Advocate Letter Writer PooPoohs Vonnegut as Philosopher

All: Not everyone loved Vonnegut. Here is one of the more literate dismissals of him. It was published May 1 in the Advocate in Louisiana.

Any reaction to Madden's piece?


Published: May 1, 2007 - Page: 6B

I have never understood such adulation of Kurt Vonnegut as the editorial page displayed April 24.

I have always been struck with the way Vonnegut and his admirers have confused the shallow, sophomoric form of humor, sarcasm (derived from the Greek “to tear flesh”), with the highest form of humor, satire.

Vonnegut’s gift to civilized discourse, the editorial asserts, is the compassionate “You’ve got to be kind.”

The editorial ends with an implied challenge: “We rather doubt formal philosophers could do much better than that.”

The response is a no-brainer.

Before we turn to formal philosophers, let us observe that on any given day, in a more practical manner, nursery schoolchildren who have never heard of Vonnegut say “Be kind,” as their teachers have taught them. And daily, this editorial page rises to a higher level of philosophical thought.

Let us not forget the gifts of other nonformal philosophers, such as Blanche Dubois’s more personalized and much more famous line, “I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers.”

We are beholden to Tennessee Williams for that and for other memorable lines. We pay perhaps a hundred philosophers in colleges and universities around the state to think and teach on a level far above the exhortation “philosopher” Vonnegut borrowed from Jesus. They deserve far more respect than to be compared with Vonnegut.

When one is inclined to “doubt that formal philosophers could do much better than” Vonnegut’s gift, one would do well to recall a few lines from the hundreds of philosophers who have enriched the mind of man for 2,000 years.

* Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
* Plato: “There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.”
* Heraclites: “One cannot step twice into the same river.”
* Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.”
* Rousseau: “Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains.”
* Sartre: “Existence precedes essence.”
* Attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

“And so it goes. …” as Vonnegut loved to say. Let those who are so moved give Vonnegut his due, but not at the expense of philosophers, who have given us original insights that, progressively, have transformed our lives and lighted the way into our unknown futures.

David Madden
Writer-teacher
Baton Rouge

Madden's letter prompted this rebuttal:


Published: May 7, 2007 - Page: 6-B

RE: “Philosophers superior to Vonnegut”

After reading Mr. David Madden’s unwarranted and mean-spirited attack on Mr. Kurt Vonnegut and his admirers, I was compelled to respond.

I am sure other, more eloquently written responses will be submitted, for Mr. Madden’s opinion of Mr. Vonnegut’s contribution to society is just that, an opinion. Hopefully, his students at LSU are not being turned away from the works of Kurt Vonnegut by his vitriol.

As a matter of fact, I was introduced to Kurt Vonnegut’s writing by an LSU English instructor and friend (now deceased), Matthew Clark. Were it not for Matt’s insistence that I read “The Sirens of Titan,” my life would not be as rich as it is for having continued to read all of Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction and most of his essays.

I am not sure what grudge Mr. Madden has toward Mr. Vonnegut, but his venom toward the man is evident in his words. Hopefully, the readers of The Advocate who have not read Vonnegut will be moved to pick up one of his books purely to see what would cause Mr. Madden to be this hateful.

And I close with these words for Mr. Madden (Donald and Velvia Crumbley Professor of Creative Writing) from “Cat’s Cradle”: “Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before ... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”

Tony Dorsa
engineer
Baton Rouge