It’s impossible to mark the death of Kurt Vonnegut without, of course, thinking of the 1998 teen horror romp, Disturbing Behavior.
In Disturbing Behavior, which is about something scary, or whatever, the janitor at the high school is purportedly retarded. All of the students are always like, “Dude, the janitor is totally a retard,” or, “What a freak!” (Why do movie kids always call people freaks when no one in real life has used that word since…I don’t know, when did the itinerant circus stop being a cornerstone of mainstream popular culture? I don’t know, when was the Dust Bowl? OH RIGHT 1933.)
One day, the hero, played by James Marsden, ends up in the boiler room (natch), and the retarded janitor comes in and starts going all Rain Man on him, and Marsden is like “I don’t want any trouble, retard.” But then, just as he is about to leave, he sees the one thing that PROVES BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that the janitor is actually a GENIUS. You see, the janitor carries a copy of Slaughterhouse 5 in the back pocket of his janitor pants.
Now, I should clarify that Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors. I got my start reading him in high school when China Jet would steal all of the Vonnegut books from the school library, arguing that the school didn’t need them because the last time any of them had been checked out was in the early 80s, and in general, students who throw rocks at “fags” in the parking lot don’t need an obtuse metaphor on morality using the tropes of science fiction.
But nevertheless, I believe that is one of Vonnegut’s most lasting gifts to us, that a retard could TOTALLY read one of his books and get a lot out of it.
Sorry, Disturbing Behavior, that is the one flaw in your otherwise seamless portrayal of what happens when you “discover that the jocks are actually lobotomized zombies and that [you]‘re next in line.”
April 12th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Back to School (1986)
Sally Kellerman: Whoever did write it…doesn’t know the first thing
about Kurt Vonnegut.
Rodney Dangerfield: And another thing, Vonnegut. I’m going to stop payment
on the check.
Kurt Vonnegut: What’s that? Fuck me?
Rodney Dangerfield: Kurt, do you read lips? Fuck you!
April 12th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I’d have never thought the bored face of an aging Katie Holmes could so eloquently describe the sadness felt throughout the world of freaks at the passing of Mr Vonnegut.
Ho hum.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I think I remember watching that with you. Isn’t that the one that starts out with a panning of the lunch room and something to the effect of of “Our school had it all: jocks, goths, nerds, hommies,…” or something like that? Why were we so into bad movies?
April 12th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
because it was summer of 98 in ann arbor with $1.50 fox village movies for all, i seen it too… ooh this HALCYON is starting to kick in. whoooa.
also i liked “god bless you mr. rosewater” and “slot 5″ but the rest of em just blur together in my mind - i couldn’t even tell you if i’ve read both, either, or neither “brex of champs” and “galapagos”
April 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Getting wistful, but in Breakfast of Champions (I think) there’s some aliens who unfortunately for them look just like matches, and who communicate by tap-dancing and farting.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
breakfast of champs was the one with the funny drawings of assholes.
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I’m sure some Film Studies PhD flunkie is already combing through imdb.com to find all of all the unlikely savants to have carried a copy of any Vonnegut book thinking that proving how much cooler they are than any character to ever carry a copy any Salinger book is going to get them tenure.
But what about John Knowles?
A Separate Peace?
Anyone?
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