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A Man without a Country

14-11-2005

Kurt Vonnegut is een van mijn meest favoriete (Amerikaanse) schrijvers. Door de hoge leeftijd van Kurt was het onwaarschijnlijk dat er nog een roman van hem zou verschijnen, maar het onwaarschijnlijke is toch gebeurt: kort geleden verscheen "A Man without a Country". In het boek staan beschouwingen over het leven, kunst en politiek van de laatste tijd (het boek eindigd op zijn 82ste verjaardag op 11-11-2004). Kurt gaat flink tekeer tegen de Bush administration, tegen de oorlog in Irak en tegen het milieubeleid op de aarde.

Maar hij zou geen Kurt Vonnegut zijn als hij geen beschouwing over het familieleven zou geven. Ik citeer uit hoofdstuk 5:

"Okay, now let's have some fun. Let's talk about sex. Let's talk about women. Freud said he didn't know what women wanted. I know what women want: a whole lot of people to talk to. What do they want to talk about? They want to talk about eveything.
What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish people wouldn't get so mad at them.
Why are so many people getting divorced today? It's because most of us don't have extended families anymore. It used to be that when a man and a woman got married, the bride got a lot more people to talk to about everything. The groom got a lot more pals to tell dumb jokes to.
A few Americans, but very few, still have extended families. Tha Navahos. The Kennedys.
But most of us, if we get married nowadays, are just one more person for the other person. The groom gets one more pal, but it's a woman. The woman gets one more person to talk to about everything, but it's a man.
When a couple has an argument nowadays, they may think it's about money of power or sex or how to raise the kids or whatever. What they're really saying to each other, though without realozing it, is this: You are not enough people!'...."

Einde citaat. Dat noem ik nog eens levenswijsheid! En daar staat het boek vol mee. Niet makkelijk te vinden in een Nederlandse boekwinkel..... Persoonlijke noot: toen ik het boek uit had zag ik de datum op de tekening van Kurt in het boek op SAAB-briefpapier: 82 as of 11/11/04. Het was 11 november 2005! Happy birthday mister Vonnegut. Happy 83!

Maar vervolgens moest ik denken aan wat Frank Zappa had gezegd over mannen en vrouwen. Ik citeer ditmaal uit "The Poodle lecture" die te horen is op "You can't do that on stage anymore Vol. 6":

"In the beginning God made 'the light.' Shortly thereafter God made three big mistakes. The first mistake was called MAN, the second mistake was called WO-MAN, and the third mistake was the invention of THE POODLE. Now the reason the poodle was such a big mistake is because God originally wanted to build a Schnauzer, but he fucked up. Now a long time ago, the poodle used to be a very attractive dog. The poodle had hair evenly distributed all over its small piquant canine type BODY. That's the way it used to be, the poodle used to be a regular looking dog.
[..........]
The WO-MAN has always been much smarter than the MAN, you know this is true. And so it was since the beginning of time. The MAN would do anything to get some pussy. And that's why the WO-MAN always had control over him.
In the beginning the WO-MAN looked the MAN directly into the eye and said: "I tell you what, why don't you go get a job because I could use a few nice things around the house. Mainly what I need is a clipper, a scissors, and a pair of zircon encrusted tweezers."
And of course the MAN did his duty as they say in the trade. He went out and he got a goddamn job. Went out and pushed that broom around for about a dollar-2.98 an hour, brought his money back to the garden of Eden and gave that money to the WO-MAN. [........]"

Lees hier de complete tekst van de Poodle Lecture

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