• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 We're all addicts
Issue # 92 - June 2007
Reader's comments
 
Print this article
 IT WAS MY HUSBAND’S birthday when I heard Kurt Vonnegut had died. He was old and he fell down. Not myhusband, Vonnegut. Traumatic brain injury. So it goes.My sister-in-law popped around armed with a German chocolate cake. “Happy birthday,” she said. “You’d betterunplug the computer, there’s a big storm coming.” Outside, nature was declaring war. A black cloud blew in and the wind picked up, reminding me of Cape Town.Then with a groan, a creak and a thunderous crash, the old maple in our garden fell onto our roof and rolled off.The tree was much older than Kurt Vonnegut. I mourned them both.The Dwight Shrute bobble-head (www.nbcuniversalstore.com) I’d bought myhusband for his birthday nodded on the mantle, confirming the momentousness of the day.I think Kurt would have liked Dwight. He’s a character from
The Office
www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Office/, the resident Nazi who adheres so firmly to therules that common sense is never an option. Dwight collects bobble-heads. So didKurt, after a fashion.Kurt wrote a lot about people who were only following orders, and he also wrote alot about war. Wars are always fought by people who are only following orders.Kurt would have appreciated a proper collection of bobble-heads. I think he wouldhave liked the old maple too.It rained that night, and we awoke to a muddy laundry room floor and a view of the sky where the ceiling should have been. Water dripped from shredded pinkinsulation like blood from a jagged wound. I called the insurance adjuster and thetree fellas. While they felled and adjusted, I wondered what South Africansthought of Kurt Vonnegut.I logged onto the internet and posted a message on RSA-Overseas (www.rsa-overseas.com), a site for expats: “The author of my favourite book died.
Slaughterhouse
5 by Kurt Vonnegut... It is a story about man’s greed and man’sinhumanity to man... Kurt Vonnegut was a friend and contemporary of Joseph Heller, author of 
Catch-22
.” Irambled. “Anyway, now he’s gone, so God bless you Mr. Vonnegut.” Nobody commented. Maybe nobody on the site knew that Vonnegut and Heller were the authors of two of thebest anti-war books ever written. Or maybe they didn’t care. After all, we grew up in a country where peoplewere only following orders.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...