from Kurt Vonnegut's "Slapstick"

2023.05.07
The fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy, it seems to me, was that they did their best with every test.
They never failed to bargain in good faith with their destinies and were screamingly adorable and funny on that account.
[...]
I find it natural to discuss life without ever mentioning love.
It does not seem important to me.
What does seem important? Bargaining in good faith with destiny.
Kurt Vonnegut, "Slapstick"

Dear Kurt--I never knew a blacksmith who was in love with his anvil.
Kurt Vonnegut's agent Max Wikinson

As I have already said, I was fully aware that I was not the sort of lumber out of which happy marriages were made.
Kurt Vonnegut, "Slapstick"

And how then did we face the odds,
Of man's rude slapstick, yes, and God's?
Quite at home and unafraid,
Thank you,
In a game our dreams remade.