Kurt Vonnegut, who died Wednesday at age 84, was a remarkable writer and a counterculture icon - but, perhaps foremost, an iconoclast.
Author of more than 20 books, he won renown via his unique brand of storytelling. The novel "Slaughterhouse-Five" made his reputation as a rebel social critic; he eventually became a cheerful observer of the absurd.
Vonnegut's cutting short story "Harrison Bergeron," for example, said much about America's obsession with equality.
It takes place in the year 2081, when "everybody was finally equal." The strong must wear "handicap weights the beautiful, masks; those of unusual intelligence, earphones that blare noises to prevent sustained, coherent thought.
In this dystopia, life is joyless and mediocrity ascendant. In short, the tale was a nifty warning against any excessive rush toward equality - particularly when enforced by the authorities.
Vonnegut spent his life smoking Pall Mall cigarettes, calling it a "classy way to commit suicide." But he succumbed to injuries following a fall. That might have prompted him to respond with his own signature phrase: "So it goes."
*New York Post
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