Posted
8:04 AM
by Gene
We will concede for argument's sake that
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was "
Voltaireian" (although just how Voltaireian a man is who comes up with character names like "Walter Gesundheit" may be open to question), but somehow we can't help thinking him a man who wrote for college professors and
New York Times readers as if to a mirror, and who basked in their reflection. Maybe you had to be there in that golden age when everybody questioned everything, and got left with nothing -- even Vonnegut, who attempted suicide. No,
Gore Vidal was right -- his generation of authors didn't have imagination.