On Vonnegut, Percentages and Wondering What Will Happen When I Die

Last week, the world lost one of its greatest literary figures. Novelist Kurt Vonnegut died at the age of eighty-four. It was a sad day.

I will admit that I have not read a ton of Vonnegut’s works. In fact, the only one I have managed to tackle is Slaughterhouse Five. However, as a man who has studied literature, I can not deny the influence the man had on the written word.

I can also not deny the influence the man has had on commuters here in Chicago. On Sunday I hopped on the train to grab coffee with a friend, and there were exactly eight other people in the car with me. Of those eight people, three were reading works by Kurt Vonnegut. In other words, 33% of the passengers in the car were reading Vonnegut. Not bad for a guy who had his first novel published in 1952.

It was a great testament to the power of death. As soon as you kick the bucket, everyone wants a piece of you. I had to wonder how many of the people on the train had even heard of Vonnegut before news of his death hit. But now the guy is dead and everyone is saying how great he was and so everyone wants to be caught reading a Vonnegut novel on the train.

He’s the new Dan Brown.

I wonder what will happen when I die. Will I finally see a surge in hits on Welcome to My Truth? Or will I pass quietly into whatever awaits me without so much as a mention in the New York Times? I do wonder.

At least Vonnegut can rest easily knowing he is once again popular reading material among the cool kids.