Though never exactly a part of the science fiction community, Vonnegut used science fiction heavily in his works, many of which were humanist morality tales. He is probably best known for Slaughterhouse-Five
and Galapagos
. The latter earned him an honorary anthropology degree and demonstrated he had a better understanding of evolutionary theory than some scientists.I will probably remember him most as the creator of the character Kilgore Trout, a fictional sleazy sf writer. One of Trout's novels, Venus on the Half-Shell
, actually saw print as a hoax. Famed sf author Philip Jose Farmer, best known for Riverworld
, eventually admitted to being the author. Apparently it took some wheedling to get Vonnegut's permission to write it.Here's the article on Vonnegut from The New York Times:
Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died Wednesday night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island. [more...]
