Not long ago I happened across the story of Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer and performer Kevin Murphy (the guy who was Tom Servo) meeting Kurt Vonnegut Jr..
It seems that Vonnegut did not care for the show's concept.
Given Vonnegut's reputation as a satirist this may seem surprising--but then I find myself remembering Vonnegut's creation Kilgore Trout, and how, in a way very rare for fiction of its generation, Trout's tale showed how lonely and sad and bleak the odyssey of an artist can be. How little appreciated, to the point that they may not even think of themselves as artists, because no one else does, and in spite of all the cheap "Believe in yourself" self-help dross and "artists don't need other people's support" crap people of feeble and conventional mind love to peddle, this matters.
A show that is literally all about punching down at makers of "bad movies" via an hour and a half of heckling is a far cry from the outlook on life that produced a Kilgore Trout, and it is in that spirit that I take Vonnegut's answer to Murphy that "every artist deserves respect."
Indeed, I have to admit that while back when the show was on the air I was a fan I find myself sympathizing with Vonnegut's stance more and more all the time.
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