Thursday, April 12, 2007

Kurt is up in heaven now.

I am really going to miss him.

I haven't read anything he's written since Timequake, but the fact that he's not out there anymore, this great, little figure with a sharp wit and a kind heart, makes me really sad.

Luckily he himself came up with ample ways to mourn his death, or at least quotes to employ. Besides "So it goes," there's "unstuck in time," and there's my personal favorite:

I spoke at a Humanist Association memorial service for Dr. Asimov a few years back. I said, “Isaac is up in Heaven now.” That was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. . . . When I myself am dead, God forbid, I hope some wag will say about me, “He’s up in Heaven now.”

And then there's the thing I think a little bit about what he must have been thinking recently, not just about himself but sort of about everything:

Here was what Kilgore Trout cried out to me in my father's voice: "Make me young, make me young, make me young!"

I could go on, but I can't... There are so many things he has written that I would like to repeat here because they are so good (in the moral sense as well as the quality sense), but I think it's better, more fitting, to leave that to him.

Gah. I wish I could say something better. I'll leave you with some quotes.

No, wait:

"Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. Why don't you take a flying fuck at the moooooooooon!"

(It's not all sadly sentimental.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even better than "so it goes":

"Poo-tee-weet?"

I think that makes a more fitting end.

-Pablo

Anonymous said...

I kind of like,

Listen: we are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise

D

Anonymous said...

There were several sad and sweet remarks on NPR today.
LAS-W

Emily said...

ooh dad good one.

Anonymous said...

not gonna lie, i cried a little when he died. i didn't share that with anyone until now, but damn, was kurt the best or what? btw, as you can see i'm going back and reading your old blog entries. are you even gonna get this message? i hope you have some sort of e-mail notification enabled, otherwise this'll be lame. if you do get this, call me?
-o
p.s. lamb of god actually pays homage to him in one of their songs. they quote "so it goes". this was before he died. literate metal!