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Read by Rip Torn To be published on the first anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut's death in April 2007, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve new and unpublished writings on war and peace. Written with Vonnegut's trademark rueful humor, the pieces range from a visceral nonfiction recollection of the destruction of Dresden during World War II-a piece that is as timely today as it was then-to a painfully funny story about three privates and their fantasies of the perfect first meal upon returning home from war; to a darker and more poignant story about the impossibility of shielding our children from the temptations of violence. This is a volume that says as much about the times in which we live as it does about the genius of the man who wrote it. Also included here is Vonnegut's last speech, as well as an assortment of his drawings, and an introduction by the author's son, Mark Vonnegut.
Once he got famous, the late Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) wasn't shy about sticking damn near every piece of writing he'd ever seen fit to put his name on between hard covers sooner or later, from dusty magazine stories to speeches and indignant letters. Especially in old age, he was also fond of repeating observations, jokes, and favorite quotations he apparently thought we hadn't gotten the first time. That's why longtime addicts know that a lot of 2005's bestselling A Man Without a Country -- his final book to see print in his lifetime -- deserved the title Kurt Vonnegut's Greatest Hits. So any intelligent buyer can probably guess going in that the previously unseen work now collected for publication as Armageddon in Retrospect on the first anniversary of Vonnegut's death is unlikely to be top-notch stuff.
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G Screeton
reviewed Armageddon in Retrospect on November 25, 2020 Armageddon in Retrospect
I was quietly moved by this collection, which I found to be very different from Vonnegut's better known works. For one thing, there's virtually no science fiction. For another, there's virtually no humor. Instead there are short stories in the vein of historical fiction, primarily focused on World War 2, each one crafted with care, each showing the folly of war. Each story is simple but potent. Since my own words seem too small to properly address the strength of Vonnegut's, I instead offer a parable from The Principia Discordia. (Vonnegut has been canonized as a Discordian saint, Second Class, a lower rank than his own creation Saint Bokonon - a Brigadier Saint - fictional characters of course being more capable of perfection than their real-life counterparts)
A SERMON ON ETHICS AND LOVE
One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said YES?
"O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to lift a heavy burden from my heart!"
WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON'T SOUND WELL.
"I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe."
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?
"But nobody wants it! Everybody hates it."
OH. WELL, THEN STOP.
At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial and left The Polyfather stranded alone with his species.
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