God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

Hello, goodbye! His obituary attempts to describe his place in time, and why he was important. Vonnegut had an easy writing style with a simple message: we had to be kind. He was the first to explain that a good index was the next best thing to reading an author's mind.Vonnegut was most fond of his earlier work, which were published as science fiction, and felt his later more literary novels were below average. Vonnegut also understood and detested science fiction and created the archetype of the science fiction author, Kilgore Trout, who worked a series of low paying jobs and wrote scores of bad science fiction novels, read mainly by deranged fans. Trout eventually committed suicide. So it goes. (Photo from NY Times)