In what order to read Vonnegut has always been a good question - but this isn't about Vonnegut

[ThomWV]

Just because we are all friends here, its a nice Sunday afternoon, and people should share especially good experiences with others - that's why.

I wish I had known all about Vonnegut before I read him. I probably would have figured out some order of reading that might have given the words and stories greater meaning - as if that were necessary - and I've seen plenty of suggestions that in substance agreed.

About a week ago I was moved to read Orwell's essays by a horribly butchered interview that was aired on Cspan. George somebody (who's name escapes me at the moment) had a new book out on Orwell and Christopher Hitchens did the interview. If you will allow me to summarize the interview: Hitchens spent the hour showing the world that he damned sure knew more about the subject than this damned upstart author and the world better be damned well sure of it.

That said, I was prompted to read and went net-searching. http://www.george-orwell.org/ claims to have all of Orwell's essays and the fount and size are such that I find it readable. Good enough. I found the list of essays and picked one. This wasn't my first Orwell essay, I had read one titled Politics and the English Language. Actually I don't recall which of the 51 at the website I read first, but that first evening I read about 6 of them. then day I read 10 or 15 more, and so on. I have just about finished the list.

I have been trying to come back here with some sort of recommendation. Two days ago I pulled two short quotes out of one essay and posted them - several people indicated they found them informative or at least enjoyed them. I've begun a few posts and then deleted them. I just can not find the words. Orwell has always enjoyed my respect. I had read his fiction novels and loved them. I would go so far as to say that it is my opinion that 1984 is one of the more important books to be read by anyone. That respect for Orwell did not, however, in any way prepare me for the essays.

It is a shame that the essays at the website above are not listed in the order they were written, or that there is no chronicle of when and where they first appeared. They are listed in alphabetical order. When I started reading I just began with titles that captured my attention. It was like being taken to the firing squad before the sentence was cast. The first essay sent a shock through me - and I mean a physical shock. I crossed a passage, just a couple of sentences hidden well into a paragraph, that sucked the breath out of me as I read it. I read on, into other subjects - most with mundane titles, and in each the pattern is repeated. Orwell has his subject, and he will be well versed in it as only a scholar can be; or Orwell has his story, and with precise language he gives it to you unadorned, and then there it is - one thought, one line of reason, one explanation for how this thing thing came to be or what the state of the world is and he does it with such clarity that it just shakes you. And you never see it coming either. The subject might be anything or anyone but his point explodes out of it for a moment and then the narrative resumes. It is the rogue wave on a calm sea.

And so I haven't posted anything. I do not have the intellectual capacity to give a good description to the genius that is displayed in his essays. You have to read them for yourself. And that's the rub. I'm sure there is some order that you could read them in that would make the experience even better than it will be if you take my method and stumble around at first. I'd liked to have read them in chronological oder, but that's my opportunity lost, I'd say that if you wanted to try one to see if anything was to be learned I'd read either Shooting an Elephant http://www.george-orwell.org/Shooting_an_Elephant/0.html or Down in the Mine http://www.george-orwell.org/Down_The_Mine/0.html first and see how it went.

Have a very nice day.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

1. Vonnegut, any order will do / Orwell has become too prophetic

[lxlxlxl]

2. will start reading those two right now...be back with some thoughts

i read "Politics and" a long time ago, but have some time tonight. this will be a decent experiment for me. I rarely find thoughtful DU topics, but maybe we can pull something together here. I will post my thoughts later.

[ThomWV]

3. I look forward to your opinion

I really do. Maybe it was just me but I honestly shook about half way through You and the Atom Bomb, or whatever it was called.

[grasswire]

4. Thanks for the push.

I will read them all. It will be an honor to do so.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. I first read Vonnegut at age 13

It was a dog-eared paperback edition of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater that I borrowed from my older brother. I was instantly hooked by Vonnegut's sardonic humor, and the format of this particular novel - a series of short essays - ensured that I didn't lose interest and kept reading. This introduction to the omnipresent Kilgore Trout didn't detract from his other appearances whatsoever. I was so taken with Vonnegut's writing that I obtained copies of his earlier works - including Cat's Cradle - which was no small undertaking for a teenager coming of age in Upper Buttcrack.

[xchrom]

6. Recommend

[hfojvt]

7. "Shooting an Elephant" was required

in my graduate school course on socialism. But I cannot remember much about it. Except that it was metaphorical where the 'elephant' was colonialism. I am not sure if that was part of the essay.

[Mike 03]

8. Difficult Question. All I can tell you is my experience, which was I was a young

teenage when I read my first Vonnegut novel, which had just come out in hardcover, and it was DEAD-EYE DICK, which remains to this day perhaps my favorite of his works.

Naturally, after reading that I wanted to read his "Masterpieces" like SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, CAT'S CRADLE, and thereafter, I read all of his works.

The only book I didn't like was GALAPAGOS. Not sure why. Most critics like it, I just didn't.