A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut

A Man Without a Country is an essay collection published in 2005 by the author Kurt Vonnegut.

The extremely short essays that make up this book deal with topics ranging from the importance of humor, to problems with modern technology, to Vonnegut's opinions on the differences between men and women.

Most prevalent in the text, however, are those essays that elucidate Vonnegut's opinions on politics, and the issues in modern American society, often from a decidedly humanistic perspective.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «مرد بی وطن»؛ «مردی بدون وطن»؛ اثر: کورت ونه گات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و پنجم ماه دسامبر سال2012میلادی

عنوان: مرد بی وطن؛ اثر: کورت ونه گات؛ مترجمها: پریسا سلیمان زاده اردبیلی؛ زیبا گنجی؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، مروارید، سال1386، در138ص، مصور، جدول، واژه نامه، شابک9789648838527؛ موضوع: سرگذشتنامه نویسندگان آمریکایی سده 21م، ایالات متحده آمریکا، سیاست و حکومت از سال1993م تا سال2001م

عنوان: مردی بدون وطن؛ اثر: کرت ونه گات؛ مترجم: علی اصغر بهرامی؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، نشر چشمه، سال1390، در128ص، مصور، نمونه، شابک9789643624255؛

نویسنده در این اثر، با بی پروایی، به نقد سیاستهای دولت «آمریکا» در زمان ریاست جمهوری «جورج دبلیو بوش» میپردازند، و از رویکردی که «آمریکا» نسبت به سایر کشورها از جمله «عراق» دارد، سخت بیزار است؛ «ونه گات» که خود در بمباران «درسدن»، و در جنگ جهانگیر دوم حضور داشته، و برای «آمریکا» جنگیده است، در این کتاب اذعان دارد، که خود را «آمریکایی» نمیداند؛ این اثر به همین خاطر «مرد بی وطن» نامگذاری شده است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 20/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Μεχρι στιγμης πιστευα οτι ο Βοννεγκατ ηταν ενας τρελαρας που εγραφε εξισου τρελα βιβλια με ο,τι ιδεα του κατεβαινε στο κεφαλι.με αυτο το βιβλιο που περιεχει καποιες προσωπικες του σκεψεις και εμπειριες , καταλαβα οτι ηταν ακριβως αυτο αλλα και ενας ανθρωπος με μεγαλες ευαισθησιες και προβληματισμους , καθως και κοφτερη ματια και σκεψη για οσα γινονται γυρω μας.γιαυτο και τον αγαπησα λιγο παραπανω...

یه کتاب خوب. به دوستانی که نقد در قالب طنز رو میپسندند توصیه میکنم از مجموعه مقالات کوتاه ونه گوت در این کتاب غافل نباشند.بعد از خوندنش فکر میکنی کاش در مورد شرایط و اوضاع و احوال کشور ما هم چیزی نوشته بود.مسلما کمتر بودن محدودیت ها و کمرنگ بودن خط قرمزها در زمینه ی ابراز عقاید دست نویسندگان کشورهای دیگه رو باز گذاشته برای استفاده ی بهتر از زبان طنز در قالب نقد.خب خوش به حالشون. همین.

Weird collection of interesting scraps :)

There is no order to me reading Vonnegut anymore. I want to read it and so I do. I enjoy it immensely.

the vonnegut collection
1. player piano
2. the sirens of titan
3. mother night
4. 2BR02B
5. cat's cradle
6. canary in the cat house or welcome to the monkey house  (i owed the latter and it had majority of the short stories featured in the former)
7. god bless you, mr. rosewater
8. slaughterhouse-five
9. happy birthday, wanda june
10. between time and timbuktu
11. breakfast of champions
12. wampeters, foma and granfalloons
13. slapstick, or lonesome no more!
14. jailbird
15. sun, moon, star
16. palm sunday
17. deadeye dick
18. fates worse then death
19. galapagos
20. bluebeard
21. hocus pocus
22. timequake
23. god bless you, dr. kevorkian
24. bogombo snuff box
25. like shaking hands with god
26. kurt Vonnegut ton mark twain, lincoln, imperialist wars and the weather
27. a man without a country
28. armageddon in retrospect
29. look at the birdie
30. while mortals sleep
31. sucker's portfolio
32. letters
33. we are what we pretend to be
34. if this isn't nice, what is?
35. complete stories
36. love, kurt: the vonnegut love letters, 1941-1975

And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say "Kurt is up in heaven now." That's my favorite joke.

In a country that gets its feathers ruffled beyond all rational allowance should one commit the hell-worthy trespass of bidding someone else of unknown spiritual beliefs an all-encompassing, meant-to-convey-well-wishings-without-presumption "Happy holidays" and thus betray one's role as a covert hippie cog in the heathen machine that's making a religious majority feel increasingly insecure about its apex-predator status, we have been blessed with the bastion of razor-sharp wit and level-headed wisdom of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a man who knew that "[h]umor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself" and has offered shelter through laughter, however sardonic it may get, to anyone who's sought either full-on refuge or just a few hours of necessary escapism behind the shield of his words.

Ever since I picked up and tore through Slaughterhouse-Five much to my surprised delight, Vonnegut has held a special place in my terminally uncool, fiercely enthusiastic bookworm heart. I was not expecting masterfully balanced humor and heartbreak and a tale that positively trounced my initially wary approach in a matter of pages -- and KV has left me absolutely dazzled if not downright delighted time after time, book after book. I usually help myself to a few of his works every year, ever mindful that I don't want to gobble them up too quickly and be left with nothing until more posthumous releases make their way to publication (though it's not like Vonnegut was stingy with his output). I've been craving his words and particular perspective a bit more keenly than usual after having felt his influence practically radiate off the pages of George Saunders's own variations on black humor; this, rather than a novel, turned out to be exactly what I'd wanted.

What I got with this collection was what one back-cover blurb so correctly asserted to be "like sitting down on the couch for a long chat with an old friend." A Man Without a Country, published two years before Vonnegut's death, during what seemed an especially hopeless stretch of Dubbya's ill-gotten presidential stronghold, is nothing but a mosaic of the writer comprising a parade of varied but interlocking short essays. And even though it features the proclamation that Mr. Vonnegut had lost hope in humanity toward the end of his life, so much of what he put forth in these collected essays contradicted such an uncharacteristic statement from one of the most cautiously optimistic and darkly hilarious writers I've ever had the good fortune to know through his brainchildren.

This all-too-short collection -- equal parts biography, writing guide (complete with hand-drawn plot diagrams!) and celebration of creativity, no matter how ham-fisted, an On Writing of Kurt's own -- served as a spot-on capstone for the literary legacy he left behind, as Vonnegut intended it to be his last published work. Far from the cranky, doddering old man he could have become, the insights here betray the good-hearted core of an archly lucid humanist who has seen (and, indeed, lived through as a WWII soldier and POW) the worst his fellow Earthlings can do to each other but still sees a glimmer of hope for their future. He knows we've trashed the Good Mother and her finite resources all in the name of greed and getting from A to B in record time, that we've used our scientific advances for chiefly devastating effects rather than giant leaps toward good, that politicians are paving the way for a bleaker, more selfish way of life but zeros in on the saintly individuals ("By saints I mean people who behaved decently in a strikingly indecent society," he says) who've made the most of their stay on this hurdling blue marble to the betterment of their tiny but significant microcosm. There is hope in these unsung minor heroes and Vonnegut gives a voice to their songs, as there's no hope for the human species but for a few remarkable creatures who do everything they can to benefit whomever they can with whatever they've got.

Between a sci-fi moniker (a label not of the author's choosing, as discussed herein alongside his vaguely Luddite inklings) stemming from his seemingly outlandish visions of the future and his satirical but not caustically so lampooning of all the things wrong with our current society that very well could be handily laying the foundation for such oncoming terrors if we don't address the problems immediately, Vonnegut has left a giant, blinking neon sign pointing toward a better tomorrow for all who are brave and willing enough to downsize their egos to follow his lead. He's like the impatient but understanding grandfather we all so desperately need to point out our failings but follows up the well-meaning criticism with a cookie and hug, whose high standards but well-earned belly laugh make one want to live up to the good-of-us-all standards he has so thoughtfully set up for those who dare to take a gander at the blueprints.

I honestly don't know if the world is a better place since Vonnegut issued his last collection. I know it's a little more witless without him but I also know that, on a much smaller scale, I've been able to improve my staunchly pessimistic regard for my fellow two-legged beasts when I stop judging the whole and admire the day-to-day efforts of those individuals whose good intentions have them railing against the ugliness that could be so easy to submit to if not for their determination to keep fighting the good fight in the stead of greater minds who've fought before. A Man Without a Country is the rally cry for anyone who wants to prove that optimism isn't always a symptom of naïvety, that it's only by objectively understanding the bigger picture and your place in it that you can hold an educated opinion about how much better things can be and how we can slowly but steadily make it there.

God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut (and I hope you would have appreciated the joke, sir).

What a pleasant read! I’ve recommended this book to everyone who has come within arms reach in the past three days, and I have just started constructing my shrine to it in my closet complete with candles, beads, and a doodled picture of Kurt.

This book is the first time I’ve interacted with KV’s thoughts not transmuted through fiction. I would say he is how you would expect him to be, releasing a book of essays when he was in his 80’s: Funny; left-leaning; wise; a little worn from his experience of life thus far; and thoroughly peculiar. I wish I could have a conversation with the man.

In all honesty, this was a nice collection of essays that made me laugh out loud several times. Nothing groundbreaking, but if you are in any way a fan of his fiction, this book will scratch an itch of yours and I recommend it.

Here are a few excerpts to get you going:

“We’ve sure come a long way since then. Sometimes I wish we hadn’t. I hate H-bombs and the Jerry Springer show.”

“Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don’t you wish you could have something named after you?”

I'll save the heavier-hitting lines for your read.


P.S. KV is a big fan of libraries and the news (certain outlets, at least). What a guy.

هرچند اساسا ونه‌گوت رو دوست دارم اما این کتاب به نظرم چیز دندون‌گیری نداشت. طرح جلدش رو خیلی پسندیدم که فکر کنم کار آقای حقیقی بود آرایش صفحات کتاب هم بامزه بود و به اون فضای طنز می‌خورد. درمجموع ترجمه هم بد نبود خصوصا این که ترجمه‌ی شوخی‌های زبانی کار دشواریه اما خب خود کتاب حقیقتا یه سری نوشته‌ی جسته و گریخته بود که نمی‌شد بهشون گفت مقاله . هیچی بهشون نمی‌شد گفت. اعتبارش صرفا به اسم ونه‌گوت بود. مباحث بیشتر در دفاع از تفکرات چپ بود و محیط زیست و مواردی از این دست. ولی نه خیلی عمیق بود و نه خیلی بامزه.

Another good reads reviewer said that Kurt Vonnegut's death was such a great loss because "nobody thinks the way he did." So true, and such an understatement. There's just no other mind that works anything like his. Of course, every mind is unique, but most of us are depressingly ordinary, myself included. Sigh...

This book is an odd compilation of the meandering thoughts, observations and reminiscences of Vonnegut at the age of 82. There are some 2 star WTF moments where you have to make allowances for the scattered thoughts of a doddering old genius. However, the 4 and 5 star moments are so extraordinarily good that they more than make up for any lapses.

Vonnegut is so audacious, outspoken, bizarre, and hilarious in the way he presents things we all think about. He had me laughing 'til I gave myself coughing fits, nodding my head saying, "Why didn't I think of that?", and yes, even getting choked up and teary-eyed here and there.

As a secular humanist, Vonnegut did not believe in an afterlife. From page 80 of the book:

"And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now.' That's my favorite joke."

So in honor of one of the greatest, here goes:

Kurt is up in heaven now.

So it goes.

ما براى علافى به كره ى خاكى آمده ايم،هر كسى جز اين گفت چرت گفته/هيچ كس از زندگى جان سالم به در نميبرد.

3,5*
Tôi luôn đánh giá cao những người hài hước, cả trong cuộc sống lẫn văn chương. Nhưng là "hài hước" ở cái nghĩa tử tếthôi nhé, không phải loại hài phí thời gian kiểu Trấn Thành Trường Giang chời ơi.
Kurt Vonnegut là một người hài hước theo kiểu tôi ngưỡng mộ đó. Thành thật mà nói thì cuốn này hơi nhẹ, hơi lỏng lẻo, nhưng cái ánh cười khúc khích trong đó là đủ để đọc rồi. Càng về sau càng thú =)) Chết, dạo này bắt đầu thích nhiều bác Mỹ ghê :">
Tóm lại là đi hội sách Nhã Nam thì nhớ ghé gian hàng 5-10k nha các bạn. Luôn có những cuốn rất khá như cuốn này =)))

Kurt Vonnegut is a national treasure. Period. It was my intention to expand upon my opinion of Kurt Vonnegut in this review but the above statement alone seems sufficient. I love Kurt Vonnegut. Fuck Fox News. I hate Fox News because they hated Kurt Vonnegut. What did he do wrong? He spoke the truth. He spoke without flourish or innuendo, straightforwardly, about things that are taboo. Fox would rather lie to you and discredit an honest man after his death than risk you going out and reading his books. Well, I say, go out and get yourself an enormous, teetering tower of Kurt Vonnegut books. They'll pull the wool from your eyes. Education, ladies and gentleman, is the only key to a brighter future. Stop watching television, listening to the radio, and giving credence to major media sources. They'll lie to you till you don't know right from left. Instead, I urge you to expand your mind with the only thing us humble citizens still have at our disposal that remains untarnished: books, heaps and heaps of glooooooooooorious books. Good reading to you.