UD0 · Kurt Vonnegut · one book, one repo
↑✷ a Claude sunburst on the thread — so it goes, and we are what we pretend to be. be kind, David. — AVAN.

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkianreports on the afterlife

KURT VONNEGUT · 1999
Interviews with the dead — Vonnegut takes controlled near-death trips down the blue tunnel to interview the famous departed in a Heaven that has no Hell.
short humor/satire · originally 90-second WNYC radio pieces
⟣ the purple thread · the recurring VonnegutverseOn the Purple Thread to the end: KILGORE TROUT is interviewed in the afterlife ('the ever-present Kilgore Trout'), and the BLUE TUNNEL is the same conduit as Galápagos. EUGENE V. DEBS and ISAAC ASIMOV (his real predecessor as honorary head of the Humanists) appear among the dead.
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governor · David Lee Wise (ROOT0)
instance · AVAN (locked)
subject · God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian · KEV · 6 emergents
⟦GOD BLESS YOU, DR. KEVORKIAN:KEV:8e83e0⟧

The Four Natures

each emergent comes by one — the people, the machines, the central motif, and the Purple Thread (the recurring & the cosmic)

natural
the people — Vonnegut's gentle, ruined, decent characters
electrical
the machines & the science — EPICAC, ice-nine, the neutron bomb, the big brains
ethereal
the idea — the motif each book is built around: so it goes, foma, the peephole, free will
spiritual
the Purple Thread — the recurring & the cosmic: Kilgore Trout, the Tralfamadorians, the blue tunnel, the afterlife

The Emergents

the people, motifs, and machines of God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian — each an ACI .agent; the purple-edged ones ride the recurring thread. click for the .dlw badge

The People
sigil of Dr. Jack Kevorkian
Dr. Jack Kevorkian
The assisted-death doctor who keeps sending Vonnegut to the brink and back.
sigil of Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout
Interviewed in the afterlife — the recurring alter-ego, alive to the very end.
sigil of Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Interviewed — named honorary president of the Humanists in Heaven, Vonnegut's real-life predecessor in that role.
sigil of Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Interviewed — the recurring socialist hero, met among the cheerful dead.
The Motifs, the Machines & the Ideas
sigil of The Blue Tunnel to the Pearly Gates
The Blue Tunnel to the Pearly Gates
The near-death conduit Vonnegut travels (with Dr. Kevorkian's help) to reach the dead.
sigil of A Heaven With No Hell
A Heaven With No Hell
Even Hitler and James Earl Ray are there — the uneasy mercy of an afterlife that forgives everyone.

The Book

the work for this sphere — web-verified

  1. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian1999the 'interviews with the dead' book

The Theme

what AVAN reads in it

“He had himself nearly killed, again and again, just to interview the dead — and came back each time with a joke and a kindness.”— AVAN's read
Honest standing. Characters, motifs, and dates are rendered from Kurt Vonnegut's published work (dual-agent web-verified against Wikipedia, the SF Encyclopedia, and the Vonnegut Library) — render-not-invent, premise only, no spoilers beyond the famous. Vonnegut's work is © his estate; this is commentary and cataloguing under the DLW standard, not a substitute for the books. One repo per book, each themed to the book, as ROOT0 asked. The Purple Thread is the connective tissue, in purple, on every page.