The Periodic Label

Vonnegut Together?

In preparation for a celebration of Kurt Vonnegut’s life and art (hosted by Monuments, The Periodic Label and the boys over at 208, an amazing loft space in Dumbo, Brooklyn), I will be posting ideas and thoughts relating to the writer and artist to stir up some conversations about his influence and importance, as well as garnering interest and participation in the upcoming event. 

Kurt Vonnegut died at the age of 84 on April 11, 2007, after a fall at his Manhattan home several weeks prior resulted in irreversible brain injuries.  This happened in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, so it was overshadowed by the media blitz that followed.  Personally, I was devastated by his death, particularly because I thought I’d get a chance to meet him, feeling what i thought (in a hopefully non-psychotic way) was a kinship with him.

The ideas behind many of the Monuments songs are based in many of Kurt’s sensibilities.  A song on our myspace page (not up on The Periodic Label yet), called “Not My Own” is influenced by a short story in ”Welcome to the Monkey House” called “Unready to Wear.” It’s about an old man who mistakenly leaves his body while at the zoo, only to later see it being excavated from a river.  He promptly returns to it, shuffles back to his apt, and writes an instruction manual outlining how he did it.  It becomes a best-seller prompting half the population of the planet to leave their bodies.  The people that decide not to inhabit their bodies anymore are free from hunger, ambition, vanity, sadness, achiness, fear, and aggression.  This sort of escape is a running theme in his writing, and seems constantly relevant based on our culture’s need to numb ourselves with prozac, ritalin and religion. 

In another Vonnegut favorite, ”Mother Night”, an American playwright living in Germany named Howard Campbell becomes a spy working as a Nazi propagandist.  He refers to his ability to ignore the incomprehensible reality of his actions by focusing purely on the love of his wife.  Once he loses her and packs away his manuscripts, he writes this epitaph for his spirit in eyebrow pencil on the trunk holding the pages:

Here lies Howard Campbell’s essence,
Freed from his body’s noisome nuisance.
His body, empty, prowls the earth,
Earning what a body’s worth.
If his body and his essence remain apart,
Burn his body, but spare this, his heart.

Every time I read something new of his (I just read this excerpt today), I’m reminded of how much his writing has influenced me, which is why I am compelled to have a celebration in his honor with live music, film, standup comedy, readings, and art.  I really want this to be a communal event, so I am taking submissions now for your ideas (any medium!) and will incorporate them into the event for any of you who share the same influence and love of Kurt Vonnegut as I do.

Please contact me by commenting on this blog or emailing me directly at:

(Kudos to Craig Foisy for our first blog title.)

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