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A review by anotherpath
If This Isn't Nice, What Is? (Even More) Expanded Third Edition: The Graduation Speeches and Other Words to Live by by Kurt Vonnegut
3.0
A book full of college graduation addresses. Vonnegut tended to stick to a handful of themes and one liners throughout the work.
It's a beautiful book, it's just a compilation that limits Vonnegut's wit by drawing from the same wells continuously. They're good wells though. A psuedoreligion with an undefined God. A return to family based society. An appreciation for teachers and education. The continual rebuking of war and finance as social drivers.
"What makes me think we need a new religion? That's easy. An effective religion allows people to imagine from moment to moment what is going on and how they should behave. Christianity used to be like that. Our country is now jammed with human beings who say out loud that life is chaos to them and that it doesn't seem to matter what anybody does next. This is worse than being seasick."
And finally he describes what it means to be a good reader with a bad brain. Me.
"Clarking is the most profound and effective form of meditation practiced on this planet, and far surpasses any dream experienced by a Hindu on a mountaintop. Why? Because Clarks, by reading well, can think the thoughts of the wisest and most interesting minds throughout all history. When Clarks meditate, even if they themselves have only mediocre intellects, they do it with thoughts of angels. What could be more sacred than that?"
It's a beautiful book, it's just a compilation that limits Vonnegut's wit by drawing from the same wells continuously. They're good wells though. A psuedoreligion with an undefined God. A return to family based society. An appreciation for teachers and education. The continual rebuking of war and finance as social drivers.
"What makes me think we need a new religion? That's easy. An effective religion allows people to imagine from moment to moment what is going on and how they should behave. Christianity used to be like that. Our country is now jammed with human beings who say out loud that life is chaos to them and that it doesn't seem to matter what anybody does next. This is worse than being seasick."
And finally he describes what it means to be a good reader with a bad brain. Me.
"Clarking is the most profound and effective form of meditation practiced on this planet, and far surpasses any dream experienced by a Hindu on a mountaintop. Why? Because Clarks, by reading well, can think the thoughts of the wisest and most interesting minds throughout all history. When Clarks meditate, even if they themselves have only mediocre intellects, they do it with thoughts of angels. What could be more sacred than that?"