38:54.114
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Later in life,

825
00:38:54.244 --> 00:38:55.898
"the Tralfamadoreans
would advise Billy

826
00:38:56.029 --> 00:38:58.684
"to concentrate on
the happy moments of his life,

827
00:38:58.814 --> 00:39:00.599
"and to ignore
the unhappy ones;

828
00:39:00.729 --> 00:39:02.383
"to stare only at
pretty things

829
00:39:02.514 --> 00:39:04.603
as eternity
failed to go by."

830
00:39:04.733 --> 00:39:07.780
♪

831
00:39:10.217 --> 00:39:12.132
[Bob Weide]
Most authors impart
life lessons to

832
00:39:12.262 --> 00:39:14.439
the readers
in their books.

833
00:39:14.569 --> 00:39:16.789
Kurt gave me life lessons
in his living room.

834
00:39:17.485 --> 00:39:20.358
We would talk about
almost anything.

835
00:39:21.837 --> 00:39:23.970
Kurt was very interested
in my dating life.

836
00:39:24.100 --> 00:39:25.928
He'd ask me about what kind of
girls I was meeting,

837
00:39:26.059 --> 00:39:29.149
and he loved living vicariously
through a younger person

838
00:39:29.279 --> 00:39:30.280
who was still in
the open market.

839
00:39:31.499 --> 00:39:34.067
I met Linda in '94,
which was the same year

840
00:39:34.197 --> 00:39:35.721
that Kurt and I were in
Indianapolis,

841
00:39:35.851 --> 00:39:36.809
it was later that year.

842
00:39:36.939 --> 00:39:39.333
Vonnegut adored Linda.

843
00:39:39.464 --> 00:39:43.206
[narrator]
"Dear Romeo: and believe
me that is some Juliet!

844
00:39:43.337 --> 00:39:46.035
Go for it! That redhead
is a keeper."

845
00:39:46.166 --> 00:39:47.515
'Cause he'd say to me,
"When are you gonna get married?

846
00:39:47.646 --> 00:39:48.908
When are you gonna
marry that girl?"

847
00:39:49.038 --> 00:39:50.910
I said, uh,
"Well, I don't know.

848
00:39:51.040 --> 00:39:52.955
"I kind of feel I'm ready but,
you know,

849
00:39:53.086 --> 00:39:55.784
I think if we get married,
I'm probably ruling out kids."

850
00:39:55.915 --> 00:39:59.222
I was in my late 30s.

851
00:39:59.353 --> 00:40:01.877
Now, Linda's age is
a state secret.

852
00:40:02.008 --> 00:40:04.924
I can't say, but she's got
a few years on me.

853
00:40:05.054 --> 00:40:07.535
If we wanted kids, we would have
had to get on that right away.

854
00:40:07.666 --> 00:40:09.189
And Kurt said,
"Uh-huh."

855
00:40:10.451 --> 00:40:11.626
But I could see him
working on it,

856
00:40:11.757 --> 00:40:14.673
you know, like--
like a math problem.

857
00:40:14.803 --> 00:40:17.284
Thought about if for a while
and then he looked at me
and he said,

858
00:40:17.415 --> 00:40:18.546
"You don't need kids."

859
00:40:19.634 --> 00:40:22.507
I said, "Oh, okay.
Well, that's sorted."

860
00:40:23.203 --> 00:40:25.640
[man] This ceremony calls you
a lot of different names,

861
00:40:25.771 --> 00:40:27.816
man and woman...

862
00:40:27.947 --> 00:40:29.992
husband and wife,
bride and groom,

863
00:40:30.123 --> 00:40:32.908
but the most beautiful words are
the ones I recited in Hebrew

864
00:40:33.039 --> 00:40:35.911
which refer to both of you
as lovers and friends.

865
00:40:38.871 --> 00:40:41.221
[no audible dialog]

866
00:40:41.351 --> 00:40:44.398
♪

867
00:40:48.054 --> 00:40:50.622
[narrator]
"Dear Linda and Bob,

868
00:40:50.752 --> 00:40:54.103
"I've just FedExed
your wedding present.

869
00:40:54.234 --> 00:40:58.064
"It is a pair of
Victorian candlesticks

870
00:40:58.194 --> 00:41:03.069
"They are identical with a pair
I inherited from my father.

871
00:41:03.199 --> 00:41:06.812
"I have since given their like
to each of my children.

872
00:41:08.596 --> 00:41:11.817
"They have become
our family totem.

873
00:41:14.341 --> 00:41:16.430
Be happy. Kurt."

874
00:41:16.561 --> 00:41:19.564
♪

875
00:41:34.970 --> 00:41:36.581
[door creaking]

876
00:41:40.802 --> 00:41:43.152
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Our cottage was sold
to a stranger

877
00:41:43.283 --> 00:41:45.328
"at the end of
World War II.

878
00:41:45.459 --> 00:41:47.679
"The buyer put off taking
possession for a week

879
00:41:47.809 --> 00:41:49.376
"in order that I,

880
00:41:49.507 --> 00:41:52.466
"just married after being
discharged from the army,

881
00:41:52.597 --> 00:41:54.903
might take my bride there
for a honeymoon."

882
00:41:55.208 --> 00:41:58.254
♪

883
00:42:00.648 --> 00:42:02.868
"My bride, who's
name was Jane Cox,

884
00:42:02.998 --> 00:42:05.174
"had me read
The Brothers Karamazov

885
00:42:05.305 --> 00:42:06.698
"during our honeymoon.

886
00:42:06.828 --> 00:42:09.875
"She considered it the greatest
of all novels.

887
00:42:10.005 --> 00:42:12.181
"Jane was a writer too,
by the way.

888
00:42:13.095 --> 00:42:15.881
[Edie Vonnegut] Kurt and Jane
were big book lovers.

889
00:42:16.011 --> 00:42:18.057
He would give her a book and
she would give him a book

890
00:42:18.187 --> 00:42:19.885
it would be inscribed
on the day,

891
00:42:20.015 --> 00:42:22.670
and that was the anchor
in their relationship,

892
00:42:22.801 --> 00:42:24.411
it's a love of literature.

893
00:42:25.020 --> 00:42:28.110
I mean, I know it was,
I've read their love letters.

894
00:42:28.241 --> 00:42:32.288
[narrator]
"To Jane, whom I love
and shall love all my life.

895
00:42:32.419 --> 00:42:34.464
[continues reading]

896
00:42:40.949 --> 00:42:44.431
"Presented when we were too
young to even be engaged.

897
00:42:44.562 --> 00:42:45.737
Kurt."

898
00:42:46.041 --> 00:42:47.695
[Nanny Vonnegut]
My image of them
is very sweet

899
00:42:47.826 --> 00:42:49.828
'cause she's very
round and small,

900
00:42:49.958 --> 00:42:52.657
and he's very tall and--
and they loved each other.

901
00:42:52.787 --> 00:42:56.051
He was very, very romantic.
She loved that.

902
00:42:57.618 --> 00:42:59.402
I remember her,
when I was little,

903
00:42:59.533 --> 00:43:01.100
saying
there's no other voice,

904
00:43:01.230 --> 00:43:03.232
nobody who can talk
like this man.

905
00:43:03.581 --> 00:43:06.235
Really encouraged him to write,
and said, you have to do this.

906
00:43:07.759 --> 00:43:09.238
[narrator]
"Beloved,

907
00:43:09.369 --> 00:43:10.588
"from your loving me,

908
00:43:10.718 --> 00:43:12.415
"I've drawn
a measure of courage

909
00:43:12.546 --> 00:43:15.201
"that never would have
come to me otherwise.

910
00:43:15.331 --> 00:43:18.421
"You've given me the courage
to be a writer.

911
00:43:18.552 --> 00:43:21.773
"That much of my life
has been decided.

912
00:43:21.903 --> 00:43:23.905
"Regardless of my epitaph,

913
00:43:24.036 --> 00:43:27.996
to be a writer will have been
my personal, ultimate goal."

914
00:43:28.954 --> 00:43:31.347
Kurt and Jane's first son
was born.

915
00:43:31.478 --> 00:43:33.045
He was named for Mark Twain,

916
00:43:33.175 --> 00:43:35.874
and things became
quite different for Kurt.

917
00:43:36.352 --> 00:43:37.527
He needed a job.

918
00:43:38.441 --> 00:43:40.356
And here's where his
older brother, Bernard,

919
00:43:40.487 --> 00:43:41.531
came to the rescue.

920
00:43:42.881 --> 00:43:45.884
♪

921
00:43:49.931 --> 00:43:50.976
[snapping]

922
00:43:52.064 --> 00:43:55.067
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Bernard was already
a world famous physicist

923
00:43:55.197 --> 00:43:58.636
working in the research
laboratory at General Electric.

924
00:43:58.766 --> 00:43:59.898
[Ginger Strand]
At GE labs,

925
00:44:00.028 --> 00:44:01.900
Bernard and his colleagues
discovered

926
00:44:02.030 --> 00:44:04.119
a new way
of seeding clouds

927
00:44:04.250 --> 00:44:05.643
with the chemical,
silver iodide,

928
00:44:05.773 --> 00:44:07.949
in order to make
rain or snow.

929
00:44:08.558 --> 00:44:11.779
He was as big a celebrity
in his own field

930
00:44:11.910 --> 00:44:14.086
as his little brother
would become later.

931
00:44:14.347 --> 00:44:17.567
Bernard heard that
the GE News Bureau
was looking for

932
00:44:17.698 --> 00:44:21.702
men to write, uh, publicity,
and Kurt took it.

933
00:44:24.574 --> 00:44:28.056
Kurt and Jane moved to
Alplaus, New York.

934
00:44:28.187 --> 00:44:30.189
Most of the people
who lived in Alplaus

935
00:44:30.319 --> 00:44:31.843
worked for General Electric.

936
00:44:32.713 --> 00:44:34.933
GE was a world unto itself.

937
00:44:35.063 --> 00:44:37.631
It had not only a huge factory,

938
00:44:37.762 --> 00:44:41.722
but the extensive research lab
that Bernard worked in.

939
00:44:41.853 --> 00:44:44.899
[Kurt Vonnegut]
It was one hell of
a good company.

940
00:44:45.421 --> 00:44:48.250
It was the United States
at its best.

941
00:44:48.381 --> 00:44:49.730
[Ginger Strand]
Kurt's job was to

942
00:44:49.861 --> 00:44:51.427
go around the company

943
00:44:51.558 --> 00:44:55.170
and learn about all these
fantastic scientific advances

944
00:44:55.301 --> 00:44:57.085
that the company was making.

945
00:44:57.216 --> 00:44:59.958
So he really was seeing
the future.

946
00:45:03.178 --> 00:45:04.571
Although he kept it a secret,

947
00:45:04.702 --> 00:45:07.617
he had a desk at home
and was working very hard

948
00:45:07.748 --> 00:45:11.447
to compose stories on evenings
and weekends.

949
00:45:11.578 --> 00:45:13.928
He and Jane studied
magazines together

950
00:45:14.059 --> 00:45:17.497
to try to figure out what
editors might want to buy.

951
00:45:17.627 --> 00:45:19.978
[man] He was writing,
writing, writing,

952
00:45:20.108 --> 00:45:22.850
and finally he had
something to write about.

953
00:45:22.981 --> 00:45:24.156
You'll get a kick out of this.

954
00:45:24.286 --> 00:45:26.332
It shows step-by-step
automation.

955
00:45:26.462 --> 00:45:29.030
♪

956
00:45:30.466 --> 00:45:33.339
[Kurt Vonnegut]
My father and my brother
were both technocrats,

957
00:45:33.469 --> 00:45:35.820
and thought that engineers could
straighten out the world,

958
00:45:35.950 --> 00:45:37.604
and I believed that
for a long time.

959
00:45:38.039 --> 00:45:40.868
General Electric showed me
a milling machine

960
00:45:40.999 --> 00:45:43.131
which was being run
by punch cards

961
00:45:43.262 --> 00:45:45.220
that could do it better than
a man could.

962
00:45:45.830 --> 00:45:47.179
But they were ashamed.

963
00:45:47.614 --> 00:45:49.268
They were worried about
what they'd done

964
00:45:49.398 --> 00:45:51.009
and they felt guilt
about it,

965
00:45:51.139 --> 00:45:54.664
and the whole emphasis now is
throwing people out of work.

966
00:45:55.709 --> 00:45:57.667
I was so optimistic about
science

967
00:45:57.798 --> 00:45:59.017
during the Great Depression

968
00:45:59.147 --> 00:46:02.847
that I almost believed that,
uh, by 1945,

969
00:46:02.977 --> 00:46:04.413
we would have cornered God,

970
00:46:04.544 --> 00:46:06.111
taken a color photograph of him,

971
00:46:06.241 --> 00:46:08.722
and printed it on the cover of
Popular Mechanics.

972
00:46:08.853 --> 00:46:11.464
-[laughter]
-And, uh, instead, of course,

973
00:46:11.594 --> 00:46:13.771
we-- we dropped a bomb
on Hiroshima.

974
00:46:14.946 --> 00:46:18.950
After seeing what
scientific truth could do,

975
00:46:19.080 --> 00:46:20.560
I lost interest in truths,

976
00:46:20.690 --> 00:46:23.650
and I've been trying to think up
neat lies ever since.

977
00:46:23.781 --> 00:46:25.870
[tyepewriter clacking]

978
00:46:26.435 --> 00:46:28.742
[Ginger Strand] Kurt had had
the idea for a novel

979
00:46:28.873 --> 00:46:30.657
about a GE like company.

980
00:46:30.788 --> 00:46:33.747
He began working on what would
become Player Piano,

981
00:46:33.878 --> 00:46:35.401
which he saw as the novel

982
00:46:35.531 --> 00:46:38.143
that would make his
literary reputation.

983
00:46:38.665 --> 00:46:41.799
It's about a future
in which machines

984
00:46:41.929 --> 00:46:44.236
have entirely replaced
human beings.

985
00:46:44.366 --> 00:46:47.805
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
People, by not having
meaningful work to do,

986
00:46:47.935 --> 00:46:50.242
begin to think their lives
themselves

987
00:46:50.372 --> 00:46:51.852
are not meaningful.

988
00:46:51.983 --> 00:46:55.377
But he realized he could
never hope to publish this novel

989
00:46:55.508 --> 00:46:58.380
and continue working at GE.

990
00:46:58.511 --> 00:47:01.601
♪

991
00:47:01.862 --> 00:47:04.038
The work he had to do was,
you know,

992
00:47:04.169 --> 00:47:07.259
sitting in a cubicle
typing up public relations.

993
00:47:08.086 --> 00:47:10.566
[Ginger Strand]
GE very much wanted to
tell you how to think,

994
00:47:10.697 --> 00:47:11.872
so as he worked there,

995
00:47:12.003 --> 00:47:14.570
he grew more and more
uncomfortable,

996
00:47:14.701 --> 00:47:17.008
with the job of
company man.

997
00:47:17.138 --> 00:47:19.532
And it was, in fact,
Jane who convinced him

998
00:47:19.662 --> 00:47:21.926
to take himself seriously
as a writer.

999
00:47:23.014 --> 00:47:24.929
Kurt's advance for
Player Piano

1000
00:47:25.059 --> 00:47:27.105
was $2500.

1001
00:47:27.540 --> 00:47:29.368
It as a good pay out,

1002
00:47:29.498 --> 00:47:31.457
but a novel takes
a year to write.

1003
00:47:31.587 --> 00:47:34.721
It was a much better living
to write short stories,

1004
00:47:34.852 --> 00:47:37.202
which he could crank out
in a couple of weeks.

1005
00:47:37.332 --> 00:47:41.336
He set himself this goal
of selling five

1006
00:47:41.467 --> 00:47:43.730
before he would allow himself
to quit his job.

1007
00:47:46.211 --> 00:47:47.995
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Writing for the magazines

1008
00:47:48.126 --> 00:47:51.216
they told me an awful lot about
how to tell a story.

1009
00:47:51.346 --> 00:47:53.348
[typewriter clacking]

1010
00:47:54.697 --> 00:47:56.264
I would mail off a story,

1011
00:47:56.395 --> 00:47:58.092
and then wait for
the money to come

1012
00:47:58.223 --> 00:47:59.702
and the money
wouldn't come.

1013
00:48:01.879 --> 00:48:03.968
The story would come back
instead,

1014
00:48:04.098 --> 00:48:06.144
and they would tell me
what was wrong with it.

1015
00:48:07.797 --> 00:48:10.844
♪

1016
00:48:11.453 --> 00:48:12.933
[Nanny Vonnegut]
And it was slow going.

1017
00:48:13.064 --> 00:48:15.544
You wouldn't believe the piles
of rejection letters,

1018
00:48:15.675 --> 00:48:17.198
piles, I mean, this thick.

1019
00:48:18.504 --> 00:48:19.984
[Ginger Strand]
His father never thought

1020
00:48:20.114 --> 00:48:23.422
he would have it in him
to make a living as a writer.

1021
00:48:23.552 --> 00:48:25.641
He probably needed to prove it
to himself

1022
00:48:25.772 --> 00:48:28.731
that he would, in fact,
be able to support his family.

1023
00:48:28.862 --> 00:48:31.734
In spite of the rejection
letters that piled up,

1024
00:48:31.865 --> 00:48:34.389
Jane was
incredibly encouraging.

1025
00:48:34.824 --> 00:48:36.304
[Edie Vonnegut]
She's writing to editors,

1026
00:48:36.435 --> 00:48:38.959
please read this,
it's my husband,

1027
00:48:39.090 --> 00:48:42.136
and no one knows it now,
but he's very gifted.

1028
00:48:42.702 --> 00:48:44.399
[Nanny Vonnegut]
They were very passionate,
long letters,

1029
00:48:44.530 --> 00:48:46.314
like, you don't even know
what you gave up.

1030
00:48:46.445 --> 00:48:49.143
She was fierce, just saying
this man is a genius.

1031
00:48:49.274 --> 00:48:50.710
[Mark Vonnegut] I mean,
she believed in him

1032
00:48:50.840 --> 00:48:52.277
in a way I don't think he did.

1033
00:48:52.625 --> 00:48:54.932
He would have given up
without her.

1034
00:48:55.062 --> 00:48:57.586
[Ginger Strand]
One day, while he was
still working at GE,

1035
00:48:57.717 --> 00:49:00.633
he came home and there
sitting on the piano

1036
00:49:00.763 --> 00:49:03.505
where Jane had put it
was a check for

1037
00:49:03.636 --> 00:49:05.464
the first short story
that he ever sold

1038
00:49:05.594 --> 00:49:08.206
Report on the Barnhouse Effect
for Collier's.

1039
00:49:08.336 --> 00:49:11.383
♪

1040
00:49:15.474 --> 00:49:16.997
[Bob Weide]
Why don't you explain
what that is.

1041
00:49:17.128 --> 00:49:22.263
Yeah. Well, this is a letter
dated October 28, 1949.

1042
00:49:22.829 --> 00:49:24.570
And I wrote it to my father.

1043
00:49:24.700 --> 00:49:27.355
[reading]

1044
00:49:27.486 --> 00:49:29.227
"I think I'm on my way.

1045
00:49:29.357 --> 00:49:32.360
[continues reading]

1046
00:49:34.362 --> 00:49:37.322
"I will then quit this
goddamn nightmare job,

1047
00:49:37.452 --> 00:49:39.498
"and never take another one
so long as I live,

1048
00:49:39.628 --> 00:49:40.586
"so help me God.

1049
00:49:40.716 --> 00:49:42.762
[continues reading]

1050
00:49:44.503 --> 00:49:46.853
"Love, K," which is
my family nickname.

1051
00:49:46.984 --> 00:49:50.944
And father glued this to
a piece of Masonite

1052
00:49:51.075 --> 00:49:52.293
and varnished it,

1053
00:49:52.424 --> 00:49:55.993
and on the back of
this plaque, uh,

1054
00:49:56.123 --> 00:49:58.604
he has this Shakespearean
quotation.

1055
00:49:58.734 --> 00:50:01.476
"An oath, an oath,
I have an oath in Heaven:

1056
00:50:01.607 --> 00:50:03.957
Shall I lay perjury on my soul?"

1057
00:50:04.088 --> 00:50:07.134
♪

1058
00:50:08.048 --> 00:50:10.224
[Kurt Vonnegut]
There was an enormous
magazine industry,

1059
00:50:10.355 --> 00:50:12.922
which paid very high prices
for stories,

1060
00:50:13.053 --> 00:50:14.315
and they needed lots of them.

1061
00:50:14.446 --> 00:50:16.361
They paid tons of money
for them.

1062
00:50:16.491 --> 00:50:18.667
[Ginger Strand]
Short stories were
popular entertainment.

1063
00:50:18.798 --> 00:50:21.670
They really were
the television of the era.

1064
00:50:21.931 --> 00:50:23.411
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I had money piled up.

1065
00:50:23.542 --> 00:50:25.500
[laughing]

1066
00:50:25.631 --> 00:50:27.415
I'd never been this rich.

1067
00:50:27.850 --> 00:50:31.332
In a period of a few months,
I had made more money than

1068
00:50:31.463 --> 00:50:34.031
General Electric was prepared
to pay me all year.

1069
00:50:34.466 --> 00:50:35.945
[Ginger Strand]
It quickly became apparent

1070
00:50:36.076 --> 00:50:39.123
that they really had no reason
to stay in Schenectady.

1071
00:50:39.514 --> 00:50:43.170
At the end of 1950,
he handed in his notice to GE

1072
00:50:43.301 --> 00:50:45.912
and decided that he was
going to be a writer full time.

1073
00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:49.046
[birds chirping]

1074
00:50:51.483 --> 00:50:54.834
♪

1075
00:50:54.964 --> 00:50:56.575
[narrator]
"Dear Bob,

1076
00:50:56.705 --> 00:51:00.274
[reading]

1077
00:51:00.405 --> 00:51:03.582
"Have Edie show you
the underpass on route 6-A

1078
00:51:03.712 --> 00:51:05.975
"where she has painted angels.

1079
00:51:06.106 --> 00:51:08.500
"and the stone garage
in West Barnstable

1080
00:51:08.630 --> 00:51:11.677
"where I sold sops and
wrote Rosewater.

1081
00:51:11.807 --> 00:51:13.592
"And the Barnstable
Comedy Club

1082
00:51:13.722 --> 00:51:15.246
of which
I was once president

1083
00:51:15.376 --> 00:51:18.031
"and which inspired
Who Am I This Time?

1084
00:51:18.162 --> 00:51:20.425
"And the Madonna in
St. Mary's Church

1085
00:51:20.555 --> 00:51:23.384
"which I gave to the church
in memory of my sister

1086
00:51:23.515 --> 00:51:25.299
after our father died."

1087
00:51:27.301 --> 00:51:29.564
[Bob Weide]
Why don't we start
by getting us oriented

1088
00:51:29.695 --> 00:51:30.957
and just telling us
what is--

1089
00:51:31.088 --> 00:51:32.611
what is the significance of
where we are?

1090
00:51:34.874 --> 00:51:36.005
[Nanny Vonnegut]
This is Barnstable.

1091
00:51:37.877 --> 00:51:39.400
Sweet little town of
Barnstable.

1092
00:51:40.575 --> 00:51:42.708
This is where they
started their life.

1093
00:51:46.451 --> 00:51:48.670
[Edie Vonnegut]
Barnstable was
a great place to write

1094
00:51:48.801 --> 00:51:50.455
and he could get to
New York easily,

1095
00:51:50.585 --> 00:51:51.934
and meet editors.

1096
00:51:52.065 --> 00:51:53.936
But he didn't have
a job, really.

1097
00:51:54.067 --> 00:51:56.939
He cut all his safety nets by
quitting General Electric

1098
00:51:57.070 --> 00:51:58.289
and coming here.

1099
00:51:59.986 --> 00:52:02.162
He was probably
the only writer in town.

1100
00:52:02.293 --> 00:52:04.425
♪

1101
00:52:04.556 --> 00:52:07.689
[Bob Weide]
Edie still lives in Cape Cod

1102
00:52:07.820 --> 00:52:10.214
in the house that the
Vonnegut family grew up in

1103
00:52:10.344 --> 00:52:11.476
in West Barnstable.

1104
00:52:12.129 --> 00:52:15.567
To me, it was thrilling just to
go and-- and film these sites,

1105
00:52:15.697 --> 00:52:19.875
to be able to look at the house
where Kurt Vonnegut lived.

1106
00:52:20.006 --> 00:52:23.052
♪

1107
00:52:34.890 --> 00:52:37.023
If someone had told
the high school me

1108
00:52:37.154 --> 00:52:39.547
that someday I'd spend
several nights in the room where

1109
00:52:39.678 --> 00:52:41.984
Kurt Vonnegut
wrote all those books,

1110
00:52:42.115 --> 00:52:43.856
I think my head
would have exploded.

1111
00:52:45.727 --> 00:52:47.033
There'd be hair everywhere.

1112
00:52:47.294 --> 00:52:50.297
♪

1113
00:52:54.693 --> 00:52:57.652
Okay.
This is Kurt's studio.

1114
00:52:58.914 --> 00:53:01.352
And when he couldn't write,
he would paint doors.

1115
00:53:01.656 --> 00:53:04.746
I remember it being just a mess,
papers everywhere,

1116
00:53:04.877 --> 00:53:07.227
and toxic with smoke.

1117
00:53:07.358 --> 00:53:09.708
He would play the worst music
on the radio.

1118
00:53:09.838 --> 00:53:11.840
Muzak. Elevator music.

1119
00:53:12.580 --> 00:53:14.321
-Do you remember that?
-[chuckles] Yeah.

1120
00:53:14.452 --> 00:53:15.888
-Horrible, annoying music.
-[Edie Vonnegut] It was hideous.

1121
00:53:16.018 --> 00:53:18.934
♪[Muzak]

1122
00:53:19.065 --> 00:53:22.895
[Edie Vonnegut]
He carved these words,
which are Thoreau's,

1123
00:53:23.025 --> 00:53:24.940
and it says,
"Beware of all enterprises

1124
00:53:25.071 --> 00:53:26.812
that require new clothes,"

1125
00:53:26.942 --> 00:53:28.509
which led all of us children
to think

1126
00:53:28.640 --> 00:53:29.771
we never had to get a job,

1127
00:53:29.902 --> 00:53:31.643
-don't you think?
-[chuckling]

1128
00:53:31.773 --> 00:53:34.863
Kurt would write, like,
all stooped over

1129
00:53:34.994 --> 00:53:36.561
on this low table.

1130
00:53:36.691 --> 00:53:38.084
Your posture's too good,
you know,

1131
00:53:38.215 --> 00:53:39.607
-it's gotta be
really bent there.
-Okay, and--

1132
00:53:39.738 --> 00:53:42.610
-And his knees were up here.
-His knees were up here,

1133
00:53:42.741 --> 00:53:43.829
and it was beautiful.

1134
00:53:43.959 --> 00:53:45.787
Also, he'd have
his ankles crossed,

1135
00:53:45.918 --> 00:53:47.398
he had really long legs,

1136
00:53:47.528 --> 00:53:49.574
and so he would be
all hunched over.

1137
00:53:49.835 --> 00:53:52.577
[clacking]

1138
00:53:52.707 --> 00:53:54.100
It had a-- a music to it,

1139
00:53:54.231 --> 00:53:57.930
it would stop and...
go fast and then stop

1140
00:53:58.060 --> 00:54:00.454
and... like that.

1141
00:54:01.760 --> 00:54:03.675
[typewriter clacking]

1142
00:54:03.805 --> 00:54:05.111
[Nanny Vonnegut]
He was funny

1143
00:54:05.242 --> 00:54:06.373
and we was always trying
to teach us stuff, too.

1144
00:54:06.504 --> 00:54:07.853
He was very smart.

1145
00:54:07.983 --> 00:54:09.855
He took a break once
and wanted to sit me down

1146
00:54:09.985 --> 00:54:11.987
and give me a little lesson
about life.

1147
00:54:12.118 --> 00:54:14.773
And he said, "As soon as you
think life is turning up roses,

1148
00:54:14.903 --> 00:54:16.035
it gonna turn to shit.

1149
00:54:16.165 --> 00:54:17.993
We're being racked up
by technology.

1150
00:54:18.124 --> 00:54:19.604
The magazines got
knocked out,

1151
00:54:19.734 --> 00:54:21.258
not by any
spiritual change

1152
00:54:21.388 --> 00:54:24.783
but by the invention of
practical television.

1153
00:54:25.218 --> 00:54:27.568
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
TV is now controlling
the entertainment industry,

1154
00:54:27.699 --> 00:54:29.614
and that's how Vonnegut
starts losing

1155
00:54:29.744 --> 00:54:31.050
his short story markets.

1156
00:54:31.180 --> 00:54:33.139
As he put it,
television came

1157
00:54:33.270 --> 00:54:35.924
and my cash cows all died.

1158
00:54:38.579 --> 00:54:39.885
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Vonnegut realizes

1159
00:54:40.015 --> 00:54:41.930
he's gonna have to write novels
to make money.

1160
00:54:42.061 --> 00:54:45.717
The problem was, he could get
an advance for a novel,

1161
00:54:45.847 --> 00:54:48.633
2500 bucks, 3,000 tops,

1162
00:54:48.763 --> 00:54:51.331
that would take him
two years to write.

1163
00:54:51.462 --> 00:54:54.203
[Ginger Strand]
Player Piano
was published in 1952.

1164
00:54:54.465 --> 00:54:57.511
It pretty quickly disappeared
from the literary scene.

1165
00:54:57.642 --> 00:55:02.342
And then he spends 17 years
writing every day

1166
00:55:02.473 --> 00:55:05.345
and striving for
a literary reputation.

1167
00:55:05.476 --> 00:55:07.869
It wasn't practical at all
to be a writer.

1168
00:55:08.479 --> 00:55:10.959
Everyone else's fathers
had jobs.

1169
00:55:11.090 --> 00:55:14.006
I think Kurt and Jane
felt like bumpkins.

1170
00:55:14.136 --> 00:55:16.748
There weren't that many people
that Dad could talk to.

1171
00:55:16.878 --> 00:55:18.924
So he was
a little lonesome here.

1172
00:55:19.054 --> 00:55:20.839
Ultimately, I think it was
good for him.

1173
00:55:20.969 --> 00:55:22.884
I think he wrote
his best books here

1174
00:55:23.015 --> 00:55:25.452
because he didn't have
any distractions.

1175
00:55:25.583 --> 00:55:27.106
[Nanny Vonnegut]
He just always had
a story in his head.

1176
00:55:27.236 --> 00:55:30.327
You could tell. He was always
talking about it, an idea.

1177
00:55:30.588 --> 00:55:32.764
Just seeing what my--
the chapters in his life,

1178
00:55:32.894 --> 00:55:34.374
what he'd
already been through,

1179
00:55:34.505 --> 00:55:37.812
what he had survived at 20--
prisoner of war--

1180
00:55:37.943 --> 00:55:40.249
and then his--
his losing his sister.

1181
00:55:40.380 --> 00:55:42.382
[clicking]

1182
00:55:44.166 --> 00:55:45.994
[indistinct dialog]

1183
00:55:46.952 --> 00:55:50.042
[Kurt Vonnegut]
The way to achieve
artistic wholeness...

1184
00:55:50.172 --> 00:55:53.350
is to create for
one person... in mind.

1185
00:55:53.480 --> 00:55:55.221
And I thought about it
and realized

1186
00:55:55.352 --> 00:55:57.571
that I write with
my sister in mind.

1187
00:55:59.094 --> 00:56:02.141
♪

1188
00:56:09.409 --> 00:56:11.411
[Edie Vonnegut]
The situation was

1189
00:56:11.542 --> 00:56:13.848
that Kurt's sister, Allie,
had cancer.

1190
00:56:14.109 --> 00:56:16.895
So a tragedy was coming,
it was inevitable,

1191
00:56:17.025 --> 00:56:19.332
she had terminal cancer,
she had it everywhere.

1192
00:56:19.637 --> 00:56:21.116
And she was going to die.

1193
00:56:21.247 --> 00:56:22.727
She had four sons,

1194
00:56:22.857 --> 00:56:25.817
and her husband, Jim, was gonna
take care of the boys.

1195
00:56:25.947 --> 00:56:28.254
And the horrible thing
that happened

1196
00:56:28.385 --> 00:56:31.344
was he would commute on
a train to Manhattan,

1197
00:56:31.475 --> 00:56:34.042
and his train went over
an open drawbridge.

1198
00:56:34.739 --> 00:56:35.957
And he drowned.

1199
00:56:37.437 --> 00:56:39.787
♪

1200
00:56:39.918 --> 00:56:42.964
But Allie was in the hospital.
She wasn't supposed to die

1201
00:56:43.095 --> 00:56:45.227
for another month or
maybe two months.

1202
00:56:46.359 --> 00:56:48.883
And the nurse gave her
the newspaper.

1203
00:56:50.842 --> 00:56:53.018
And she knew that Jim
was on that train.

1204
00:56:55.368 --> 00:56:57.239
She died two days later.

1205
00:56:58.719 --> 00:57:01.722
♪

1206
00:57:03.594 --> 00:57:05.247
[Nanny Vonnegut]
I don't think he can,
even now,

1207
00:57:05.378 --> 00:57:06.771
get his arms around it.

1208
00:57:09.034 --> 00:57:12.559
I think Allie's death was
the biggest loss of his life.

1209
00:57:12.690 --> 00:57:15.693
♪

1210
00:57:17.303 --> 00:57:20.262
[Kurt Vonnegut] Sadness is
an interesting emotion.

1211
00:57:21.133 --> 00:57:23.788
You really don't know how
anything's gonna hit you.

1212
00:57:25.529 --> 00:57:27.835
And I can't bear to look at
photo albums,

1213
00:57:27.966 --> 00:57:29.837
'cause they just make me
terribly sad.

1214
00:57:34.233 --> 00:57:38.193
I-- I think of all that's gone
and will never come back.

1215
00:57:38.324 --> 00:57:41.370
♪

1216
00:57:42.676 --> 00:57:43.938
[Nanny Vonnegut]
If you look at the films,

1217
00:57:44.069 --> 00:57:45.592
she's very protective
of him,

1218
00:57:45.723 --> 00:57:48.377
and is hovering over him
and just adored him.

1219
00:57:49.074 --> 00:57:52.338
I mean, that was just the purest
type of love there is.

1220
00:57:53.861 --> 00:57:56.908
♪

1221
00:57:57.822 --> 00:57:59.824
[Edie Vonnegut]
Kurt had to drive up there

1222
00:57:59.954 --> 00:58:02.435
and see Allie
before she died.

1223
00:58:03.131 --> 00:58:06.091
And she was able to say,

1224
00:58:06.221 --> 00:58:07.745
"Keep my boys together."

1225
00:58:09.529 --> 00:58:12.532
♪

1226
00:58:16.231 --> 00:58:19.800
The gesture that Kurt made
to take all four of us,

1227
00:58:19.931 --> 00:58:21.976
was really extraordinary.

1228
00:58:22.673 --> 00:58:24.544
I can't imagine anybody else
doing it.

1229
00:58:24.675 --> 00:58:25.937
He really did it.

1230
00:58:27.591 --> 00:58:29.201
[Mark Vonnegut]
He came back with the kids,

1231
00:58:29.331 --> 00:58:30.681
two dogs
and a pet rabbit.

1232
00:58:31.464 --> 00:58:34.598
And, uh, changed
everybody's life.

1233
00:58:37.557 --> 00:58:39.820
[Edie Vonnegut]
And it seems like
destiny now.

1234
00:58:39.951 --> 00:58:42.693
Over night, our house
went from being

1235
00:58:42.823 --> 00:58:46.000
a quiet place with three
well behaved kids,

1236
00:58:46.131 --> 00:58:48.960
to seven kids out of control.

1237
00:58:49.787 --> 00:58:52.790
♪

1238
00:58:53.660 --> 00:58:55.532
There was a lot of
running around,

1239
00:58:55.662 --> 00:58:56.968
playfulness and activity

1240
00:58:57.098 --> 00:58:58.752
and horrible practical joking.

1241
00:58:59.797 --> 00:59:01.102
[Jim Adams]
It wasn't long after
we moved over there

1242
00:59:01.233 --> 00:59:02.669
when I started raising hell.

1243
00:59:02.800 --> 00:59:05.672
We'd break into houses,
we'd break windows,

1244
00:59:05.803 --> 00:59:08.762
we'd make bombs and blow up
doors in mailboxes.

1245
00:59:08.893 --> 00:59:11.112
I thought it was terrific fun.

1246
00:59:11.243 --> 00:59:12.505
We were
one-stop shopping for

1247
00:59:12.636 --> 00:59:14.333
the Barnstable
police department.

1248
00:59:14.681 --> 00:59:16.553
They would just pull into
the driveway

1249
00:59:16.683 --> 00:59:18.772
and try to figure out
which kid had done it.

1250
00:59:18.903 --> 00:59:21.079
All the other kids
loved it over there

1251
00:59:21.209 --> 00:59:23.037
because it was just like
free-for-all.

1252
00:59:23.168 --> 00:59:24.299
[Nanny Vonnegut]
It was just total chaos

1253
00:59:24.430 --> 00:59:25.387
from my point of view,

1254
00:59:25.518 --> 00:59:26.563
and it was just great chaos.

1255
00:59:26.693 --> 00:59:28.826
[chuckles]
We were running wild.

1256
00:59:28.956 --> 00:59:31.176
And he was writing
through all this.

1257
00:59:31.306 --> 00:59:34.527
[Edie Vonnegut]
Kurt's studio was off
the end of the house.

1258
00:59:34.658 --> 00:59:37.443
And he would come out
and just, "Shut up!"

1259
00:59:37.574 --> 00:59:39.401
"Shut up.
Shut up."

1260
00:59:39.532 --> 00:59:41.142
"All you kids, shut up!"

1261
00:59:43.492 --> 00:59:45.016
[Kurt Adams]
He was moody.

1262
00:59:45.146 --> 00:59:46.844
-[Steve Adams] He was scary.
-[Kurt Adams] Scary moody.

1263
00:59:46.974 --> 00:59:49.760
He'd come storming out of
his study and, ooh.

1264
00:59:49.890 --> 00:59:51.631
You never knew what
you were gonna get.

1265
00:59:51.762 --> 00:59:53.938
You had to be
sort of on guard

1266
00:59:54.068 --> 00:59:56.897
so as not to get his wrath.

1267
00:59:57.594 --> 00:59:59.813
[Bob Weide]
Is there any way that you
would describe him as

1268
00:59:59.944 --> 01:00:02.686
-cuddly or...
-[laughs]

1269
01:00:03.774 --> 01:00:04.818
No.

1270
01:00:06.777 --> 01:00:09.127
I don't think he wanted too much
cuddling. [chuckles]

1271
01:00:10.215 --> 01:00:11.869
He cuddled with the dog.

1272
01:00:13.697 --> 01:00:16.700
[Edie Vonnegut]
Kurt would roll around with
Sandy on the kitchen floor,

1273
01:00:16.830 --> 01:00:19.267
and I remember always being
a little jealous.

1274
01:00:19.398 --> 01:00:22.183
Why doesn't he wrestle with me
like that? [chuckles]

1275
01:00:24.621 --> 01:00:25.709
[Mark Vonnegut]
He said to us sometimes,

1276
01:00:25.839 --> 01:00:27.536
"Please let me off
the father hook,"

1277
01:00:27.667 --> 01:00:29.277
which is not a good thing
to say to your children,

1278
01:00:29.408 --> 01:00:31.540
but... [laughs]

1279
01:00:31.671 --> 01:00:33.151
nobody's perfect.

1280
01:00:34.021 --> 01:00:36.415
[Nanny Vonnegut]
It was so intense
what he was doing.

1281
01:00:37.416 --> 01:00:40.114
As family, you learn how to
stay clear.

1282
01:00:40.680 --> 01:00:42.813
My mother was a huge force.

1283
01:00:42.943 --> 01:00:45.816
She was his gatekeeper
and guarded that door.

1284
01:00:45.946 --> 01:00:47.339
She sort of
trapped him in there

1285
01:00:47.469 --> 01:00:49.036
and said,
"You have to do this."

1286
01:00:49.341 --> 01:00:50.734
Really encouraged him to write.

1287
01:00:51.691 --> 01:00:54.433
[Jim Adams] Jane was always
washing clothes,

1288
01:00:54.563 --> 01:00:56.043
vacuuming, sweeping.

1289
01:00:56.174 --> 01:00:58.655
Kurt was not a sharer of
domestic duties.

1290
01:00:58.916 --> 01:01:00.047
Kurt didn't do anything.

1291
01:01:00.178 --> 01:01:01.396
He'd come out,
he'd make a sandwich,

1292
01:01:01.527 --> 01:01:04.095
or he'd go on walks,
chew on paper,

1293
01:01:04.225 --> 01:01:05.923
and be scary,
really scary,

1294
01:01:06.053 --> 01:01:08.360
and-- and Jane was
scared of him, too.

1295
01:01:09.187 --> 01:01:10.536
Everybody was scared of him.

1296
01:01:12.581 --> 01:01:15.367
[Edie Vonnegut]
I could tell when he was having
a good day and a bad day.

1297
01:01:15.497 --> 01:01:17.674
Definitely. 'Cause he just
wouldn't talk to you.

1298
01:01:18.457 --> 01:01:20.067
And he would be smoking
and, you know,

1299
01:01:20.198 --> 01:01:21.765
his head coming through
that door.

1300
01:01:21.895 --> 01:01:23.897
You just didn't mess with him
'cause it wouldn't be fun.

1301
01:01:24.028 --> 01:01:26.857
I mean, there were times when
he would be just incredibly fun.

1302
01:01:26.987 --> 01:01:29.381
♪

1303
01:01:29.511 --> 01:01:31.035
[Nanny Vonnegut]
Oh, when he had
a good writing day,

1304
01:01:31.165 --> 01:01:33.341
he'd be really happy, it was
kind of a manic lifestyle.

1305
01:01:33.472 --> 01:01:35.909
And we'd have these
wonderful music times

1306
01:01:36.040 --> 01:01:38.825
where we'd all be pounding on
music and singing.

1307
01:01:41.045 --> 01:01:43.525
-He'd be doing poetry and--
-He'd be right there,

1308
01:01:43.656 --> 01:01:44.701
right there.

1309
01:01:45.919 --> 01:01:47.704
[Jim Adams] The next day,
it'd just all turn to shit,

1310
01:01:47.834 --> 01:01:49.749
and he's back in his study
and he doesn't want to have

1311
01:01:49.880 --> 01:01:51.229
anything to do with
anybody and...

1312
01:01:52.752 --> 01:01:54.667
[typewriter clacking]

1313
01:01:54.798 --> 01:01:56.974
[Steve Adams]
Kurt may not have been
an attentive father

1314
01:01:57.104 --> 01:01:59.803
or father figure,
but I do understand it.

1315
01:01:59.933 --> 01:02:02.849
He was-- He was a writer,
and that's what he was.

1316
01:02:02.980 --> 01:02:05.025
And he had all this crap
going on in his head.

1317
01:02:05.156 --> 01:02:08.899
And therefore, when he's going
from the study to the kitchen,

1318
01:02:09.029 --> 01:02:10.291
what's going on in his mind

1319
01:02:10.422 --> 01:02:12.293
are the books that
everybody's loving.

1320
01:02:12.424 --> 01:02:14.426
[typewriter clacking]

1321
01:02:16.080 --> 01:02:18.691
[Edie Vonnegut]
I had no sense of
who he was at all,

1322
01:02:18.822 --> 01:02:20.693
I don't think,
until I read something.

1323
01:02:21.694 --> 01:02:25.045
And it just amazed me that
this man lived downstairs.

1324
01:02:26.090 --> 01:02:27.352
I just loved it.

1325
01:02:28.135 --> 01:02:31.486
It's pretty remarkable that
by the mid 1960s,

1326
01:02:31.617 --> 01:02:33.184
he'd written
Sirens of Titan,

1327
01:02:33.314 --> 01:02:34.794
a mind-blowing
space opera,

1328
01:02:34.925 --> 01:02:37.579
that made a lot of people wonder
what drugs he was on.

1329
01:02:37.710 --> 01:02:40.191
Mother Night,
great morality tale.

1330
01:02:40.321 --> 01:02:41.540
Cat's Cradle,
which made him

1331
01:02:41.670 --> 01:02:43.324
a cult figure on
college campuses.

1332
01:02:43.455 --> 01:02:45.413
This is all pre
Slaughterhouse-Five.

1333
01:02:45.544 --> 01:02:47.720
You know, Slaughterhouse-Five
is okay for me.

1334
01:02:47.851 --> 01:02:49.809
But Cat's Cradle
and Sirens of Titan

1335
01:02:49.940 --> 01:02:51.680
today remain my
favorite books.

1336
01:02:51.811 --> 01:02:53.334
[man]
He really emerged as a writer

1337
01:02:53.465 --> 01:02:55.641
and I have to think it was
because there were no prospects.

1338
01:02:55.772 --> 01:02:57.382
Who cares?
None of this stuff is--

1339
01:02:57.512 --> 01:02:59.253
is being published as
paperback originals.

1340
01:02:59.384 --> 01:03:02.169
It's disappearing before it
even hits the stands,

1341
01:03:02.300 --> 01:03:04.476
you know, so why not
just go for it?

1342
01:03:04.606 --> 01:03:06.173
It had never occurred to me that

1343
01:03:06.304 --> 01:03:07.653
someone could write a comedy
about the end of the world.

1344
01:03:08.132 --> 01:03:10.134
[Kurt Vonnegut reading]

1345
01:03:20.535 --> 01:03:23.669
I loved him for being fantastic
and creating religions

1346
01:03:23.800 --> 01:03:26.454
and talking about
God's travel plans.

1347
01:03:26.585 --> 01:03:28.630
[Nanny Vonnegut]
My mother was
so excited about those.

1348
01:03:28.761 --> 01:03:30.676
I mean, she could not believe
how great these were,

1349
01:03:30.807 --> 01:03:32.460
and it was slow going.

1350
01:03:32.591 --> 01:03:34.941
[Mark Vonnegut]
Jane would do anything
to help Kurt along,

1351
01:03:35.072 --> 01:03:36.943
to the point of
going to bookstores

1352
01:03:37.074 --> 01:03:39.816
and under a fake name
ordering his books.

1353
01:03:40.164 --> 01:03:42.906
You could tell that these were
not big financial boons

1354
01:03:43.036 --> 01:03:46.039
because he had to accept,
like, a sexy cover

1355
01:03:46.170 --> 01:03:48.737
for Sirens of Titan when
there's no sex in the book,

1356
01:03:48.868 --> 01:03:50.827
so here you would
write a novel

1357
01:03:50.957 --> 01:03:53.264
and you would get
less than $1,000.

1358
01:03:53.394 --> 01:03:57.050
When I was 12, he sincerely
and utterly came to me

1359
01:03:57.181 --> 01:03:58.965
and asked if he could
borrow $100

1360
01:03:59.096 --> 01:04:01.446
that I had saved up from
my paper route.

1361
01:04:02.447 --> 01:04:04.144
I had money and he didn't.

1362
01:04:04.710 --> 01:04:07.844
The normal answer, uh,
for most people

1363
01:04:07.974 --> 01:04:10.455
would have been to get
a good paying job.

1364
01:04:12.544 --> 01:04:15.503
My favorite one is where he got
a job for Sports Illustrated.

1365
01:04:15.939 --> 01:04:17.897
He wouldn't do the job.

1366
01:04:18.028 --> 01:04:20.900
He would be given a chore
to talk about a horse race.

1367
01:04:21.031 --> 01:04:23.772
[Mark Vonnegut]
And he was given the assignment
of writing about

1368
01:04:23.903 --> 01:04:25.513
this horse that broke away,

1369
01:04:25.644 --> 01:04:29.430
and Kurt sat there all morning,
and then he typed out...

1370
01:04:29.561 --> 01:04:31.824
[Edie reading]

1371
01:04:32.912 --> 01:04:34.783
And then leave.
Did you hear that story?

1372
01:04:34.914 --> 01:04:37.351
His attempts to work
regular jobs

1373
01:04:37.482 --> 01:04:38.483
didn't go well.

1374
01:04:38.613 --> 01:04:41.529
♪

1375
01:04:41.660 --> 01:04:42.966
[Kurt Vonnegut]
When I went broke
as a writer,

1376
01:04:43.096 --> 01:04:45.098
I got an automobile dealership,
you know.

1377
01:04:45.229 --> 01:04:48.536
It was one of the first Saab
dealers in the United States.

1378
01:04:48.841 --> 01:04:50.625
[Edie Vonnegut]
We had a red one
and he used to

1379
01:04:50.756 --> 01:04:53.280
put my mother on the hood
and take pictures of her.

1380
01:04:53.411 --> 01:04:55.065
People wouldn't
pay for their cars

1381
01:04:55.195 --> 01:04:57.328
and he'd have to go
and repossess them.

1382
01:04:57.458 --> 01:05:00.157
I don't think he was
a really good car salesman.

1383
01:05:00.461 --> 01:05:01.723
[man]
How'd you hold the line?

1384
01:05:01.854 --> 01:05:03.682
-We screwed them on the radio.
-[laughing]

1385
01:05:03.812 --> 01:05:06.032
We, uh--
[laughing]

1386
01:05:07.338 --> 01:05:08.730
[Mark Vonnegut]
I don't think

1387
01:05:08.861 --> 01:05:10.123
he could have stayed
employed if he had wanted to

1388
01:05:10.254 --> 01:05:13.083
at Sports Illustrated,
GE or any other job.

1389
01:05:13.213 --> 01:05:14.780
He was meant to be
a writer and, I think,

1390
01:05:14.911 --> 01:05:16.651
for his own mental health,
he had to write.

1391
01:05:17.130 --> 01:05:19.132
[typewriter clacking]

1392
01:05:21.656 --> 01:05:24.616
Well, he was not
selling Saabs at all

1393
01:05:24.746 --> 01:05:26.096
'cause no one came in.

1394
01:05:26.226 --> 01:05:28.402
He took his typewriter
down there and he wrote

1395
01:05:28.533 --> 01:05:31.275
God Bless You,
Mr. Rosewater
in that building.

1396
01:05:33.407 --> 01:05:35.627
♪

1397
01:05:35.757 --> 01:05:38.543
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
was written when Kurt

1398
01:05:38.673 --> 01:05:40.893
was at the low point
of his career.

1399
01:05:41.024 --> 01:05:43.461
And the book is just
money obsessed.

1400
01:05:43.591 --> 01:05:45.593
[narrator reading]

1401
01:05:55.734 --> 01:05:59.825
It's like if a book were written
by a starving man,

1402
01:06:00.652 --> 01:06:02.436
what would the subject be?
Food. [chuckles]

1403
01:06:03.655 --> 01:06:05.874
[Gregory Sumner]
One thing that's interesting
and important about

1404
01:06:06.005 --> 01:06:07.398
God Bless You,
Mr. Rosewater,

1405
01:06:07.528 --> 01:06:11.141
is the introduction of
the character Kilgore Trout.

1406
01:06:11.271 --> 01:06:14.796
[narrator]
"Trout, the author of
87 paperback books.

1407
01:06:14.927 --> 01:06:16.407
"was a very poor man,

1408
01:06:16.537 --> 01:06:19.714
and unknown outside
the science fiction field."

1409
01:06:20.977 --> 01:06:22.717
[man]
Who is Kilgore Trout?

1410
01:06:23.283 --> 01:06:24.893
That's a--
That's a big one.

1411
01:06:25.024 --> 01:06:27.026
He does appear
and reappear

1412
01:06:27.157 --> 01:06:29.420
in many of Vonnegut's books.

1413
01:06:30.551 --> 01:06:32.597
Kilgore Trout is different
in every book.

1414
01:06:33.076 --> 01:06:34.947
So he's not a very
consistent character

1415
01:06:35.078 --> 01:06:37.689
but he is consistently
a science fiction writer.

1416
01:06:39.734 --> 01:06:41.258
[Gregory Sumner]
Trout was based on

1417
01:06:41.388 --> 01:06:44.696
an actual science fiction writer
named Theodore Sturgeon.

1418
01:06:45.523 --> 01:06:46.698
You can get the pun there.

1419
01:06:47.742 --> 01:06:50.006
Vonnegut met him when he was
down on his luck

1420
01:06:50.136 --> 01:06:53.052
up at the Cape writing for
a penny a word.

1421
01:06:53.183 --> 01:06:55.272
So he admired Sturgeon
but he also saw--

1422
01:06:55.402 --> 01:06:57.361
look at the life he's living.

1423
01:06:57.491 --> 01:06:59.363
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Trout's employer
and co-workers

1424
01:06:59.493 --> 01:07:01.321
"had no idea
that he was a writer.

1425
01:07:01.452 --> 01:07:03.454
[continues reading]

1426
01:07:09.286 --> 01:07:11.505
I think, psychologically,
Kilgore Trout

1427
01:07:11.636 --> 01:07:13.594
is what I thought
I might become.

1428
01:07:15.466 --> 01:07:18.077
One woman said that Kilgore
in the different books

1429
01:07:18.208 --> 01:07:21.559
represents my
psychological state.

1430
01:07:22.473 --> 01:07:26.129
I think it's pretty clear that
he's an alter ego of Kurt's.

1431
01:07:26.259 --> 01:07:28.914
He's a doppelganger,
a dark twin.

1432
01:07:29.567 --> 01:07:32.135
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I don't mind people
calling me Kilgore.

1433
01:07:32.265 --> 01:07:34.311
Most authors will say that,
you know,

1434
01:07:34.441 --> 01:07:36.400
laymen are so stupid
to think that

1435
01:07:36.530 --> 01:07:38.445
I'm talking about
my own life.

1436
01:07:38.706 --> 01:07:41.318
My position is it's all I have
to talk about,

1437
01:07:41.448 --> 01:07:43.450
and, uh-- uh--

1438
01:07:43.581 --> 01:07:46.627
I'll take full responsibility
for having experienced

1439
01:07:46.758 --> 01:07:48.194
every event in any book.

1440
01:07:50.283 --> 01:07:51.676
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
In 1965,

1441
01:07:51.806 --> 01:07:53.504
when even
the novels weren't selling,

1442
01:07:53.634 --> 01:07:57.073
he had to submit to
the worst humiliation

1443
01:07:57.203 --> 01:07:59.771
any human being can suffer.

1444
01:07:59.901 --> 01:08:02.861
He had to come to Iowa
to teach college.

1445
01:08:03.383 --> 01:08:05.385
-[cow bells clanking]
-[mooing]

1446
01:08:07.170 --> 01:08:10.216
♪

1447
01:08:10.521 --> 01:08:12.305
[man] If you're not
making enough money

1448
01:08:12.436 --> 01:08:13.959
to support yourself
as a writer,

1449
01:08:14.090 --> 01:08:15.613
and you need to have
a teaching job,

1450
01:08:15.743 --> 01:08:17.528
a job in Iowa
is a really good one.

1451
01:08:18.572 --> 01:08:21.575
Most of the other MFA students,
they hadn't read him.

1452
01:08:21.706 --> 01:08:24.970
They had written him off on
the basis of his reputation

1453
01:08:25.101 --> 01:08:27.015
or lack thereof,

1454
01:08:27.146 --> 01:08:29.148
and I thought he was
fascinating.

1455
01:08:29.496 --> 01:08:32.456
It was very compelling to me
to be in the presence of

1456
01:08:32.586 --> 01:08:33.848
someone who said,

1457
01:08:33.979 --> 01:08:37.330
"It's not just all right
to be an entertainer

1458
01:08:37.461 --> 01:08:39.637
and a serious writer,

1459
01:08:39.767 --> 01:08:41.465
but if you're going to be
serious,

1460
01:08:41.595 --> 01:08:43.467
you better also be entertaining.

1461
01:08:45.251 --> 01:08:47.514
[Nanny Vonnegut]
And we had a crummy
little house we rented,

1462
01:08:47.645 --> 01:08:50.474
and Andre Debus was
one house next to us.

1463
01:08:51.518 --> 01:08:54.913
For the first time,
he met other writers,

1464
01:08:55.043 --> 01:08:56.915
uh, of his stature.

1465
01:08:57.045 --> 01:08:59.265
Nelson Algren,
Richard Gates,

1466
01:08:59.396 --> 01:09:01.224
Vance Bourjaily.

1467
01:09:01.354 --> 01:09:03.313
He suddenly felt like, oh,

1468
01:09:03.443 --> 01:09:06.664
he was part of
the writing community.

1469
01:09:07.708 --> 01:09:10.189
[Gregory Sumner]
It became two of
the happiest years of his life.

1470
01:09:10.320 --> 01:09:13.061
It led to the breakthrough of
him discovering

1471
01:09:13.192 --> 01:09:14.802
how to use his own voice
in fiction.

1472
01:09:15.803 --> 01:09:17.892
Hanging around these other
creative people,

1473
01:09:18.023 --> 01:09:19.720
they gave him some ideas about

1474
01:09:19.851 --> 01:09:22.462
how you can tell
a rather untellable story.

1475
01:09:23.942 --> 01:09:26.205
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"I taught in the afternoon.

1476
01:09:26.336 --> 01:09:28.033
"In the mornings,
I wrote.

1477
01:09:28.164 --> 01:09:30.383
"I was not to be disturbed.

1478
01:09:30.514 --> 01:09:33.125
I was working on my famous book
about Dresden."

1479
01:09:33.256 --> 01:09:35.867
[typewriter clacking]

1480
01:09:40.872 --> 01:09:42.395
"Listen:

1481
01:09:42.526 --> 01:09:43.831
"Billy Pilgrim has come...

1482
01:09:43.962 --> 01:09:46.007
[typewriter clacking]

1483
01:09:49.750 --> 01:09:51.230
[Bob Weide]
When it came time
to sit down

1484
01:09:51.361 --> 01:09:52.927
and write your book
on Dresden,

1485
01:09:53.058 --> 01:09:55.539
didn't you find some difficulty
in recalling?

1486
01:09:58.498 --> 01:10:01.197
♪

1487
01:10:01.327 --> 01:10:03.286
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"When I got home from
the Second World War,

1488
01:10:03.416 --> 01:10:05.070
"23 years ago,

1489
01:10:05.201 --> 01:10:07.507
"I thought it would be easy
for me to write about

1490
01:10:07.638 --> 01:10:09.292
"the destruction
of Dresden,

1491
01:10:09.422 --> 01:10:11.119
"since all I would have to do
would be to

1492
01:10:11.250 --> 01:10:12.773
"report what I had seen.

1493
01:10:12.904 --> 01:10:14.819
"And I thought, too, that it
would be a masterpiece

1494
01:10:14.949 --> 01:10:16.951
"or at least make me
a lot of money.

1495
01:10:17.082 --> 01:10:20.520
"But not many words about
Dresden came from my mind then.

1496
01:10:20.651 --> 01:10:22.957
"And not many words
come now, either,

1497
01:10:23.088 --> 01:10:25.656
"when I've become an old fart
with his memories

1498
01:10:25.786 --> 01:10:26.918
and his Pall Malls."

1499
01:10:27.484 --> 01:10:29.964
[Bob Weide] He was always
working his way up to

1500
01:10:30.095 --> 01:10:31.575
Slaughterhouse-Five,

1501
01:10:31.705 --> 01:10:34.491
and he just couldn't find
the key.

1502
01:10:34.621 --> 01:10:36.057
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"When I was
somewhat younger

1503
01:10:36.188 --> 01:10:38.234
"working on my famous
Dresden book,

1504
01:10:38.364 --> 01:10:41.498
"I asked an old war buddy
named Bernard V. O'Hare

1505
01:10:41.628 --> 01:10:42.977
if I could come to see him."

1506
01:10:43.108 --> 01:10:45.241
[David Ulin]
O'Hare's wife, Mary,
she says,

1507
01:10:45.371 --> 01:10:49.201
"You're gonna write a book
that is going to glorify war,

1508
01:10:49.332 --> 01:10:50.898
"and people are going to
read it and think

1509
01:10:51.029 --> 01:10:52.944
it's fine to send all
these kids off to war."

1510
01:10:53.074 --> 01:10:55.251
And it's an eye-opening moment
for Vonnegut.

1511
01:10:57.775 --> 01:11:00.778
The war in Vietnam is not like
these other wars.

1512
01:11:01.909 --> 01:11:05.086
[Lyndon Johnson]
Yet war is always the same.

1513
01:11:05.435 --> 01:11:09.221
It is young men dying in
the fullness of their promise.

1514
01:11:12.093 --> 01:11:13.834
[David Ulin]
Mary O'Hare,
she shamed him and said,

1515
01:11:13.965 --> 01:11:15.662
"Write about what
really happened.

1516
01:11:17.142 --> 01:11:18.448
You were babies."

1517
01:11:22.190 --> 01:11:23.540
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I would hate to tell you

1518
01:11:23.670 --> 01:11:25.150
what this lousy little book
cost me,

1519
01:11:25.281 --> 01:11:27.718
in money and anxiety
and time.

1520
01:11:28.675 --> 01:11:31.809
When you go through
all the various drafts

1521
01:11:31.939 --> 01:11:34.420
and iterations of
Slaughterhouse-Five
through the years,

1522
01:11:34.551 --> 01:11:37.380
you become very aware of
Vonnegut's struggle

1523
01:11:37.510 --> 01:11:38.642
and his perseverance.

1524
01:11:39.469 --> 01:11:41.906
He's trying everything
to get it right.

1525
01:11:43.037 --> 01:11:45.213
Some drafts are written
first person,

1526
01:11:45.344 --> 01:11:47.955
sometimes it's Vonnegut's
point of view,

1527
01:11:48.086 --> 01:11:50.610
sometimes it's a made up name.

1528
01:11:51.307 --> 01:11:53.483
Sometimes the narrator
is already dead,

1529
01:11:53.613 --> 01:11:55.180
and narrating from the grave.

1530
01:11:55.311 --> 01:11:57.182
Billy Pilgrim's name
keeps changing.

1531
01:12:00.751 --> 01:12:02.622
The title of the book
keeps changing.

1532
01:12:04.363 --> 01:12:07.279
He's constantly auditioning
different openings for the book,

1533
01:12:07.410 --> 01:12:10.151
different prefaces
and forwards.

1534
01:12:11.065 --> 01:12:13.764
He's often doodling and
drawing on the pages

1535
01:12:13.894 --> 01:12:15.505
as if to clear his head.

1536
01:12:17.245 --> 01:12:19.378
At one point, he gives up
trying to write it

1537
01:12:19.509 --> 01:12:20.553
as a novel altogether,

1538
01:12:20.684 --> 01:12:22.512
and he tries to write it
as a play.

1539
01:12:22.903 --> 01:12:25.645
In-- In one version, uh,
middle-age Billy Pilgrim

1540
01:12:25.776 --> 01:12:28.213
receives a crank phone call
from a drunken Vonnegut

1541
01:12:28.344 --> 01:12:29.954
who taunts Billy
by telling him

1542
01:12:30.084 --> 01:12:32.696
he's a fictional character in
a book Vonnegut is writing.

1543
01:12:32.826 --> 01:12:35.481
And remember, this is, you know,
in the days before computers,

1544
01:12:35.612 --> 01:12:37.265
so he's not
cutting and pasting.

1545
01:12:37.396 --> 01:12:39.964
Every new attempt is
a page one rewrite.

1546
01:12:40.268 --> 01:12:41.922
Sometimes he's
halfway through the novel

1547
01:12:42.053 --> 01:12:43.620
before he starts
all over again.

1548
01:12:43.750 --> 01:12:46.231
Sometimes he changes course
after an opening paragraph.

1549
01:12:46.666 --> 01:12:48.494
But he just won't give up.

1550
01:12:48.799 --> 01:12:52.846
You just see him persevering
and rewriting again and again,

1551
01:12:52.977 --> 01:12:55.066
and he just can't
crack the code.

1552
01:12:56.589 --> 01:12:59.636
It's like he's not just trying
to get a bead on the book;

1553
01:12:59.766 --> 01:13:01.812
it's almost like he's
trying to purge

1554
01:13:01.942 --> 01:13:04.205
the whole Dresden experience
from his soul

1555
01:13:04.336 --> 01:13:05.381
once and for all.

1556
01:13:06.512 --> 01:13:08.471
And just when you think
Dresden

1557
01:13:08.601 --> 01:13:10.690
is about to claim yet
one more victim...

1558
01:13:13.214 --> 01:13:14.172
he nails it.

1559
01:13:14.302 --> 01:13:17.349
♪

1560
01:13:21.048 --> 01:13:24.400
[Edie Vonnegut]
In 1969 when
Slaughterhouse-Five came out,

1561
01:13:25.139 --> 01:13:26.924
that was the big kaboom.

1562
01:13:27.054 --> 01:13:28.491
The current idol of
the country's

1563
01:13:28.621 --> 01:13:30.362
sensitive and
intelligent young people,

1564
01:13:30.493 --> 01:13:32.451
is 47 years old.

1565
01:13:32.582 --> 01:13:34.845
Slaughterhouse-Five
was the breakthrough

1566
01:13:34.975 --> 01:13:38.109
because it was the right place
at the right time.

1567
01:13:38.239 --> 01:13:41.591
It was in the ugliest phase of
the Vietnam War

1568
01:13:41.721 --> 01:13:45.508
in the ugliest phase of our
domestic crises at home.

1569
01:13:46.378 --> 01:13:48.032
[Morley Safer]
His gentle fantasies of peace

1570
01:13:48.162 --> 01:13:51.165
and his dark humor are
as current among the young

1571
01:13:51.296 --> 01:13:53.864
as was J.D. Salinger's work
in the 1950s.

1572
01:13:54.299 --> 01:13:55.779
[Edie Vonnegut]
Fans would come to the door,

1573
01:13:55.909 --> 01:13:57.694
and wanting to know if
he lived here,

1574
01:13:57.824 --> 01:13:59.304
and they would end up
coming in,

1575
01:13:59.435 --> 01:14:02.002
and sometimes they'd stay
for three or four days.

1576
01:14:04.178 --> 01:14:05.789
[Nanny Vonnegut]
The sudden money coming in

1577
01:14:05.919 --> 01:14:07.530
was a total shock.

1578
01:14:08.139 --> 01:14:09.619
And he just couldn't
believe it.

1579
01:14:09.749 --> 01:14:11.098
I remember at the dinner table,
he said,

1580
01:14:11.229 --> 01:14:13.492
I have money coming out of
my ears. [laughs]

1581
01:14:14.101 --> 01:14:16.974
It was, like, fun and new,
like he had arrived.

1582
01:14:17.104 --> 01:14:19.542
♪

1583
01:14:19.672 --> 01:14:22.066
[Edie Vonnegut]
All of our friends wanting to
come over and visit,

1584
01:14:22.196 --> 01:14:24.024
'cause Lifemagazine
was here.

1585
01:14:24.155 --> 01:14:27.245
♪

1586
01:14:27.811 --> 01:14:30.074
This is the biggest thing that
came to this town.

1587
01:14:30.814 --> 01:14:32.903
And then when that
article came out

1588
01:14:33.033 --> 01:14:34.992
there was these big pictures
of our kitchen,

1589
01:14:35.122 --> 01:14:37.908
and our father
getting a haircut and...

1590
01:14:38.038 --> 01:14:40.693
me standing there with
a paintbrush.

1591
01:14:40.824 --> 01:14:43.479
It was just extraordinary.

1592
01:14:45.959 --> 01:14:48.179
[Nanny Vonnegut]
And I was getting attention,
Edie was getting attention,

1593
01:14:48.309 --> 01:14:50.790
everybody loved us because
we were with this doofus,

1594
01:14:50.921 --> 01:14:52.836
our father.
[laughs]

1595
01:14:52.966 --> 01:14:54.707
[Jim Adams] Norman Mailer
came to the house

1596
01:14:54.838 --> 01:14:57.275
and Jane was
excited about that.

1597
01:14:57.405 --> 01:14:59.320
I'll never forget, she came into
the kitchen and,

1598
01:14:59.451 --> 01:15:01.061
"Jimmy, you got any pot?"

1599
01:15:01.192 --> 01:15:02.759
[laughing]

1600
01:15:02.889 --> 01:15:04.195
[Nanny Vonnegut]
Peter Fonda,

1601
01:15:04.325 --> 01:15:06.066
he wanted to buy
the rights to Cat's Cradle,

1602
01:15:06.197 --> 01:15:07.938
so he made a pilgrimage.
[laughs]

1603
01:15:08.068 --> 01:15:09.113
We couldn't believe it.

1604
01:15:09.243 --> 01:15:11.071
It was just after
Easy Rider,

1605
01:15:11.202 --> 01:15:14.640
and I had a girlfriend
that didn't really think
I was that great.

1606
01:15:14.771 --> 01:15:16.468
But I told her,
"Hey, listen,

1607
01:15:16.599 --> 01:15:18.905
Peter Fonda's gonna be
over at our house.

1608
01:15:19.036 --> 01:15:20.951
She says, "Really? Okay."
And we-- we all came back,

1609
01:15:21.081 --> 01:15:23.475
and we all sat around and we're
talking with Peter Fonda,

1610
01:15:23.867 --> 01:15:25.782
and it-- it did the trick.

1611
01:15:25.912 --> 01:15:27.305
[laughig]

1612
01:15:27.435 --> 01:15:28.524
Thanks, Kurt.

1613
01:15:28.654 --> 01:15:30.221
[man] Do you mind being
middle-aged?

1614
01:15:30.351 --> 01:15:31.831
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Yes, I mind.
I think a terrible mistake

1615
01:15:31.962 --> 01:15:33.180
has been made somehow.

1616
01:15:33.311 --> 01:15:35.400
I suspect that I'm
21 years old,

1617
01:15:35.531 --> 01:15:37.489
that I've been
misclassified,

1618
01:15:37.794 --> 01:15:41.362
somehow,
or time has slipped.

1619
01:15:41.493 --> 01:15:43.495
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
When he paperback of
Slaughterhouse-Five came out,

1620
01:15:43.626 --> 01:15:46.846
all the previous novels were
reissued in a uniform edition.

1621
01:15:46.977 --> 01:15:49.457
It was just making it clear that
Slaughterhouse-Five

1622
01:15:49.588 --> 01:15:51.068
did not exist in a vacuum.

1623
01:15:51.198 --> 01:15:54.332
This spoke for 20 years of
a writing career,

1624
01:15:54.462 --> 01:15:58.510
and a coherent, very interesting
human being behind them.

1625
01:15:58.641 --> 01:16:00.164
[Morley Safer]
Vonnegut spends
most of his time

1626
01:16:00.294 --> 01:16:02.862
in he tranquility of
Cape Cod where he lives.

1627
01:16:02.993 --> 01:16:04.560
But now he can be found
in New York

1628
01:16:04.690 --> 01:16:06.692
in a theater in
Greenwich Village

1629
01:16:06.823 --> 01:16:08.738
agonizing over his new play,

1630
01:16:08.868 --> 01:16:10.740
Happy Birthday,
Wanda June.

1631
01:16:10.870 --> 01:16:13.438
♪

1632
01:16:13.569 --> 01:16:15.962
[Nanny Vonnegut]
That was a big family excitement
going to that opening,

1633
01:16:16.093 --> 01:16:18.312
to be in New York City and
getting all dressed up.

1634
01:16:18.791 --> 01:16:20.619
Oh, my mother was so proud.

1635
01:16:20.750 --> 01:16:22.752
It was just very exciting.

1636
01:16:23.100 --> 01:16:25.929
I knew he would be great,
but I never envisioned,

1637
01:16:26.059 --> 01:16:27.974
like, that kind of movie star
type of thing,

1638
01:16:28.105 --> 01:16:29.497
people wanting to take
your pictures.

1639
01:16:29.628 --> 01:16:30.803
That was fun.

1640
01:16:30.934 --> 01:16:32.109
That was a lot of fun.

1641
01:16:32.762 --> 01:16:34.328
But it wasn't
a lot of fun when--

1642
01:16:34.459 --> 01:16:35.721
when he didn't want to
come home.

1643
01:16:36.548 --> 01:16:39.856
♪

1644
01:16:40.117 --> 01:16:42.423
[Edie Vonnegut]
There was a woman
photographing him

1645
01:16:42.554 --> 01:16:44.643
and they started
a relationship.

1646
01:16:45.252 --> 01:16:47.254
And she was a lot younger
than my mother.

1647
01:16:47.690 --> 01:16:50.344
[camera shutter clicking]

1648
01:16:51.389 --> 01:16:53.260
And he stayed with her.

1649
01:16:54.305 --> 01:16:56.002
And eventually married her.

1650
01:16:57.351 --> 01:17:00.267
And left my mother here
on the Cape.

1651
01:17:00.398 --> 01:17:02.661
[man on P.A.]
...for Toronto
now boarding flight one.

1652
01:17:02.792 --> 01:17:03.880
[snapping]

1653
01:17:04.010 --> 01:17:05.272
[indistinct dialog]

1654
01:17:06.404 --> 01:17:09.233
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Big problem has probably
been noticed in this church.

1655
01:17:09.363 --> 01:17:11.235
A lot of people are
getting divorced.

1656
01:17:11.670 --> 01:17:13.150
What's the trouble?

1657
01:17:13.280 --> 01:17:14.934
Well, the people who are getting
divorced don't know why.

1658
01:17:15.456 --> 01:17:17.720
I don't know, I really--
I love you a lot.

1659
01:17:18.198 --> 01:17:20.157
'Cause I love you more than
when we were married.

1660
01:17:20.897 --> 01:17:22.289
But something's wrong.

1661
01:17:24.074 --> 01:17:26.467
♪

1662
01:17:26.598 --> 01:17:28.121
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I like the house,
I like the kids,

1663
01:17:28.252 --> 01:17:29.906
and it's gonna be
a terrible strain on the kids,

1664
01:17:30.036 --> 01:17:30.994
but I'm sorry.

1665
01:17:31.124 --> 01:17:33.083
I just can't go on this way.

1666
01:17:33.910 --> 01:17:35.476
I can't describe
what's wrong,

1667
01:17:35.607 --> 01:17:37.435
all I know is
something's wrong.

1668
01:17:39.872 --> 01:17:41.526
[Nanny Vonnegut]
He always keeps
repeating to me,

1669
01:17:41.657 --> 01:17:43.920
watch out for
the empty nest syndrome.

1670
01:17:44.050 --> 01:17:46.226
It's devastating when
all the kids are gone.

1671
01:17:46.357 --> 01:17:49.534
And I think he couldn't handle
the quiet around here.

1672
01:17:51.318 --> 01:17:54.017
[Kurt Adams]
It was pretty clear that
Kurt's famous now,

1673
01:17:54.147 --> 01:17:57.585
and he's left his drab life
behind on Cape Cod.

1674
01:17:57.716 --> 01:18:00.197
and now he's living
the celebrity life

1675
01:18:00.327 --> 01:18:02.460
in the fast lane
of Manhattan.

1676
01:18:03.766 --> 01:18:06.246
[Edie Vonnegut]
It must have been
a very heady time for him.

1677
01:18:06.725 --> 01:18:09.597
His books selling,
movies being made,

1678
01:18:09.728 --> 01:18:12.122
It must have just been
incredibly seductive.

1679
01:18:14.167 --> 01:18:16.561
[Mark Vonnegut]
I wish it didn't hurt him
in the way it hurt him,

1680
01:18:16.692 --> 01:18:18.606
but, um,
I think fame is

1681
01:18:18.737 --> 01:18:21.087
a horrible destructive thing
to do to people.

1682
01:18:22.393 --> 01:18:25.222
[Jim Adams]
It wasn't until he died that
I stopped doing this,

1683
01:18:25.352 --> 01:18:27.050
but I thought that
I hated him.

1684
01:18:27.659 --> 01:18:29.617
I hated the way
he treated Jane.

1685
01:18:29.748 --> 01:18:31.750
Jane supported him
and loved him,

1686
01:18:31.881 --> 01:18:34.231
and did everything in her power
to back him up,

1687
01:18:34.361 --> 01:18:36.712
and, uh...

1688
01:18:36.842 --> 01:18:38.148
he threw it all away.

1689
01:18:40.759 --> 01:18:43.980
[Nanny Vonnegut]
My parents were partners in
this for 20 years,

1690
01:18:44.110 --> 01:18:47.331
and I don't think my mother
ever expected that

1691
01:18:47.461 --> 01:18:49.028
she wouldn't
always be part of it.

1692
01:18:49.159 --> 01:18:51.901
She was the kind of woman who
wanted to meet everybody.

1693
01:18:52.031 --> 01:18:54.033
You know, she wanted to meet
John Updike,

1694
01:18:54.164 --> 01:18:56.819
and Doctorow and
George Plimpton,

1695
01:18:56.949 --> 01:18:59.212
she would have been perfect at
all those cocktail parties.

1696
01:18:59.343 --> 01:19:01.519
Here they had finally
worked to this point,

1697
01:19:01.649 --> 01:19:03.477
and she was waiting to,
you know,

1698
01:19:03.608 --> 01:19:05.262
enjoy the benefits, too.

1699
01:19:06.306 --> 01:19:08.787
The beauty of Jane is
she was not devastated.

1700
01:19:08.918 --> 01:19:10.833
She thought this would
all end fine,

1701
01:19:10.963 --> 01:19:14.053
and, uh, to a certain extent,
she was right.

1702
01:19:14.184 --> 01:19:15.402
[Edie Vonnegut]
In the end,

1703
01:19:15.533 --> 01:19:17.143
she found
a wonderful man to live with.

1704
01:19:20.625 --> 01:19:21.974
[Nanny Vonnegut]
She was not bitter at all,

1705
01:19:22.105 --> 01:19:26.022
and always, uh,
believed in him as a writer,

1706
01:19:26.152 --> 01:19:27.327
was so proud of him

1707
01:19:27.458 --> 01:19:29.242
every time he came out with
a new book

1708
01:19:29.373 --> 01:19:30.635
when they weren't married.

1709
01:19:31.592 --> 01:19:33.681
She'd be laughing, you know,
sitting in the backyard

1710
01:19:33.812 --> 01:19:36.162
and just shaking her head,
like, guy's still got it.

1711
01:19:36.293 --> 01:19:38.121
[chuckles]
He's so funny.

1712
01:19:38.861 --> 01:19:40.993
They were in touch
to the end.

1713
01:19:41.124 --> 01:19:44.170
♪

1714
01:19:45.911 --> 01:19:47.565
But this chapter

1715
01:19:47.695 --> 01:19:49.915
being on the Cape
as a whole family...

1716
01:19:50.046 --> 01:19:51.308
was over just like that.

1717
01:19:53.832 --> 01:19:55.921
[woman] I want you to tell me
that you loved me once.

1718
01:19:56.530 --> 01:19:57.880
Oh, for Christ's sake.

1719
01:19:58.010 --> 01:20:00.534
I mean it. I must have that
and so must Paul.

1720
01:20:01.013 --> 01:20:04.016
Tell him that
he was conceived in love

1721
01:20:04.147 --> 01:20:06.018
even if you hate me now.

1722
01:20:06.845 --> 01:20:09.369
Tell us both that
somewhere in our lives

1723
01:20:09.500 --> 01:20:10.806
was love.

1724
01:20:11.545 --> 01:20:12.982
[Bob Weide]
In 2001,

1725
01:20:13.112 --> 01:20:14.853
my wife, Linda, and I were
on the phone with Kurt.

1726
01:20:14.984 --> 01:20:16.812
I remember Linda
saying to Kurt,

1727
01:20:16.942 --> 01:20:18.465
"What do we gotta do
to get you out here?"

1728
01:20:18.596 --> 01:20:19.902
Kurt said,
"Well, I'll come out if

1729
01:20:20.032 --> 01:20:21.555
"Bob directs Happy Birthday,
Wanda June,

1730
01:20:21.686 --> 01:20:23.688
and if you play Penelope."

1731
01:20:23.819 --> 01:20:25.777
Stay or go,
talk or sulk,

1732
01:20:25.908 --> 01:20:27.387
laugh or cry as you wish,

1733
01:20:27.518 --> 01:20:28.736
do whatever seems
called for.

1734
01:20:28.867 --> 01:20:30.477
My mind is gone.

1735
01:20:30.608 --> 01:20:32.479
-[laughter]
-Bye!

1736
01:20:32.610 --> 01:20:34.220
[applause]

1737
01:20:34.351 --> 01:20:35.831
[Bob Weide]
Linda was sensational
in it, of course.

1738
01:20:35.961 --> 01:20:39.182
But we hit a bit of a snag
because...

1739
01:20:39.312 --> 01:20:42.446
a few weeks before we opened,
in the middle of rehearsal,

1740
01:20:42.576 --> 01:20:45.188
came September 11, 2001.

1741
01:20:45.318 --> 01:20:49.540
And so he apologetically said
that he wasn't gonna make it up.

1742
01:20:57.156 --> 01:21:00.420
Yeah, after 9/11, he wasn't
a big fan of flying,

1743
01:21:00.551 --> 01:21:02.248
so usually when we
got together

1744
01:21:02.379 --> 01:21:04.076
it was in New York,
which was fine with me.

1745
01:21:04.207 --> 01:21:06.992
♪

1746
01:21:07.123 --> 01:21:10.213
There were a lot of lunches,
a lot of walks on the east side.

1747
01:21:10.822 --> 01:21:12.824
And fans would always
recognize him,

1748
01:21:12.955 --> 01:21:14.391
and come up to him and say,
"Oh, Mr. Vonnegut,

1749
01:21:14.521 --> 01:21:15.566
I've read all your books,"

1750
01:21:15.696 --> 01:21:17.829
or "Your work has
saved my life."

1751
01:21:17.960 --> 01:21:19.570
And I'd be with him
thinking,

1752
01:21:19.831 --> 01:21:21.180
"Why am I with him?"

1753
01:21:21.746 --> 01:21:22.790
I should be that guy.

1754
01:21:23.487 --> 01:21:25.358
And he would always
engage them,

1755
01:21:25.489 --> 01:21:27.883
he would always ask their name
and where they're from.

1756
01:21:28.013 --> 01:21:31.103
He was sort of
the anti Salinger writer.

1757
01:21:31.234 --> 01:21:33.627
But by this time,
he was something of a
New York landmark.

1758
01:21:33.758 --> 01:21:36.500
He had lived in the city
longer than he had in

1759
01:21:36.630 --> 01:21:38.328
Indianapolis or Cape Cod.

1760
01:21:38.632 --> 01:21:40.286
Ever since he moved there
in 1970

1761
01:21:40.417 --> 01:21:41.679
when his first marriage
went bust.

1762
01:21:41.809 --> 01:21:44.856
♪

1763
01:21:44.987 --> 01:21:48.773
♪ Yeah, this is
a mean old world ♪

1764
01:21:48.904 --> 01:21:52.124
♪ Baby, to live in
by yourself ♪

1765
01:21:52.690 --> 01:21:54.735
[Gregory Sumner]
The '70s were
a tough time for him.

1766
01:21:54.866 --> 01:21:56.476
Divorce,
sudden celebrity,

1767
01:21:56.607 --> 01:21:58.130
sudden fame and wealth.

1768
01:21:58.261 --> 01:22:00.263
He's sort of almost having
a nervous breakdown

1769
01:22:00.393 --> 01:22:03.005
in a culture that is having
a nervous breakdown.

1770
01:22:03.135 --> 01:22:06.095
♪ Someday, someday,
baby ♪

1771
01:22:06.225 --> 01:22:09.315
♪ I'll be six feet
in my bed ♪

1772
01:22:09.446 --> 01:22:10.751
[man on TV]
Bruce Jenner.

1773
01:22:10.882 --> 01:22:12.014
Wheaties is
the breakfast of champions.

1774
01:22:12.144 --> 01:22:13.624
He didn't quite know
where he was going

1775
01:22:13.754 --> 01:22:15.060
after Slaughterhouse-Five.

1776
01:22:15.191 --> 01:22:16.757
It has been proved

1777
01:22:16.888 --> 01:22:20.848
that if a writer is blocked,
is unable to write,

1778
01:22:20.979 --> 01:22:23.808
the psychological consequences
are terrible.

1779
01:22:23.939 --> 01:22:26.028
Frequently,
nervous breakdowns.

1780
01:22:26.419 --> 01:22:27.986
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Everybody was hanging on

1781
01:22:28.117 --> 01:22:29.596
every word he was writing.

1782
01:22:29.727 --> 01:22:31.990
No matter what he wrote,
it was gonna go to number one

1783
01:22:32.121 --> 01:22:34.384
on The New York Times
best seller list.

1784
01:22:34.514 --> 01:22:35.733
And all of a sudden,

1785
01:22:35.863 --> 01:22:38.344
having this responsibility
locked him up.

1786
01:22:38.910 --> 01:22:40.477
He thought he could have

1787
01:22:40.607 --> 01:22:42.870
Breakfast of Championswritten
in a year and a half.

1788
01:22:43.001 --> 01:22:44.829
It took him four years.

1789
01:22:47.832 --> 01:22:48.746
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"This is a tale of...

1790
01:22:48.876 --> 01:22:50.922
[continues reading]

1791
01:22:58.277 --> 01:23:01.802
[Gregory Sumner]
It's such a relentless
interrogation of our

1792
01:23:01.933 --> 01:23:06.372
junk history and our junk
culture in the early '70s.

1793
01:23:06.503 --> 01:23:07.939
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"We Americans require

1794
01:23:08.070 --> 01:23:09.506
"symbols which are
richly colored

1795
01:23:09.636 --> 01:23:11.203
"and three dimensional
and juicy,

1796
01:23:11.334 --> 01:23:13.466
"which have not been
poisoned by great sins

1797
01:23:13.597 --> 01:23:15.164
"our nation has committed,

1798
01:23:15.294 --> 01:23:17.688
"such as slavery and genocide,
and criminal neglect,

1799
01:23:17.818 --> 01:23:20.082
or by tin-horned
commercial greed and cunning."

1800
01:23:20.212 --> 01:23:21.953
[Gregory Sumner]
He tells you
right at the beginning

1801
01:23:22.084 --> 01:23:24.042
I'm trying to get the junk
out of my mind

1802
01:23:24.173 --> 01:23:27.959
the debased language and
the lies and the racism.

1803
01:23:28.090 --> 01:23:29.700
All the poisons that
I've taken in,

1804
01:23:29.830 --> 01:23:31.049
I want to get rid of them.

1805
01:23:31.180 --> 01:23:33.182
[Kurt Vonnegut singing ditty]

1806
01:23:42.191 --> 01:23:45.846
For me, the real effect of
Breakfast Of Championswas

1807
01:23:45.977 --> 01:23:49.459
the use of the art,
the use of the drawings.

1808
01:23:49.589 --> 01:23:52.070
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Kilgore Trout's nation
was by far the richest

1809
01:23:52.201 --> 01:23:54.116
"and the most powerful country
on the planet,

1810
01:23:54.246 --> 01:23:55.856
"and it disciplined
other countries

1811
01:23:55.987 --> 01:23:57.902
"by threatening to shoot
big rockets at them

1812
01:23:58.033 --> 01:24:00.557
"or to drop things on them
from airplanes,

1813
01:24:00.687 --> 01:24:03.821
"and still the people went on
fucking all the time.

1814
01:24:03.951 --> 01:24:06.041
Fucking was how babies
were made."

1815
01:24:06.345 --> 01:24:08.173
He was blurring lines,

1816
01:24:08.304 --> 01:24:10.436
but he was doing it in ways
that were funny,

1817
01:24:10.567 --> 01:24:11.655
that were accessible.

1818
01:24:11.785 --> 01:24:13.787
thinking beyond what
one would assume

1819
01:24:13.918 --> 01:24:15.485
could be done on the page.

1820
01:24:15.615 --> 01:24:16.964
[Kurt Vonnegut]
In my new book,

1821
01:24:17.095 --> 01:24:18.923
I confront Kilgore Trout.

1822
01:24:19.054 --> 01:24:21.230
I finally acknowledge that I did
invent him,

1823
01:24:21.360 --> 01:24:23.841
and he had imagination enough
to know that

1824
01:24:23.971 --> 01:24:26.800
maybe he was somebody
in somebody else's book.

1825
01:24:26.931 --> 01:24:28.976
[Kurt Vonnegut reading]

1826
01:24:39.552 --> 01:24:42.903
Since anything I say in writing
happens to him,

1827
01:24:43.034 --> 01:24:44.644
because he is my creation,

1828
01:24:44.775 --> 01:24:46.820
and I give him his freedom,
and this is, uh--

1829
01:24:46.951 --> 01:24:48.909
I will never use him
in a book again.

1830
01:24:49.040 --> 01:24:50.563
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"I'm approaching
my 50th birthday,

1831
01:24:50.694 --> 01:24:52.391
Mr. Trout," I said.

1832
01:24:52.522 --> 01:24:54.437
"I'm cleansing and
renewing myself

1833
01:24:54.567 --> 01:24:56.830
"for the very different sorts
of years to come.

1834
01:24:56.961 --> 01:25:00.138
"I'm going to set at liberty
all the literary characters

1835
01:25:00.269 --> 01:25:03.402
"who have served me so loyally
during my writing career.

1836
01:25:03.533 --> 01:25:05.622
"You are the only one
I am telling.

1837
01:25:05.752 --> 01:25:08.581
"Arise, Mr. Trout,
you are free.

1838
01:25:08.712 --> 01:25:09.800
You're free."

1839
01:25:10.496 --> 01:25:12.237
[David Ulin] I mean,
it's a remarkable moment

1840
01:25:12.368 --> 01:25:14.761
He as the, kind of,
creator of those stories

1841
01:25:14.892 --> 01:25:16.415
was as important to the stories

1842
01:25:16.546 --> 01:25:18.678
as the characters
he was writing about.

1843
01:25:19.636 --> 01:25:21.638
[Kurt Vonnegut reading]

1844
01:25:27.165 --> 01:25:28.558
"You're afraid you'll
kill yourself

1845
01:25:28.688 --> 01:25:30.037
the way your mother did,
I said."

1846
01:25:30.168 --> 01:25:32.083
[typewriter clacking]

1847
01:25:32.214 --> 01:25:33.432
"I know, I said."

1848
01:25:34.651 --> 01:25:35.695
[snapping]

1849
01:25:36.566 --> 01:25:38.568
[birds chirping]

1850
01:25:46.837 --> 01:25:49.187
Would have been 1943,
I guess.

1851
01:25:53.235 --> 01:25:54.888
She died in this house.

1852
01:25:55.019 --> 01:25:58.065
♪

1853
01:25:59.980 --> 01:26:01.373
[Kurt Vonnegut]
It was Mother's Day.

1854
01:26:01.721 --> 01:26:04.420
My sister and I,
uh, found her.

1855
01:26:05.595 --> 01:26:06.944
It was upstairs.

1856
01:26:07.466 --> 01:26:09.251
Indeed, she was dead.

1857
01:26:10.382 --> 01:26:11.818
It was a Marilyn Monroe thing,

1858
01:26:11.949 --> 01:26:13.994
it was a combination of
pills and alcohol.

1859
01:26:14.125 --> 01:26:15.431
A lot of pills.

1860
01:26:15.779 --> 01:26:18.477
Suicide is supposedly
a disgrace,

1861
01:26:18.608 --> 01:26:21.393
and whenever I've said that
my mother killed herself,

1862
01:26:21.524 --> 01:26:24.788
other relatives would say,
no, no, it didn't happen.

1863
01:26:25.310 --> 01:26:27.225
It was a family secret.

1864
01:26:27.965 --> 01:26:30.924
She never recovered from
profound unhappiness.

1865
01:26:32.143 --> 01:26:33.797
And it was too damn bad.

1866
01:26:36.495 --> 01:26:38.018
[Bob Weide] What then
became of your father

1867
01:26:38.149 --> 01:26:39.455
after your mother's death?

1868
01:26:40.195 --> 01:26:42.632
[Kurt Vonnegut]
He didn't like life
very much after that.

1869
01:26:44.329 --> 01:26:47.376
Certainly, the starch went
out of him pretty much.

1870
01:26:47.767 --> 01:26:49.465
As it should have,
I mean, you know,

1871
01:26:49.595 --> 01:26:52.381
people can stand so much
and no more.

1872
01:26:54.644 --> 01:26:58.213
To have you wife
dislike life that much,

1873
01:26:58.561 --> 01:27:01.477
you know, he-- he was
principle maker of her life.

1874
01:27:02.304 --> 01:27:05.307
♪

1875
01:27:06.960 --> 01:27:09.136
He wound up all alone here.

1876
01:27:12.444 --> 01:27:15.012
It's too bad that one of us
couldn't have stayed with him.

1877
01:27:19.190 --> 01:27:20.235
That's about it.

1878
01:27:22.672 --> 01:27:25.414
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Arise, Mr. Trout,
you are free.

1879
01:27:25.544 --> 01:27:27.242
"You're free.

1880
01:27:27.372 --> 01:27:29.418
"His voice was
my fathers' voice.

1881
01:27:29.548 --> 01:27:33.248
"I heard my father
and I saw my mother.

1882
01:27:33.378 --> 01:27:35.511
"My mother stayed
far, far away,

1883
01:27:35.641 --> 01:27:38.340
"because she had left me
a legacy of suicide.

1884
01:27:40.167 --> 01:27:42.474
"Here was what Kilgore Trout
cried out to me

1885
01:27:42.605 --> 01:27:43.910
"in my father's voice:

1886
01:27:45.216 --> 01:27:46.261
"'Make me young.'

1887
01:27:50.177 --> 01:27:51.266
"'Make me young.'

1888
01:27:54.660 --> 01:27:56.009
'Make me young.'"

1889
01:28:00.362 --> 01:28:03.365
♪

1890
01:28:08.979 --> 01:28:10.981
[Kurt Vonnegut]
A writer is very fortunate

1891
01:28:11.111 --> 01:28:13.723
in that he can cure himself
every day.

1892
01:28:13.984 --> 01:28:16.639
Uh, if he is able to write
every day,

1893
01:28:16.769 --> 01:28:20.947
he has done himself some sort of
great psychological favor.

1894
01:28:21.078 --> 01:28:22.297
[narrator]
"Dear Robert,

1895
01:28:22.427 --> 01:28:23.994
I'll be going to England
for two weeks,

1896
01:28:24.124 --> 01:28:25.648
to hustle
Deadeye Dick.

1897
01:28:25.778 --> 01:28:26.910
[bell dings]

1898
01:28:27.040 --> 01:28:28.477
"Dear Bob,

1899
01:28:28.607 --> 01:28:32.002
I hack away at a new novel
calledGalapagos.

1900
01:28:32.132 --> 01:28:34.309
-[bell dings]
-"Dear Whyaduck,

1901
01:28:34.439 --> 01:28:36.833
"Yes, I've finished
another book,

1902
01:28:36.963 --> 01:28:38.182
" Hocus Pocus.

1903
01:28:38.313 --> 01:28:40.315
"I don't know if
I like it or not.

1904
01:28:40.445 --> 01:28:42.882
"At least it isn't about
World War Two.

1905
01:28:43.013 --> 01:28:44.231
"That's an improvement.

1906
01:28:44.362 --> 01:28:45.363
[bell dings]

1907
01:28:46.930 --> 01:28:48.235
-Huh?
[man] You gonna read--

1908
01:28:48.366 --> 01:28:50.629
I don't think anybody else is,
I might as well,

1909
01:28:50.760 --> 01:28:52.501
-because--
[laughter]

1910
01:28:54.241 --> 01:28:56.548
God, it's so boring,
there's so much--

1911
01:28:56.679 --> 01:28:58.681
[laughter]

1912
01:28:59.856 --> 01:29:02.685
A lot of people got off the
Kurt Vonnegut band wagon,

1913
01:29:02.815 --> 01:29:04.774
I don't think they read him
as much after

1914
01:29:04.904 --> 01:29:06.253
Breakfast Of Champions.

1915
01:29:06.384 --> 01:29:09.126
I can see his latter novels
as a reflection of

1916
01:29:09.256 --> 01:29:11.084
what's happening in
Kurt Vonnegut's life.

1917
01:29:11.215 --> 01:29:12.999
The books become
more personal.

1918
01:29:13.130 --> 01:29:15.872
He has this dream of
extended family

1919
01:29:16.002 --> 01:29:17.787
as the thing we'd most lost.

1920
01:29:17.917 --> 01:29:20.093
and the thing we most need
to re-create.

1921
01:29:20.398 --> 01:29:22.792
Some of it worked,
some of it didn't.

1922
01:29:25.708 --> 01:29:28.798
When he sort of stumbled a bit
in some of his '70s work,

1923
01:29:28.928 --> 01:29:30.756
they were so happy
to crush him.

1924
01:29:30.887 --> 01:29:32.497
He as so hurt by it.

1925
01:29:34.107 --> 01:29:35.457
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Kurt Vonnegut said,

1926
01:29:35.587 --> 01:29:37.937
"Enduring the critical
reception to Slapstick

1927
01:29:38.068 --> 01:29:40.113
"he felt like he was
sleeping on his feet

1928
01:29:40.244 --> 01:29:41.898
in a boxcar in Germany
again."

1929
01:29:42.551 --> 01:29:45.554
They took that book as
the occasion to attack

1930
01:29:45.684 --> 01:29:47.164
all of his work, to say,

1931
01:29:47.294 --> 01:29:49.732
"See?
We were right all along.

1932
01:29:49.862 --> 01:29:52.604
He's a bad writer
from start to finish."

1933
01:29:52.735 --> 01:29:54.519
I read a number of reviews,

1934
01:29:54.650 --> 01:29:58.001
and have watched
the critics turn.

1935
01:29:58.349 --> 01:30:00.525
We live decade by decade now,

1936
01:30:00.656 --> 01:30:03.702
and, uh, people write books
about this decade

1937
01:30:03.833 --> 01:30:05.312
and then the next decade,

1938
01:30:05.443 --> 01:30:09.404
and I belong to the '60s,
I guess, and not the '70s.

1939
01:30:10.274 --> 01:30:11.667
People dismissed him,

1940
01:30:11.797 --> 01:30:15.148
or wrote about him as
an easy writer.

1941
01:30:15.497 --> 01:30:17.934
As anyone who's tried to write
knows,

1942
01:30:18.064 --> 01:30:20.197
it's not easy to be
easy to read.

1943
01:30:20.937 --> 01:30:22.808
[Gregory Sumner]
The accessibility of his style,

1944
01:30:22.939 --> 01:30:24.767
which I think is a strength,

1945
01:30:24.897 --> 01:30:26.856
it's become a badge of shame.

1946
01:30:26.986 --> 01:30:28.945
Just because
a junior in high school

1947
01:30:29.075 --> 01:30:31.121
can read Cat's Cradle
and enjoy it

1948
01:30:31.251 --> 01:30:32.601
and get something out of it

1949
01:30:32.731 --> 01:30:34.472
that doesn't make it not
profound.

1950
01:30:35.560 --> 01:30:38.215
Vonnegut was championed by
the people,

1951
01:30:38.345 --> 01:30:39.651
not by the critics.

1952
01:30:41.087 --> 01:30:42.175
[woman]
Ladies and gentlemen,

1953
01:30:42.306 --> 01:30:43.568
Mr. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

1954
01:30:43.699 --> 01:30:46.353
[cheering, applause]

1955
01:30:49.095 --> 01:30:51.881
[David Ulin]
As the novels maybe
became less fulfilling

1956
01:30:52.011 --> 01:30:53.317
in a certain sense,

1957
01:30:53.448 --> 01:30:55.928
he was able to move into writing
those speeches,

1958
01:30:56.059 --> 01:30:59.105
and addressing the material
that way.

1959
01:31:00.672 --> 01:31:02.761
The most sensible and
constructive thought

1960
01:31:02.892 --> 01:31:04.371
we can hold on this day,

1961
01:31:04.502 --> 01:31:08.158
is that we are not members of
different generations.

1962
01:31:08.288 --> 01:31:10.726
We are also close together
in time

1963
01:31:10.856 --> 01:31:12.597
that we should
think of ourselves

1964
01:31:12.728 --> 01:31:14.207
as brothers and sisters.

1965
01:31:14.338 --> 01:31:16.993
Whenever my children complain
about the planet to me,

1966
01:31:17.123 --> 01:31:19.778
I say, "Shut up,
I just got here myself."

1967
01:31:19.909 --> 01:31:21.911
[laughter, applause]

1968
01:31:25.131 --> 01:31:27.046
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
He wanted to
keep himself current

1969
01:31:27.177 --> 01:31:29.135
to let people know
he was still there

1970
01:31:29.266 --> 01:31:30.789
standing behind his ideas.

1971
01:31:30.920 --> 01:31:34.140
The two experiences
that will try you most

1972
01:31:34.271 --> 01:31:36.621
are loneliness and boredom.

1973
01:31:36.882 --> 01:31:39.145
We are all so lonesome
so much of the time

1974
01:31:39.276 --> 01:31:41.496
because we were meant to live
in extended families,

1975
01:31:41.626 --> 01:31:44.977
to have dozens or even hundreds
of relatives near by.

1976
01:31:45.108 --> 01:31:48.807
Do what you can to get
yourselves extended families

1977
01:31:48.938 --> 01:31:51.941
no matter how arbitrary
they may be.

1978
01:31:52.071 --> 01:31:54.726
We all need more people
in our lives,

1979
01:31:54.857 --> 01:31:58.164
and they do not have to be
high grade people, either.

1980
01:31:58.295 --> 01:32:00.602
They can be imbeciles
'cause what matters--

1981
01:32:00.732 --> 01:32:02.995
-[laughter]
-Is numbers.

1982
01:32:03.126 --> 01:32:04.736
Good lord, I certainly
wish you well.

1983
01:32:04.867 --> 01:32:06.869
[applause]

1984
01:32:07.783 --> 01:32:11.047
As my generation of critics
sort of came up,

1985
01:32:11.177 --> 01:32:13.919
I think Vonnegut began to be
taken much more seriously,

1986
01:32:14.050 --> 01:32:15.921
and I think that's probably true
in academia as well,

1987
01:32:16.052 --> 01:32:17.575
that, you know,
he began to be taught,

1988
01:32:17.706 --> 01:32:19.142
he began to be
sort of regarded as

1989
01:32:19.272 --> 01:32:20.665
a kind of touchstone
in a certain way

1990
01:32:20.796 --> 01:32:22.319
because we all
grew up with him.

1991
01:32:22.449 --> 01:32:24.800
[Kurt Vonnegut]
As I told you,
I studied anthropology,

1992
01:32:24.930 --> 01:32:27.411
and I had to give it up.

1993
01:32:27.542 --> 01:32:29.848
I just couldn't stand
primitive people,

1994
01:32:29.979 --> 01:32:31.110
they were so stupid.

1995
01:32:31.241 --> 01:32:33.286
[laughing]

1996
01:32:34.461 --> 01:32:35.898
[Nanny Vonnegut]
If go l-- see him speak,

1997
01:32:36.028 --> 01:32:38.727
and I see the--
the auditorium is packed,

1998
01:32:38.857 --> 01:32:41.643
and out the doors,
it-- it staggers me,

1999
01:32:41.773 --> 01:32:43.906
but I really do have to
share him with the whole world.

2000
01:32:44.036 --> 01:32:47.039
♪

2001
01:32:49.738 --> 01:32:51.696
[Nanny Vonnegut]
He invited me on
a trip to Indianapolis

2002
01:32:51.827 --> 01:32:53.306
to have a family outing.

2003
01:32:53.437 --> 01:32:55.395
You know, I thought it was
gonna be the two of us.

2004
01:32:56.179 --> 01:32:58.050
And then at the last minute,
he said,

2005
01:32:58.181 --> 01:33:00.575
"Oh, by the way, they're
shooting a documentary.

2006
01:33:01.227 --> 01:33:02.925
I was so angry.

2007
01:33:03.055 --> 01:33:05.101
I actually wouldn't have gone on
that trip if I had known that.

2008
01:33:06.406 --> 01:33:09.148
But turned out,
it was... all right.

2009
01:33:09.671 --> 01:33:10.672
[snapping]

2010
01:33:12.195 --> 01:33:13.936
-Oop!
-[laughter]

2011
01:33:14.066 --> 01:33:17.026
[Nanny Vonnegut]
I had never seen him
so at ease.

2012
01:33:17.330 --> 01:33:21.073
They had found each other as
the subject and the filmmaker.

2013
01:33:21.378 --> 01:33:22.858
It felt like a friendship.

2014
01:33:24.773 --> 01:33:27.427
[laughter]

2015
01:33:29.038 --> 01:33:31.606
I was happy to see my father
enjoying himself.

2016
01:33:32.563 --> 01:33:33.782
-[man 1] Mark.
-[man 2] Marker.

2017
01:33:33.912 --> 01:33:37.307
...and said,
"There is Tralfamadore."

2018
01:33:37.437 --> 01:33:39.135
[Bob Weide]
Can you just do that line
one more time.

2019
01:33:39.265 --> 01:33:41.877
-Up your ass. What the--
-[laughing]

2020
01:33:44.053 --> 01:33:45.620
[steady tone]

2021
01:33:45.750 --> 01:33:47.709
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"She had me read
The Brothers Karamazov

2022
01:33:47.839 --> 01:33:49.406
during our honeymoon."

2023
01:33:49.536 --> 01:33:50.755
[Bob Weide]
Would you go back to,
"She had me read"?

2024
01:33:50.886 --> 01:33:53.366
-[Kurt Vonnegut] Oh, shut up.
-[laughter]

2025
01:33:55.760 --> 01:33:57.327
[Bob Weide] You know,
when you're a Vonnegut fan,

2026
01:33:57.457 --> 01:33:59.982
you run into so many other
people who love Vonnegut,

2027
01:34:00.112 --> 01:34:01.723
who've read all of his works,

2028
01:34:01.853 --> 01:34:04.160
but I find that for the masses
who haven't read his books,

2029
01:34:04.290 --> 01:34:06.510
that Kurt eventually became

2030
01:34:06.641 --> 01:34:09.034
so much a part of
our culture

2031
01:34:09.165 --> 01:34:11.036
uh, pop culture,

2032
01:34:11.167 --> 01:34:13.038
that there are these people who
know him for these odd things,

2033
01:34:13.169 --> 01:34:16.781
like there were a series of
commercials done for coffee

2034
01:34:16.912 --> 01:34:18.130
It's called
The Coffee Achievers.

2035
01:34:18.261 --> 01:34:20.916
[man] You are the new
American society.

2036
01:34:21.046 --> 01:34:23.135
The movers and the shakers.

2037
01:34:23.266 --> 01:34:25.964
♪ Hold on tight
to your dreams ♪

2038
01:34:26.095 --> 01:34:28.097
And then there's what,
in some ways,

2039
01:34:28.227 --> 01:34:30.577
the most memorable thing
that Vonnegut's ever done.

2040
01:34:30.708 --> 01:34:33.015
You've got a major paper
comin' up on Kurt Vonnegut.

2041
01:34:33.145 --> 01:34:34.669
You haven't even read
any of the books.

2042
01:34:34.799 --> 01:34:35.887
[sighs] I tried.

2043
01:34:36.018 --> 01:34:37.236
[knocking]

2044
01:34:38.150 --> 01:34:39.412
I don't understand
a word of it.

2045
01:34:39.543 --> 01:34:41.545
So how you gonna write
the paper then, huh?

2046
01:34:43.242 --> 01:34:44.983
Hi. I'm Kurt Vonnegut.

2047
01:34:45.114 --> 01:34:46.593
I'm looking for
Thornton Melon.

2048
01:34:48.247 --> 01:34:51.033
Uh, wanna come in?

2049
01:34:51.163 --> 01:34:53.949
When I was in high school
and making my way through

2050
01:34:54.079 --> 01:34:55.167
Vonnegut's canon,

2051
01:34:55.298 --> 01:34:56.865
eventually, I read
Mother Night,

2052
01:34:56.995 --> 01:34:59.868
and I remember
closing that book,

2053
01:34:59.998 --> 01:35:02.044
and decided right then and there
in high school

2054
01:35:02.174 --> 01:35:04.873
that I wanted to make a movie
out of this book.

2055
01:35:07.179 --> 01:35:09.355
And I did, 20 years later.

2056
01:35:10.052 --> 01:35:12.619
Kurt gave me the rights to
the book on a handshake,

2057
01:35:12.750 --> 01:35:15.666
and I wrote the screenplay to
Mother Nighton spec.

2058
01:35:15.797 --> 01:35:18.669
Took five years
'til we got it made.

2059
01:35:18.800 --> 01:35:21.324
The director of the film
was my best friend,

2060
01:35:21.454 --> 01:35:23.108
Keith Gordon.

2061
01:35:23.239 --> 01:35:24.675
Coincidentally, Keith had his
own connection with Vonnegut

2062
01:35:24.806 --> 01:35:26.503
because Keith used to be
an actor.

2063
01:35:27.069 --> 01:35:29.158
And Keith played
Rodney Dangerfield's son

2064
01:35:29.288 --> 01:35:30.420
in Back To School.

2065
01:35:30.550 --> 01:35:32.552
Hey, Keith.
Sorry we're late.

2066
01:35:32.683 --> 01:35:34.380
Welcome.
Thank you for doing this.

2067
01:35:34.511 --> 01:35:36.252
-Thank you.
-I appreciate it.

2068
01:35:36.382 --> 01:35:38.733
[Bob Weide]
Kurt came up to Montreal
to visit the set one day.

2069
01:35:38.863 --> 01:35:41.126
We were trying to figure out
a way to use him.

2070
01:35:42.649 --> 01:35:45.696
♪

2071
01:35:49.178 --> 01:35:51.963
[man] It wasn't the fear of
death that froze me.

2072
01:35:52.094 --> 01:35:54.879
I had taught myself to
think of death as a friend.

2073
01:35:55.010 --> 01:35:58.013
♪

2074
01:36:08.327 --> 01:36:09.807
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Congratulations,

2075
01:36:09.938 --> 01:36:11.896
we're honored to have had
anything to do with it.

2076
01:36:12.027 --> 01:36:13.028
Bye.

2077
01:36:14.856 --> 01:36:16.553
[Bob Weide] Of course,
it didn't make a dime.

2078
01:36:16.683 --> 01:36:18.773
[chuckles]
Nobody went to see it.

2079
01:36:19.469 --> 01:36:20.731
I remember Kurt said to me,

2080
01:36:20.862 --> 01:36:23.168
"Well, maybe you just wrote
a lousy script."

2081
01:36:24.126 --> 01:36:25.649
And I said, "Well, you know
what they say:

2082
01:36:25.780 --> 01:36:27.520
Garbage in, garbage out."

2083
01:36:28.434 --> 01:36:30.785
Throughout all of this,
I always had other jobs.

2084
01:36:31.089 --> 01:36:32.525
I mean,
I had bills to pay.

2085
01:36:32.656 --> 01:36:35.702
♪

2086
01:36:38.923 --> 01:36:40.316
After the Marx Brothers film,

2087
01:36:40.446 --> 01:36:42.187
I did several more
documentaries.

2088
01:36:42.318 --> 01:36:44.059
mainly on comedians
that I loved.

2089
01:36:44.320 --> 01:36:45.887
Every time I took
another gig,

2090
01:36:46.017 --> 01:36:47.714
there's always
a tinge of guilt

2091
01:36:47.845 --> 01:36:49.804
that I wasn't finishing
my Vonnegut film.

2092
01:36:50.413 --> 01:36:52.154
One day in 1998,

2093
01:36:52.284 --> 01:36:53.808
I got a call from my friend,
Larry David.

2094
01:36:53.938 --> 01:36:57.072
♪[ Curb Your Enthusiasmtheme]

2095
01:37:00.597 --> 01:37:02.077
Get in the car.

2096
01:37:02.207 --> 01:37:03.339
-Are you my Caucasian?
-I'm your fuckin' Caucasian.

2097
01:37:03.469 --> 01:37:04.514
-All right!
-Yeah!

2098
01:37:04.644 --> 01:37:06.951
-Here, watch this.
-Ow! [groans]

2099
01:37:07.082 --> 01:37:09.171
-[clattering]
-Shit!

2100
01:37:09.301 --> 01:37:11.695
Bob, this is Kurt.
I thought you were a failure.

2101
01:37:11.826 --> 01:37:14.872
How wrong I was.
Hooray.

2102
01:37:16.091 --> 01:37:18.180
[Bob Weide]
I had no idea at the time

2103
01:37:18.310 --> 01:37:19.921
that that would then
lead to a series

2104
01:37:20.051 --> 01:37:21.705
called
Curb Your Enthusiasm.

2105
01:37:21.966 --> 01:37:23.533
After ever season,
I kept saying, that's it,

2106
01:37:23.663 --> 01:37:24.795
I'm leaving, I'm leaving,
I'm leaving.

2107
01:37:24.926 --> 01:37:26.753
Okay, now
the Vonnegut documentary.

2108
01:37:31.149 --> 01:37:33.108
♪

2109
01:37:33.238 --> 01:37:35.371
[narrator]
"Dearest Whyaduck,

2110
01:37:35.501 --> 01:37:38.374
"Where indeed is your
Slaughterhouse-Five?

2111
01:37:39.679 --> 01:37:41.812
"Have you considered
cutting off an ear

2112
01:37:41.943 --> 01:37:43.858
and sending it to
a prostitute?

2113
01:37:44.989 --> 01:37:46.730
These things take time.

2114
01:37:48.427 --> 01:37:50.908
[Bob Weide]
This is all stuff that he
sent me over the years.

2115
01:37:51.039 --> 01:37:53.258
Whenever he would do, like,
a speech at a college,

2116
01:37:53.389 --> 01:37:55.043
or anything on TV,

2117
01:37:55.173 --> 01:37:57.219
he would always have them make
a VHS tape and send it to me.

2118
01:37:57.872 --> 01:38:00.265
He started to think of me
as his archivist.

2119
01:38:00.396 --> 01:38:01.919
Hi, Bob, this is Kurt.

2120
01:38:02.050 --> 01:38:03.834
I just want to make sure
the address is still right.

2121
01:38:03.965 --> 01:38:06.315
There's videotape
I'd like to send you.

2122
01:38:07.751 --> 01:38:10.058
We are here on Earth
to fart around.

2123
01:38:10.449 --> 01:38:13.278
And don't let anybody
tell you any different.

2124
01:38:13.409 --> 01:38:15.411
[laughter, applause]

2125
01:38:17.108 --> 01:38:20.590
It's like Harpo Marx's coat,
it's just bottomless.

2126
01:38:20.720 --> 01:38:22.157
Uh, How To Get
A Job Like Mine,

2127
01:38:22.287 --> 01:38:24.899
Distinguished Speakers
Series, 2003.

2128
01:38:25.029 --> 01:38:26.901
If you really want to
hurt your parents,

2129
01:38:27.031 --> 01:38:30.034
and you don't have nerve enough
to become a homosexual...

2130
01:38:30.165 --> 01:38:32.819
[laughter]

2131
01:38:35.039 --> 01:38:37.389
...the least you can do is go
into the arts.

2132
01:38:37.520 --> 01:38:39.609
[laughter, applause]

2133
01:38:42.046 --> 01:38:43.830
[Bob Weide]
I didn't want to do
a bait and switch.

2134
01:38:43.961 --> 01:38:46.355
I didn't want him to think
that I had said,

2135
01:38:46.485 --> 01:38:47.617
"Hey, I'm a big a fan of yours,

2136
01:38:47.747 --> 01:38:48.923
I'd like to make
a film on you,"

2137
01:38:49.053 --> 01:38:50.402
and then we'd become friends,

2138
01:38:50.663 --> 01:38:53.188
and then that I would just
ditch the film.

2139
01:38:53.318 --> 01:38:55.799
But no matter how much time
I'd put in,

2140
01:38:55.930 --> 01:38:58.454
I never seem to get any closer
to the finish line.

2141
01:38:59.585 --> 01:39:01.500
I should say I'm not
the only one

2142
01:39:01.631 --> 01:39:03.850
who was stuck in the mud
on a long term project.

2143
01:39:05.200 --> 01:39:07.115
Well, this--
this very morning,

2144
01:39:07.985 --> 01:39:11.336
I mailed off the last 30 pages
of a book.

2145
01:39:11.771 --> 01:39:13.469
[woman] Is there a title for
your new book yet?

2146
01:39:13.599 --> 01:39:15.732
Yeah, it's called, uh,
Timequake.

2147
01:39:16.472 --> 01:39:18.474
And, uh...

2148
01:39:18.604 --> 01:39:21.607
But that's pretty good,
I'm-- I'm 73 years old

2149
01:39:21.738 --> 01:39:23.131
and, uh...

2150
01:39:24.436 --> 01:39:26.351
I didn't think I'd last
this long, you know?

2151
01:39:26.482 --> 01:39:28.092
[chuckling]

2152
01:39:28.223 --> 01:39:29.659
[David Ulin]
Timequake was a struggle
for him to write

2153
01:39:29.789 --> 01:39:32.314
because he had said
it was gonna be his last book

2154
01:39:32.444 --> 01:39:34.011
that he was gonna retire,

2155
01:39:34.142 --> 01:39:35.186
so I think he didn't want to
end his career on a kind of

2156
01:39:35.317 --> 01:39:37.058
half-assed resign note.

2157
01:39:38.494 --> 01:39:40.583
Basically,
the Timequake is at--

2158
01:39:40.713 --> 01:39:42.411
in 2001 there is a timequake

2159
01:39:42.541 --> 01:39:45.936
which is a kind of earthquake
in the time continuum.

2160
01:39:46.067 --> 01:39:48.547
where the universe resets
ten years,

2161
01:39:48.678 --> 01:39:50.985
and everything goes back
to 1991,

2162
01:39:51.115 --> 01:39:54.727
and everyone has to go through
the ten years again.

2163
01:39:54.858 --> 01:39:58.079
I remember him telling me
back in the, uh, early '90s

2164
01:39:58.209 --> 01:39:59.428
that he was working on
this book,

2165
01:39:59.558 --> 01:40:01.212
and then I'd say,
"How's the book coming?"

2166
01:40:01.343 --> 01:40:02.997
and he says, "Oh, I don't think
it's ever gonna get finished.

2167
01:40:03.127 --> 01:40:04.781
I'm not really blocked.

2168
01:40:04.911 --> 01:40:08.089
I'm, uh, writing stuff
I don't like.

2169
01:40:08.219 --> 01:40:10.613
I had a book scheduled
to be published,

2170
01:40:10.743 --> 01:40:11.875
I just didn't like it.

2171
01:40:12.006 --> 01:40:13.137
[David Ulin]
He had finished

2172
01:40:13.268 --> 01:40:14.356
a conventional version
of the novel,

2173
01:40:14.486 --> 01:40:15.922
he had fulfilled
the contract,

2174
01:40:16.053 --> 01:40:17.402
and then he said

2175
01:40:17.533 --> 01:40:19.883
he didn't want to go out
like Mick Jagger--

2176
01:40:20.014 --> 01:40:22.407
[laughs]
playing Satisfaction,

2177
01:40:22.538 --> 01:40:24.235
you know, for
the eight millionth time.

2178
01:40:24.366 --> 01:40:26.281
So he went in and,
you know, he had a better idea

2179
01:40:26.411 --> 01:40:27.934
and he went in and
changed the whole book.

2180
01:40:28.065 --> 01:40:29.936
[Bob Weide] And when he
finally sat down and wrote

2181
01:40:30.067 --> 01:40:31.764
the final version of
Timequake,

2182
01:40:31.895 --> 01:40:35.638
it was a book about him
trying to write this novel.

2183
01:40:35.768 --> 01:40:39.033
So you'd have a passage from
the body of the story

2184
01:40:39.163 --> 01:40:41.905
and then you'd have a passage
of Kurt telling you

2185
01:40:42.036 --> 01:40:45.822
the difficulty he was having
in writing this book.

2186
01:40:45.952 --> 01:40:47.476
[Gregory Sumner]
Vonnegut finished
Timequake,

2187
01:40:47.606 --> 01:40:50.044
turned it in sheepishly
to the publisher,

2188
01:40:50.174 --> 01:40:51.871
and said it's a disaster,
it didn't work.

2189
01:40:52.002 --> 01:40:53.569
Nobody's gonna
want to read it.

2190
01:40:53.699 --> 01:40:55.745
[applause]

2191
01:41:00.010 --> 01:41:03.231
They had an opening at
the Borders flagship store.

2192
01:41:03.492 --> 01:41:05.233
The line was around the block.

2193
01:41:06.234 --> 01:41:08.845
Very interesting to me how he
continually kind of thought

2194
01:41:08.975 --> 01:41:10.412
they're not gonna like
what I'm doing,

2195
01:41:10.542 --> 01:41:12.196
and then they have, like,
a record crowd turned out,

2196
01:41:12.327 --> 01:41:14.155
and people still love Vonnegut.

2197
01:41:14.285 --> 01:41:17.332
I actually have an idea for
one more book.

2198
01:41:17.462 --> 01:41:19.508
[laughter]

2199
01:41:19.812 --> 01:41:22.032
-But I--
-[applause]

2200
01:41:23.686 --> 01:41:26.297
It's about my
homosexual relationship

2201
01:41:26.428 --> 01:41:27.777
-with O.J. Simpson.
-[laughter]

2202
01:41:31.911 --> 01:41:33.087
[woman]
Mr. Vonnegut,

2203
01:41:33.217 --> 01:41:34.566
I drove from Cincinnati
to meet you--

2204
01:41:34.697 --> 01:41:36.133
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Oh, I heard about
you people.

2205
01:41:36.264 --> 01:41:37.961
I was wondering if I could get
a picture with you?

2206
01:41:38.092 --> 01:41:39.789
-[Kurt Vonnegut] Of course.
-[camera shutter clicks]

2207
01:41:39.919 --> 01:41:41.051
Oh, thank you so much.

2208
01:41:41.834 --> 01:41:43.271
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
Vonnegut shows that

2209
01:41:43.401 --> 01:41:45.838
it's not the final book
that's the point,

2210
01:41:45.969 --> 01:41:48.102
it's the struggle
to write the book,

2211
01:41:48.232 --> 01:41:49.842
and that's the text.

2212
01:41:49.973 --> 01:41:53.194
The point is not the end,
it's the journey.

2213
01:41:53.455 --> 01:41:56.458
♪

2214
01:41:56.588 --> 01:41:59.287
[Bob Weide] I think most critics
and scholars agree that

2215
01:41:59.417 --> 01:42:01.245
the best thing about
Timequake

2216
01:42:01.376 --> 01:42:03.552
is that I'm in it.

2217
01:42:05.467 --> 01:42:07.469
[narrator reading]

2218
01:42:09.601 --> 01:42:11.212
[Bob Weide]
Vonnegut write about

2219
01:42:11.342 --> 01:42:13.866
a farewell clambake
for Kilgore Trout,

2220
01:42:13.997 --> 01:42:16.042
and he mentions all the people
in attendance.

2221
01:42:16.608 --> 01:42:18.044
And they're all his friends.

2222
01:42:18.610 --> 01:42:20.221
[narrator reading]

2223
01:42:25.356 --> 01:42:26.575
[Bob Weide]
And there I am.

2224
01:42:26.705 --> 01:42:28.403
[narrator]
"They were Robert Weide,

2225
01:42:28.533 --> 01:42:31.014
"who in the summer of 1996

2226
01:42:31.145 --> 01:42:33.408
is making a movie of
Mother Night."

2227
01:42:33.538 --> 01:42:36.150
I remember sending Kurt
a fax the next day

2228
01:42:36.280 --> 01:42:38.630
thanking him for including me
in the book.

2229
01:42:40.545 --> 01:42:42.634
I-- I think I took it all
in stride.

2230
01:42:46.203 --> 01:42:48.074
Yeah, finding myself in
a Vonnegut book

2231
01:42:48.205 --> 01:42:49.380
was a pretty happy thing.

2232
01:42:50.468 --> 01:42:52.644
The sad thing about
Timequake

2233
01:42:52.775 --> 01:42:55.299
is that Kurt suffered
another loss

2234
01:42:55.430 --> 01:42:56.735
right before he
finished the book.

2235
01:42:56.866 --> 01:42:58.389
[answering machine beeps]

2236
01:42:58.520 --> 01:43:00.826
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Hi, Bob, it's, uh,
Friday morning.

2237
01:43:00.957 --> 01:43:05.091
Uh, Bernie died at 10:00
Eastern Standard Time here,

2238
01:43:05.222 --> 01:43:06.876
it's utterly peaceful.

2239
01:43:07.006 --> 01:43:08.312
I thought you'd like to know.

2240
01:43:08.443 --> 01:43:10.793
[laughing]

2241
01:43:12.664 --> 01:43:17.234
Uh, his ashes are going to be
scattered over Mount Greylock

2242
01:43:17.365 --> 01:43:20.063
where the first
cloud seeding experiment

2243
01:43:20.194 --> 01:43:22.805
with dry ice
was performed.

2244
01:43:22.935 --> 01:43:24.459
He loved that idea.

2245
01:43:24.589 --> 01:43:25.590
Bye.

2246
01:43:28.027 --> 01:43:29.986
[narrator]
"I was the baby
of the family.

2247
01:43:31.857 --> 01:43:33.903
[narrator reading]

2248
01:43:38.560 --> 01:43:40.039
[Bob Weide]
After Timequake,

2249
01:43:40.170 --> 01:43:43.391
I found myself with a question
which sounds rhetorical,

2250
01:43:43.521 --> 01:43:45.871
but I was wondering about
a literal answer.

2251
01:43:46.916 --> 01:43:49.397
What happens when
a writer stops writing?

2252
01:43:50.485 --> 01:43:52.356
[waves crashing]

2253
01:43:52.487 --> 01:43:55.141
[seagulls squawking]

2254
01:44:03.106 --> 01:44:05.064
When I was
a neighbor to Kurt

2255
01:44:05.195 --> 01:44:07.589
in Sagaponack
in Long island,

2256
01:44:08.111 --> 01:44:10.113
he frequently came to visit.

2257
01:44:10.635 --> 01:44:12.985
And often when I would
get up in the morning,

2258
01:44:13.116 --> 01:44:14.248
and I get up early,

2259
01:44:15.074 --> 01:44:16.206
Kurt would be there.

2260
01:44:16.728 --> 01:44:18.339
He'd be on the porch.

2261
01:44:18.991 --> 01:44:22.778
Um... waiting for somebody
to get up.

2262
01:44:23.474 --> 01:44:25.737
Waiting to come in
and have a cup of coffee.

2263
01:44:26.434 --> 01:44:29.263
Uh, and another Pall Mall.

2264
01:44:30.612 --> 01:44:33.354
When I asked, "How long
have you been here?"

2265
01:44:34.311 --> 01:44:36.574
"Oh, I've just had a butt
or two," he would say,

2266
01:44:36.705 --> 01:44:38.620
or I just-- I just got here.

2267
01:44:39.621 --> 01:44:41.100
There were enough butts
out there,

2268
01:44:41.231 --> 01:44:43.625
so you had to believe...

2269
01:44:43.755 --> 01:44:45.844
he'd arrived
when it was still dark.

2270
01:44:47.629 --> 01:44:49.848
♪

2271
01:44:49.979 --> 01:44:51.502
[man] Mr. Vonnegut,
thanks for coming by.

2272
01:44:51.763 --> 01:44:52.764
Oh, my pleasure.

2273
01:44:52.895 --> 01:44:54.331
How's life?

2274
01:44:54.853 --> 01:44:57.029
Well, it's practically over,
thank God, I'm--

2275
01:44:57.160 --> 01:44:58.857
-[laughing]
-Heaven's sakes.

2276
01:44:58.988 --> 01:45:00.294
I'm practically 83.

2277
01:45:00.424 --> 01:45:01.947
There won't be
that much more of--

2278
01:45:02.078 --> 01:45:03.862
for me to put up with,
I don't t think.

2279
01:45:05.299 --> 01:45:07.562
[Morley Safer]
When Kurt got older
and more cranky

2280
01:45:07.692 --> 01:45:08.911
and falling apart,

2281
01:45:09.041 --> 01:45:10.695
which I'm going through myself
right now,

2282
01:45:11.696 --> 01:45:14.177
he used to say
we live too long.

2283
01:45:14.873 --> 01:45:16.527
We really live too long.

2284
01:45:18.181 --> 01:45:21.576
Some of you may know about
my class action suit.

2285
01:45:21.706 --> 01:45:23.360
against Brown Williamson.

2286
01:45:23.882 --> 01:45:27.408
It's uh-- They're manufacturers
of Pall Mall cigarettes

2287
01:45:27.538 --> 01:45:28.974
in Louisville.

2288
01:45:29.105 --> 01:45:32.848
And-- [clears throat] I have
been chain smoking these

2289
01:45:33.501 --> 01:45:35.459
since I was 14 years old.

2290
01:45:37.113 --> 01:45:39.768
And on their package,
they promised to kill me.

2291
01:45:39.898 --> 01:45:42.553
[laughter]

2292
01:45:45.513 --> 01:45:47.906
And I'm about to turn 83.

2293
01:45:48.037 --> 01:45:50.082
[laughter, applause]

2294
01:45:51.910 --> 01:45:54.130
[man] He had a totally
fulfilled career.

2295
01:45:54.260 --> 01:45:56.567
Totally fulfilled life.
That's why it's haunting.

2296
01:45:57.089 --> 01:45:58.439
You know, you've done what
you're gonna do,

2297
01:45:58.569 --> 01:46:00.179
and now you're just
hangin' around

2298
01:46:00.310 --> 01:46:02.573
to find out what
specialist you see next week.

2299
01:46:04.096 --> 01:46:05.054
[man]
So there he is,

2300
01:46:05.184 --> 01:46:07.230
he's not working
on a major book,

2301
01:46:07.361 --> 01:46:09.450
he was quite lonely.

2302
01:46:09.580 --> 01:46:10.625
and he would reach out.

2303
01:46:10.755 --> 01:46:13.671
It was almost like
somebody, um,

2304
01:46:13.802 --> 01:46:16.805
in a prison cell
in a funny way.

2305
01:46:16.935 --> 01:46:18.720
You know, he would send
these faxes.

2306
01:46:19.895 --> 01:46:22.419
Anything he wanted to write
he could have gotten published,

2307
01:46:22.550 --> 01:46:24.769
but these were just
little things for his friends.

2308
01:46:24.900 --> 01:46:26.292
Oh, here's a favorite one
of mine.

2309
01:46:27.076 --> 01:46:29.121
[reading]

2310
01:46:32.124 --> 01:46:34.823
That's from a Martian Visitor.
Look at this.

2311
01:46:34.953 --> 01:46:36.999
[reading]

2312
01:46:40.350 --> 01:46:41.917
Look at this one.
Here's a simple one.

2313
01:46:42.221 --> 01:46:44.093
[reading]

2314
01:46:44.833 --> 01:46:47.923
♪

2315
01:46:48.445 --> 01:46:49.881
[Bob Weide] The things that
were depressing him

2316
01:46:50.012 --> 01:46:51.100
were no secret.

2317
01:46:51.492 --> 01:46:54.103
There was his
domestic situation,

2318
01:46:54.233 --> 01:46:55.409
as he referred to it.

2319
01:46:56.497 --> 01:46:58.063
We had a lot of conversations,

2320
01:46:58.194 --> 01:47:00.457
and there were a lot of faxes
about his second marriage,

2321
01:47:00.588 --> 01:47:04.287
which was not exactly playing
out happily ever after.

2322
01:47:06.289 --> 01:47:08.509
He was also outraged
about how we were

2323
01:47:08.639 --> 01:47:10.206
poisoning the environment,

2324
01:47:10.336 --> 01:47:12.948
and the inevitable
consequences of that.

2325
01:47:13.949 --> 01:47:15.211
But there was one other thing.

2326
01:47:15.516 --> 01:47:17.343
The last thing I ever wanted...

2327
01:47:18.257 --> 01:47:19.824
was to be alive...

2328
01:47:20.129 --> 01:47:21.478
when the three most important,

2329
01:47:21.609 --> 01:47:24.002
most powerful people on
the face of the Earth...

2330
01:47:25.482 --> 01:47:27.441
were named Bush,
Dick and Colin.

2331
01:47:27.571 --> 01:47:29.617
[laughter]

2332
01:47:30.748 --> 01:47:34.709
[Bob Weide]
He was not a big fan of
the Bush administration.

2333
01:47:35.013 --> 01:47:36.275
Either one, actually.

2334
01:47:36.406 --> 01:47:39.061
Um, and especially
the war with Iraq.

2335
01:47:39.670 --> 01:47:40.671
Either one.

2336
01:47:41.063 --> 01:47:43.108
[explosions]

2337
01:47:47.156 --> 01:47:49.201
[Mark Vonnegut]
He truly believed in
the American dream.

2338
01:47:49.332 --> 01:47:51.900
He believed, uh, that
this could be wonderful

2339
01:47:52.030 --> 01:47:56.121
and I do think it was
the invasion of Iraq

2340
01:47:56.992 --> 01:47:59.473
that he said... it's over.

2341
01:48:00.125 --> 01:48:01.910
I don't' think there's
any question

2342
01:48:02.040 --> 01:48:04.782
but that experiencing war
had a profound effect.

2343
01:48:05.479 --> 01:48:09.178
And there's a certain resolution
in saying I've said it all.

2344
01:48:09.657 --> 01:48:11.746
You're testing yourself
to say it.

2345
01:48:11.876 --> 01:48:14.096
There wasn't any way he would
ever stop writing.

2346
01:48:16.272 --> 01:48:17.839
[man]
What he did,

2347
01:48:17.969 --> 01:48:21.712
which is very unusual for
a world famous writer to do,

2348
01:48:21.843 --> 01:48:24.498
he started writing
occasional essays

2349
01:48:24.628 --> 01:48:28.240
for a little magazine called
In These Times.

2350
01:48:28.371 --> 01:48:31.287
♪

2351
01:48:31.417 --> 01:48:34.029
[keyboard clacking]

2352
01:48:34.769 --> 01:48:36.640
My relationship
with Kurt began,

2353
01:48:36.771 --> 01:48:38.947
I, uh, asked him to do
an interview

2354
01:48:39.077 --> 01:48:40.470
for In These Times.

2355
01:48:40.601 --> 01:48:43.517
It was about Bush
and the war in Iraq.

2356
01:48:43.647 --> 01:48:46.868
In that, uh, first interview,
he used the phrase

2357
01:48:46.998 --> 01:48:48.696
"psychopathic personality."

2358
01:48:48.826 --> 01:48:50.828
[narrator reading]

2359
01:48:57.487 --> 01:49:00.055
"They cannot care
because they are nuts."

2360
01:49:00.795 --> 01:49:02.623
He was angry as
an American.

2361
01:49:02.753 --> 01:49:05.364
He was angry as a vet.

2362
01:49:05.495 --> 01:49:09.064
His own good name as an American
was being trashed.

2363
01:49:09.194 --> 01:49:12.763
When I saw a photograph
of the Iraqi kids,

2364
01:49:12.894 --> 01:49:16.985
with their hands up like this
having been shelled and bombed

2365
01:49:17.115 --> 01:49:18.726
until they were half-witted,

2366
01:49:19.683 --> 01:49:21.729
I said, those are
my brothers there.

2367
01:49:22.599 --> 01:49:25.341
And I didn't think it was
amusing or wonderful at all

2368
01:49:25.471 --> 01:49:29.301
to see kids in that situation.

2369
01:49:29.432 --> 01:49:31.565
[applause]

2370
01:49:31.695 --> 01:49:33.741
[Joe Bleifuss]
He wanted to speak out,

2371
01:49:33.871 --> 01:49:36.221
and so within a month of his
first interview,

2372
01:49:36.352 --> 01:49:38.615
he was sending me
things to publish.

2373
01:49:38.920 --> 01:49:41.226
He wrote about things that were
important to him,

2374
01:49:41.357 --> 01:49:42.924
but with every essay,

2375
01:49:43.054 --> 01:49:46.580
it would always bring in
a variety of things,

2376
01:49:46.710 --> 01:49:49.931
So sometimes Kilgore Trout
would just appear.

2377
01:49:51.759 --> 01:49:53.195
[Jerome Klinkowitz]
I doubt if he was paid for it,

2378
01:49:53.325 --> 01:49:55.066
and he just wrote
what was on his mind.

2379
01:49:56.198 --> 01:49:57.634
Turned out,

2380
01:49:57.765 --> 01:50:00.463
they were so good
that a small press,

2381
01:50:00.594 --> 01:50:03.379
Seven Stories Press
in New York collected them.

2382
01:50:03.509 --> 01:50:06.338
We canceled, at his request,
that book twice,

2383
01:50:06.469 --> 01:50:09.298
because he was afraid that what
if he did this little

2384
01:50:09.428 --> 01:50:11.256
kind of off-hand book at
the end of his life

2385
01:50:11.387 --> 01:50:13.563
that included criticizing
his government,

2386
01:50:13.694 --> 01:50:15.304
criticizing his country.

2387
01:50:15.434 --> 01:50:17.045
I mean, he really
thought about that,

2388
01:50:17.175 --> 01:50:18.916
and he was very
concerned about that.

2389
01:50:19.047 --> 01:50:22.093
♪

2390
01:50:23.312 --> 01:50:25.357
The book hit the best seller
list immediately,

2391
01:50:25.488 --> 01:50:28.317
and we sold
a quarter of a million copies
very, very quickly,

2392
01:50:28.447 --> 01:50:30.188
we could barely keep up with it.

2393
01:50:30.319 --> 01:50:31.973
This was Kurt's
first best seller

2394
01:50:32.103 --> 01:50:34.192
in about 10, 15 years.

2395
01:50:34.323 --> 01:50:36.412
All of a sudden, he's all over
the back page of

2396
01:50:36.542 --> 01:50:37.892
the New York Times
Book Review,

2397
01:50:38.022 --> 01:50:39.807
which had never been
his biggest fan,

2398
01:50:39.937 --> 01:50:42.331
saying this is just amazing.

2399
01:50:42.461 --> 01:50:45.334
As an adolescent,
he made my life bearable.

2400
01:50:45.464 --> 01:50:47.510
His latest is
A Man Without A Country

2401
01:50:47.641 --> 01:50:49.033
Please welcome to the show
Kurt Vonnegut.

2402
01:50:49.164 --> 01:50:51.427
[cheering, applause]

2403
01:50:51.688 --> 01:50:54.865
You know, I-- I always felt
in your writing

2404
01:50:54.996 --> 01:50:58.042
that you were admiring of man,

2405
01:50:58.434 --> 01:50:59.870
but disappointed in him.

2406
01:51:00.218 --> 01:51:03.091
Yes, well, I-- I think
we are terrible animals.

2407
01:51:03.221 --> 01:51:04.483
-and I think--
-[person laughs]

2408
01:51:04.614 --> 01:51:06.268
I think our planet's
immune system

2409
01:51:06.398 --> 01:51:08.531
is trying to get rid of us
and should.

2410
01:51:08.662 --> 01:51:09.880
-Uh--
-[applause]

2411
01:51:10.011 --> 01:51:11.621
You know, Mr. Vonnegut,
if I may,

2412
01:51:11.752 --> 01:51:14.929
it's sad for me to see you
lose your edge.

2413
01:51:15.059 --> 01:51:17.061
[laughter]

2414
01:51:20.456 --> 01:51:23.024
It was an opportunity for
people far and wide

2415
01:51:23.154 --> 01:51:25.026
to let him know how much
they loved him.

2416
01:51:25.156 --> 01:51:26.680
I don't think anybody realized

2417
01:51:26.810 --> 01:51:28.682
he was our greatest
living writer.

2418
01:51:28.812 --> 01:51:30.074
-Kurt Vonnegut.
-[cheering, applause]

2419
01:51:33.251 --> 01:51:35.166
[clicking]

2420
01:51:35.297 --> 01:51:38.343
♪

2421
01:51:40.302 --> 01:51:42.304
[projector clicking]

2422
01:51:51.008 --> 01:51:54.055
♪

2423
01:51:55.578 --> 01:51:57.885
Kurt was gonna be spending
the summer

2424
01:51:58.015 --> 01:52:00.931
at his summer place in
Sagaponack in Long Island,
New York,

2425
01:52:01.062 --> 01:52:02.672
he'd get out of the city
every year,

2426
01:52:03.325 --> 01:52:06.328
and asked me if I wanted to
come and hang out.

2427
01:52:06.937 --> 01:52:08.547
I said, "Yeah, you bet."

2428
01:52:09.984 --> 01:52:12.073
And I remember
my initial instinct was,

2429
01:52:12.203 --> 01:52:14.771
hey, this is great, I'll get
a small camera crew

2430
01:52:14.902 --> 01:52:16.033
and it'd be great
to see Kurt

2431
01:52:16.164 --> 01:52:17.818
sort of walking around
Sagaponack

2432
01:52:17.948 --> 01:52:20.037
and going to the post office
to get his mail every day,

2433
01:52:20.168 --> 01:52:22.039
and this'll be great for
the documentary.

2434
01:52:22.648 --> 01:52:24.955
And then soon after,
I realized

2435
01:52:25.086 --> 01:52:27.001
I-- I don't want to do that.

2436
01:52:28.219 --> 01:52:29.873
This is time for us to hang out.

2437
01:52:30.004 --> 01:52:31.614
I don't know if he's gonna feel
it's intrusive

2438
01:52:31.745 --> 01:52:34.138
to have a cameraman there to be
filming for the documentary

2439
01:52:34.269 --> 01:52:36.271
but suddenly I felt
it was intrusive.

2440
01:52:37.228 --> 01:52:38.708
It was kind of
a turning point for me

2441
01:52:38.839 --> 01:52:40.057
in the making of this film,

2442
01:52:40.797 --> 01:52:42.277
because prior to that,

2443
01:52:42.407 --> 01:52:45.019
I'd always been concerned that

2444
01:52:45.149 --> 01:52:49.327
the friendship might, um,
infringe on the film.

2445
01:52:49.850 --> 01:52:51.416
This was the first time
I realized that

2446
01:52:51.547 --> 01:52:53.331
things had flipped
so entirely now

2447
01:52:53.462 --> 01:52:54.768
that I was worried about

2448
01:52:54.898 --> 01:52:57.118
the film infringing on
the friendship.

2449
01:52:58.206 --> 01:53:00.861
And, um, that was
a realization for me

2450
01:53:00.991 --> 01:53:03.472
that I was maybe in trouble.

2451
01:53:03.602 --> 01:53:06.040
Because part of me had...

2452
01:53:06.780 --> 01:53:09.217
almost given up on the film
at that time.

2453
01:53:13.525 --> 01:53:15.484
[woman]
And the Emmy goes to...

2454
01:53:19.140 --> 01:53:21.882
uh, Robert Weide, uh,
Curb Your Enthusiasm.

2455
01:53:22.012 --> 01:53:24.014
[applause]

2456
01:53:25.799 --> 01:53:27.801
[Bob Weide]
Hey, Ma, this is for you
and for Dad.

2457
01:53:27.931 --> 01:53:29.280
and for, uh, my wife, Linda,

2458
01:53:29.411 --> 01:53:31.456
to whom I just lost
a $100 bet.

2459
01:53:31.761 --> 01:53:32.718
-[laughter]
-Um--

2460
01:53:32.849 --> 01:53:33.981
[answering machine beeps]

2461
01:53:34.111 --> 01:53:36.070
Hi, Linda, this is Kurt,

2462
01:53:36.200 --> 01:53:38.420
just thinking about how happy
you guys must be.

2463
01:53:38.550 --> 01:53:41.815
My goodness,
and how deservedly happy.

2464
01:53:41.945 --> 01:53:44.339
Wow, when somebody's happy,
I-- [chuckles]

2465
01:53:44.469 --> 01:53:45.949
Makes me happy too.

2466
01:53:46.080 --> 01:53:48.473
So crazy about you two,
I hope you love each other

2467
01:53:48.604 --> 01:53:50.127
as much as
I love both of you.

2468
01:53:50.824 --> 01:53:51.737
Bye.

2469
01:53:51.868 --> 01:53:54.871
♪

2470
01:53:59.658 --> 01:54:02.357
[Bob Weide]
In 2018,

2471
01:54:02.487 --> 01:54:06.491
Linda was diagnosed with
progressive supranuclear palsy,

2472
01:54:06.883 --> 01:54:08.015
or PSP.

2473
01:54:09.364 --> 01:54:11.366
Touch your nose,
go back and forth.

2474
01:54:11.801 --> 01:54:12.715
The other side.

2475
01:54:12.846 --> 01:54:14.151
Neither of us had heard of it

2476
01:54:14.282 --> 01:54:15.979
but that's because
it's very rare.

2477
01:54:17.154 --> 01:54:20.679
It's sort of a cousin
to Parkinson's,

2478
01:54:20.810 --> 01:54:23.334
but very aggressive
and very fast moving.

2479
01:54:24.205 --> 01:54:26.468
Her speech, her balance,

2480
01:54:26.598 --> 01:54:29.166
her walking
have all taken a hit.

2481
01:54:30.124 --> 01:54:32.517
Um, there's no known cure.

2482
01:54:33.388 --> 01:54:36.130
But she's participating in
some clinical trials

2483
01:54:36.260 --> 01:54:39.220
which hopefully will provide
some relief.

2484
01:54:41.657 --> 01:54:43.137
We never saw this coming.

2485
01:54:44.268 --> 01:54:46.792
But, you know...

2486
01:54:46.923 --> 01:54:48.446
what'd you ever see coming?

2487
01:54:51.885 --> 01:54:52.929
Fate happens.

2488
01:54:57.151 --> 01:54:58.195
[Kurt Vonnegut]
"Why me?

2489
01:55:00.110 --> 01:55:04.462
"That is a very earthling
question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim.

2490
01:55:04.593 --> 01:55:06.508
"Why you?
Why us, for that matter?

2491
01:55:06.638 --> 01:55:07.901
"Why anything?

2492
01:55:09.293 --> 01:55:12.601
"Because this moment
simply is.

2493
01:55:12.731 --> 01:55:15.212
"Have you ever seen bugs
trapped in amber?

2494
01:55:17.519 --> 01:55:19.347
"Well, here we are,
Mr. Pilgrim,

2495
01:55:19.477 --> 01:55:21.523
"trapped in the amber
of this moment.

2496
01:55:24.265 --> 01:55:25.657
There is no why."

2497
01:55:31.576 --> 01:55:32.795
[answering machine beeps]

2498
01:55:32.926 --> 01:55:35.711
Hi, Bob, this is Kurt
and, uh,

2499
01:55:35.841 --> 01:55:37.147
so exciting to know that

2500
01:55:37.278 --> 01:55:39.628
you are probably in this town
right now.

2501
01:55:39.758 --> 01:55:43.545
I look forward to seeing you
on Thursday if not before.

2502
01:55:43.675 --> 01:55:46.504
Anyway, do not play
Three-card Monte.

2503
01:55:46.635 --> 01:55:50.856
The people who
conduct these games
are criminals,

2504
01:55:50.987 --> 01:55:53.207
and, uh, there's no way
you can win.

2505
01:55:53.729 --> 01:55:56.036
♪

2506
01:55:56.166 --> 01:55:58.081
[Bob Weide] We had a dinner
just like any other dinner.

2507
01:55:58.516 --> 01:56:01.128
I had a little digital camera
with me,

2508
01:56:01.258 --> 01:56:03.260
and jut for fun, I took
a little-- [clicks tongue]

2509
01:56:03.391 --> 01:56:05.175
picture of him sitting at
the table.

2510
01:56:05.480 --> 01:56:09.179
And then we walked back to
his place on 48th Street.

2511
01:56:10.006 --> 01:56:11.834
So we said goodbye and I said,
"Oh, wait a minute.

2512
01:56:11.965 --> 01:56:14.010
Hold on.
Let me take a picture."

2513
01:56:14.315 --> 01:56:16.447
And I took a picture of him at
the bottom of the steps

2514
01:56:16.578 --> 01:56:17.927
looking at me.

2515
01:56:18.058 --> 01:56:20.451
And I don't know what compelled
me to do this,

2516
01:56:20.582 --> 01:56:22.976
because it wasn't anything did
on a regular basis.

2517
01:56:23.106 --> 01:56:25.195
To this day, it's not something
I do that often,

2518
01:56:25.326 --> 01:56:27.328
to say to another guy,
I love you,

2519
01:56:27.458 --> 01:56:28.764
but that's what came out of
my mouth.

2520
01:56:28.894 --> 01:56:31.593
I said, I love you, and
I probably added man.

2521
01:56:31.723 --> 01:56:33.029
I love you, man,

2522
01:56:33.160 --> 01:56:35.205
which takes the edge off of
the corniness.

2523
01:56:35.336 --> 01:56:37.077
Hey, love you, man.
Something like that.

2524
01:56:37.381 --> 01:56:38.817
Anyway, I said, I love you.

2525
01:56:39.122 --> 01:56:40.254
And he said,
"Love you, too."

2526
01:56:41.298 --> 01:56:42.473
Oh, isn't that nice.

2527
01:56:45.433 --> 01:56:47.130
That was the last time
I saw him alive.

2528
01:56:48.653 --> 01:56:51.656
♪

2529
01:56:51.787 --> 01:56:55.356
[Nanny Vonnegut]
My brother called to tell me
that Dad had fallen.

2530
01:56:55.878 --> 01:56:59.360
He hit his head and it--
it's really bad.

2531
01:57:00.622 --> 01:57:02.189
That day that he fell,

2532
01:57:02.319 --> 01:57:05.018
he called me,
we had a conversation.

2533
01:57:06.454 --> 01:57:07.933
And, um...

2534
01:57:08.064 --> 01:57:09.152
Oh, my God.

2535
01:57:11.633 --> 01:57:14.505
He called because there was
always among us

2536
01:57:14.636 --> 01:57:18.031
the worry about, you know,
cancer, breast cancer, whatever.

2537
01:57:18.161 --> 01:57:19.728
He said, "Darling--
[clears throat]

2538
01:57:21.686 --> 01:57:25.081
Um... sorry if I can
remember this right.

2539
01:57:26.822 --> 01:57:28.824
"Are your boobs okay?"
[laughs]

2540
01:57:30.782 --> 01:57:32.132
"Are your boobs okay?"

2541
01:57:33.133 --> 01:57:35.178
"Yes, Dad,
my boobs are fine."

2542
01:57:36.745 --> 01:57:37.963
"Okay, I love you."

2543
01:57:42.055 --> 01:57:43.056
Yeah.

2544
01:57:44.579 --> 01:57:46.494
[reporter] Author Kurt Vonnegut
has died.

2545
01:57:46.624 --> 01:57:48.061
He was one of the most
influential writers

2546
01:57:48.191 --> 01:57:49.671
of the 20th century.

2547
01:57:49.801 --> 01:57:51.586
He wrote classics such as
Slaughterhouse-Five,

2548
01:57:51.716 --> 01:57:52.978
and Cat's Cradle.

2549
01:57:53.109 --> 01:57:55.198
He was know for his
satirical commentary,

2550
01:57:55.329 --> 01:57:58.158
and he took aim at culture,
society and institutions.

2551
01:57:58.593 --> 01:58:00.725
Kurt Vonnegut was
84 years old.

2552
01:58:04.599 --> 01:58:06.557
[Kurt Vonnegut]
This is what I would like
to be read at my funeral

2553
01:58:06.688 --> 01:58:07.863
and I think maybe some of you

2554
01:58:07.993 --> 01:58:09.647
would like this to be read
at yours.

2555
01:58:10.474 --> 01:58:12.302
"I have finished my course.

2556
01:58:12.955 --> 01:58:16.001
"I have ceased to enjoy
and suffer.

2557
01:58:16.872 --> 01:58:19.353
"Please transfer your love
and your benevolence

2558
01:58:19.483 --> 01:58:21.224
"to your living fellow men.

2559
01:58:22.486 --> 01:58:25.054
"The memory of the one
as well as of the other

2560
01:58:25.185 --> 01:58:27.274
is appreciated and honored."

2561
01:58:27.404 --> 01:58:30.451
♪

2562
01:58:31.930 --> 01:58:33.932
[Bob Weide]
I keep above my desk

2563
01:58:34.063 --> 01:58:36.500
the Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary.

2564
01:58:36.979 --> 01:58:39.416
And Kurt's name
is included in it.

2565
01:58:40.374 --> 01:58:41.766
And I love the fact that
it said,

2566
01:58:41.897 --> 01:58:45.292
"Kurt Vonnegut,
1922 to blank."

2567
01:58:49.861 --> 01:58:51.385
Here was empirical evidence,

2568
01:58:51.515 --> 01:58:53.300
here was verification that
he was still with us.

2569
01:58:55.606 --> 01:58:57.913
'Cause that second year
wasn't filled in yet.

2570
01:59:01.482 --> 01:59:03.397
Maybe by finishing this film,

2571
01:59:03.527 --> 01:59:06.269
it acknowledges that...

2572
01:59:06.400 --> 01:59:07.401
he's gone.

2573
01:59:09.054 --> 01:59:10.926
But I feel like I owe him this.

2574
01:59:13.102 --> 01:59:14.669
Hi, Bob, this is Kurt.

2575
01:59:17.150 --> 01:59:19.456
So grateful for
the documentary.

2576
01:59:22.285 --> 01:59:24.157
I wanted to thank you for
your friendship.

2577
01:59:27.290 --> 01:59:28.291
Love you.

2578
01:59:29.379 --> 01:59:30.380
Bye.

2579
01:59:31.729 --> 01:59:33.601
[laughing]

2580
01:59:35.646 --> 01:59:38.693
♪

2581
01:59:41.435 --> 01:59:42.784
[Bob Weide]
Are you gonna buy Pall Malls?

2582
01:59:42.914 --> 01:59:43.915
-You gotta by Pall Malls.
-[Nanny Vonnegut] Yeah.

2583
01:59:44.655 --> 01:59:47.049
Do you have Pall Mall?
Cigarettes?

2584
01:59:49.530 --> 01:59:50.574
[laughs]

2585
01:59:50.705 --> 01:59:52.402
I'm doing this
just to amuse you.

2586
01:59:52.533 --> 01:59:54.535
I know--
I haven't smoked since...

2587
01:59:54.665 --> 01:59:55.710
third grade.

2588
01:59:56.798 --> 01:59:59.844
♪

2589
02:00:06.590 --> 02:00:09.027
[Kurt Vonnegut]
When things are going
sweetly and peacefully,

2590
02:00:09.158 --> 02:00:12.509
please pause a moment
and then say out loud,

2591
02:00:14.119 --> 02:00:16.209
"If this isn't nice,
what is?"

2592
02:00:18.211 --> 02:00:19.255
Candlesticks.

2593
02:00:21.475 --> 02:00:23.303
That feeling that you get
when she's around,

2594
02:00:23.433 --> 02:00:24.913
when she's in the room,
when she's with you,

2595
02:00:25.043 --> 02:00:27.176
I'm the lucky guy who now
gets to feel that

2596
02:00:27.307 --> 02:00:28.525
for the rest of my life.

2597
02:00:28.656 --> 02:00:30.353
[applause, cheering]

2598
02:00:31.180 --> 02:00:32.616
[Kurt Vonnegut]
It's the impermanence...

2599
02:00:32.747 --> 02:00:34.314
of life.

2600
02:00:34.792 --> 02:00:36.533
I mean, this day is
as real as any day

2601
02:00:36.664 --> 02:00:38.231
we're going to live,

2602
02:00:38.361 --> 02:00:41.408
and yet we have an idea that
we're headed for other days,

2603
02:00:41.538 --> 02:00:42.713
even better days.

2604
02:00:42.844 --> 02:00:44.846
[cheering applause]

2605
02:00:47.283 --> 02:00:48.328
[Kurt Vonnegut]
And this is it.

2606
02:00:48.458 --> 02:00:49.764
This is all there is.

2607
02:00:50.417 --> 02:00:53.420
♪

2608
02:01:21.622 --> 02:01:22.884
[Bob Weide]
Vonnegut writes,

2609
02:01:23.014 --> 02:01:25.713
"The British mathematician,
Stephen Hawking,

2610
02:01:26.061 --> 02:01:27.323
"found it tantalizing

2611
02:01:27.454 --> 02:01:29.760
"that we could not remember
the future.

2612
02:01:30.195 --> 02:01:31.414
"But remembering the future...

2613
02:01:31.545 --> 02:01:34.330
[narrator]
"...is child's play for me now.

2614
02:01:34.461 --> 02:01:37.768
"I know what will become of
my helpless, trusting babies

2615
02:01:37.899 --> 02:01:40.336
"because they are
grown ups now.

2616
02:01:40.467 --> 02:01:43.296
"I know how my closest friends
will end up

2617
02:01:43.426 --> 02:01:46.995
"because so many of them
are retired or dead now.

2618
02:01:48.823 --> 02:01:51.173
"I say, be patient.

2619
02:01:51.304 --> 02:01:53.480
"Your future will soon
come to you

2620
02:01:53.610 --> 02:01:55.656
"and lie down at your feet,

2621
02:01:55.786 --> 02:01:58.485
"like a dog who knows
and loves you

2622
02:01:58.615 --> 02:02:00.095
"no matter what you are.

2623
02:02:03.751 --> 02:02:06.841
"And the dog of my future
lying at my feet

2624
02:02:08.364 --> 02:02:10.061
is snoring now."

2625
02:02:13.804 --> 02:02:16.851
♪

2626
02:02:52.321 --> 02:02:54.149
[Kurt Vonnegut]
Should I myself die,

2627
02:02:54.410 --> 02:02:55.672
God forbid--

2628
02:02:55.803 --> 02:02:57.195
[laughter]

2629
02:02:57.326 --> 02:02:58.849
I hope you'll say...

2630
02:02:58.980 --> 02:03:00.547
he's up in Heaven now.

2631
02:03:01.896 --> 02:03:03.637
That's my favorite joke.

2632
02:03:09.077 --> 02:03:10.513
[bird chirping]

2633
02:03:13.690 --> 02:03:17.302
♪

2634
02:03:24.527 --> 02:03:26.877
[Kurt Vonnegut]
I do believe
time repeats itself.

2635
02:03:27.312 --> 02:03:29.358
Our lives are somewhat
like pendulums

2636
02:03:29.489 --> 02:03:33.057
that we, uh, start at birth
and swing to death.

2637
02:03:33.188 --> 02:03:35.320
and back and forth
throughout all eternity.

2638
02:03:36.234 --> 02:03:39.324
and that would suit me if
I got the cycles of my life

2639
02:03:39.455 --> 02:03:40.804
through all eternity.

2640
02:03:41.370 --> 02:03:43.328
I don't want to die
and go away entirely,

2641
02:03:43.459 --> 02:03:45.592
I'd like to come back and
come back and come back

2642
02:03:45.722 --> 02:03:47.071
on almost any terms.

2643
02:03:47.202 --> 02:03:50.858
♪

2644
02:04:17.232 --> 02:04:20.191
♪

2645
02:04:47.915 --> 02:04:49.133
Oh, Jesus!

2646
02:04:49.264 --> 02:04:51.092
Oh, what a thing to say
in church.

2647
02:04:51.222 --> 02:04:52.659
[laughter]

2648
02:04:53.311 --> 02:04:55.444
[laughing]

2649
02:05:07.761 --> 02:05:10.764
♪

2650
02:05:11.939 --> 02:05:14.158
[laughter]

2651
02:05:20.077 --> 02:05:23.124
♪

2652
02:05:54.155 --> 02:05:55.635
[snapping]

2653
02:06:13.261 --> 02:06:14.305
Hooray!

2654
02:06:15.568 --> 02:06:17.004
Do it again.

2655
02:06:20.921 --> 02:06:22.009
[chirping]