Homely Truths

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut delivered the closing address of the Ivy League conference "Issues of Nuclear Arms" held last month at Dartmouth. Vonnegut, whose works include Slaughterhouse Five,Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions, was at the College for six days under the auspices of the fellowship program established in 1978 by Harle and Kenneth Montgomery '25. A charmingly unpolished speaker, the novelist delighted large audiences with his penetrating wit and perfect timing. The point of his nuclear arms address, entitled "A Fate Worse Than Death," was that most people, when you get right down to it, prefer slavery to death. The pithy power of just such homely truths informed most of Vonnegut's commentary. S.G.

In Eastern meditation, nothing happens. But in the West, we meditatebooks. We have found a way of meditating that is far superior. A person wit anordinary mind can meditate with a much-better mind. That's what's so greatabout our civilization. And that's what's so great about reading.

I broke the secret of the Dresden fire-bombing. People wouldn't haveknown about it if it wasn't for Slaughterhouse Five. The bombing ofDresden did not free anyone from a concentration camp one secondsooner. 135,000 people were massacred in the course of a few hours. Itdid nothing but destroy a world-class city, I maintain that I am theonly person in the world who benefitted from the bombing of Dresden. Igot three dollars for every person killed.

What do I want my books to accomplish? Well, I hope eventually todestroy the American army as an effective fighting force. It's okay ifthey march up and down, but I don't want them to be an effectivefighting force.

We haven't avoided a global war for 38 yearsbecause of nuclear arms. We would have hadpeace for a third of a century even if our warheads had been filled with Hostess Twinkiesandjelly beans. Europe has been at peace becauseof the memory of two world wars. People nowunderstand that wars are not jolly adventures.They are the most repulsive of all diseases.

People are changing. They aren't so ignorantand bloodthirsty any more.

The Cinderella story is a basic story shape in our society. One by one, thefairy godmother gives Cinderella all the things she needs to get to theparty the dress and the pantyhose and the shoes and the transportationand then Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! she loses it all. She goesalong almost as low as before (she has the memory to keep her up a little)until the shoe fits, and then her fortunes go out of sight. Creation mythsall start like that God gives you the sun and the moon and the salmonand the corn but only our society has a creation myth that's as bizarreas the Cinderella story, where everything gets taken away from youagain. I see the part until the shoe fits as the Old Testament, and thencomes the New Testament. It's a crazy shape for a myth.

Books don't damage society till 20 years after they're published. See, it'smostly young people who are influenced by books, who are liable to betotally wowed. I can't be wowed by a book now. Between the ages of 14and 25, though, I was terribly vulnerable. I was wowed by Dos Passos,Steinbeck, Hemingway. They had a lot to do with the formation of mycharacter, my politics. And it took 20 years for me to get old enough tohave any power and influence in my society. And so, people who have readme when they're young it'll take 20 years before anyone'll listen tothem. And I think they'll have my crackpot ideas, a lot of them.