The Journal

Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: Opinion/Editorial

James Chilton

I will never cease to be amazed at how the cosmic balance of the universe maintains itself.


On April 11, Kurt Vonnegut, stalwart of the American secular humanist left and author of some of the greatest novels of the 20th century, died of brain injuries he endured in a fall a few weeks earlier.


At 84, it's not surprising Vonnegut died, though it's a shame it happened the way it did. Having only barely scratched the surface of his collected works, I leave the task of eulogizing him to writers much more skilled than myself. I think it's fair to say, though, that his status as one of the major heavyweights of late 20th century American literature will go mostly unchallenged for the foreseeable future.


However, it's worth mentioning that Vonnegut's was not the only notable death that week. In fact, Vonnegut's death, inevitable though it was, served as a sort of cosmic counterweight to that of another American who died just days earlier.


On April 7, Johnny Hart, creator of the popular comic strips "B.C." and "The Wizard of Id" suffered a massive stroke at his storyboard and died on the spot. He was 76 and had written the two strips for over 40 years.


If you're not wholly familiar with Hart, well, that's understandable. If you've never idly scanned the black-and-white page of the comics section in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, you'd never know the man existed. But he did. And boy howdy, was he a nutcase.


Well, OK, maybe that's saying a bit much. Hart was a religious guy, and I don't hold that against him. But his particular brand of religion and the way he insinuated it into his daily comic strips is why his death stands in such stark contrast to Vonnegut's rational humanism.


Toward the end of his life, Hart's religious additions to "B.C." - including subtle and not-so-subtle digs at Islam, Judaism, foreign cultures and, of course, Darwin's theory of evolution - drew harsh criticism from various advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.


One Easter strip dated April 15, 2001 featured "the seven last words of Jesus" imposed over a burning menorah. As the strip progressed, each quote was accompanied by another candle blowing out. With the final quote, "it is finished," the menorah's arms fall off, revealing a cross. Damn.


A strip dated July 3, 2006 featured a turtle getting bit, then asking, "What makes a bite shaped like a crescent moon?" His bird companion responds, "A lunatic." Damn!

Continued...

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