Vonnegut on Fiction
by
Kelly Nickell, Writer's Digest
Slaughterhouse
Five author Kurt Vonnegut reflects on his writing style, the craft and
the evolution of fiction.
Kurt Vonnegut has witnessed the evolution of fiction—even propelled it.
From the decreasing popularity of literary magazines and the increasing
price of books to his own evolving status as "cult figure" and "popular
author," Vonnegut has been a constant observer of—and steady
contributor to—the literary world for nearly half a century.
And
the oft-quoted literary giant remains a vocal commentator on the
changing publishing industry.
Having written everything from novels (Cat's Cradle and Timequake) and
short stories ("Welcome to the Monkey House") to essays ("Palm Sunday:
An Autobiographical Collage") and plays (Happy Birthday, Wanda Jane),
Vonnegut says fiction is an art form unto its own.
"All
of fiction is a practical joke—making people care, laugh, cry or be
nauseated or whatever by something which absolutely not going on at
all. It's like saying, 'Hey, your pants are on fire.' "
And with such biting wit and humor, Vonnegut often combines social
satire, autobiographical experiences and bits of historical fact to
create a new form of literary fiction as in Slaughterhouse Five.
The
book even became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller when it was
published in 1969.
Alternating between linear and circular structures and differing points
of view, Vonnegut has spent much of his life testing the literary
boundaries.
"I
experiment, and my waste baskets are always very full of my failed
experiments," he says. "Can I get away with this? No. The trick is
getting the reader to buy it."
It's fairly safe to assume that readers do indeed buy it. Among his
numerous honors and awards, Vonnegut has received a Guggenheim
Fellowship and a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant, served
as the vice president for the PEN American Center and lectured in
creative writing at Harvard University and the University of Iowa.
ON TEACHING FICTION
"When I teach, what I'm teaching is sociability more than anything
else, because that's what most beginning writers, being young, aren't
doing," Vonnegut says.
"I try
to teach how to be a good date on a blind
date and to keep the reader in mind all the time. Young writers will
dump everything they want to say on some poor reader not caring whether
the reader has a good time or not."
Vonnegut's early experience in journalism—he was editor of the college
newspaper in 1941 while studying biochemistry at Cornell University was
a police reporter with the Chicago City New Bureau in 1947—clearly
influenced his unique style.
Staying
true to the basic elements of
journalism, Vonnegut says he tries to give readers as much information
as he can, as soon as he can—a writing trait he's tried to teach others.
"I hate a story where on page 17 you find out, My God, this person is
blind. Or that this happened 100 years ago or 100 years in the future.
I tell students, 'Don't withhold information from your readers for
God's sake. Tell 'em everything that's going on, so in case you die,
the reader can finish the story.' "
Another Vonnegut specialty is weaving bits of factual information into
his fiction's lining, to draw in readers on an emotional level.
"The facts are often useful to the reader, if they're historical
events. You can expect the reader to be emotionally involved. And to
make the reader believe and say, "Oh Jesus, I guess that's right.' "
Vonnegut used both historical facts and his personal experience as a
World War II prisoner of war in Dresden to create one of his most
revered works, Slaughterhouse Five.
He
says the latitude used when
combining fact with fiction depends on how much the writer is willing
to claim as fact.
"The viewpoint character in Slaughterhouse Five was Bill Pilgrim, and
he was actually a real guy from Rochester," Vonnegut says. "He never
should have been in the army and he died in Dresden and was buried over
there. He just simply allowed himself to starve to death. He decided he
didn't understand any of it, and he was right 'cause there was nothing
to understand, so he died.
"I didn't have him die in the book but had him come home and go to
optometry school. So I didn't tell the truth about his life, but I
never said it was high life in the first place."
ON THE CHANGING TIMES
"Well, books don't matter as much as they used to, and they cost too
much," he says of the current state of publishing. "But publishers have
to sell books to stay in business. Back in the old days, before
television, publishers would admit that what paid the freight for
everything else they published, all the serious fiction, poetry and so
forth, were cook books, garden books and sex books. They had to publish
those or they'd go out of business."
While many of his recent books, including Bagombo Snuff Box, Fates
Worse than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the '80s and God Bless
You, Dr. Kevorkian showcases the shorter form—most have been
collections of essays, interviews and speeches—Vonnegut says short
stories seem to be losing their allure as fewer and fewer prominent
magazines publish high-quality pieces.
"This country used to be crazy about short stories," he says. "New
short stories would appear every week in The Saturday Evening Post or
in The New Yorker, and every middle-class literate person would be
talking about it, "Hey, did you read that story about Salinger?" or
"Hey, did you read that story by Ray Bradbury?"
"But that no longer happens. No short story can cause a sensation
anymore because there are too many other forms of entertainment. People
can still go through old collections of short stories and be absolutely
wowed. But it's a private experience now."
ON ADVICE
Whether it's his seemingly natural ability to create strong
characters—"My characters are generally cartoons of various types of
Americans"—or his remarkable modesty—"I certainly didn't expect to
succeed to the extent I have. I mean, it's not phenomenal, but I
certainly didn't expect to amount to much,"—generations of writers
continue to try to follow in Vonnegut's legendary footsteps. And to
these aspiring writers, Vonnegut offers simple advice:
"Don't worry about getting into the profession. Write anyway to make
your soul grow. That's what the practice of any art is, it isn't to
make a living, it's to make your soul grow."
And what of the best advice he's received? "Quit," he says. "It's such
a relief."
But he didn't. "No, I didn't—I'm still pooping along somewhere."
(This article originally appeared in Writing Fiction Today, Winter
2001, a specialty publication from Writer's
Digest.)
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