A Cult Figure Amongst The Generation Of 60s n 70s In America, Kurt Vonnegut Happened To Be One Of The Handful Of Postwar Authors Who Constantly Kept Asking Some Perennial Questions Through Their Works In Order To Search For Justifications,If Any, Of Human Existence On This Planet! 'WHY ARE WE HERE?' , 'HOW TO CHECK THE DEHUMANIZING FEATURES CREPT IN HUMAN RACE? are some of the fundamental questions that Vonnegut raised in his seminal work, 'SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE' , 'BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS' and others!
As a prisoner of war in the second world war as he was captured during the 'Battle of Bulge' war by the Germans and had to live inside a meat locker slaughterhouse underground forsome days in the German city of Dresden, Vonnegut had the first hand experience of the devastating effects of war.He Saw Closely The Allied Firestorming of Dresden And Other German Towns That Resulted In Casualities More ThanThe Bombing of Hiroshima n Nagasaki Combined!
That Experience Formed The Mainstay Of His Most Famous And Artistically A Masterpiece Creation, 'SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE' ,Published In 1969.
The Banality Of Modern Civilization And The Ever Rising Catastrophic Effects Of Industrialization or Mechanization,had always caught his attention and that he very faithfully depicted them in his works !
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'PLAYER PIANO' was his first fiction published in 1952 which met with a rather modest review.It was his 'CAT'S CRADLE' that had established him as a serious writer.It was 1963.In 1969 with the publishing of 'SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE'(a name he chose after his own slaughterhouse incarceration in Dresden where the germans used to call that meat locker as 'slaughterhouse five), Vonnegut became a cult figure for youngesters in america who were essentially questioning the so-called american superiority.THUS KURT VONNEGUT BECAME THE RISING STAR OF COUNTERCULTURE !
He was a leftwing radical and anti-war .He wrote extensively against the horrors of war and had voiced strongest opinion decrying the Vietnam War and most recently the Iraq war.
He went on to the extent of saying that Bush and Hitler Were Same Except One Thing That Hitler Was Elected!
Later he used to say that terrorists were the real bravemen as they were ready to die for their beliefs n dogmas!
All these had earned him notoriety in some circles!
His works were adapted for films and the movie version of Slaughterhouse Five Is considered as a better piece of art,which is rather unique thing!
A Native Of Indiannapolis,IN,USA, Kurt Vonnegut Lived Much Of His Late Life In Manhattan,NY ,where he died in 2007 at the age of 84.
Kurt Vonnegut Had Blended The Genre Of Sci-Fi with Black or Gallow Humor and Satire!
His Works Are Still Read Worldwide and Some Of His Shortstories Are,In Fact, In High School Syllabus !
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,KURT VONNEGUT!
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MRITYUNJAY JHA
SAMASTIPUR
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INDIA.
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