Comments on: Comments on 21511

Post number 21511

gravelshoes — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 11:23:58 -0800

enjoy the collected fictions of Kilgore Trout. or alternately, write some yourself.

By: skryche

skryche — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 13:04:35 -0800

A few years ago, I came across a book by Kilgore Trout at a used book stall. Its existence blew my mind. Now I finally looked it up. Huh.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 13:47:27 -0800

I found this site about a year ago, while doing some research on Vonnegut... I found it entertaining, and had forgotten all about it. Thanks, gravelshoes. Worthy of mention, Sometime around 1992, I went by the name Kilgore Trout for 6 months, while waiting tables in Dallas Texas. (Don't ask, sometimes people on heroin do strange things.) All that time, and only a handful of people actually knew what my name was a reference to. silly earthlings.

By: hippugeek

hippugeek — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 14:17:31 -0800

Some of those passages from the first link read quite a bit like Douglas Adams. Very nice.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 14:44:09 -0800

No, you have that wrong. Some Douglas Adams passages read quite a bit like Vonnegut.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 15:16:08 -0800

Wait, I thought PJ Farmer was Cordwainer Bird was Harlan / Ellison (who is also Arland Hellisunk) was a character in Ellison's New York Review of Bird (what a great old story!). Now I'm all confused. I do, however, have a couple of 1970s paperback copies of Venus on the Halfshell, "for the first time without lurid covers!" (lucky me). Someday maybe I'll give one away as a party favor.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 15:26:10 -0800

Shane, I would love to have one of those copies.... really. Really. How much? I had one long ago, but lost it somewhere.... under the bed... Vonnegut, or so I have read, wasn't too happy with Farmer when he took the name Trout and put VOTHS out... wasn't there a lawsuit?

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 15:53:24 -0800

Since we are discussing imaginary books and authors who exist only within the pages of another author's books... I'll provide a link tothis site ... a nice little site dedicated to just that.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 16:01:53 -0800

...lawsuit? I Googled something here, but the website came up for me with the font color the same as the background color. So I had to highlight the text to read it, which feels strangely like navigating through a cave with a cheap flashlight and half-dead batteries. Anyway, it said Farmer, during a period of writer's block, wrote Venus with Vonnegut's permission. Afterwards Vonnegut regretted giving the go-ahead, and claimed that Farmer did not reveal himself as the author as quickly as he should have (which somehow might have hurt Vonnegut's reputation, perhaps because people attributed Venus to him rather than Farmer). Minor snafu, really. You're welcome to the book, Brad--just Email me direct and I'll send you a copy ("Please allow 4 to 5 days--for me to dig it out of the closet.") Time was I saw a copy or two of Venus in every Ohio used book store I visited.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 16:19:05 -0800

Some of Vonnegut's comments on Farmer are right in the Kilgore Trout link in the post, also, but they don't indicate that Vonnegut gave his permission to Farmer. Farmer loved to do things like this. A complete list of the fictional authors he used as pseudonyms is in the link I posted above. Farmer even wrote a book under the name of an author character out of Venus on the Half Shell, which of course was written by him under the name of fictional author Trout! He also wrote serious "biographies" of fictional characters, such as Tarzan and Doc Savage.

By: hippugeek

hippugeek — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 16:32:16 -0800

Touche, bradth27.

By: Samsonov14

Samsonov14 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 17:21:06 -0800

A flying saucer creature named Zog arrived on Earth to explain how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. He brought the information from Margo, a planet where the natives conversed by means of farts and tap dancing. Zog landed at night in Connectitut. He had no sooner touched down than he saw a house on fire. He rushed into the house, farting and tap dancing, warning the people about the terrible danger they were in. The head of the house brained Zog with a golf club. When I was in high school, I wanted to be able to write like Raymond Carver. Ten years later, and I want to be able to write like this. Kind of sad, in a way.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 17:26:15 -0800

Samsonov14- Don't be so hard on yourself. That's pretty damn funny stuff. Breakfast of Champions had some of the best Trout fiction ever, and I have always told myself If I ever write a book, it's gonna have something to say about wide open beaver.

By: condour75

condour75 — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 18:32:05 -0800

A great resource gravelshoes! Thanks for posting it.

By: gravelshoes

gravelshoes — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 19:04:14 -0800

I would give pretty much anything to be able to make a living writing as the bastard offspring of Vonnegut and Carver about wide open beaver. and while we're nostalgilizing Vonnegut, don't let's forget this also

By: Voivod

Voivod — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 20:46:31 -0800

I just finished Farmer's "Venus On The Half Shell" last week. Very amusing! I must admit that I've not read enough Vonnegut to know how much of the writing style was merely borrowed by Farmer, but in any case it is quite a fun read. Bradith27 has it right. After finishing the novel, I flipped to the date of publication to see how long after Hitchhiker's Guide it was released since the similarities were blatant. 1975. Wow! Three years before the Adams' BBC series!

By: taz

taz — Mon, 11 Nov 2002 03:40:05 -0800

Ever wondered what Kilgore Trout looks like? Here's Vonnegut's portrait of him. (More Vonnegut art.)

By: Fabulon7

Fabulon7 — Mon, 11 Nov 2002 06:17:04 -0800

I saw Vonnegut speak in Toronto in some old church. He was great. He attributed Kilgore Trout to laziness. He said whenever he had a nearly-good idea for a story that he wished some other person had have written, he just attributed it to Trout. That way the story kind of existed, but he didn't have to go through the pain of actually making it good.