Kurt Vonnegut: The Hyannis Port Story (Deal Me In 2018 – Week 47)

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A man who sells storm windows can never be really sure about what class he belongs to, especially if he installs the windows, too.

For sheer comedy, I can’t find stories better than the ones by Kurt Vonnegut told by his fictional storm window salesman. In “The Hyannis Port Story”, the salesman finds himself measuring windows for the Goldwater Republican neighbor of President Kennedy. Yes, the story is a little dated having been published in 1963 – with all due respect, I’m assuming it was published prior to November 22 of that year. I’m not sure it would have been quite as funny after that. Although, I’m finding humor in it 55 years later.

But as far as politics goes, Vonnegut has always been an equal opportunity offender even if he is known (rightly or wrongly) for being more liberal.

The comedy in this story comes from the combination of a “lowly” storm window salesman somehow plopped down in the middle of the rich and famous – he’s sort of a “fish out of water” – which might be the way Vonnegut himself felt in the midst of politics:

The butler, whose name was John, came out with a big bowl. I thought it was peanuts or popcorn, but it turned out to be Goldwater buttons.

The story does beg the question, though, is politics all that different now than it was in the early 1960’s? Or, for that matter, how would Vonnegut handle American politics, now? Would he be completely blown away or would he continue to laugh? Or both?

I read this story when I selected the King of Diamonds for Week 47 of my Deal Me In short story project. It’s included in Vonnegut’s short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House. My Deal Me In list can be found here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Jane Austen’s Persuasion

No, it was not regret which made Anne’s heart beat in spite of herself, and brought color into her cheeks when she thought of Captain Wentworth unshackled and free. She had some feelings which she was ashamed to investigate. They were too much like joy, senseless joy!

I’ve always felt that I have to hand it to Jane Austen for achieving rock star status some 200 years after publishing her work. Her novel Pride and Prejudice introduced me to her close to two decades ago. When I flip through the copy that I read, I see that I was still writing in books. Numerous times I would put a “Ha!” next to a sentence or section that I found humorous. A few times, I even put a “Ha! Ha!”

Little did I know that years later, my teenage daughters (at my wife’s suggestion) would read that same copy. They find it funny that I wrote all those Ha!’s. I think it was before the days of “LOL”.

I could see the proverbial twinkle in Jane Austen’s eye as I read Pride and Prejudice. I’m probably the only person that would compare Jane Austen to Kurt Vonnegut but Vonnegut has that same twinkle in his writing.

Now all of these years later, I’ve finally gotten around to reading Jane Austen again. This time it’s her final novel Persuasion which I have heard many in the blogosphere, in addition to my wife, say is their favorite and/or Austen’s best work.

Persuasion has more of a maturity about it than Pride and Prejudice while keeping with the same themes. Money, social status, and who will get married and why all still play into the plot. Throughout the novel, the word “persuasion” is used frequently to describe the influence various characters have over others in regards to the above list. The romance of Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth is a much longer process than that of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. It’s this length of time that might make this story the more realistic.

Yes, it’s realistic, mature and beautifully written with well developed characters; however, I didn’t find that same eye-twinkle in Persuasion that I did in Pride and Prejudice. That’s alright – not all great novels have to have humor. And I would consider Persuasion great.

 

 

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Hal Irwin’s Magic Lamp”

This is the final installment of “Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut”. In “Hal Irwin’s Magic Lamp”, Vonnegut excellently portrays a married couple each of whom has no clue as to what the other one really wants.

Hal manages to build a lamp like Aladdin’s and hires someone to be a jeanie so that he can make his wife, Mary, think he is magically buying her a big house and an expensive car.  In reality, Hal has made a lot of money on the stock market, of which his wife is unaware, and he is buying these things for her.

That’s where the misunderstanding comes in.  Hal automatically thinks every wife should want expensive things; however, Mary is quite content to live simply. She would much rather hang out with her new friend – the person Hal hired to be the jeanie – who happens to be African American and an unwed mother. Befriending her, Mary, in some ways, makes up for the offensive way Hal treats the “jeanie”.

The fact that this story takes place in 1929 gives the reader a feel for what might eventually happen from a financial standpoint for both Mary and Hal.

This is by no means my favorite story from Bagombo Snuff Box but here are posts to the stories that are my favorites:

2BR02B

The Package

This Son of Mine

A Night For Love

Ambitious Sophomore

The No-Talent Kid

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Lovers Anonymous”

“Sheila Hinckley is now a spare whitewall tire on the Thunderbird of my dreams.”

In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House, several of the stories feature an unnamed narrator who is a storm window salesman for famous people. They include some of my favorite Vonnegut comedy.  In his story “Lovers Anonymous”, a storm window salesman plays the part of narrator again; however, it’s a more personal story, no famous people show up, but the comedy is just as good.

While young, the narrator and some of his friends all have a crush on Sheila Hinckley, the smartest girl in school. They are all certain she will become a world renown scientist and never marry any of them.  When she marries Herb White, the rest of the group infomally form Lovers Anonymous (LA). Fifteen years later, LA is still together even though they are all married. They still talk about Sheila Hinckley.

This is another story in which one can see a more liberating view of women starting to appear in Vonnegut’s writing. Herb becomes consumed with the fact that he has kept Sheila from being all that she can be, while Lovers Anonymous plays a part in helping him through this “realization”.

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Runaways”

They left a note saying teenagers were as capable of true love as anybody else – maybe more capable. And then they took off for parts unknown.

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Runaways” compares in format to “A Night for Love”; however, this is the cynical and satirical version. Two teenagers supposedly in love leave town.  The girl is the daughter of the Governor of Indiana and the boy, just out of reform school, is from the “other side of the tracks”.

One of my favorite aspects of Vonnegut’s writing is that he is willing to skewer everyone with his wit. In many of his stories, he tends to not take sides.  Everyone is fair game.  In the case of “Runaways”, he makes fun of parents, teenagers, Governors andpop music-not to mention rich people and poor people. The parents all have an “how dare you” attitude with the teenagers and with each other.  The teenagers, while proclaiming their love to the media, obviously don’t have a clue what they are doing.

One of the funniest episodes in the story is a conversation that the boy and girl have with “each other”.  It’s a long conversation taking the better part of two pages; however, they each might as well be talking to themselves as well as the other one listens.

Vonnegut is a true observer of human nature – one worthy of making fun of the whole human condition.

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “A Night for Love”

Moonlight is all right for young lovers, and women never seem to get tired of it. But when a man gets older he usually thinks moonlight is too thin and cool for comfort. Turley Whitman thougt so. Turley was in his pajamas at his bedroom window, waiting for his daughter Nancy to come home.

With all of Vonnegut’s great satire and cynicism, I’m always amazed when I read one of his stories that doesn’t contain these elements and realize what a wonderful observer of human nature he can be.

“A Night for Love” revolves around two middle-aged couples from either side of the “tracks” who are separately waiting for their kids to return from a date.  Each has thoughts about what might have been with their own marriages; however, they also realize the difficulties of any marriage and understand that they really wouldn’t want to change anything.  The process by which they come to this realization in one evening is truly inspiring story-telling and ranks this story as one of my favorites of the collection.  When I’m finished with this series, I will post a list of a few of my favorite stories from Bagombo Snuff Box.

If I had to make one small little critique it would be that I would have rather not known about what happened with the kids’ date. The “coda” that Vonnegut adds to the story that explains this seems out of place. The date is better as simply a catalyst for the parent’s thoughts. Some of the these stories have changed for this collection from how they were originally published in periodicals (mostly in the 1950’s).  I’m curious if this “addendum” to the story is a change or not. Either way, this story is still a favorite.

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Der Arme Dolmetscher”

With “Der Arme Dolmetscher”, Kurt Vonnegut goes back to World War II, when the narrator becomes his outfit’s German interpreter or dolmetscher because he happens to know a song in German. All of the various attempts at translation provides for some great comedy.  It reminds me of the episode of MASH where Hawkeye teaches Korean men to say “Frank Burns eats worms”.

I could attempt to put a liitle bit of meaning behind this story and discuss the way it’s revealed that the German soldiers with which the Americans come in contact are doing the same thing with English that the narrator is doing with German and that Vonnegut is making the point that the Americans and Germans have more in common than they do differences and that humanity as a whole shouldn’t have to fight wars because we’re all really in the “same boat”.

But I would rather stick with the comedy.

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Unpaid Consultant”

I didn’t realize Kurt Vonnegut put financial advisors into so many of his stories until these stories I’ve been reading this week. “Unpaid Consultant”, I admit, is a boring title.  The story itself has some wackiness and charm, though. It sounds very familiar in form to “Custom-Made Bride”.  The narrator starts by telling the reader that so many of his old flames come to him for financial advice and then continues by telling about a specific old flame.

Celeste Divine (another great Vonnegut name) is in need of some money-handling assistance as her career as a television star has taken off.  When the narrator visits her at her house, she introduces him to her husband, Harry.  Harry is laying on the floor thinking about ketchup.  He is an unpaid consultant for the ketchup industry and is hilariously oblivious to the excitement of his wife’s fame. It’s all about ketchup:

Harry looked at me. “What do you call it? Catchup? Ketchup? Catsup?”

I always enjoy the way Vonnegut’s stories make the reader think “He’s got a point” or “I never thought of that”. In the case of this story, Vonnegut appears to say “there has to be somebody out there thinking about ketchup”.

Yeah. He’s got a point.

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Custom-Made Bride”

In “Custom-Made Bride”, Kurt Vonnegut explores the dark side of Pygmalion by telling the story of Otto Krummbein, a fashionable inventor, and his wife, Fallaleen.  The couple’s financial advisor views the two through the lense of Otto being on the verge of bankruptcy.  Until reading these stories this week, I did not realize how often Vonnegut uses business and finance people in his stories.  Most of the time, they play the straight person to all the crazies living around them.  In this case, though, a poignant ending lets the finance dude in on the couples’ realization that they do love each other even if Falloleen would rather be her real self, Kitty Cahoun.

The role of women in Vonnegut’s stories sometimes seems dated from the standpoint of the 21st century; however, in this 1950’s-placed story, one can tell he is at least taking a step toward the idea that women aren’t simply for makeup, dresses and jewelry. The story implies that all the money and fashion doesn’t seal the deal in a relationship. Something has to be there that is more honest and less shallow.  I thought it a nice touch that this couple learns this lesson instead of being destroyed by the lack of it:

“Oh dear,” she said. “I’m starting to feel like Falloleen again.”

“Don’t be afraid of it,” said Otto. “Just make sure this time that Kitty shines through in all her glory.”

While I love the cynicism that Vonnegut is able to put into so much of his work, I enjoy his ability to provide a sentimental touch every once in a while.

Celebrating Banned Book Week with Kurt Vonnegut: “Souvenir”

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Souvenir” includes the presence of World War II that shows up in so many of his stories.  In the case here, it comes in the form of a flashback that is told to a pawnbroker by a returning soldier.

Eddie takes a watch to Joe Bane to get an appraisal.  While Bane attempts to lowball Eddie in the price of the watch, Eddie tells him about the day he and his friend Buzzer find out that the Allies have won the war:

The young farmer, whose name was Eddie, and his best buddy Buzzer walked out into peace and freedom skinny, ragged, dirty, and hungry, but with no ill will toward anyone. They’d gone to war out of pride, not bitterness. Now the war was over, the job done, and they wanted only to go home. They were a year apart, but as alike as two poplars in a windbreak.

Unfortunately, the two soldiers are in Germany at the end of the war among those who don’t necessarily understand or care that it’s over.  Another wheeling and dealing ( as opposed to the one with the pawnbroker in the present time) among German soldiers ends tragically with Eddie maintaining possession of the watch – which by the time the story is finished – is understood to be of great value; however, Joe Bane has just made Eddie think it’s worth very little much to Bane’s detriment.

I like the way Vonnegut swaps “price tags” in this story.  What is of real value isn’t known to anyone except the reader. The price tags placed on other things with lesser potential catches the eye of many of the characters in this story – and other Vonnegut stories, for that matter.