Among the authors who came to be favorites - Gordon Parks, Joseph Heller, S.E. Hinton - and stories that will stay with me for a lifetime, Cat's Cradle became the first book I ever fell in love with. Its tone, language, and spectrum fascinated me and, I have no doubt, heavily influenced the rabid fangirl I have become (see my earlier post regarding the Black Dagger Brotherhood, my love of anti-heroes, underdogs and all things tinged with an edge of scifi and fantasy - i.e. my utter worship of Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos - and my SPN/BSG/Heroes flailing in general). It was the seed from which satire bloomed in my brain. It was my first glimpse at pure, unadulterated written genius. And that was all before I picked up Slaughterhouse-Five. So this is a sad day.
Kurt Vonnegut Dies at 84.
In addition to the profound sense of loss, I can't help but think of Can't Hardly Wait - that naive young Preston, such an anti-hero in his own right, was headed off to a writing workshop with Vonnegut was poetic justice (and actually made my heart pinch for a little teen flick). A strange thought, I know, but I never claimed to be anything else.
The beauty in words on paper? The genius lives on.
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Nobody played my fangirl game but
ladygloria (overachiever that she is), so she wins by default. She did very well, though - I'll be revealing answers on the post. Lis, pick a fic (or a ficlet idea). 