readin’ n’ writin’

I published 2 short little poem-ditties yesterday.

Wow, 47 views yesterday. Plus 4 comments. That’s doing pretty good, for me. It’s very gratifying. And oh! this lovely weather in Seattle! Finally.

My best day ever was 82 views. One guy viewed and liked a bunch of my posts, and I’d just posted some pictures of rhododendrons that people really liked. It’s so gratifying to find creative outlets of expression. I’ve really learned a lot from my blog.

One thing I’ve learned is how “image conscious” we as a species are becoming. I started posting pictures with anything I published, knowing that it attracted interest from people.

The net result? Many days I’d have maybe 10 views. I’d check my administrator’s page, and see that they’d come to my blog via Google image search. That meant that they may not have even read anything – they were just searching for images. Ugh!

So I’ve made a resolve to read and write more. This week the local Seattle Times carrier stopped by my place with an offer of 10 weeks for $20. Wow! That’s a pretty good deal. I couldn’t pass that up, and it fit in with my resolve to do more reading and get more in touch with current events. One thing I miss about not having a TV for these last 2-3 years is that I’ve gotten behind on things.

 

overdoing it

Upon the little spark they blowed,

Until the smoke it billowed.

In me this question did inspire –

If smoke, then is there fire?

 

food for thought

*

Pretty funny stuff. It sums up the fundamentalist viewpoint pretty well. It illustrates, for me, how endemic this kind of thinking is in our country – in our world, even? It’s kind of the mandate for institutionalized religion & spirituality, don’t you think? – to limit critical thinking, self-expression, etc.

Or substitute with the dogma of your choice.

Genesis 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Russel’s Teapot.com

Wiki’s explanation of the term Russel’s teapot

Is There A God? by Bertrand Russel (from which the phrase came)

 

a link to more thoughts about “the muse”

I’m unable to categorize my “about this blog” page, on which I also talk about one’s muse, art, writing and social commentary.

 

reply to Facebook friend

“Pretty interesting artwork!”

Thanks Ellen. I wish more people would comment on my blog. Even criticism is good feedback for writers, artists – a jump-off point, a muse. I don’t really get why people don’t comment more. I value feedback from people I “friend”.
Posting this stuff, though – I take pride in everything on my blog. Reading some of what I’ve written today, I got a sense of accomplishment, a body of work, even if it is “just another blog”. Like I’ve made a contribution, somehow; I matter.
It’s one thing I have to appreciate about Facebook – you get a chance to express yourself to a wider audience. 🙂

 

urban foul

This one’s sort of journal-y; wanting to remember some special thoughts, moments, feelings, etc.

***

more, better, less

control, failure, bless

mental rental chest

over yonder crest

*

babbling stream,

cold and steam

giant sunshine

snowflakes gleam

*

carny corny looks

baling wire, books

hanker hinder roads

linger longer loads

*

children older grow

midnight rooster crows

sleepless, senseless flukes

golden dreams of midnight jukes

_______________________________________________________________

where the images came from:

I was plagued by this damn rooster that one of my neighbors has, crowing all hours of the night and day. I live in a residential neighborhood and don’t understand how some people can be so unconcerned about others’ welfare . It was totally messing with my sleep. I was wondering what was to become of me; wondering how anyone else was able to sleep… and how they were able to put up with it!

While working outside one day, I saw some huge snowflakes falling on a sunny afternoon, as steam rose all around. I wanted to etch down the beauty of the moment.

A friend was staying with me, whom had recently returned to Seattle after living in Oklahoma. He could put on the most charming, hilarious “dumb hick” accent or drawl to emphasize a point. It was genius.

I was thinking about my own Midwest roots. I’d recently read some books about the Beat Writers and was longing for a trip out “on the road”. I was feeling stuck in one place and wondering what I should do with all my books – as a possible first step toward the footloose.

Finally, I’d been enjoying the music of Little Walter, who famously had a hit song called “Juke”.

“Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair In Letters” by Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson. A good book. I love her narrative writing style and her kindly thoughts about Kerouac. I also enjoyed her book “Minor Characters”.

“Women of the Beat generation : The Writers, Artists, and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution” by Brenda Knight. Another recommended book!

“Little Walter, His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection”.                                                      

Little Walter was one of the first harp players to go “electric”, using a hand held mike plugged into an amplifier. He overdrove the microphone and the amp, creating new musical tonalities from the resultant distortion. It gave him a fat harp tone that he called his “Mississippi Saxophone.”

He recorded with Muddy Waters and under his own name. He’s depicted in the film “Cadillac Records” (about the Chess Record Company) as quite a colorful character – shooting another harpist that usurped his name!

Eric Clapton in his autobiography says that he was his “favorite harmonica player”; “one of the most soulful singers I have ever heard”; and cites him near the top of his list of musical heroes and inspirations.

He was inducted into the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, making him the first and only artist ever to be inducted specifically for his work as a harmonica player.

Personally, I think the harmonica is one of the most under-rated musical instruments. Its textures have added so much to the music I love.

Links:

·   See article on Little Walter in Wikipedia here

·   Another article about Little Walter, with further links and some songs

·   Other Blues Harmonica Legends 

A lot of people visit my blog while searching the web for links to Little Walter. So if you enjoyed what you read here, or have other interesting stories, please leave a comment!

Nelson Algren’s Chicago” by the photographer Art Shay

I borrowed this book from the Seattle Public Library. Nelson Algren wrote “A Walk On the Wild Side” and “The Man With the Golden Arm”.

Algren reveled in the seamy side: the underdogs, the cast-offs, the rejects, the unwanted, the poor, the dispossessed, etc.  Algren led the photographer through the Chicago that he frequented, commenting on various locations and the denizens. Like the great photographs of the Depression era, these photographs evoke people’s humanity. Like Algren’s writing, they portray humanity in all its glorious vagaries.

I love stuff like this, am inspired by it. This is social commentary at its finest.

The photographer has a new book out entitled “Chicago’s Nelson Algren”. I imagine it also would be very good.

 

Transcript of Kurt Vonnegut on David Brancaccio

Kurt Vonnegut

Transcript of Kurt Vonnegut interviewed by David Brancaccio on the [PBS] NOW show, October 7, 2005

This transcript contains a really evocative poem by Vonnegut about the environment (I’ve highlighted it in blue font.) His reading of it had gravitas and eloquence.

This is a great interview, it will get your thoughts going!

I saw the latter half of this 30-minute show; and was able to videotape that part of it. The exchange of ideas was rapid-fire. It was hard to believe that it had not been choreographed in advance (this thought came to me as I transcribed the videotape.) And yet – it was all obviously spontaneous; there was no hesitation. The concentration and focus were remarkable – the breadth of what they talked about – the clear exchange of ideas.

I was struck by the profundity of what Vonnegut had to say – the words of an honored and savvy elder. He spoke in a wonderful conversational style, with wit and expressiveness. You got the feeling that they were trying to cram as much as they could into those 30 minutes. I was so engrossed that I felt compelled to transcribe the part that I had on video.

The portion of the show that I caught on videotape – and the transcript that I made – began slightly less than halfway through. (I’ve made a notation at the beginning of that section below, where my tape began.) Later I saw PBS’s transcript online, which I used to complete my transcript.

I’ve slightly amended the part of PBS’s transcript that I used – even though I didn’t see that part. I think I caught the nuances better; was more in synch with what was being said; and that my transcription is more animated.

---

Blurb:

DAVID BRANCACCIO: NOW on PBS.

His is a chaotic universe…remember SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and CAT’S CRADLE? Kurt Vonnegut is back.

He’s on the bestseller list this week with powerful words about the state of the world and the failure of politics. [non-fiction, “A Man Without A Country”]

Vonnegut: on life, democracy, and the importance of being funny.

---

Intro:

BRANCACCIO: Welcome to a special edition of NOW.

This country has been through a lot in the last month and we’ve been out there covering it.

But I’m thinking its time to pause for the big picture. And when the brilliant and irascible Kurt Vonnegut said he was up for an interview, we jumped at the chance.

It’s rare to get to sit across the table from a giant. Do yourself a favor and read SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE again …like now, this weekend.

Before it’s too late.

Mr. Vonnegut has a new book challenging us to think about how life works or doesn’t work. He’s 82 — but I’ll tell you what, he’s still a total riot.

And this icon of American literature has got some choice words for our political parties, our president, and our planet.

---

BRANCACCIO: Mr. Vonnegut, thanks for coming by.

KURT VONNEGUT: My pleasure.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: How’s life?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, it’s practically over, thank God!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: For heaven’s sake!

KURT VONNEGUT: I’m 80– I’m practically 83. It won’t be that much more of– for me to put up with, I don’t think.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well, you were writing about maybe wanting to sue your cigarette companies. You smoked all those years; and there’s a warning on the package saying that this will –

KURT VONNEGUT: Brown and Williams, on their package, promise to kill me. And they haven’t done it. I mean, here I am — 83.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: False advertisement on the cigarettes?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You know, as I grabbed every Kurt Vonnegut book I could find, to re-read — knowing you were coming — I was looking at the beginning of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE.

KURT VONNEGUT: Uh-huh.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: The good uncle in that novel complains that people tend not to notice when they’re happy.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Maybe the character’s right. You don’t notice the stuff that’s good, around us.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah. Well, this was my uncle Alex. And I had a good uncle and a bad uncle. The bad uncle was Dan. But the good uncle was Alex. And what he found objectionable about human beings was they never noticed it, when they were really happy.

So, whenever he was really happy – you know, he could be sitting around in the shade, in the summertime, in the shade of an apple tree, and drinking lemonade and talking. Just sort of this back-and-forth buzzing like honey bees. And Uncle Alex would all of a sudden say, If this isn’t nice, what is?” and then we’d realize how happy we were; and we might have missed it.

And the bad Uncle Dan was…  when I came home from the war, which was quite painful, he clapped me on the back and said; “You’re a man now.” I wanted to kill ‘im!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: So you weren’t just in the war.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You actually were a POW.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: In Dresden during the fire bombing.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Famously. So that’s what it took to make you a man?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: In this uncle’s view.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes. Well, he’d been made a man during the first World War in the trenches.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You didn’t actually kill him, though.

KURT VONNEGUT: No. He would have been the first German I killed.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Your experience as a soldier must give you great empathy for what our soldiers are going through, right now. Because whether or not a person agrees with the logic behind this war in Iraq, or vehemently thinks it’s a bad idea, everybody agrees that it’s hell for those guys and those women.

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, not only that, it’s — they’re being sent on fools’ errands; and there aren’t enough of them. And I’ve read that they go on patrols and they’re in awful danger. And the patrols accomplish almost nothing. And so sure, that’s a nonsensical war. That isn’t how you fight.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: It strikes me that maybe you are not the biggest fan of the president of the United States at this juncture?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well he is what it in my grade school, we would’ve called a twit. And in my high school, we would’ve called a twit. And so I’m sorry we have such a person as president.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: But just short of that, there must be things that you think the current administration has done wrong; that has so upset you?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, yes, it doesn’t know anything about military science. Doesn’t know anything about science. You know, global warming, they just don’t believe it. And my lord, to send 143,000 soldiers, or whatever it is, to occupy a country — of what? Several million? Is– What, it’s seven million, you think?

It’s preposterous. I knew better than that. Although the highest rank I ever held was corporal. And so these people don’t know anything, about anything. They’re incompetent. And, so, yes; they are getting a lot of our guys killed. But, also, they’ve emptied our treasuries. You know, we can’t fix our roads. We can’t fix the schools.

It’s my dream of America, with great public schools. I thought we should be the envy of the world, with our public schools. And I went to such a public school. So I knew that such a school was possible. Shortridge High School in Indianapolis. Produced not only me, but the head writer on the I LOVE LUCY show.

And, my God, we had a daily paper. We had a debating team. Had a fencing team. We had a chorus, a jazz band, a serious orchestra. And all this with a Great Depression going on. And I wanted everybody to have such a school. And, yeah, we could afford it, if we didn’t spend all the money on weaponry.

I brought something.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Oh.

KURT VONNEGUT: It’s a message for the president. Is it alright if I read it?

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Yeah? For the President of the United States?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes. I want to get it right.

(reading) “I am now an elder in this, the greatest democracy in the history of the world. I will be 83 in November. I am a member of what has been called ‘the Greatest Generation.’ I am a combat infantry veteran with a Purple Heart and a Battle Star. And I now want to put my president on notice. And I am talking about impeachment.

Enough is enough. If he commits oral sex in the Oval Office — and I don’t care with whom– that will be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Out he goes!”

There. I’ve thrown down the gauntlet. That be treason — make the most of it!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: But impeachment, that’s strong words! What do you want to impeach him for?

KURT VONNEGUT: For oral sex in the Oval Office. I said that!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Wasn’t that the other guy?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well– I don’t know. That’s the standard now. That’s the precedent. It’s… the one unforgivable thing a president could do.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Why has the president angered you so?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, because he shouldn’t be president. It’s… we ought to have a stronger person. And he’s obviously an actor in a made for TV movie. And other people are, in fact, telling him what to say.

Of course, we have only a one party government. It’s the winners. And then everybody else is the losers. And, the winners are divided into two parties. The Republicans and the Democrats.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well, you write in the book — you say that the last election, the two leading candidates were two C students from Yale, as you put it.

KURT VONNEGUT: Two members of Skull and Bones at Yale, for God’s sake. I mean, that’s what a charade the combat between the Republicans and the Democrats is. It’s rich kids. Winners on both sides. So the winners can’t lose. And, of course, the losers have no representation in Congress or whatever.

But look, yeah. We had to choose between two members of Skull and Bones? What about if we had to choose between two members of Sigma Chi at Purdue? Wouldn’t somebody have said,  “Wait a minute. What the hell happened here?”

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You’re saying you don’t see senior political figures  — really, anybody — representing the interests of people who are struggling?

KURT VONNEGUT: No, not representing the American people. And, so there are people who made a hell of a lot of money, one way or another.

Making it during the war, incidentally. As you know, maybe the war is a bad idea. But some people are making a ton of money off of it. And they want to hang on to whatever they’ve got. And so they bank roll political campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats.

Look, we’re awful animals. We can start with that. You know, it’s a whole human experiment; if that’s what we are.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: That  — at heart, we’re awful?

KURT VONNEGUT: Look, we   — after two World Wars; and the holocaust; and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and after the Roman games; and after the Spanish Inquisition; and after burning witches – the public…  – shouldn’t we call it off? I mean, we are a disease; and should be ashamed of ourselves.

And so, yeah, I think we ought to stop reproducing. But since we’re not going to do that, I think the planet’s immune system is trying to get rid of us.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: The planet is sort of trying to shed us, as if we are some sort of toxin…?

KURT VONNEGUT: Look, I’ll tell you… One thing that no cabinet has ever had, is a Secretary Of The Future. And there are no plans at all for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: That’s a great idea. In other words a Cabinet post–

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, it’s too late! Look, the game is over! The game is over. We’ve killed the planet — the life support system.   …And it’s so damaged, that there’s no recovery from that. And we’re very soon going to run out of petroleum, which powered everything that’s modern, razzamatazz about America…   [the section I recorded starts here]

And it was very shallow people who imagined that we could keep this up indefinitely. But when I tell others, they say, “Well, look — there’s hydrogen fuel.”  Nobody’s working on it!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: No one is working seriously on it, is what you’re saying…

KURT VONNEGUT: That’s right! And what, our energy people — presidents of our companies, energy companies? All they wanna do is make a lot of money right now!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: If you accept your idea — that it is a horrible world out there –  and people are tribal; people are greedy; people are cruel — you can also conclude that: well, Americans didn’t invent that.

And I know someone wrote you, in the book–  someone wrote you this letter, saying, “We need to be armed against all the badness that you see. With Iraq, the threat is on a bigger scale than Al Qaeda,” the guy wrote to you. And he writes, “Should we sit back, be little children and sit in fear and just wait?” We need to take military action, is the implication.

KURT VONNEGUT: No we don’t. No we don’t. We should be… Somebody else has to declare war, first. And of course, Iraq never attacked us.

I have one more thing I wanted to read.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Something in the other pocket, too? Alright.

KURT VONNEGUT: You know, Christianity is very big now… And our president, of course, is a Christian.

These are words I never hear:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This isn’t original. (laughter)

“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Not exactly a Republican platform!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: These, of course, are called the Beatitudes.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: From the Holy Bible.

It’s interesting. It tends to be the Ten Commandments, not the Beatitudes, in modern day America.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes. …Well, not only that  – “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” justifies a lot of violence, on the part of many different societies. But actually, that’s from the Code of Hammurabi. And what he was trying to do was cut down on violence in his society, in Babylonia.

– And saying, “Look – okay, you’re a real man. You gotta get revenge, I guess. But this much, and no more. Otherwise, Babylon is gonna– we’re just going to be people getting revenge, revenge.” (laughs) It’s going to become the chief business.

And, about Moses– I wish he had come down off the mountain with word from God that,  “Hey, we’ve got to cut down on revenge, too.”  Because revenge is bad news. It’s a very bad emotion.

And again, we have Jesus: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Imagine that on a wall in the White House! (laughs)

No, it’s, “We must get revenge!” And, of course, the armaments manufacturers — what we used to call merchants of death — are making a lot of money out of this.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: It’s interesting. You normally describe yourself as, I think, a humanist.

KURT VONNEGUT: Absolutely. It’s my ancestral religion. It’s my ancestors who came over here from the north of Germany during the Civil War. One of them lost a leg and went back to Germany.  (laughs) But anyway, they were free thinkers. They had been Catholics. But science had impressed them that the priest didn’t know what he was talking about, often. And so they were free thinkers.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: What does it mean to you to be a humanist in this day and age?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, to admire the hell out of Jesus Christ; or of anyone who speaks well. And… Well, my grandfather said, “What Jesus said was marvelous; what does it matter, whether he was God or not?” And it doesn’t matter! So this is a human being who spoke extremely well; and we humanists listen.

Not only am I, the honorary president of the American Humanist Association, preaching the sermon on the mount — I’m also announcing that the world is about to end…  The world as we know it, surely. One: we’re destroying it as a life-support system.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Destroying the environment…

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes. And I wrote a poem about that. Which was published, incidentally, by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, on their cover. [ He gets the folded poem out of his pocket]

But the poem goes,

“The crucified planet earth, / should it find a voice and a sense of irony, / might now well say of our abuse of it, / “Forgive them father, they know not what they do.” / The irony would be that we know what we’re doing 

And when the last living thing has died, on account of us, / how shapely it would be, / how poetical, / if the Earth could say, in a voice floating up, / perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon, / ‘It is done. / People did not like it here.’”

And they don’t. And they shouldn’t.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: If we’re despoiling our surroundings, it must mean that we don’t respect it.

KURT VONNEGUT: No. We don’t. And I think most people have an awful time here. And I have said on behalf of all animals, “Life is no way to treat an animal. It hurts too much.”

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Mr. Vonnegut, how does a man stay funny, when he thinks the world stinks, like this?

KURT VONNEGUT: He smokes. (laughter)

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Is that the secret to humor?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah, it helps a lot.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well, I want to ask you about this — You ask, in the book, a question that, actually, you don’t answer. So I want to –

KURT VONNEGUT: I’m old, I’m old!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Think about answering this one. You write, “What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities — which is to say, persons without consciences; without senses of pity or shame — have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it their own?” What can we say to younger people who have their whole lives ahead of them?

KURT VONNEGUT: Well…  You’re human beings, resourceful… Ah… Form a little society of your own. And, ah… hang out with them. Get a gang.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You’re preaching getting into gangs?…

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes, well look it’s–

DAVID BRANCACCIO: But good gangs.

KURT VONNEGUT: Look, I don’t mean to intimidate you, but I have a master’s degree in anthropology!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: I’m intimidated. (laughter)

KURT VONNEGUT: …from the University of Chicago– as did Saul Bellow, incidentally.

But anyway, one thing I found out was that we need extended families. We need gangs. And, of course, they’ve — tribes and clans and so forth — have been dispersed by the industrial revolution; by people looking for work wherever they can find it. A nuclear family – a man, a woman, kids and dog and cat – is no survival scheme at all. Horribly vulnerable.

So yes… I tell people to form a little gang. And, you know; it… you love each other.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You know, I think I’ve found at least some evidence, that – at heart – you’re a bit of an optimist. And here’s my proof. In the new book, there is a picture of yourself that you drew, some of your artwork. And that is definitely you, iconic image of Kurt Vonnegut.

But I looked…  You drew it on some old stationary, it looks like. It says, “Saab / Cape Cod / Kurt Vonnegut, manager”?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes, I was in the Saab business. I think I was one… among the very first Saab dealers in the United States.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: That’s an act of optimism– selling one of those things, back then. Those are weird cars. (laughter)

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes, they certainly were…  And they’re Swedish cars. That’s why I never got a Nobel Prize. Of course, a lot of people ask me,  “How come you never got a Nobel Prize?”

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well, why not?

KURT VONNEGUT: Because I spoke so ill of the Swedish car, Saab, which was a stinker, back then! Now, of course… the convertible, I guess, is the ultimate yuppie canoe. (laughter)

DAVID BRANCACCIO: You know, here we are talking about technology – cars. You’re a bit of a Luddite?

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes. Absolutely. I… All the new technology seems redundant, to me. I was quite happy with the United States mail service. And uh… I don’t even have an answering machine, for God’s sake!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Sounds un-American to me.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah, well, certainly, for a science fiction writer… But Ray Bradbury can’t even drive! (laughter)

DAVID BRANCACCIO: So you have one up on him; if you were selling Saabs…

There’s a little sweet moment, I’ve got to say, in a very intense book– your latest [A Man Without A Country]– in which you’re heading out the door and your wife says, “What are you doing?” I think you say, “I’m getting– I’m going to buy an envelope.”

What happens next?

KURT VONNEGUT: She says, “Well, you’re not a poor man. 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.

Well, I meet a lot of people; and uh… see some great looking babes; and a fire engine goes by and I give them the “thumbs up”. And ask a woman what kind of dog that is… And, I don’t know… The moral of the story 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.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well you wrote in the book about this. You write, “What makes being alive almost worthwhile for me, besides music… was all the saints I met, who could be anywhere. By ‘saints’, I meant people who behaved decently, in a strikingly indecent society.”

KURT VONNEGUT: Yes. Those are acts of kindness and reason, on a very… on a face-to-face.. on a very local…

DAVID BRANCACCIO: On a human level.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah. On a human level.  And… Well, I’ve also spoken about – you know, you’ve heard of ‘original sin.’ Well, I’ve called attention to original virtue. Some people are born… (laughs) just so nice… And they’re going to be nice all their lives, no matter what.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Well, I think it’s easy to notice that some moments with you, Mr. Vonnegut, add up to, I think, a magic moment. Thank you very much.

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, I had a hell of a good time, I must say. If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is!

DAVID BRANCACCIO: The legendary man of American letters, Kurt Vonnegut. His latest book is called: A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

 

A Title Of Courtesy

I called myself Miss Amy for a while. Not to be formal and all… It’s become sort of a term of endearment.

I was frustrated – I didn’t understand why so many of my community seemed to be homophobic. Giving myself this name was “copping an attitude”. I wrote this short essay which got printed in the Emerald City Social Club’s newsletter in 2004. The Emerald City Social Club is a vital and ongoing part of  Seattle’s trans community. I got a lot of positive comments; someone wanted me to do an “Ask Miss Amy” column.

Well, okay – please remember that this is my opinions and perceptions – I don’t claim to speak for anyone else. From my point of view, things have changed a lot in 6 years. Please forgive my clumsy attempt at feminism…

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I’ve been calling myself Miss Amy. Maybe I’ll just start calling myself Miss.

I started calling myself Miss Amy sometimes because it is:  1. An acknowledgement of what I feel is my debt to gay culture as a transgender person.    2. More fun than plain old Amy. It’s camp.  3. An affirmation about gay sexuality; about effeminacy; and femininity, in general. 4. I associate it with feminism. And:

5. An idea that came to me from reading the book “Honey, Honey, Miss Thang: Being Black, Gay, and on the Streets” by Leon Pettiway. I was inspired by its depiction of an unapologetic, proud identification with femme sexuality within the trans community by people of color. They were sad stories. I found it harrowing but identified with the protagonists.

[It seems to me that there is a whole segment of the trans community that is too often invisible – the transwomen of color. And as in everything else about American culture, they have contributed so much. I have an impression of black transwomen being germane to the present day trans self-image; a very empowered persona that goes back many decades ; maybe, all the way back to Africa. Link:  ‘5 Black Trans Women Who Paved The Way’]

According to my dictionary, Mr., Miss, Mrs. and Ms. are all words added before a name as a  “title of courtesy”.

There is no information given in the title Mr. that tells us whether the man is married or not. One would think that it isn’t important; that it isn’t any of our business.

The title “Miss” is the closest real challenge to male prerogative. It is derived from Mistress, which is sometimes used to denote a woman in a position of authority. Look it up. (Actually, Mrs. and Ms. are also derived from mistress.)

Do I want to challenge the idea of male prerogative? Or should I simply seek to exist completely independent of it? There is something about femininity that seems to transcend this whole question. I love this about femininity. It is so not male. It is something else, altogether. It is powerful.

Ms. to me will always be a word that exists in relation to the word Mr.  It’s a made-up word; it was made-up to be the equivalent of the title “Mr.”  As such, it has no real identity or personality of it’s own; other than as a gender indicator that is not marriage-specific. It exists as a response to the male title, Mr.

As a gender indicator, I think it should carry a more independent meaning than that which is in relation to ; it should have more gravity. Why not an affirmation of something that is powerful about women? Ms. always seemed to me kind of frumpy and self-consciously PC.

Miss seems more empowered than Mrs., to me. You are still a commodity as a Miss; therefore, desirable.  It is socially acceptable to pursue someone who is a Miss.  It is much less socially acceptable to pursue a Mrs.; if acceptable at all. Certainly not so in ‘mainstream’ American culture; or in Muslim culture, for example.

And okay, let’s not commodify ourselves. I know that. It’s a whole different topic; maybe two or three.

How do culture and language objectify women?

Why can’t Miss mean the same thing as Mister? Why can’t a woman always be a Miss; which is what she starts out as, anyway? Why not; even if she is married? Whose business is it, anyway? It is apparently not considered “courteous” to give that information out about men on a casual basis. So what’s the problem?

More and more women are keeping their maiden names. Why not keep the same “title of courtesy?”  Why wouldn’t a woman want to be called Miss?

The truth? They do. Just think about it. Wouldn’t you like it if someone called you Miss?

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