3 ms·

Kurt Vonnegut explains drama (2009)

35 points by bemmu 11y ago

andrey-p 11y ago
I read an article form of Kurt Vonnegut's original talk. My favourite part was the happiness/misery graph of The Metamorphosis: http://austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/vonnegut6.gif http://austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/vonnegut6.gif (Found here: http://austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-vonnegut/ http://austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-vonn...)
morley 11y ago
Here's a video of the man himself explaining it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
- MichaelMoser123 11y ago
  Thanks for the link. Interesting that the audience in this video found this all to be quite amusing; however he was talking serious stuff here; So was the laughter because of a misunderstanding because audience and speaker? So maybe it doesn't quite sound so funny to me because in our age we are used to this kind of reasoning, and them back in the seventies weren't?
purplerabbit 11y ago
This hits home. You could basically sum up the problems with my college worldview with this talk.
deleted 11y ago
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neilk 11y ago
Alternative viewpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHVqxD8PNq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHVqxD8PNq8 But, don't take the speech purely at face value -- Adaptation (the movie) leaves it ambiguous about whether this is wisdom, puffery, or accidentally true for the wrong reasons. Also, it should be pointed out that Kurt Vonnegut had the kind of childhood that would probably leave anybody numb to the ups and downs of life, and also lived through the firebombing of a German city. Everything in his oeuvre is about how impotent human stories are, to prepare people for 20th-century scale horror. So take that as you will.
twic 11y ago
The idea of a the significance of the sequential change in mood in a story reminds me of the "qualitative tempo trajectory" that underlies DJ sets (section 3.2): http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2000/HPL-2000-104.pdf http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2000/HPL-2000-104.pdf

35 points by bemmu 11y ago

I read an article form of Kurt Vonnegut's original talk. My favourite part was the happiness/misery graph of The Metamorphosis: http://austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/vonnegut6.gif http://austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/vonnegut6.gif (Found here: http://austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-vonnegut/ http://austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-vonn...)

morley 11y ago

Here's a video of the man himself explaining it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

MichaelMoser123 11y ago
Thanks for the link. Interesting that the audience in this video found this all to be quite amusing; however he was talking serious stuff here; So was the laughter because of a misunderstanding because audience and speaker? So maybe it doesn't quite sound so funny to me because in our age we are used to this kind of reasoning, and them back in the seventies weren't?

purplerabbit 11y ago

This hits home. You could basically sum up the problems with my college worldview with this talk.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

neilk 11y ago

Alternative viewpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHVqxD8PNq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHVqxD8PNq8 But, don't take the speech purely at face value -- Adaptation (the movie) leaves it ambiguous about whether this is wisdom, puffery, or accidentally true for the wrong reasons. Also, it should be pointed out that Kurt Vonnegut had the kind of childhood that would probably leave anybody numb to the ups and downs of life, and also lived through the firebombing of a German city. Everything in his oeuvre is about how impotent human stories are, to prepare people for 20th-century scale horror. So take that as you will.

twic 11y ago

The idea of a the significance of the sequential change in mood in a story reminds me of the "qualitative tempo trajectory" that underlies DJ sets (section 3.2): http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2000/HPL-2000-104.pdf http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2000/HPL-2000-104.pdf