Dear Kurt Vonnegut Fans
Hey! You’re a fan of Kurt Vonnegut? So is that kid you know. And your uncle – the cool one. Everyone has an ex boyfriend or girlfriend that were Kurt Vonnegut fans. And that relationship was memorable. Because Vonnegut fans are crazy.
The first comments written after I wrote my “Readers by Author” post were by people asking me to do a Vonnegut stereotype.
Which was hard because Vonnegut fans are ever-changing. You know you are.
Vonnegut fans are the quiet guy/girl in your ninth grade math class who turns into the slightly popular rebel by senior year. In college they turn into an art student. After graduation, they end up working in pharmaceuticals. After the first divorce, they turn into a full-time blogger. Or some sort of story that resembles a thousand different paths you took to where you are now.
You’re the craziest people in the world.
Vonnegut people are too random and varied for me to stereotype. However, I at least know they are rebels enough to have made love or smoked pot at some point in their life to the song Creep by Radiohead.
[I wish I were a Vonnegut kid]
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Lauren Leto
Lauren Leto 
All the Vonnegut kids are gonna feel all awkward commenting on this now, you know.
I simultaneously had a crush on/was intimated by the Vonnegut kids in high school…and I never quite caught up to them…
This is hilarious. I was the quiet guy in my ninth grade Algebra class. I was the lightly rebellious and very popular Senior. I want to write now, but we all know I’ll fail and end up selling drugs with side effects that kill people for a living. I even took a year off from college to work in Middle-East/North African business development helping a Prince buy sea mammals to suit his own craving for excess.
I want to call my novel “If The Accident Will” it’s a line from Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”
I’ve done both to Creep
I am crazy.
I have never been more proud to be a Vonnegut kid.
Same here. I pretty much followed that path exactly, and I’m at art school now. I definitely don’t plan to go to pharmaceuticals though. lol
um, one time i put on Exit Music for a Film on the jukebox at a bowling alley while me and all my friends were high on opium. shhhhhhhyeah that night i don’t remember but i will never forget
I read Vonnegut back in the 3rd grade and then moved on.
gah! nooo you have to be older to appreciate it
I do smoke pot and listen to Radiohead. And “Breakfast of Champions” is my favorite book. Right on.
It’s true. I did all three at once. I have a Vonnegut tattoo.
Actually, you had me pegged completely up through being an art student.
got over pot, got over radiohead (LONG ago), never got over vonnegut.
This is hilarious. I’m a Vonnegut fan. I inhaled his stuff after I read Slaughterhouse Five. This also describes me quiet well. I’m probably a little crazy. But, I like Chuck Palahniuk a lot too, and I’m not a boy who can’t read.
Honestly…This is hilarious, yet perfect at the same time.
You’ve got it all right up to the art student.
I have yet to go into pharmaceuticals, but thanks to you…I’ve found new inspiration.
Haha.
Wow
It’s like you’re talking about me. And I’m such a crazy Vonnegut fan that I have him tattooed on my calf.
Geek in high school, got into Radiohead et al in college, now have “so it goes” tattooed on my wrist.
Spot on, I’d say.
thats funny because my dad loves him and is a pharmaceuticals salesman…haha
Outcast all my life? Check.
Crazy? Check.
Artist? Check.
Cool? Uuuh..
i thought the other stereotypes were all pretty apt but this one is wrong. people who call vonnegut their favorite author are a little too cool to call the catcher in the rye their favorite book, so-called outcasts that are in love with themselves. case in point: this comment thread. yikes.
or we just like vonnegut.
No, the comments are pretty bad.
i hated catcher in the rye. love vonnegut though. why do yo hate vonnegut lovers?
I also hated Catcher in the Rye… not because I consider myself to cool, I just didn’t enjoy that book a bit.
Somehow, I ended up a tattooed-recovering addict-librarian. Who loves Radiohead.
I’m a huge Vonnegut fan, and I honestly hated Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfeild is a whiney prepubecent bitch and Vonnegut’s narrators, including himself, are sarcastic, but determined. Holden is always running away. Vonnegut’s character’s do things very deliberately.
meowf
i really didn’t think you were gonna nail me.
More or less. Although I hope to God that the pharmaceuticals thing isn’t as prescriptive (rimshot) as it sounds.
It was a long time ago I read any of his books. I don’t read many novels nowadays but maybe my favoroutite author would be stanislaw lem.
I was a loner, then I was a stoner, then I was slightly cool, I’ve smoked pot to that song, although I am no longer smoking pot and never really cared for Radiohead. While it wasn’t compeltely spot on, the fact that you called me crazy compensates for the rest. I AM crazy, for sure. & now I am in school to become a teacher, infecting the minds of all others. Mwuahaha.
I thought this post was amusing, as like others who posted, I was the mute in class that turned into the eccentric rebel. That was before I’d even read Vonnegut, after that my mind was sincerely blown.
This is creepy, I’m at the Art College phase. I don’t see the pharmaceutical thing working out though!
I’ve got to hand it to you, that’s pretty uncanny. Never realized there was any sort of stereotype for Kurt fans. You also nailed me with Heller, and i had to laugh at Palahniuk fans, which although (obviously) inaccurate, still says something about us.
lol this is too funny. quiet dude on 7 grade, big mofo by senior year. business owner and tv screenwriter by now. vonnegut = hero. but no, never smoked pot while listening to radiohead.
You hit it right on the head for vonnegut….i feel flattered and happy. Thanks a Bunch!
Though lovingly;
sheep much?
Whoa, my wife is a Vonnehead. She paints and, yep, went into pharmaceuticals.
Great. She better not start blogging.
If I loved Kurt Vonnegut any more, it would border on necrophilia. However, I must be the least badass Vonnegut fan ever. I don’t think I like Radiohead enough to have sex to creep, and I don’t smoke. I will console myself with the fact that at least I am crazy.
Vonnegut fan here. I love Radiohead, but never that song while doing either of those activities-it’s kinda overplayed, don’tcha think?
Huge Vonnegut fan…but I’ve never moved much past the “quiet girl in your ninth grade math class” phase.
I’m sure there are plenty of Vonnegut fans who you’ve completely nailed on the head…but I’ve never read him to try to make a statement~ or anything like that. I just think his way with words was brilliant.
Is there a place for Vonnegut fans like me? 😉
Absolutely. You’re still described in there. I think the point is how eclectic we are.
I’m a Vonnegut fan and this is embarrassingly accurate.
Vonneguts been my favorite author since I was in 8th grade. People are constantly calling me crazy and weird, but I wouldn’t say I’m crazy. Everything I do seems normal to me.
Hi Ho.
In my time, those embryonic 70’s, all the Vonnegut readers were into prog rock
[…] People who played Creep by Radiohead while having sex or smoking pot. Longer explanation here. […]
You know, I felt like I fit a lot of the stereotypes till I read this one…and the explanation. I, too, have a KV tattoo (his asshole on my foot), and I pride myself that my resume reflects my breadth more than depth. *laugh*
I didn’t fit the story you narrated, but I definitely fit the thousand crazy paths.
The quiet-kid-turned-rebel-turned-art-student-Radiohead-fangirl, weighing in!
One of the assignments for my literature class was to read Slaughterhouse-Five.
My Vonnegut tattoo owns all yours!!! Just sayin…sorry.
And No. not a Radiohead fan…though am a pot fan.
[…] People who played Creep by Radiohead while having sex or smoking pot. Longer explanation here. […]
I love Vonnegut. I love Radiohead. But I hate the song Creep. And I’d imagine that radiohead hatte that song creep as well.
Quit my job trading commodities for an energy company and became a professional poker player. My Pandora Station defaulted to the name “Radiohead Radio”. If the shoe fits…
I’m a 60 y/o Vonnegut kid and..so it goes.
Very perceptive. I found Vonnegut rather late in life, but it appears that I already fit the stereotype long before I had read anything other than Slaughterhouse 5.
I don’t know who you are or what russian spy network you’re a part of, but I’m asking you nicely to remove all of your cameras and microphones from all the places I fuck and smoke pot. Please?
hahahahaha no way, i was “quiet” in nineth grade (not shy at all, just quiet) then popular without “the popular omg”, aaaand am about to start my first year as an art student. holy hell, that was incredible WAHAHAHA divorce in the future? WTF nOoooOOOoo maybe i’ll get the rich house and mercedes, eh?
OMG YOU GUYS ARE ALL SO CRAZY AND, THOUGH YOU WON’T ADMIT IT, SOOOO COOL. BEING QUIRKY IS SO BADASS ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE HUMBLE TOO.
Well this comment thread seemed to be an exercise in some indulgent, ego-masturbation.
I’m a huge Vonnegut fan and I was popular throughout high school, a WASP, went to an exclusive private girls school, and I attend a sandstone uni (the equivalent of an Ivy), where I’m about to graduate from my Law degree. I enjoy coke over pot and am dating a girl because I know the top tier law firms are looking for non-threatening LGBTQI individuals for their affirmative action recruitment.
Inside all Vonnegut fans are sheep who go out of their way not to conform. I just came to the realisation earlier than others.
I am a huge Vonnegut fan, and I was the quiet kid, but now I am a senior and I am not the least bit popular. I suppose I still have the chance to get into art and pharmaceuticals. I have also always wanted to write a book. Guess we will see.
Sort of spot on. High school bit’s 100% right. Never smoke pot. As for sex to “Creep”… haven’t done that, but “Fly” by ALO, several Wilco/Jeff Tweedy songs, and oddly enough, “Party in the USA.”
My roommate’s a huge fan too. He owns pink pants with green tigers on them.
I’m also considering a tattoo of Vonnegut’s drawing of an anus.
my ex-boyfriend, summarized.
Maybe a more accurate stereotype would be that we all get Vonnegut tattoos.
Based on the comments, anyway.
quiet kid, rebel kid, film student. i guess i’m not that unique after all…
I am Kurt Vonnegut. All of this applies to me.
I was that Cormac McCarthy kid
I beat up the Kurt Vonnegut faggots
they were all hipsters in training
cormac mccarthy sucks. the road was the most boring shit i’ve ever read.
Completely true! On both accounts!
Maybe back in the day, but for us younger readers that would be like doin’ it to the facebook trailer. No thanks.
“Creep” and pot are a little dated, dear. The new generation of Vonnegut fans eat Xanax while listening to the live, solo piano version of “Fog”. Sex, however, is timeless, and the intent is really the same.
Guity as charged.
So it goes.
I love Vonnegut, I smoke pot, but the song “Creep” is by far Radiohead’s worst song. Sorry miss, but I would never have sex to that bullshit.
Cheers.
[…] https://laurenleto.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/dear-kurt-vonnegut-fans/ […]
I read Vonnegut, tried pot, still listen to radiohead on occasion, was an art major for one year, and now work in pharmaceutical research, and just started blogging. Sigh. totally pegged…
Vonnegut fan (even have a Vonnegut-inspired tattoo).
This is my life story if you move “blogging” ahead of the divorce and replace it with “published a independent magazine” and then replaced “pharmaceuticals” with “e-commerce” and moved it after the divorce.
I definitely have done both while listening to Creep, and I am probably a little crazy.
Thx! Way more entertaining than astrology.
Oh yeah. I have “So It Goes” inside of petrified roses as part of my right arm sleeve. Well done sir lol.
You. Respond to me. Now -__________-
We’re not crazy. We’re normal. YOU’RE the ones who are crazy. Especially because you thought it was worth your time writing half retarded one liners attached to authors names, only about 3% of which had any thought or reasoning behind them.
I mean it foo, now.
Wow. I was quiet in ninth grade. And somewhere between then and senior year I indeed smoked pot with Radiohead. Just got accepted to School of the art Institute of Chicago and Maryland institute college of art. Pharmaceuticals could be dangerous, but things happen. Uncanny.
I am a huge vonnegut fan, although– i smoked to pharcyde, i love painting but refused to attend art school, and i attended culinary school for pastry. and i wouldn’t say i’m crazy.. i’d say emotionally unstable?
got me
[…] People who played Creep by Radiohead while having sex or smoking pot. Longer explanation here. […]
Yeah, I suppose this is accurate. Alienating for me because I am the only Vonnegut kid remotely my age, that I know. Never met another besides some of my young teachers. 14 by the way. Any others?
This is hysterical. It was perfect, I’m even minoring in art, almost went to RISD but didn’t have the cash. I’m majoring in English of course. But, had you asked me such things a year ago I could have told you pre-med. So it goes. However, now that you mention it, Pharmaceuticals might just be the path me… after I travel across Australia first of course. Oh and who hasn’t blazed to creep? That was just a cheap shot.
Is it possible to sub Tom Robbins for Kurt Vonnegut? just wondering….
Hey, great post. I just recently got into Vonnegut, but the stereotype still applies to me.
You got a great sense of humor. keep it up for the lulz.
This seemingly does apply to me… strangely! I was the shy girl in algebra who everybody tried to take advantage of be copying my work! By the time I got to my Junior year I was a full on Vonnegut lover!! When senior year came more people than I though knew who I was… half the people I did not even know of! While I had very few close friends, I guess I did become more popular than freshman year, not that I actually took this into consideration! I have not however, done either of those to Radiohead! Nor do I plan to.
so it goes.