Help Me Title My Vonnegut Tribute Event

April 24, 2007 7:50 PM

I'm holding a event in the Seattle area recognizing author Kurt Vonnegut, who recently passed away. A number of people from the local literary, artistic, and library communities will be reading passages of his writing and speaking. I'm looking for a good title for the event; I think "So It Goes" has been overused. Any ideas?
posted by bokinney to writing & language (30 comments total)

Obvious as well, but Granfalloon?
posted by kmel at 7:59 PM on April 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Remembering Kurt Vonnnegut: Or The Children's Crusade, A Duty Dance With Death.
posted by emd3737 at 7:59 PM on April 24, 2007

Iced-nine.
posted by smackfu at 8:00 PM on April 24, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut: Seeing the cat, seeing the cradle.
posted by cog_nate at 8:02 PM on April 24, 2007

(Just suggesting that Kurt himself might have appreciated "so it goes", but of course none of us get control over our own memorials, and of course I really have no idea what he would have appreciated. So it goes.)
posted by trip and a half at 8:11 PM on April 24, 2007

Rethinking the beans, here: "So It Went"?
posted by trip and a half at 8:13 PM on April 24, 2007

I still like "So It Goes," but maybe... Karass? Or something to do with it?
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:17 PM on April 24, 2007

Poo-tee-weet
posted by zachxman at 8:22 PM on April 24, 2007

Kurt is up in Heaven now.

"Now at a memorial service for Isaac Asimov a few years ago on the West Coast I spoke, and I said, 'Isaac is in heaven now,' to a crowd of humanists. It was quite awhile before order could be restored. Humanists were rolling in the aisles. Should I, God forbid, pass on some time, I hope that some of you will say that Kurt is up in heaven now."
posted by vacapinta at 8:23 PM on April 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think "Granfalloon" is kind of the wrong sentiment. Karass would be better. Vonnegut himself, relative to this group, would be a Wampeter. How about "Wampeter in Washington"?
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:44 PM on April 24, 2007

"If this isn't nice, what is?"

My late Uncle Alex Vonnegut, my father's kid brother, a Harvard-educated life insurance agent in Indianapolis who was well read and wise, was a humanist like all the rest of the family. What Uncle Alex found particularly objectionable about human beings in general was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy.

He himself did his best to acknowledge it when
times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in
the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and
Uncle Alex would interrupt the conversation to say, "If
this isn't nice, what is?"

I myself say that out loud at times of easy, natural
bliss: "If this isn't nice, what is?" Perhaps others can
also make use of that heirloom from Uncle Alex. I find
it really cheers me up to keep score out loud that way.

That's always been one of my favorite Vonnegut anecdotes. & if a group of people sitting around remembering someone who meant something to them isn't nice, I don't know what is.
posted by eunoia at 8:45 PM on April 24, 2007

How about "Unstuck In Time" ?
posted by shanevsevil at 8:58 PM on April 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

"God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut."
posted by Dizzy at 8:59 PM on April 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

"Dead; Eyeing Kurt."
posted by Dizzy at 9:01 PM on April 24, 2007

"Kurt On The Half Shell."
posted by Dizzy at 9:04 PM on April 24, 2007

*
posted by R. Mutt at 9:06 PM on April 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

(and I mean * in the best Vonnegutian way possible...)
posted by R. Mutt at 9:08 PM on April 24, 2007

"Kurt On The Half Shell."

Wait, Kilgore Trout didn't die, did he?
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 9:10 PM on April 24, 2007

Vonnegut*
posted by R. Mutt at 9:14 PM on April 24, 2007

I'm so sorry I ever mentioned that anus.
posted by longsleeves at 9:15 PM on April 24, 2007

Of course the asterik would lead to a very nice academic subtitle such as:

*The Rise and Fall of Late Capitalisitic Tendencies in Paperback Novels 1952-1997.
posted by R. Mutt at 9:20 PM on April 24, 2007

Busy, busy, busy.
posted by purephase at 9:22 PM on April 24, 2007

I also came into the thread to suggest * (but you know, really big in a nice 60's font).
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:28 PM on April 24, 2007

The Silence of a Titan
posted by rob511 at 9:28 PM on April 24, 2007

Its too long, but I like "Listen. Kurt Vonnegut has become unstuck in time."
posted by andifsohow at 10:25 PM on April 24, 2007

Nothing Hurts
posted by Falconetti at 11:05 PM on April 24, 2007

Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.
posted by pracowity at 1:51 AM on April 25, 2007

Listen.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:18 AM on April 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

Slaughterhouse Seattle?
posted by JaredSeth at 9:22 AM on April 25, 2007

leotrotsky wins.

But there's also "Fuck Art."
posted by roll truck roll at 9:38 AM on April 25, 2007