As I recall from reading a lot of Vonnegut quite some years ago, the whole point of Kilgore Trout was that he wrote utter bilge for money - terrible, terrible books no-one should read (albeit that they contained hidden truths the aliens beamed into his distressed mind). He was a bum and a hack, and his oeuvre was forgotten except for by a weird obsessive or two.

I don't think anyone should write under his name, and I seriously doubt this project (fan fiction can be fun, but it works because you don't have to create your own characters or setting; this isn't like that, so the one advantage is lost - and that advantage is in any case a crutch). But if this sort of thing has to happen, that people should attempt to recreate the apocryphal unreadable seems appropriate.

Wow, this is going to make a fortune! Or, uh, not.

If the rights holder for Vonnegut's original work is OK with it, who are we to judge? If Stephen King told Amazon,

"Publish fan fiction of ALL my stuff. Let's sign on it. Split the revenues 50/50 between them and I. Here are my conditions on the work: xyz."

More power to everyone involved. Anything to get more people reading and writing.

Wow, the libertarian option is winning in a SLOG poll.

I've got all sorts of mixed feelings about it and so didn't vote, though @1 sums things up pretty well. But what feels noteworthy is that we're over 200 votes into this and the "great idea" option is sitting at a single fucking vote. Wow.

Vonnegut’s zaniness certainly didn’t take away from the depth of his work. Finding his work at an early age, he opened my mind to many possibilities of the universe while pointing out the absurdities of humanity. You can see my portrait where I paid tribute to the author and say Sweet Dreams, Mr. Vonnegut at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/…