The Good Uncle and The Bad Uncle

Here is a link to a fine PBS interview by
DAVID BRANCACCIO in the NOW section.

Excerpt follows about Vonnegut's bad Uncle Dan:


Transcript



DAVID BRANCACCIO: NOW on PBS.

His is a chaotic universe…remember SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and CAT'S CRADLE? Kurt Vonnegut is back.

KURT VONNEGUT: We've killed the planet, the life support system. And it's so damaged that there's no recovery from that. We're very soon going to run out of petroleum which powers everything's that modern-Razzmatazz about America."

DAVID BRANCACCIO: He's on the bestseller list this week with powerful words about the state of the world and the failure of politics.

KURT VONNEGUT: It's the winners. And then everybody else is the losers. And, the winners divided into two parties. The Republicans and the Democrats.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Vonnegut on life, democracy, and the importance of being funny.



BRANCACCIO: Welcome to a special edition of NOW.

This country has been through a lot in the last month and we've been out there covering it.

But I'm thinking its time to pause for the big picture and when the brilliant and irascible Kurt Vonnegut said he was up for an interview, we jumped at the chance.

It's rare to get to sit across the table from a giant. Do yourself a favor and read SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE again …like now, this weekend.

Before it's too late.

Mr. Vonnegut has a new book challenging us to think about how life works or doesn't work. He's 82, but I'll tell you what, he's still a total riot.

And this icon of American literature has got some choice words for our political parties, our president, and our planet.

Mr. Vonnegut, thanks for coming by.

KURT VONNEGUT: My pleasure.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: How's life?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, it's practically over, thank God.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: For Heaven's sake.

KURT VONNEGUT: I'm 80-- I'm practically 83. It won't be that much more of-- for me to put up with. I don't think.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well, you were writing about maybe you want to sue your cigarette companies? You smoked all those years and there's a warning on the package saying that this will --

KURT VONNEGUT: Brown and Williams, on their package, promise to kill me. And they haven't done it. I mean, here I am 83.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: False advertisers on the cigarettes?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You know as I grabbed every Kurt Vonnegut I could find to re-read--

KURT VONNEGUT: Uh-huh.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: --knowing you were coming. I was looking at the beginning of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE.

KURT VONNEGUT: Uh-huh.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: The good uncle in that novel complains that people tend not to notice when they're happy.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Maybe the character's right. You don't notice when the good stuff that's around us.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah. Well, this was my uncle Alex. And I had a good uncle and a bad uncle. The bad uncle was Dan. But the good uncle was Alex. And what he found objectionable about human beings was they never noticed it when they were really happy.

So, whenever he was really happy, you know he could be sitting around in the shade in the summertime in the shade of an apple tree, and drinking lemonade and talking. Just sort of this back-and-forth buzzing like honey bees. And Uncle Alex would all of a sudden say; If this isn't nice what is? And then we'd realize how happy we were and we might have missed it.

And the bad Uncle Dan was when I came home from the war which I was quite painful. He clapped me on the back and said; You're a man now. I wanted to kill kill 'em.