Good advice from Vonnegut
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I could not ascertain whether this was true or not, but it should be.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kurt-vonnegut-xavier-letter_n_4964532
n 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to respond - and his response is magnificent:
“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 receptacals. 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!
Kurt Vonnegut"
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It's true, at least according to his estate. And there's some textual evidence:
Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly,
He's said as much and in similar ways in interviews.
No fair tennis without a net.
This is in reference to Frost's famous line about what he thought of free verse: "It's like playing tennis with the net down."
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People sometimes ask me why I don't play in front of an audience. Not the ones who've heard me play, obviously.
In addition to the obvious reason, my feeling is that it isn't main the point of playing an instrument. I don't actually particularly mind playing for people, but that's not why I do it.
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People sometimes ask me why I don't play in front of an audience. Not the ones who've heard me play, obviously.
In addition to the obvious reason, my feeling is that it isn't main the point of playing an instrument. I don't actually particularly mind playing for people, but that's not why I do it.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Good advice from Vonnegut:
People sometimes ask me why I don't play in front of an audience. Not the ones who've heard me play, obviously.
In addition to the obvious reason, my feeling is that it isn't main the point of playing an instrument. I don't actually particularly mind playing for people, but that's not why I do it.
With the caveat that my opinion on this doesn't matter and I'm not going to try to convince you that it's important, just the same, I think that's a little selfish.
- Art's very important. Like Shaw said, without it, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
- So few people practice it, and thanks to our education system and cultural values, that percentage gets smaller by the day.
People need it and no one's producing it at the local level anymore. We'd be a lot less uptight and insane if more people shared what they did.
At the very least have a window or door open when you're playing. Tell the naysayers to eat shit.
Please love yourself.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Good advice from Vonnegut:
People sometimes ask me why I don't play in front of an audience. Not the ones who've heard me play, obviously.
In addition to the obvious reason, my feeling is that it isn't main the point of playing an instrument. I don't actually particularly mind playing for people, but that's not why I do it.
With the caveat that my opinion on this doesn't matter and I'm not going to try to convince you that it's important, just the same, I think that's a little selfish.
- Art's very important. Like Shaw said, without it, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
- So few people practice it, and thanks to our education system and cultural values, that percentage gets smaller by the day.
People need it and no one's producing it at the local level anymore. We'd be a lot less uptight and insane if more people shared what they did.
At the very least have a window or door open when you're playing. Tell the naysayers to eat shit.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Good advice from Vonnegut:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Good advice from Vonnegut:
People sometimes ask me why I don't play in front of an audience. Not the ones who've heard me play, obviously.
In addition to the obvious reason, my feeling is that it isn't main the point of playing an instrument. I don't actually particularly mind playing for people, but that's not why I do it.
With the caveat that my opinion on this doesn't matter and I'm not going to try to convince you that it's important, just the same, I think that's a little selfish.
- Art's very important. Like Shaw said, without it, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
- So few people practice it, and thanks to our education system and cultural values, that percentage gets smaller by the day.
People need it and no one's producing it at the local level anymore. We'd be a lot less uptight and insane if more people shared what they did.
At the very least have a window or door open when you're playing. Tell the naysayers to eat shit.
I don't want people listen to me practice, that's just embarrassing. I don't really mind people listening to me play tunes, that's a bit different.
I'd say my reasons aren't really selfish - more like a bit lazy and shy. I'd happily play in a band that's around the corner. I don't fancy having to drive into the city twice a week for it. OK, I guess that is kinda' selfish.
