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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

You've heard all the very good reasons before but I especially like this one from Kurt Vonnegut: 

Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.

Kurt Vonnegut 2005

Just popping out...

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Oh I love it - dancing animals! Exactly, we are born to move and interact, not to stare at screens.

I love it!

Anyone who has ever seen my bookshelves knows that Kurt Vonnegut's influence on my thinking can't be underestimated. Between him and Robert Tressell, the foundations for my future self were laid.

All books discovered in my local public library...what parent was going to buy a book called Slaughterhouse 5 for their teenage daughter's birthday in the 1980s?

Smooth, very smooth Mr K. But you know different...

Brilliant quote, thanks Liz.

Well Liz, I had no idea of these shared but hidden depths.  I too have half a dozen Vonnegut books including naturally, "Breakfast of Champions".  I liked very much the figure of Kilgour Trout who wades across a creek to reach a local arts festival but crosses downstream of a chemical works and gets his legs coated in plastic.

 

At last, a community of Vonnegut lovers. I love the fact that Vonnegut created Trout as his alter-ego in the books. I'm re-reading Breakfast of Champions for the nth time. So it goes.
BTW did you know that Slaughterhouse 5 was banned in many American public schools and libraries. A damn good reason to read it I think.
I started with The Sirens of Titan as I liked sci-fi and picked it off the library shelves. I can picture it now. A big yellow hardback which I checked out many times. I've never looked back. And I intend to do exactly what he extorted near the end of his life for us all to do:
“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”

My fav Vonnegut Jr is 'Player piano' - When Vonnegut was interviewd about his last novel he was asked whether he had lost some of his bite in his writing: 'Go dig up motzart, see how he's getting on'. He replied.

Sounds like Green Lanes ... Good stuff Kurt, sums it all up really.
Wonderful, thanks Liz.

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