....make your soul grow

April 11, 2014 8:03 AM

Back in 2006, students at Xavier High School in New York were given the assignment to write to their favorite authors and ask them to visit the school, only one replied. This is Kurt Vonnegut's letter to those students, made into a film by the folks at Dogtooth Films.
posted by HuronBob (20 comments total)

I think it's a fair thing to say - The world misses and needs more of that KV magic.
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:10 AM on April 11, 2014 [9 favorites]

Babies...

.
posted by brand-gnu at 8:14 AM on April 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

*
posted by Fizz at 8:23 AM on April 11, 2014 [4 favorites]

I think that it was very open-minded of Vonnegut to reach out to the mutant community like that.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:24 AM on April 11, 2014 [20 favorites]

He left out a key point though, that I think should be shared with all high school students:

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

Kurt Vonnegut
posted by nubs at 9:10 AM on April 11, 2014 [8 favorites]

Vonnegut was a good guy. Be proud, Hoosiers.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:49 AM on April 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Of course Vonnegut would be the one guy to respond.

Authors are a bunch of *.
posted by absalom at 10:24 AM on April 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

This does nothing to cure me of loving Kurt Vonnegut SO HARD.
posted by rekrap at 10:24 AM on April 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

Some writers are great, others merely good at writing or a turn of the phrase.

KVJ was clearly in the former camp.
posted by twidget at 10:45 AM on April 11, 2014

As a fellow native of Indianapolis, I've always had a special place in my heart for KV. I keep that one little place in my black, cynical heart pure for his memory.

I wish I could still look forward to one more book from him. He informed my sense of humor and taught me, indirectly, my humanist values.

He was a Good Guy. We need more like him.
posted by pjern at 10:53 AM on April 11, 2014

Please send that video to the authors who did not respond. This was the most generous rejection letter I've ever seen.
posted by GrapeApiary at 11:07 AM on April 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

The kids in the video are not the kids he wrote to. A non sequitur, perhaps. It was as nice a letter as he accustomed his fans to expect. Maybe I'll do the assignment tonight.
posted by mahorn at 11:35 AM on April 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

In 10th grade we had to pick an American author, read all his or her works, and come up with an overarching thesis. I chose Vonnegut, and wrote something about making peace with futility via the illusion of free will. It was a huge undertaking, but also a great pleasure. Learned a lot about him, me, life, and work. Also I think I decoded a running gag about chickens throughout several of his books and stories.

I debated whether to mail a copy to him - not so much because I wanted his feedback (although that would have been amazing) because I think he'd have gotten a kick out of it. But this was before the web, and I never worked the phones to find his agent or address. Now he's dead and the thesis is in an attic in another state. So it goes.

But it's heartening to see his work still has an impact - this letter to a teacher made the rounds a while back, as well as his understated offer to the Kennedy campaign. And 15 things Vonnegut said better than anyone else is something worth returning to, every year or so.
posted by borborygmi at 12:06 PM on April 11, 2014 [6 favorites]

Kinda dusty up in here.
posted by allthinky at 5:50 AM on April 12, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut’s bleak advice to humankind in 2088
posted by homunculus at 7:05 PM on April 12, 2014

The film is excellent, but for people who would like to read the letter as well there's a transcript here, which I've pasted below:

Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don't make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you're Count Dracula.

Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don't do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

God bless you all!

posted by destrius at 8:49 AM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

The seldom-seen squiggles of Kurt Vonnegut
posted by homunculus at 1:48 PM on April 22, 2014

homunculus: "The seldom-seen squiggles of Kurt Vonnegut"

Are now for sale on pre-order. I've just bought mine.
posted by Kerasia at 5:42 PM on May 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Kurt Vonnegut interviewed by Jon Stewart in one of his last major TV appearances
posted by homunculus at 4:48 PM on May 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Philip Adams interview with Kurt Vonnegut on ABC Radio National that same year.
posted by Kerasia at 5:12 PM on May 6, 2014