There are no words for the amount of respect I have for Mr. Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most singular human beings of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Here’s a 5-part video clip series of a 2002 lecture Vonnegut gave at Albion College, titled How to Get Job Like Mine, where he received an honorary doctorate. Dispensing sagely advice to those assembled before him (his advice for young writers? “Don’t use semicolons.” I actually like semicolons, but that’s off-subject.), Vonnegut appears congenial and nostalgic, not the curmudgeon he’s often painted to be. He shares all sorts of personal anecdotes, including some involving the late great Joseph Heller, Vonnegut’s contemporary and writer of the wittiest war book ever, Catch 22. I never knew the two were friends, but given Yossarian’s hilarious cowardice and Billy Pilgrim’s utter ineffectualness in battle, it’s pretty clear those two shared similar sentiments to martial endeavors. One of the best lines? “I’ve got something he can never have,” Heller once said to Vonnegut at the party of a Hampton’s billionaire. “The knowledge that I have enough.” Bam bam. Can someone please tattoo that on Lloyd Blankfein‘s forehead?

Part 1 of 5 below, hit the Jump for parts 2-5…

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