Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. — Kurt Vonnegut

Enjoy a night of great comedy and benefit The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library at the same time! Don’t miss a chance to see nationally known comedian Dave Goldstein at Morty’s Comedy Joint, 3625 E. 96th St., Indianapolis. Show time is 8PM on December 2. Proceeds from online ticket sales for this show will be donated to the KVML.

Ticket prices start at $15.00.

Get your tickets online at http://mortyscomedy.com/show.cfm?id=100874&cart. Be sure to click “Add Coupon” and enter “Library” in the promo code box when ordering online to receive your discount and ensure proceeds benefit KVML.

For more information about this event, contact the library via phone at 317.652.1954, e-mail info@vonnegutlibrary.org, or visit the web site at http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/.

Due to the fundraiser, please note that there will not be a December First Friday event at KVML.

–Shannon

Welcome back Vonnegut fans. I’m glad to be back with you.

So I promised an interview and unfortunately, due to an iPhone memos app screw-up, I don’t have a recording of my interview. So that will have to wait until my next post. But I wanted to elaborate on some things that my grandfather told me during my interview with him. My plan had been to write this essay/piece using my interview with my grandfather and select quotes from Vonnegut interviews about WWII. I’m going to do that, but it will have to do without exact quotes from him.

My grandfather served in the 9^th Army during WWII. He was wounded twice, the second time in the leg just before the Battle of the Bulge (the historic battle that was the site of Vonnegut’s capture and imprisonment at Dresden). My grandfather missed the Battle of the Bulge, rejoining his unit in February of 1945 (the Battle of the Bulge ended in January of 1945). Francis Schiffhauer saw the same kind of terror, the same kind of violence that Vonnegut saw. Francis saw most of the friends he came overseas with killed. Vonnegut saw the destruction of Dresden during his imprisonment in that town. Their shared experiences informed how they viewed the world post-war.

After the war Francis settled into a life as an engineer and a father of eight and Vonnegut went on to write the novels we know and love. Despite Francis and Vonnegut’s divergent paths post-war they both came home stridently anti-war, a belief-system that drove Vonnegut’s writing throughout his career and an ethical and moral belief that my grandfather has quietly held since he left the Army.

Vonnegut struck a chord with my grandfather. He read Slaughterhouse-Five 20 years ago. He remembers reading about Dresden when it happened. England’s cruelty and vindictiveness horrified my grandfather. It was a bombing he called “pointless,” an attack that happened so close to the end of the war and one that he felt served no purpose except to exact petty revenge for the bombing of England. Slaugherhouse-Five gave voice to that horror.

In an interview with Roger Friedman of Fox News (of all places) in 2002, Vonnegut expanded on his views of WWII:

“One of the great American tragedies is to have participated in a just war,” Vonnegut said. “It’s been possible for politicians and movie-makers to encourage us we’re always good guys. The Second World War absolutely had to be fought. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But we never talk about the people we kill. This is never spoken of.”

For most of us, Vonnegut’s writing (particularly Slaughterhouse-Five), can’t be viewed through such an intensely personal perspective. We love the dream-like quality of that novel, the sudden and delightful insertion of Vonnegut himself into Breakfast of Champions, the profound and absurd narrative path of Cat’s Cradle and Vonnegut’s wit and sense of irony in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

But when it comes to Slaughterhouse-Five, very few of us can truly relate.

I’m sure there are other veterans who share those same sentiments. Maybe some are reading this blog post. If you want to share a story feel free to comment or shoot me an email at matt.erler@vonnegutlibrary.org.

Hello Vonnegut fans!

My name is Matt Erler and I’m going to be joining the crack blogging team here at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. I’m looking forward to whatever insight, knowledge or enlightenment I can spread.

So what’s my role here? I have been writing in some form or other for eight years. I have been writing fiction for the last two years and reading everything I can get my hands on. Vonnegut has been a good teacher. I was a journalism major at Ball State University, and I ran the school newspaper’s online music and entertainment website for a year. I guess that makes me interview guy, and I’m happy to oblige.

I’m going to be interviewing people who have been touched, inspired or influenced by Vonnegut, examining why his writing remains so potent and so powerful after all these years. I’m hoping that through their words, and mine, these blog posts can encourage other writers to keep plugging away at that novel, drive artists to keep painting, to keep sculpting, inspire musicians to keep pushing themselves and writing new music. Vonnegut would have liked that.

Vonnegut’s writing is remarkable. He had a gift for humor and a gift for finding the most compelling, concise way to encapsulate life’s great mysteries. That’s been inspirational to any number of writers, filmmakers and musicians.  I’m hoping to interview a disparate collection of people who have found inescapable truths in what he wrote and ask them how they’ve used those truths to move forward.

Look for my first interview February 24^th. Until then babies, keep checking our updates. Exciting things are coming your way.

P.S., if you have any suggestions for interesting interviews or blog posts, drop me a line at matt.erler@vonnegutlibrary.org

Here’s some history on Kurt Vonnegut’s great-grandfather, Clemens Vonnegut.  Enjoy!

Clemens Vonnegut, Sr. (November 20, 1824 – December 13, 1906) immigrated to the United States in 1851 after the failed German Revolutions of 1848 and 1849. Forty-Eighters, as these immigrants became known, were generally liberal minded and were politically and socially active in their new home. They had a large influence on the political, cultural, and social landscape of the United States, especially the Midwest where the majority of these immigrants settled. Their concepts, based on rationalism and freedom, led them to propagate new social structures, education, cultural, and physical training. As a German Forty-eighter, Clemens Vonnegut made a large impact on the political, cultural, and social landscape of Indianapolis.
Born in Munster, Westphalia in 1824, Vonnegut was educated in Hannover, and became a salesman for a textile firm in Amsterdam, Holland. He traveled to the United States as an agent for the textile mill and decided to immigrate to the United States in 1850.

Vonnegut was a politically, socially, and culturally active individual who made a strong impact on his new community. He moved to Indianapolis in 1851, started the Vonnegut Hardware Company on East Washington Street, and quickly became a respected member of the business community. Once established in the United States, he became known to be “of a sturdy type of manhood, honest, enterprising and public spirited.” Vonnegut Hardware remained in business in Indianapolis from 1852 through the early 1970’s.

He was a founding member of The Freethinker’s Society of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Turngemeinde, which will be explored later in the essay. Vonnegut’s belief in the separation of Church and State and that organized religion threatened individual intellectual growth and personality was the foundational belief of The Freethinker’s Society. Like Vonnegut, they believed strongly in public education and that the best way to educate youth was through a well rounded education that involved critical thinking and was free of religious constraints. Strong supporters of continuing adult education, the Society hosted regular lectures and debates. Vonnegut participated in several of these lectures and debates and members of the society held his opinion in high esteem.

He also belonged to, and served as one time president, of the Maennerchor (a German men’s choir), and Gewerbeschulverein (introduced manual training to the public school curriculum). He strongly supported public schools and served on the Board of School Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis for 28 years. He actively pushed for the teaching of German and physical education in public schools. Like many of the liberal minded German Forty-Eighters, Vonnegut believed in the Turner’s motto, “a Strong Mind in a Strong Body.”

Vonnegut’s father worked as an official tax collector for the Duke of Westphalia. Highly educated, Vonnegut received his “Abitur,” the equivalent of an American college education, from the Hochschule in Hannover. In addition to German, his native tongue, Vonnegut spoke Latin, Greek, and French. He enjoyed reading history and philosophy. No doubt his educational background influenced his commitment to adult education; this commitment to education was shared by many of his fellow forty-eighters.

Vonnegut came to the United States in 1851 to conduct business for the textile firm in Amsterdam. After arriving, Vonnegut decided to stay and relocated to Indianapolis where he resided at 508 East Market Street. The Midwest was a popular place for German immigrants to settle because land was cheap and there was ample business opportunity. Vonnegut was immediately successful in his new home; he partnered with Charles Volmer, a fellow immigrant, in a merchandise business, “Volmer and Vonnegut”. When Volmer set out to explore opportunities in the West and was never heard from again, Vonnegut became sole proprietor of the business and changed the name to The Vonnegut Hardware Company.

The Vonnegut Hardware Company, located in downtown Indianapolis at 120 – 124 East Washington Street, prospered under the direction of Clemens Vonnegut. Vonnegut became, “one of the most well-known of the German businessmen in the city.” There were several businesses in the downtown shopping district that were started by German immigrants including Schnull & Co., the first wholesale grocery store in Indianapolis established at 103 East Washington Street in 1855 by Henry and August Schnull; Fahnley & McCrea Company, a millinery company with three locations at 8 Louisiana Street, 237 McCrea Street, and 240 – 242 South Meridian Street, established in 1865 by Frederick Fahnley and R. H. McCrea; and Hollweg & Reese Co., established in 1868 by Louis Hollweg and Hibben.

Fair and honest in business matters, Vonnegut had an interesting way of dealing with disgruntled contractors and several stories remain documenting Vonnegut’s eccentric behavior. For example, as a member of the Board of School Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis, Vonnegut oversaw the hiring of contractors for the school district. On one occasion a contractor, angered for not receiving a contract he felt he should have received because of his political ties, confronted Vonnegut. “Clemens pretended to be hard of ‘hearing’ . . . “took a pen-knife and pared his fingernails. The frustrated contractor then indulged in invectives. Clemens remained calm and silent . . . he took off his shoes and socks and proceeded to pare his toenails with intense but silent concentration.”

The Vonnegut Hardware Company sold a wide range of hardware merchandise that ranged supplies for machinists to hotel supplies and, “Tools for all trades”. Advertisements for the hardware store, which often read, “it is well to remember that the old adage still holds true: If you cannot find it at Vonnegut’s it is useless to go elsewhere,” could be found in Indianapolis Newspapers and even the Indianapolis City Directory. All of Vonnegut’s sons, Clemens, Jr., Bernard, George, and Franklin worked at The Vonnegut Hardware Company at some point in their lives. Clemens, Jr., George and Franklin took over the business at the end of the nineteenth century while Bernard turned to architecture. In the hands of the Vonnegut children, the hardware company expanded into a chain of retail hardware stores. The Vonnegut Hardware Company remained in the hands of the Vonnegut family until it closed in the early 1970’s.