You were a big deal for me, old man.

He wrote and drew his own perfect epitaph. It may be mine, as well, except that I also like 'fugit hora'--time flies--the choice of countless dead. Fugit hora reminds me of 1998, when I was elated to see Kurt Vonnegut speak at Ohio Dominican college because 1. I loved him and 2. I was certain he would be dead soon. Instead he wrote a couple more books, smoked 4 million more cigarettes, said and wrote innumerable awesome things. My high school literature textbook--probably those Norton bastards--wounded me deeply by saying that his themes "appealed to sophomoric tastes." I was very invested in my precociousness then, and plus, everyone in class but me hated "Harrison Bergeron" and they were literally sophomores.

Do people still think the themes of love and war and trying to be good when it's difficult are sophomoric? I mean, the read-y/writey people? He's omitted from the biographies of David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers despite their similarities--use of humor and the absurd whilst still being, at heart, all heart--in the service of love and decency. William Gaddis is boring, is what I know, and doesn't seem to like people. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.--he loved us, all flawed and hateful.