Kurt Vonnegut’s Final Interview(s)
Three different sources claimed to have spoken to the writer last—but none has an indisputable claim
MORE
Off the Record
Famous Last Words have been the object of fascination ever since famous people started uttering them. Caesar said “And you, Brutus?” Oscar Wilde made the joke about the ugly curtains.
To the disappointment of the many who held Kurt Vonnegut in similar esteem, the writer was robbed of any significant last words when he lay unconscious after a sudden fall until his death on April 11, 2007.
For newspapers and magazines of a certain stripe, Last Interviews are the next-best thing.The Chicago-based political magazine In These Times, to which Vonnegut was a frequent contributor, published one of them; another was printed in the June issue of an in-flight magazine published by US Airways. A public radio show called The Infinite Mind presented a third in the virtual-reality world of Second Life.
Which of these is the real last interview? None of them, as it turns out.
Vonnegut and host John Hockenberry of The Infinite Mind appeared as animated characters and broadcast their conversation live into the virtual universe in August 2006. The interview was aired again on the radio show the following October, about six months before Vonnegut’s death.
In a July 9 phone interview, Mr. Hockenberry told The Observer that he and Vonnegut were “old pals” and that he had appeared on Infinite Mind before; producers who reposted a link to the interview online after Vonnegut’s death labeled this one “his last interview for the Infinite Mind.”
Overzealous linkers itching for the author’s last words were apparently confused by the phrasing, and as a result, it is referred to in a few places on the Web as Vonnegut’s last interview ever.
With Infinite Mind thus out of the running, literary historians are left with a face-off between J. Rentilly, who conducted the US Airways interview, and Heather Augustyn, who did the one for In These Times.
Both of their pieces were presented as straight Q.&A.’s—Mr. Rentilly’s ran in the magazine’s “Verbatim” department—and neither of them, naturally, knew that their conversations with Vonnegut were going to be among his last interviews with a journalist.
Ms. Augustyn spoke to Vonnegut for a piece she was working on for the Times of Northwest Indiana, anticipating a speech the writer was scheduled to give in Indianapolis in late April (The speech, which ended up being delivered by his son Mark, was supposed to be a crown jewel of the city’s yearlong celebration of Vonnegut’s work.)
When Ms. Augustyn reached Vonnegut by phone on February 28, she only had time to ask a few questions before he told her, eight minutes in, that he was feeling too sick to continue. Next Page >
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
I'm not sure I agree with the way the author pits these three journalists against each other. It certainly is not in the spirit of Mr. Vonnegut, and I would venture to say, not in the spirit of these writers as well. Perhaps the story could have included some significance, like why we should care who has the last interview, or why last words are important. But the author of this piece seems to be stirring things up, when there is just not much there to stir up, except maybe for Rentilly's saying it was from 2007 when the text was largely from 2002--that's a different issue altogether and may speak to journalistic integrity. I don't think the writers were trying to capitalize on Vonnegut's last days and seem to have had good intentions, from what I can guess given their short appearance here. I think the author of this piece may be trying to create something that is just not there--a scandal or a story that really is not a story at all.
I agree with the post (below). It must have been a slow news week.
Just for the record, with regard to the Observer story:
Kurt Vonnegut's interview for The Infinite Mind was his last full sit-down discussion, with an interviewer. They spoke for nearly an hour, and it was all included in the Google and YouTube videos (which have been seen more more than 75,000 viewers), and parts were aired on The Infinite Mind public radio show.
Contrary to what the Observer reporter asserted, our phrasing was not confusing, i.e. that it was Vonnegut's "last interview for The Infinite Mind."
What we said on Google Video was:
"Author Kurt Vonnegut’s last sit-down interview, with The Infinite Mind's John Hockenberry, recorded live in the virtual on-line community Second Life. The interview was part of the first live broadcasts from Second Life. The program will re-air on the national, weekly public radio series during the week starting April 18, 2007."
I don’t think we could have been more clear.
Second, I am surprised that the reporter never called the producers of The Infinite Mind to discuss it as part of his supposedly dogged historical research. If he was trying to sort it out, he should have.
Finally, it's just foofaraw. Likely Vonnegut would have chuckled. I can hear him even now.
Bill Lichtenstein, LCMedia
It's not so much his last words or his first words that are captivating, but many of the middle ones.