Cornell Sun Salutes Vonnegut
Just the other day, a friend had this as his away message: “I really don’t care how much you loved Kurt Vonnegut.” It’s a good thing, too, because we were just about to spill to him about how sad it was, what a loss, so it goes, etc. But then we realized why his callousness made sense: This guy went to Cornell. So did Vonnegut. He worked on the paper. So did Vonnegut. Seriously, Cornell Sun staffers must spend their college careers so steeped in all things Vonnegut that the recent outpouring — sometimes respectful, sometimes awful — was just the last straw. Who can blame them for being sick and tired of hearing about Kurt Vonnegut?
Still, the Sun has given the man a proper burial. Last week they posted a commemorative section dedicated to the author, who worked at the Sun in the early 40s before dropping out to go to war. The Sun ran a straight obit, an affectionate editorial, a video of speech he gave at Cornell a couple of years ago, and some poems Vonnegut himself must have submitted to them in recent years. They’ve also collected a few pieces he wrote for the paper. It’s him, all right. One editorial begins:
Wendell L. Willkie, political yo-yo from the Hoosier State, has demanded a second front — while wearing a rumpled blue serge suit with egg on the vest. This homespun corporation lawyer, probably the last presidential candidate to be born anywhere near a log cabin, has set all England (excepting the stupid military authorities) yapping like a pack of underfed dogs in a kennel.
They also re-publish an excerpt from Vonnegut’s speech at a 1980 banquet, in which he talked about life as a Sun staffer:
We on The Sun were already in the midst of real life. By God, if we weren’t! We had just designed and written and caused to be manufactured yet another morning newspaper for a highly intelligent American community of respectable size — yes, and not during the Harding administration, either, but during 1940, ‘41 and ‘42, with the Great Depression ending, and with World War Two well begun.
I am an atheist, as some of you have gleaned from my writings. But I have to tell you that, as I trudged up the hill so late at night and all alone, I knew that God Almighty approved of me.
Any malnourished, sleep-deprived college paper drone knows exactly what he’s talking about.
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April 17th, 2007 at 10:34 am
RIP kurt. so it goes.
April 17th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Vonnegut is my favorite author, and has been ever since I first read Cat’s Cradle. It had always been a dream of mine to meet him.
While I can understand why a Sun editor might be jaded to his genius, props nonetheless to the Sun (and to Ivygate) for a fitting tribute to this man and(to steal a phrase from Harper’s) “unimitative and inimitable social satirist.” RIP Vonnegut, you will be missed.
So it goes.
April 17th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Does anyone else think it’s weird that while we eulogize him we use his phrase, “so it goes?” It’s too casual and while it works in a literary sense I don’t think it makes sense for us to talk about how much we’ll miss him (which is of course ridiculous given that we didn’t know him and he hasn’t written anything in eight years) and then dismiss his death outright as a “so it goes” moment.
April 17th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
RIP Vonnegut
Its a shame he went to cornell
April 17th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
That one cracked me up, Brown!
I can’t wait for someone to reply by bashing your school!!
I love IvyGate commenting!!!
April 17th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
It’s a shame Brown’s going to Brown. Grow up, you’d think after at least one year of college you’d grow out of your own insecurity at not getting into a better ivy (HYPC biatch). Cornell’s bad, but it is difficult for you to bash Cornell when your school’s ranked behind it. I, fortunately, am allowed to bash Brown. Brown sucks. So does Cornell. But apparently Brown sucks more because it is USNEWSPWND.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Omigod my Terri Schiavo prophecy came true!
What are the odds!!
Someone responded to school-bashing … by bashing another school!!!
So much originality … so few exclamation points!!!!
April 17th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Funny thing is… he never graduated. He left in ‘43 for the war. When he went to U of Chicago they didn’t accept Slaughter House Five as his thesis either, they only awarded his degree years after. So many great authors and figures were rejected by their schools – and the schools nonetheless claim them once they’re famous.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Actually Cornell seemed almost reluctant to “claim” him in the wake of his death. It took them several days to get any news about it on their home page or to say anything about it at all. The Sun “claims” him because he really loved the paper. Listen to that video they posted… “The Cornell Sun, thank goodness, showed me what to do with my life, and I did it.”
April 20th, 2007 at 10:36 am
nobody that goes to cornell can ever talk shit about another school, let alone an ivy, kthxpwnt