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00:00Um, do you guys need directions or something?
00:15Can you even understand me?
00:24Okay then.
00:42Dear Tim and Moby,
00:43Who was Kurt Vonnegut?
00:45Sincerely, Billy.
00:49Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was an American writer who lived from 1922 to 2007.
00:55He wrote poems, essays, memoirs, plays, and short stories,
00:58but he's best remembered for the novels he wrote in the 1960s and 70s.
01:05Well, Kurt Vonnegut used his novels to ask questions about the meaning of life,
01:09the purpose of religion, and the good and bad aspects of technology.
01:14Vonnegut grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana.
01:19As a young man, he studied chemistry at Cornell University.
01:23But while he was in college, World War II broke out, and he joined the army.
01:29No, it didn't go that well for him.
01:32In 1945, he was captured by the Nazis.
01:37He was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp near the German city of Dresden.
01:42Shortly after he arrived, the Allies firebombed the city.
01:47It was one of the most destructive actions of the entire war.
01:51More than 25,000 civilians died.
01:55Vonnegut saw it all.
01:57He was even forced to clean up some of the bodies in the aftermath.
02:02Even though he knew the Nazis were responsible for the war,
02:04watching the destruction of Dresden horrified him.
02:09After the war, Vonnegut held a number of jobs, police reporter, publicist,
02:13teacher, car salesman, and advertising executive.
02:18He also began writing short stories and paperback novels.
02:23They looked like pulpy science fiction novels,
02:25but they were full of clever social commentary.
02:29The Sirens of Titan uses a story about interplanetary war
02:32to ask questions about free will and the meaning of life.
02:36I know, it sounds pretty complicated, but really, it's not.
02:41Vonnegut used lots of humor to make his points
02:43and wrote in a simple style that's enjoyable and easy to read.
02:47In 1963, the novel Cat's Cradle made him a celebrity.
02:51It tells the story of how humanity is accidentally destroyed
02:55by a substance called Ice-9, which freezes all the water on Earth.
03:00Ice-9 is not so different from the atomic bomb.
03:03It's a technological advance that's neither good nor evil,
03:06but its only real use is to wipe out human life on a vast scale.
03:12Cat's Cradle also describes a made-up religion called Bokunanism,
03:15which encourages its followers to have faith
03:17in whatever false ideas make them happy.
03:21Hey, it's a thought-provoking book, whether you agree with Vonnegut or not.
03:26Anyway, his best-known novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, was published in 1969.
03:32This book includes his recollections of the destruction he saw in Dresden
03:35and his reaction to the tumultuous events of the 1960s.
03:40It also includes time travel and a race of aliens called Tralfamadorians.
03:45These little guys look like toilet plungers,
03:47but they're able to see in four dimensions instead of three.
03:52They encourage the hero of the book to accept life's tragedies,
03:55since he can't do anything to change them.
03:58Because it condemned violence, Slaughterhouse-Five
04:01became popular with young people who were protesting the Vietnam War.
04:06Vonnegut's next book, Breakfast of Champions, only increased his popularity.
04:11Like many of his other works, it takes a strange approach to storytelling.
04:16Vonnegut constantly veers away from the plot
04:18to tell jokes and make observations about modern life.
04:23He also throws in dozens of little doodles he drew himself.
04:28All in all, Kurt Vonnegut published 14 novels
04:30before his death in 2007.
04:34And he's regarded as one of the most creative,
04:36original American writers of the 20th century.
04:39So what did you guys think?
04:41Was that a good overview of Kurt Vonnegut's life and career?
04:45I don't know what you guys are saying.
04:54So what goes?