Goodbye Kurt Vonnegut, You Were a Seriously Cool Dude

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by News

Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

In college my roomate had to write a critique of a "Breakfast of Champions". The teacher did not like his take on the book, gave him a bad grade and said his views were just wrong. So my roomie sent his paper along with the teachers comments to Kurt. About a month later he received back a message:

Dear John:

Your teacher is an asshole.

Sincerely
Kurt Vonnegut


(oops, I just noticed the other thread on this. Would someone merge this with that?)

[3894]

Dear World,

Kurt Vonnegut had serious writing chops. Thank God he let us read his stuff.

Sincerely,
Helen

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

In college my roomate had to write a critique of a "Breakfast of Champions". The teacher did not like his take on the book, gave him a bad grade and said his views were just wrong. So my roomie sent his paper along with the teachers comments to Kurt. About a month later he received back a message:

Dear John:

Your teacher is an asshole.

Sincerely
Kurt Vonnegut


(oops, I just noticed the other thread on this. Would someone merge this with that?)

What a great story. Farewell Kurt (in truth, I thought you'd gone already )

[SacTown Chronic]

It's such a great story, I still remember the first time I heard it.


So either Vonnegut has called many a professor an "asshole" or Moonie's roommate is THE guy in the story I heard (read).

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

It's such a great story, I still remember the first time I heard it.


So either Vonnegut has called many a professor an "asshole" or Moonie's roommate is THE guy in the story I heard (read).

I would not be suprised if Kurt recived and responded in kind to many such letters. However in this case I did see the actual letter from Kurt. (Circa 1981 or so...). If you can find the refrence you saw please post it. I'd be interested to see if there is a connection.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

In college my roomate had to write a critique of a "Breakfast of Champions". The teacher did not like his take on the book, gave him a bad grade and said his views were just wrong. So my roomie sent his paper along with the teachers comments to Kurt. About a month later he received back a message:

Dear John:

Your teacher is an asshole.

Sincerely
Kurt Vonnegut


(oops, I just noticed the other thread on this. Would someone merge this with that?)

Nice story. Interestingly, that was basically the bit in Back to School. Rodney hired Kurt Vonnegut to write his English paper on a Vonnegut novel. The snooty professor recognized that Rodney could not have written the essay and added that whoever did knows nothing about Vonnegut.

Professors being professors, you'd probably get the same result with whatever author you plugged in.