Behaving Decently

Kurt Vonnegut and humanism go hand in hand. In Behaving Decently: Kurt Vonnegut’s Humanism, Wayne Laufert examines how Vonnegut revealed his moral philosophy through the themes and characters in his work and through his public comments. Topic by topic, Vonnegut’s written and spoken views are explored, from his first novel, Player Piano (1952), through his antiwar masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), to the collections of his fiction and nonfiction that appear up till today, long after his death in 2007. His speeches, essays, interviews, and journalism, which support and expand upon the sentiments in his novels, receive proper consideration in this conversational overview of Vonnegut’s life and career. Religion, war, politics, science, art—these subjects and more are seen through Vonnegut’s perspective and are placed within a larger humanistic outlook. His most famous creation, the old science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, gets his own chapter too. Vonnegut called himself a “Christ-worshiping agnostic,” a term that Behaving Decently analyzes in the context of his upbringing as a freethinker, his wartime experience, his time in the corporate world, and other factors that formed his values. Those values are perhaps best expressed by his character Eliot Rosewater, the damaged, super-rich philanthropist: “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” Vonnegut’s real and imagined selves were incorporated into Kurt Vonnegut the author, the public speaker, the interview subject, and even the character that appears in some of his books. After all, he wrote, “I myself am a work of fiction.” That funny, wise, sometimes depressed persona was humanistic. Behaving Decently shows the reader how Kurt Vonnegut reminded us to take small steps along hopeful paths to kindness and community and dignity and art—and farting around.

Toward a more sustainable society.

This book aims to enlighten the readers to the reasons and arguments for believing in the existence of God, Jesus Christ is the true Messiah and to disprove the unfounded and blasphemous allegations made against Christ and the Universal Church by some fictional writers, who have attempted to ridicule Christ, and to reduce the standing of the Gospel to a product of political forces which allegedly operated, to determine as to which text should be included in the Canon and which should be edited out, rather than considering the Gospel as the literal work of God.

This book calls for a re-evaluation of the films of Robert Rossen. Over a 30-year period, he was the most accomplished writer and director who was also a longtime member of the Communist Party, but his achievement has not been recognized, his films have been belittled or ignored, his legacy denied. Rossen's films reflected his times and the American scene with a dramatic intensity and personal expression unmatched by any other filmmaker of the period. The stages of his political journey, from idealism about Communism to his rebellion against the Party's betrayal of those ideals, influenced the rendering of his concerns and themes--the flaws of human nature, the complexities of motives, the paradoxes of betrayal, personal and political. Yet Rossen testified against his fellow filmmakers, and so his morals and character have been denounced, his work diminished as fatally marred by his moral flaws. The opposite is true. Here is a thorough analysis of each of his 22 films and their place in the developing themes of his body of work. It integrates this study of the films with a documented narrative of his relationship to the Party, its history and conflicts, its duplicities--especially the relations of the Party and its followers to the oppressions of the Soviet Union. And so it challenges the validity of the conventional wisdom about the moral issues of the blacklist period.

Mere Christianity is a theological book and is considered a classic of Christian apologetics, the transcripts of the broadcasts originally appeared in print as three separate pamphlets: The Case for Christianity (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944). Lewis, an Anglican, intended to describe the Christian common ground. In Mere Christianity, he aims at avoiding controversies to explain fundamental teachings of Christianity, for the sake of those basically educated as well as the intellectuals of his generation, for whom the jargon of formal Christian theology did not retain its original meaning. Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He is best known for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Complete Works of C. S. Lewis" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Novels: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Horse and His Boy The Magician's Nephew The Last Battle Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet Perelandra That Hideous Strength The Screwtape Letters The Pilgrim's Regress The Great Divorce Till We Have Faces Short Stories: Screwtape Proposes a Toast Ministering Angels Religious Studies: The Allegory of Love The Problem of Pain A Preface to Paradise Lost The Abolition of Man Miracles Mere Christianity Reflections on the Psalms The Four Loves An Experiment in Criticism A Grief Observed Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer Poetry: Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics Autobiography: Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Speeches: Transposition The Weight of Glory Membership Learning in War-Time The Inner Ring De Descriptione Temporum The Literary Impact of the Authorised Version Hamlet: The Prince or The Poem? Kipling's World Sir Walter Scott Lilies that Fester Psycho-analysis and Literary Criticism The Inner Ring Is Theology Poetry? Transposition On Obstinacy in Belief The Weight of Glory Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He is best known for his fictional work, especially The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

This book is so much more than just another business improvement book. Churchill wrote his memoirs of WWII, all 6000 pages of them. I discovered them by accident, started reading Volume 1. Every so often Churchill would describe a situation from the war and offer the reader some personal advice, in the 5th volume he gave another piece of advice that really chimed with a business issue I recalled. It seemed a shame that this great advice was now lost. This book captures Churchill's advice for a new audience. Each chapter describes the war situation the advice emanates from and then places it into a business context. Unlike most business books, each chapter is full of surprising war stories. Once people start reading it they don't want to put it down. Everyone takes something away that enhances the way they work. It is a great read, improves business performance and provides lots of information about the war. It is so much more than just another business improvement book.