I had the good fortune of having Kurt Vonnegut speak at my graduation from the State University of New York at Albany in 1972. His brother, Bernard Vonnegut, was a professor in the Atmospheric Science Department at UAlbany at that time and (I always assumed) was instrumental in bringing his famous brother to our campus.
His speech was classic Vonnegut. He started out by saying that it's very popular these days to knock the sciences, "so today I'm going to knock the arts." He told us that the arts make anyone who doesn't understand them feel stupid. We all howled, but the university administration was not amused, to put it mildly.
The end of his speech was equally as memorable. "And so to conclude, I feel that we should take the money our government spends on bombs and tanks and spend it on schools and hospitals ..."
As everyone started to applaud, he raised his hands to quiet the crowd. "...and Ferris wheels!"
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You could always trust Vonnegut to tell the truth. From the blog of Yellowdog Granny.
I had the good fortune of having Kurt Vonnegut speak at my graduation from the State University of New York at Albany in 1972. His brother, Bernard Vonnegut, was a professor in the Atmospheric Science Department at UAlbany at that time and (I always assumed) was instrumental in bringing his famous brother to our campus.
ReplyDeleteHis speech was classic Vonnegut. He started out by saying that it's very popular these days to knock the sciences, "so today I'm going to knock the arts." He told us that the arts make anyone who doesn't understand them feel stupid. We all howled, but the university administration was not amused, to put it mildly.
The end of his speech was equally as memorable. "And so to conclude, I feel that we should take the money our government spends on bombs and tanks and spend it on schools and hospitals ..."
As everyone started to applaud, he raised his hands to quiet the crowd. "...and Ferris wheels!"