Vonnegut, RIP

I first read on Boing Boing that Kurt Vonnegut passed away. The web is being loaded down with remembrances, so I thought I would add mine. I had read several of his novels before I got to Sirens of Titan, which was the second he wrote. But this is the one that really spoke to me, for reasons that are a little vague to me now. I suppose I should read it again, but the part of the story that always comes back to me is when they are marooned in the bowels of Mercury and they discover the little blue creatures. I can't begin to give it justice, but it was just so perfectly odd and poignant and sad to me. But Vonnegut was good at that, giving us the ridiculous but making it sound perfectly natural while leaving us subtly and profoundly affected.

He came to NMU about eight to ten years ago, and for some reason I didn't go. I'll always regret that.