Summary
"I am a German American, a pure one, dating back to when German Americans were still marrying each other." Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922, but the most important event in his life happened in Dresden in 1945. He was a POW and underground in a meat locker during the firebombing. When he emerged he found the city totally destroyed. It took him another two decades to work out how to write his book, Slaughterhouse-Five.
Nominating Vonnegut is the comedian Josie Long, who says that finding a writer you love is like finding a friend. Because no expert was available for this recording, Kurt Vonnegut will be taking on this role himself. Kurt died in April 2007.
The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan |
| 0:05.2 | I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy |
| 0:10.2 | podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. |
| 0:13.0 | Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh, |
| 0:18.0 | making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things. |
| 0:22.0 | But you know I also know that comedy is really |
| 0:24.4 | subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer |
| 0:29.6 | from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you |
| 0:36.2 | fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.6 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:46.0 | Miles, you know how these things slip from my mind. |
| 0:48.0 | Who are we doing next week? |
| 0:50.0 | We're doing, Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse Five, which I am presuming you know all about. |
| 0:54.5 | No, never heard of him. |
| 0:55.6 | Fantastic. |
| 0:57.2 | What? Really? Really? |
| 0:59.2 | You've never heard Kurt Vonnegut. |
| 1:00.5 | Okay, this is going to be really good then. |
| 1:02.3 | My ignorance is fathomless. |
| 1:04.0 | Do you want to know who the nominator is? |
| 1:07.0 | Yes. Josie Lahn, comedian, she loves him, she knows a lot about him, she's going to be fantastic, |
| 1:11.0 | but there is a catch. I've wrung a lot of people, nobody wants to be fantastic, but there is a catch. |
... |
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