KURT VONNEGUT AND LIL WAYNE

Vonnegut’s writing is a series of extremely short stories laid out in an interwoven (often non-linear) pattern to create a cohesive whole novel. Sometimes these short stories are as brief as one or two sentences. They often manage to give a whole backstory and sometimes even a future to his characters, institutions and so on. The narrator (who is an explicit Kurt Vonnegut and simultaneously an abstracted, identityless, 3rd person, omniscient voice) delivers all of the information in short bites. Each short piece carries a whole payload and could easily stand alone by itself. But the full, complete narrative of the novel takes form as these short stories are laid out together and intersect.

Wayne writes short, perfect poems often contained in single lines that, when strung together, create a comprehensive piece. These are fragmented and sometimes even disparate from one another and like Vonnegut’s bites, they are perfectly formed whole pieces on their own.

The most important similarity between these two artists is this: Both construct exceedingly complex, abstract ideas with strikingly few components.

Vonnegut says: “The Population Reference Bureau predicts that the world’s total population will double to 7 billion before the year 2000. I suppose they will all want dignity.”

Wayne says: “I don’t need a watch, the time is now or never.”

This image is of a Tralfamadorian. In most of Vonnegut’s novels there is a race of aliens that he describes basically as a hand on the top of a plunger with one eye. I’ve given that character some of Wayne’s tattoos.