Early Vonnegut, but undeniably the writer who you either love or you don't. The book is especially valuable for its introduction by Vonnegut, which includes his "8 Rules for Writing," and his observations about how the mainstream magazines of the 1950s were his training ground, back when magazines published fiction. I read it in conjunction with Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style by Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell.

Pre-science-fiction Vonnegut. From the days when he was a nobody and sold stories to periodicals just to keep food on the table. "Souvenir" is probably the best one in the bunch.

The Powder Blue Dragon

by Kurt Vonnegut


The Powder Blue Dragon by Kurt Vonnegut is a cute story about a young man named Kea whom is absolutely obsessed with a racy Italian sports car. He works for nearly half a decade sweeping floors, pumping gas, and taking other odd jobs to earn extra money. He measures success and self-worth based on what he perceives as class, and when he finally has enough money in his account he buys the classiest car in the World. Along the way Kea learns a few lessons about what class really is; he also discovers the limits of his Italian supercar.

The Cruise of the Jolly Roger

by Kurt Vonnegut




The Cruise of the Jolly Roger by Kurt Vonnegut is about a retired major who has been discharged due to injuries received in the Korean War. Major Durant was a brave soldier who had seen many buddies die and was nearly done in himself a few times. The major is depressed, grumpy, and feels like the whole world hates him. Durant had little imagination for civilian life and didn't understand what was so great about it. He had grown up in poverty and the military is all he had known since. After being discharged he decided to buy a secondhand boat to cruise around for a bit. He first lands in Cape Cod, not surprising since Vonnegut lived there for several years, and discovers a stuffy group of people who are not terribly impressed that he is an ex-soldier and would have been more impressed if he were an artist. He ends up having lunch with them anyhow and we start to see a spark in the major as one of the young girls touches his hands. The spark goes out and he heads back to his boat. He realizes a good friend of his, who died in the war, George, had lived on the next island over. He arrives on the island and ends up in the hands of an even warmer woman who with the help of a child assists Major Durant in finally seeing his own self-worth. I liked this story and it acts as a friendly reminder to all of us to, “not confuse the war with the warrior.”

The Powder Blue Dragon

by Kurt Vonnegut




The Powder Blue Dragon by Kurt Vonnegut is a cute story about a young man named Kea whom is absolutely obsessed with a racy Italian sports car. He works for nearly half a decade sweeping floors, pumping gas, and taking other odd jobs to earn extra money. He measures success and self-worth based on what he perceives as class, and when he finally has enough money in his account he buys the classiest car in the World. Along the way Kea learns a few lessons about what class really is; he also discovers the limits of his Italian supercar.

Hal Irwin's Magic Lamp

by Kurt Vonnegut



Hal Irwin’s Magic Lamp by Kurt Vonnegut may have been about society in 1957 but it makes perfect sense today. Hal is the main character of Kurt’s book. Hal has created a magic lamp in his basement to which he has attached a doorbell, as a cleverly “modern” way to call upon the genie.. With that being known you might think that this story is in a genre of fantasy or science-fiction. You would be wrong. The story could have actually happened then as much as it could today and what the genie brings, as in most genie stories is a few unwanted wishes. That’s right, I just said there was a genie, but nothing that couldn’t happen today. You’ll have to read and find out. Great story Kurt,,, thanks. victimization. A classic must read.

2-B-R-0-2-B

by Kurt Vonnegut



2-B-R-0-2-B by Kurt Vonnegut is a creepy look into the possible future of our planet. The focus of this tale is overpopulation, but the story is actually told after the problem has been supposedly solved. It all begins through the eyes of a young observer, Edward, whom is talking with a 200 year old artist. The artist is old enough to know what is wrong with the modern world and Edward is too naïve to see it. In the future that Vonnegut has created, aging has been cured and Earth’s population always remains exactly the same. If one person is to come into the world then one person must leave. I really enjoyed this story. It wasn’t long enough to cause an emotional connection with any one particular character but the message itself is powerful. If this book were written today scholars would surely assume it was allegory for some of the societal norms that currently exist in China and India.

Thanasphere

by Kurt Vonnegut


The short story Thanasphere by Kurt Vonnegut was actually written in 1950 and that’s important to note because this is before we knew much at all about space outside of our own atmosphere; this was before Sputnik after all. In this story Vonnegut writes about a pilot, Major Rice, of an experimental rocket powered spacecraft on a secret Earth orbiting mission for the U.S. military. The pilot was expecting to find most of his amusement through trivial observation, such as the feeling of weightlessness and seeing the Earth all at once. What Major Rice found instead was a world where all the dead are now living.

While some of the characters such as the overly logical scientist and the rough and tough general can seem a bit like caricatures at times, the overall read of the story is still pretty good. I also like how Vonnegut, without even trying, tied in the idea that the government will cover-up practically anything if it is in their best interest. This is an entertaining story that I think most people would enjoy reading, especially if you take it in the context of a 1950 pre-Sputnik America.

Vechiul meu prieten şi critic, profesorul Peter Reed de la Catedra de engleză a Universităţii din Minnesota, e cel care a descoperit aceste povestiri din trecutul meu îndepărtat. Fără el, probabil că n-ar mai fi ieşit niciodată la lumină. Eu unul nu păstrasem nicio fiţuică din acea perioadă a vieţii mele. Eram convins că nu fac nici cât o ceapă degerată. Nu voiam decât să- mi întreţin familia.Cercetarea lui Peter a fost făcută cu sârguinţă de cărturar. Şi totuşi, l-am rugat să mai facă un efort pentru mine şi să scrie o prefaţă neceremonioasă acestui volum care e mai degrabă al lui decât al meu. Fii binecuvântat, dr. Reed, zic.

Bagombo Snuff box: uncollected short fiction, Kurt Vonnegut

Bagombo Snuff Box is a collection of 23 short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut. The stories were originally published in US periodicals between 1950 and 1962. This collection was published in 1999 by G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Stories:
Thanasphere,
Mnemonics,
Any Reasonable Offer,
The Package,
The No-Talent Kid,
Poor Little Rich Town,
Souvenir,
The Cruise of the Jolly Roger,
Custom-made Bride,
Ambitious Sophomore,
Bagombo Snuff Box,The Powder-Blue Dragon,
A Present for Big Saint Nick,
Unpaid Consultant,
Der Arme Dolmetscher,
The Boy Who Hated Girls,
This Son of Mine,
A Night for Love,
Find Me a Dream,
Runaways
2BR02B,
Lovers Anonymous,
and Hal Irwin's Magic Lamp.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز شانزدهم ماه آگوست سال2008میلادی

عنوان: انفیه‌ دان باگومبو؛ نویسنده: کورت ونه گات؛ مترجمها: روحی افسر؛ شهرزاد مهدوی؛ تهران، نشر کلاغ سفید، سال1386، در422 ص، شابک9789649165417؛ موضوع: داستانهای کوتاه نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م

فهرست داستانهای کوتاه: «1 - تاناسفر: مردی را با سفینه به خارج جو میفرستند ولی او صدای ارواح را میشنود»؛ «2 - فن تقویت حافظه: به مرد یاد میدهد برای حفظ کردن باید با کلمات داستان بسازد»؛ «3 - پیشنهاد با صرفه: زن و مرد خود را خریدار نشان میدهند و چند روزی در خانه های اشرافی میزیند»؛ «4 - مجموعه: مرد اکنون بسیار ثروت مند است و قرار است یکی از همکلاسیهای پولدار قدیمی به دیدنش بیاید»؛ «5 - بچه ی بی استعداد: پسرک استعداد موسیقی ندارد اما ول کن قضیه نیست»؛ «6 - شهر کوچک ثروتمند و نگونبخت: با آمدن کارخانه زمینهای شهر دوباره شاید ارزشمند شوند»؛ «7 - یادگاری: مرد میخواهد ساعت یادگار جنگ را بفروشد»؛ «8 - سفر دریایی جولی راجرز: مرد قایقی خریده و میخواهد به زادگاه دوست دیرین خویش سر بزند»؛ «9 - عروس دست ساز: مرد عاشق مد است و زنش را مجبور به پیروی میکند»؛ «10 - سال دومی جاه طلب: مربی موسیقی متوجه میشود فرد اصلی گروه به خاطر هیکلش اعتماد به نفس ندارد»؛ «11 - انفیه دان باگومبو: مرد به دیدار همسر نخست خود میرود. مرد او را رها کرده تا به دنبال زندگی خویشتن باشد»؛ «12 - اژدهای آبی روشن: پسر بی چیز همه ی پولش را صرف خرید یک ماشین فوق العاده گران میکند»؛ «13 - تقدیم به بابانوئل نیک گنده: مرد پول زیادی به افرادش میدهد اما در قبالش آنها را در جلوی فرزندانشان خار میکند»؛ «14 - مشاوره بی جیره و مواجب: دوست دختر قدیمی مرد ستاره مشهوری شده و از او میخواهد برای سرمایه گذاری کمکش کند»؛ «15 - دیلماج فلک زده: مرد شعری به آلمانی حفظ کرده و برای همین او را به جای مترجم میگیرند»؛ «16 - پسری که از دخترها فراری بود: همه هدف پسر از موسیقی علاقه اش به مربی است»؛ «17 - این آقا پسر من: مرد کارخانه دار برای پسرش آرزوهایی دارد، رابطه ی پدران و پسران است»؛ «18 - برای من رویایی پیدا کن: شهری که همه چیزش وابسته به صنعت لوله است»؛ «19 - : عشق دو نوجوان دارا و بی چیز »؛ «20 - عشاق گمنام: زمانی همه پسرها آرزوی ازدواج با شیلا را داشتند و فکر نمیکردند دختری به باهوشی او به فکر خانه دار شدن باشد»؛ «21 - چراغ جادوی هل ایروین: مرد مدتها پس انداز کرده تا زنش را وارد یک زندگی مرفه بکند»؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 23/03/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 04/03/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I got this for a present. I never knew that Harrison Bergemon was by Vonnegut! I was so excited!

n  Participation in an art is not simply one of many possible ways to make a living, an obsolescent trade as we approach the year 2000. Participation in an art, at bottom, has nothing to do with earning money. Participation in an art, although unrewarded by wealth or fame, and as the Middle West has encouraged so many of its young to discover for themselves so far, is a way to make one's soul grow.n

I propose a motion to abolish introductions, prefaces, any and every commentary preceding an actual work of art, unless the said commentary was written and thereby imposed by the author themselves. With all due respect to Peter Reed whose preface I thoroughly enjoyed after I read the entire anthology, those first few pages would have served as a much more insightful and enjoyable afterword. I am sick and tired of spoilers, you people.

All that aside, my God, here's another Vonnegut short story collection to sweep any unenthusiastic reader of short stories off their feet. I am shamelessly talking about myself, of course, since reading a short story collection proves to be a dragging, if not entirely unsuccessful endeavor each time I pick up one—that is, unless it's a bunch of irresistible, witty, vaudevillian K.V. prose.

Highlights of Bagombo Snuff Box, at least for me, had to be Souvenir, A Night for Love, Runaways, 2BR02B and Lovers Anonymous. Vonnegut's personal Coda presents a fitting conclusion which encompasses all I've been suspecting I'd love about the Middle West—not just its wry, nasal drawl, but its spirit and culture as well.

(Borrowed from the Mid-Manhattan NYPL on 40th St. and Fifth Ave.) After viewing that documentary on Vonnegut on Hulu, I launched a binge on so-far unread works by the author I've been reading since high school (or maybe junior high, I can't recall.) A plentiful collection of previously uncollected stories from Vonnegut's early days as a writer, eking out a living at a variety of jobs including car salesman and PR wordsmith for General Electric. From the 50s into the early 60s, a number of magazines published short stories by unknowns (Now the New Yorker is one of the few left, and they generally employ known quantities.) Each is a little gem with a twist ending (In an afterward, Vonnegut admits he rewrote three of them for this collection.) Most are humorous satires of human behavior, subdivision small town dreamers. Only two (Thanasphere and 2BR02B) display the dark science-fiction bent of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan, and Player Piano. The formula many follow has an objective narrator, either a real-estate man or a financial consultant injected into the bizarre world of absent-minded geniuses, small-time con men and women or obsessive ketchup consultants. My favorites were Any Reasonable Offer (very funny), Runaways (insightful dissection of shallow teenagers and their clueless parents), and Hal Irwin's Magic Lamp (a wallop of a story on clashing values along class and racial lines). Looking forward to the other Vonnegut collections of fiction, essays and letters.

Thanasfera 5/5
Mnemonică 4/5
Un preț decent 3/5
Pachetul 5/5
Puștiul netalentat 4/5
Săracul orășel bogat 3/5
Suvenirul 2/5
Jolly Roger în croazieră 1/5
Mireasă la comandă 3.5/5
Elevul ambițios 2/5
Tabachera din Bagombo 4/5
Dragonul azuriu 4/5
Un cadou pentru Moș Nick cel Mare 1/5
Consultantul neplătit 2.5/5
Der Arme Dolmetscher 2/5
Băiatul care ura fetele 3/5
Din tată în fiu 3/5
O noapte pentru iubire 4/5
Fă-mi rost de un vis 5/5
Fugarii 3.5/5
AFIXANUFI 5/5
Îndrăgostiții anonimi 5/5
Lampa fermecată a lui Hal Irwin 4/5

Total: 3.41
--
Păcat de țara unde paguba pândește
Degeaba-i mult belșug, când omul putrezește.
(Versuri din poemul The Deserted Village, Satul părăsit de Oliver Goldsmith, publicat în 1770)

Jolly Roger = denumire dată steagului negru cu craniu și oase albe, folosit de pirați.

Rosie the Riveter = simbol cultural al Statelor Unite, reprezentând femeile americane care au lucrat în uzine, în timpul celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial, în mare parte în producția de armament. Simbol al feminismului și al puterii economice a femeilor.

Fost-a cândva un suflet dus, ce niciodată nu și-a spus, ăsta-i al meu iubit pământ!
(Fragment din poemul narativ Balada ultimului menestrel 1805 de Sir Walter Scott.)

This magnificent collection of Vonnegut's early short stories shows a side that we don't see in his novels. There is much less science fiction, much less modern day inventions v. the human soul, and a more conventionally structured set of writing rules. The other thematic elements, though, absolutely presage the Vonnegut of Cat's Cradle, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and The Sirens Of Titan. Mankind's difficulty functioning as a caring creature amid the chaos of 20th century life, the ever-dominant Vonnegut humorous pessimism (always balanced by a concession to optimism of which the author seems to be unaware), and Vonnegut's dismay when the right fails to conquer the wrong, which is his normal outcome, very humorously framed, never bespeaking utter futility. And so it goes...

Always engaging, though by his own admission some of the conclusions don't do justice to the fully realized characters the stories contain. Still, it's hard not to find something relatable in their struggles, with much more grounded conflicts than his more famous works. And, as always, the prose cracks along beautifully.

Larry Santoro, a GoodReads author, gave this book as a Christmas present during the period when I and others would go to his home almost weekly to watch videos from his enormous movie collection. It is early Vonnegut and definitely not his best, but if you like the man as the writer he became, then it's probably worth reading.