Pity the Reader by Kurt Vonnegut & Suzanne McConnell

Author:Kurt Vonnegut & Suzanne McConnell [Vonnegut, Kurt & McConnell, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2019-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

While in Kurt’s workshop, I wrote a story based on three people I used to wait on at Carnation Ice Cream Parlor in San Diego, where I grew up: a fat, timid middle-aged man and his elderly parents. They appeared at the same time every Sunday after church. They sat in the same booth, took the same seats, ordered the same things. They always left a dime.

They drove me crazy. I felt suffocated looking at them, especially the son. In my story, the waitress plays a trick on him. Her intention was to prod him out of his complacency and collusion with his parents in his own suppression.

Kurt didn’t like it. He thought it was mean.

I was rarely mean, even as a kid to other kids. So for me to be so in a story was a stretch and probably a little healthy, psychologically. Nevertheless, dozens of other solutions to release that man could have offered themselves. The effect of Kurt’s gentle disapproval impressed upon me that there were kinder alternatives to jump-starting your characters, other human beings, and even yourself.

There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—:

“God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”330

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