Kurt Vonnegut to speak at Tufts

Famed author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. will speak at Tufts on Nov. 5 as a part of the continuing Tufts Lecture Series. The topic of his speech has yet to be announced.

Vonnegut has written 13 full-length novels, in addition to numerous short stories, essays, plays and works for television. His style is marked by its blending of science fiction, black comedy, and social commentary. Some commentators theorize that Vonnegut's bleak outlook stems from his mother's suicide on Mother's Day in 1942, when he was home on leave from the Army.

Though details of the event have not been revealed, students have expressed interest in the speech.

"He's an awesome writer and political satirist," sophomore Leah Madsen said. "I'm excited to hear him speak."

Last week, when historian Howard Zinn spoke at Tufts, he mentioned his friendship with Vonnegut. The audience broke out into a round of applause for the author.

Before he became a full time writer, Vonnegut was a police reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau, a worker in a General Electric research laboratory, a car dealer for Saab, and the entire English department of a school for disturbed children.

One of his most famous novels, Slaughterhouse Five, was made into a film and is a standard on high-school reading lists. The novel is based on Vonnegut's service in the Army during World War II. He survived the bombing of Dresden, which the book describes extensively.

More recently, Vonnegut was rumored to have written the "It's Good to Wear Sunscreen" commencement address at MIT in 1997. The speech, however, was actually a column written by journalist Mary Schmich in The Chicago Tribune and Vonnegut read it as part of MIT's commencement. The column was turned into a hit pop single, further perpetuating the myth that it was written by Vonnegut.

Previously, Vonnegut has spoken at Rice University, among other universities. According to the Rice Thresher, Vonnegut enjoys speaking to young people because they do not "resist ideas." He likes to catch them "before they become generals and senators and presidents and poison their minds with humanity," the Thresher reported.

Representatives from Lecture Series refused to comment until the contract is confirmed.