Every Kurt Vonnegut Novel Explained in 10* Minutes

[@Quintaspoon]

love how vonnegut wrote a book about an alcoholic veteran with ptsd and another book with an alcoholic veteran with ptsd and had the first one show up in the others book and say “hey aren’t we similar huh”

[@theMatthgeek]

"It'll be a short video. In and out. Ten minutes, tops"

[@TurbopropPuppy]

quick five-minute Kurting adventure

[@TacticalAnt420]

My favorite british man uploaded a video on a random thing again! Thanks for brightening my day!

[@OliverLugg]

That's my job.

[@TacticalAnt420]

@@OliverLugg well you’re quite good at it :D

[@josuelservin]

Well, that actually felt like ten minutes, so I very much look forward to the essay!

[@jzmc7562]

Woah! A KZbinr i like made a video about my favourite author!!!! I never expected this! This video really feels like it was made for me.

[@jzmc7562]

So ive only read the top 3 books of this ranking and one very simple observation ive made is this: Cat' Cradle and The Siren's of Titan both have a fiction religion that satirizies real world religions that are both very similar and exact opposites. Bokonism holds the basic position of God cares extremely much about you, and has an intricate plan for your life and we fucking hate it and him with every fiber of our being. In Siren's of Titan we have The Church of God The Utterly Indifferent. The main, eponymous idea of this religion is that God does not care about you, has no grand plan for you, and is utterly indifferent towards your actions and we love it!!!

[@HateVG]

Ah a short 10 minute video before my morning routine

[@alcedob.5850]

Honestly, I think you can't spoil Vonnegut because his books sre always about the journey, not the destination. In many cases you know where and how the main character ends up right away, but it's a fascinating read nonetheless, maybe even more so. Well that's judging by the 3 or 4 novels that I've read by him

[@SGresponse]

You wanna bet? I could spoil you some of those books in 2 paragraphs so hard.

[@georgewaters6424]

@@SGresponse you could try, but you are now blocked :P

[@Uzotrups]

I'll take. I'll definitely take it

[@BrynTheWizard]

Me: "Ooh, hopefully I'll find a load of recommendations for Vonnegut to read that are better than the two I already did. Also I can't wait to hear what he thinks about my favourite, The Sirens of Titan!" Me, one hour later: "Ah fuck."

[@slowtrigger]

Guess I'm reading Vonnegut now.

[@realperson6957]

i love your channel, and vonnegut is my favourite author. gonna sit back, relax and enjoy this. thank you so much for your hard work!

[@scliffbartoni9771]

Certainly not the upload I expected but I love vonnegut so I'm pretty pleased lol

[@merlinstarhugs]

Fucking love this guy

[@treetheoak8313]

These chaos videos are why I come here!

[@Taschenschieber]

Slaughterhouse-Five (the only Vonnegut novel I was aware of before this video) always sounded like something I wouldn't enjoy, but after this I read Cat's Cradle first, then Mother Night, and found both of them very enjoyable. Will probably continue to read some more. By the way, I found Mother Night extremely bleak, as did you, but also incredibly compelling, and breezed through it really quickly.

[@killerbee.13]

Cat's Cradle was the first (and so far only) Vonnegut book I've read, but I think I was a bit too young to fully appreciate it, and I don't remember too much of it now. It took me a while listening to your description to really be sure I was remembering the same book lol. Maybe I should reread it, and then read some more of his books because I did remember liking it. I get the feeling that maybe you wouldn't recommend reading that one first, but I can't change that now lol.

[@sadnessofwildgoats]

the title made me think that every book would take 10 mins each 😂

[@ChromaFabulist]

Seeing _Slapstick_ and _Hocus Pocus_ at the bottom was a dagger in my heart. They're my favourites, alongside _The Sirens of Titan_ (Hey, we agree on that one!) and _Mother Night._ _Slaughterhouse-Five_ is probably my *least* favourite, so I was very relieved to not see it in the top spot. Some of that is popularity backlash, but something just bugs me about it and I've never quite been able to put my finger on what. Something about Dresden, probably. I read Vonnegut's work starting at age eleven and finishing at eighteen. My mother left a copy of _Cat's Cradle_ on the coffee table and things only spiralled from there. I read _Breakfast of Champions_ the second my older sister was done with it, and _Slaughterhouse-Five_ when I found a copy in my English teacher's lending library. In short order came a copy of _The Sirens of Titan_ borrowed from my sister, and somewhere in this period I dropped out of middle school and acquired some money with which to purchase books. I immediately sought out _Mother Night,_ because I was thirteen and my father had told me that I should wait until I was older to read it. I regret nothing. From here we just have more buying books over the years, including ones I'd already read, starting with _Deadeye Dick_ (which I utterly adore, by the way). The last I got my hands on was _God Bless You, Mister Rosewater._ The last I read was _Bluebeard._ If I had to make my own ranking, it'd go something like this: **S Tier** The Sirens of Titan, Hocus Pocus, Slapstick, Mother Night **A Tier** Cat's Cradle, Deadeye Dick, Player Piano, God Bless You Mister Rosewater, Breakfast of Champions **B Tier** Jailbird, Galapagos, Bluebeard **C+ Tier** Timequake **C- Tier** Slaughterhouse-Five I expect to like Timequake and Bluebeard much better when I eventually do my own Vonnegut marathon. The A and S tiers are more or less impossible to really order. As a side note, I've recently come to the opinion that Wes Anderson would be a great director for a Vonnegut adaptation, probably _Deadeye Dick,_ _God Bless You Mister Rosewater,_ or _Bluebeard._ Maybe _Breakfast of Champions,_ he'd certainly do the ending justice.

[@Rattleboneses]

Now this? This is the boutique nerd content I wish to see

[@chickenspaceprogram]

5d diplomacy with multiverse time travel, just a week away!

[@Harmonine]

It's odd, I read all of Kurt Vonnegut's novels on a whim some 7 years ago when I first got back into reading... and somehow barely remember them. All I remember is having liked the Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan, and random bits and pieces from the rest of his work, like the twins (incest?), tiny chinamen, that one sci-fi author that pops up multiple times, some vague memories of Rosewater and some vague notion of a guy shooting a gun from the window and accidentally killing someone? And the breakfast title, oh, and I recall not really enjoying Player Piano. Anyway, I am not saying Kurt Vonnegut is a bad author or anything, just that this will be a very interesting video for me. He is literally the only author I know I've read yet can barely remember the works of. His books sit around in my digital bookshelf at 100% and I'm bewildered they're even there, like I hallucinated the whole experience. I even had to jog my memory to remember that The Sirens of Titan existed, even though I recall having liked it.

[@Tome36]

this video is really good and interesting and i might even read a few of these books

[@griffinhunter3206]

i have a weird book suggestion: Serina A Natural History of the World of Birds

[@WhaleManMan]

So it goes

[@yiannchrst]

Except from timequake, what would be your recommended read order? From top to bottom? I haven't read any of these novels yet, but this video convinced me!

[@OliverLugg]

I think any from A or S tier (except Timequake as you say) would be a good place to start. So if there's one in particular there that caught your attention, it's probably the right one to go with. To tease out a definite suggestion though, I think The Sirens of Titan is so thematically varied that it can act as a good jumping off point to customise your Vonnegut experience. Read it first, then... - If you want more about time or war, go to Slaughterhouse-Five. - If you want more about technology, go to Player Piano. - If you want more about rich people, go to God Bless You, Mr Rosewater. - If you want more about religion, go to Cat's Cradle. - If you want more about art, go to Bluebeard. - etc. Chronological order certainly has its merits too though. It was engaging to see some of Vonnegut's beliefs evolve across his life, and some not so much.

[@yiannchrst]

@@OliverLugg Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! Can't wait for your next video!

[@isaacshearn2793]

Did you consult the letter grades he assigned for his own novels in Palm Sunday?

[@zerebusgarago]

Not giving spoilers for Vonnegut books is a choice lol. Since the entire point is to be spoiled and to enjoy the journey.

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

I love Galapagos. But if you read it trying to avoid spoilers you will have an unpleasant time. The whole point is to see how everything cascades to the point you’re waiting for

[@Tom-lm2tc]

I knew I liked this channel for a reason 🥲

[@creator-link]

Man holding Kurt Vonnegut

[@YTHandlesWereAMistake]

1:26:54 having watched all of your videos, essays, and so on except for the earliest and shortest stuff, I still had to google - but I did get correctly what that was and reminded me I watched that not for nothing. Would you be willing make a general recommendations / list of novels (or series, perhaps)? Not necessarily video/talk/podcast type, though it'd definitely be able to get way more descriptive and thus enlightening to the audience.

[@merezko4339]

A Teir LIST! YES WOOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOOOO! Tell me everything about Kurt's writing...

[@nomad6174]

I first read Slapstick as a young teen and I loved it! I'll have to read the rest of his stuff if that's the worst of the bunch 😆

[@oliverfalco7060]

Oliver I think this would've worked better in the KZbin shorts format

[@borysww5283]

Just read Galapagos recently (and slaughterhouse 9 a long time ago). Let’s see if those were good choices

[@davidhesson5036]

Oliver Video Lets Gooooooooooo

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

I know you said you didn’t like the structure of Galapagos, but I absolutely love Galapagos and I feel like the asynchronous structure is sort of the point because you’re meant to marvel at all of the circumstances that lead to the forgone conclusion, like a roller coaster. At least to me the fundamental question of Galapagos is not “what’s going to happen?” but “how is this going to happen?” Also, whenever I see that one tweet that says “the ideal beach body would have a powerful lobster claw, arm flaps to act as a wind break and a sand repellent anus” I think of Galapagos

[@robertverri9357]

I totally agree about Timequake.

[@asdfasdf-dd9lk]

How do you keep making videos about completely unrelated things which I love, stop spying on me dammit !

[@inappropriatejohnson]

"Venus On The Half Shell" by Kilgore Trout deserves to be mentioned. A bit silly. A bit trashy. Just looked.....apparently actually written by Phillip Jose' Farmer but attributed to Trout. Out of print but Amazon has it used at great cost for a tiny book.

[@OmbreFelonne]

in a very different style (hard SF) i would suggest Greg Egan very cool stuff, it might appeal to you considering your channel previous subjects and "global themes"

[@shadowseek27]

LETS FUCKING GO

[@HundreadD]

Luggchads we eating good this week

[@SGresponse]

It's not just any Tier List - it's The Most Depressing Tier List Ever Let's WATCH THIS! EDIT - oh, I am sorry, I forgot to include the most important part: .

[@SGresponse]

If you are feeling existential pain right now - I have served my purpose.

[@OliverLugg]

KZbin’s top suggestion for an auto-reply to this comment is, ‘Understandable’. Does it know?

[@SGresponse]

@@OliverLugg Well if there's one thing that The Book hath taught me is that it is irrelevant if it knows, as the only will it usually has is not free and if it happens to stumble upon free will - it will express it in the most meaningless way possible.

[@unknownusername9335]

And here I thought the * was some kind of mathematical operator

[@daigakunobaku273]

What the f, how is this having LESS THAN 10K VIEWS

[@picklejarmonsterfanboy9367]

now to Joyce

[@Tome36]

well this feels kinda random

[@JovanDacic]

Checking to make sure title did not read 10! minutes...

[@Vfdking]

Well now you're just "stealing the mirror"

[@jaylol7226]

Who the hell is Kurt Vonnegut?

[@wyattwharton1599]

I literally just subscribed

[@L_Train]

You mean you didn't figuratively subscribe?

[@TiffinVStorm]

I see.

[@ThatReplyGuy]

Before getting into the ranking proper, I would've liked an explanation on who this guy is and what makes him special enough to want to rank his books. I've never heard of him before. Upon finishing the video, I have heard of Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5, but have never read them, nor did I know the author until now.