The only ghetto that can hold you down is the ghetto of the mind
At 82, novelist Kurt Vonnegut is talking not just about his own death, but The planet's demise:
In 1976, he described himself as having "the low-keyed amiability of an old family dog. In general his appearance is tousled: The long curly hair, mustache and sympathetic smile suggest a man at once amused and saddened by the world around him... As an actuarial matter, writers of fiction have done their best work by about the time they're 45, and I guess Tolstoy was an exception, and there have been some others, but anyway, friends of mine who've lived this long have customarily written crap. Just to have something to do. And like Twain, whom he once noted grew bitter toward the end of his life, Vonnegut is also more cynical than he has ever been. A Man Without a Country is shot through with despair for the Earth's poisoned fate and disappointment in the American body politic. Indeed, he says he considered an alternate title for the collection, The Fifty-First State, to evoke "the state of denial," which is, he says, America's natural state
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: When celebrities act like politicians, and politicians act like celebrities.
On the evening of Sept. 29, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and actress Angelina Jolie got together at the Kennedy Center for a gala sponsored by a group called the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.
You can watch a video of the event or read a transcript here.) Just another excruciating Washington benefit dinner, you say. But pause for a moment to contemplate the silliness of the state-of-the art mélange of politics, celebrity, and corporate public relations that such an event represents.
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