vonnegut

hello to anyone reading! i decided to start this blog to keep track of the details of my new life in LA. it's been a few days since i've been on my own in my apartment here in westwood. i've been getting acquainted with the area, and campus, etc. i've spent a lot of my time reading Kurt Vonnegut books i got from the UCLA library, listening to new music (from the UCLA music library), listening to cardinals games, and wondering how i'm going to eat all the food in my fridge before it goes bad! i also took a walk around the botanical gardens on campus, and later bought a bike pump... anyway, i just finished 'Bluebeard,' which was very good, and from which i stole the quote at the top of this blog, as i felt it was appropriate. my 'real life', i.e. the reason i am in LA of all places, begins on Monday when i start my math 'boot camp.' it should be a blast, or at least a good way to pass the time! anyway, i read a good passage today from Bluebeard and thought i would share it. it concerns the ingredients necessary for a successful revolution:

"...most people cannot open their minds to new ideas unless a mind-opening team with a peculiar membership goes to work on them. Otherwise, life will go on exactly as before, no matter how painful, unrealistic, unjust, ludicrous, or downright dumb that life may be.

"The team must consist of three sorts of specialists... Otherwise, the revolution, whether in politics or the arts or the sciences or whatever, is sure to fail.

"The rarest of these specialties... is an authentic genius--a person capable of having seemingly good ideas not in general circulation. 'A genius working alone... is invariably ignored as a lunatic.'

"The second sort of specialist is a lot easier to find: a highly intelligent citizen in good standing in his or her community, who understands and admires the fresh ideas of the genius, and who testifies that the genius is far from mad. 'A person working like that alone... can only yearn out loud for changes, but fail to say what their shapes should be.'

"The third sort of specialist is a person who can explain anything, no matter how complicated, to the satisfaction of most people, no matter how stupid or pig-headed they may be. 'He will say almost anything in order to be interesting and exciting... Working alone, depending solely on his own shallow ideas, he would be regarded as being as full of shit as a Christmas turkey.'"

--Kurt Vonnegut, "Bluebeard"

okay, thanks for reading!