Kurt Vonnegut talking about his time at Cornell

Colleges & Universities Cornell University
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<p>[On</a> Vonnegut from the Cornell Chronicle - see page 2 - pdf doc](<a href=“Home | Cornell Chronicle”>www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/07/04_19_07.pdf)</p>

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<p>That was the event, no doubt. The article by Cornell Chronicle may have been expected to leave out certain details. </p>

<p>The article says he was drafted, however numerous sources say he enlisted before possibly being asked to leave. Possibly if he flunked out his student deferment would vanish, making him subject to the draft anyway.
<a href=“http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FRyfxXMUfB4J:militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/kurt_vonnegut_jr_in_ww_ii[/url]”>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FRyfxXMUfB4J:militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/kurt_vonnegut_jr_in_ww_ii&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Vonnegut was glad to be out of the university and into WWII because of being forced by his father into a chemistry program for which he was clearly, and by his own admission, ill suited. The Chronicle article seemed to be surprisingly open and frank in my opinion. It is still my belief that it was Kurt’s displeasure with having been forced into a mistaken academic program (mistaken for his particular temperament), and not the university as a whole, that caused him to take the tragic “out” into WWII.</p>

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<p>See page 5 of Biography section
[Kurt</a> Vonnegut](<a href=“http://www.scribd.com/doc/27570808/Kurt-Vonnegut]Kurt”>http://www.scribd.com/doc/27570808/Kurt-Vonnegut)</p>

<p>I recall reading other stuff too, don’t care to look for it.</p>

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<p>I concur. Keep in mind that this is a devout atheist who claims he has never been closer to God than when climbing up Libe Slope.</p>

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<p>[About</a> The Sun | The Cornell Daily Sun](<a href=“http://cornellsun.com/about]About”>About The Sun - The Cornell Daily Sun)</p>

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<p>@monydad’s post #24</p>

<p>The lines of the biographer you cite haven’t dissuaded me from my notion that he left due to a program for which he had “bad chemistry,” and not because of the school as a whole.</p>

<p>He (Vonnegut) “did not feel he fit in well (at Cornell) until he joined the staff of the college newspaper, The Cornell Sun.” And then later in his junior year he left for WWII when in academic trouble due to the particular ill-suited program that he had been forced into by an over-bearing father.</p>

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<p>The whole quote is:</p>

<p>"Despite joining a fraternity,he disliked Cornell
and did not feel that he fit in well
until he joined the staff of the college newspaper, THE CORNELL DAILY SUN. Serving first as a staff writer and later as editor for the Sun, Vonnegut found a home at the newspaper. Nevertheless, when he came down with a severe case of pneumonia during his junior year,
Vonnegut was not overly distressed to withdraw from the university.
He had been on academic probation and in danger of flunking out in any case. " </p>

<p>But as I said I recall something else as well, expressing disatisfaction unrelated to academics but I can’t find it just now.</p>

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<p>Yes, he “disliked Cornell” solely because of the ill-suited program that he had been forced into, and not due to the university as a whole. Context is the ultimate determinant, in my opinion. Please note the powerful pro-Cornell University quote by Vonnegut that CayugaRed cited above (from the Cornell Sun).</p>

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<p>"You neglected to include the key phrase “until he joined the Cornell newspaper, the Cornell Sun,”</p>

<p>??? it’s right there, three lines down. I included the whole relevant section.</p>

<p>If someone has the complete text of his remarks at the 1980 Daily Sun banquet I’d be interested in reading them. Not an excerpt, the whole thing.
That CR quote was an excerpt, but I think the more interesting comments , pertaining to this particular point, may have preceded the snippet that gets quoted a lot. Though I could be wrong.</p>

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<p>Here is Vonnegut’s whole quote from the passage that Cayuga linked to above:</p>

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<p>But actually even in that 1980 snippet above one can see that he liked the Sun precisely because what was going on there did not fit in with what was going on in the rest of the university.</p>

<p>But I think there may be more relevant stuff before this section, if one can find the whole text of the 1980 Daily Sun banquet. I think there were earlier remarks concerning his experience at Cornell and what he thought of it.</p>

<p>Though I may be mistaken.</p>

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<p>My take on that same 1980 snippet is that one can infer that Vonnegut liked the Sun precisely because of the biochemistry classes and labs that he, with his eccentric-yet-powerful artist’s personality, had bad chemistry.</p>

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<p>I think the larger point of this conversation is that Cornell is a diverse and sometimes challenging University – it can be tough for some students to find where they fit in, especially if they dislike their academic course of study or the social scene that they fell into. But there’s definitely a spot for everybody on Ezra’s big, bold campus if you look around for it.</p>

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<p>to me that quote colm posted suggests that he had found his niche and even if his dad didnt approve of it…he had the satisfaction of knowing he was doing the right thing (from a higher power(despite being atheist). </p>

<p>btw i’ve never read slaughterhouse 5…what themes does he touch on? does it relate to anything in the quote colm posted?</p>

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<p>@campuscsi, post #34</p>

<p>Vonnegut became a POW in WWII. He experienced the monstrous firebombing of Dresden in the winter of 1945.</p>

<p>Vonnegut miraculously survived these tremendous allied bombing raids, which annihilated the majority of the German city. “Slaughterhouse Five” was the name that the prisoners gave the underground former-meat-locker that the Germans had converted into a POW prison. Its actual name was the same, except in German. This horrific experience, and its aftermath, was the inception of the fictitious (but loosely based on his experience) anti-war book that became titled “Slaughterhouse Five.”</p>

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<p>are you familiar with his views on national security and foreign policy? lol…</p>

<p>was he a pacifist?</p>

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<p>^ Ha! I think you could at least say that Vonnegut ended up very much on the progressive – and pacifist – side of the ledger-board, but he was certainly willing to “fight” for peace at a literary and philosophical level.</p>