How "Slaughterhouse Five" was born
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Gotta remember this for later:http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/04/07/vonnegut/
"I'm told that you were probably never informed that I was anything other than 'missing in action,'" he began. "That leaves me a lot of explaining to do."
posted by j. Permanent Link
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nola vs milw
Friday, April 04, 2008
We just got back yesterday morning from a visit to Wisconsin. I do realize that it's still winter there, yes, but I kinda wanted to remember Milwaukee for what it really is: cold. In reality it wasn't that bad. 30's-40's the whole time, though it was gray and overcast for most of the trip. I think the sky opened up a little the day before we left. But then - blizzard. When we left Milwaukee just after noon on Friday it had been snowing for 9 hours. But my father in law told me that while Milwaukee had gotten 5 inches, Kenosha to the South had only one inch and in Chicago it was raining. We packed the car while it continued to snow, shoveled ourselves out, and got on the interstate where we found the roads unplowed and the traffic going 25 mph. Between Milwaukee and Chicago we saw about 20 cars that had slid off the road. One was sitting precariously on the edge of the shoulder where the road dropped into a ditch 20 feet below. The car was sitting at a 45 degree angle, like in a cartoon, with the driver and passenger sitting in the front seat unsure of what to do. It looked like any move would send the car down into the ditch. Fortunately we didn't encounter any accidents - or have one of our own - so we still managed to make ok time to Chicago where, at least on the South side of the city, it was in fact raining. At that point I set the cruise control and sped back to sunny skies and mid-70's.I fully intended to finish writing about Mardi Gras a while ago partly because it was the most chaotic fun I've had in a long time and partly because at the time I felt like New Orleans had to prove itself. It was an ides that I wanted to explore, beside that I wanted to keep the memory fresh. I think in part I wanted nola to show itself to my brother as a viable option as well - which to some extent it did. When you're here it's very easy to get caught up in wanting to stay. That may only hold true if you're from here, I don't know. But then you leave and you remember the reasons you left before. I, for some reason, was never able to lose that "I want to get back" feeling, especially after the storm (as you, my one reader, are probably aware). So now I've been here for 9 months and a day of reckoning is approaching. I don't remember if I discussed it here, though I'm sure I did, that this year had to be a sort of trial run for New Orleans. The thing that I realized soon after Mardi Gras was that I do love being here. But there's more to it than that. Much more, really. I needed to spend that week in Milwaukee so that I could try to really compare the two and make a decision on what to do when my year is up. And believe me, I've had plenty of people weigh in on what they want that decision to be. At the same time, it's been abundantly clear that this is a decision I have to make myself.
The weather this weekend in New Orleans has been amazing. I don't think there's any better time to be here. There are flowers everywhere, there are people everywhere, there were even scooters everywhere, as New Orleans hosted its "first annual" scooter rally. Not that I participated at all. I got to ride my new bike quite a bit, though, which is about as awesome as bikes get. And I rode along through City Park thinking "How could I possibly leave here?"
posted by j. Permanent Link
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