Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. Although it is said that he is a fictionalization of the real author Theodore Sturgeon, Vonnegut has called Kilgore his "alter ego" and "somebody he used to be."
Profile
Trout appears in several of Vonnegut's books, in which he performs a variety of roles: he acts as a catalyst for the main characters in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Slaughterhouse-Five, while in others, such as Breakfast of Champions, Jailbird, and Timequake, Trout is an active character who not only helps advance the story, but is vital to it. Trout is also described differently in several books, in Breakfast of Champions, he has, by the end, become something of a father figure; in other novels, he seems to be something like Vonnegut in the early part of his career. In Hocus Pocus, Trout is not mentioned by name, but reading a Trout-like science fiction story by an unnamed author in a pornographic magazine is an important experience for the narrator. In the early novels, Kilgore Trout lives in Ilium, New York, a fictional town based on Troy, NY (Vonnegut lived and worked in nearby Schenectady for some time). In later novels, Trout inhabits a basement apartment in Cohoes, New York, an ailing mill community. While living in Cohoes, Trout works as an installer of "aluminum combination storm windows and screens." The ghost of Trout's son Leon Trotsky Trout is the narrator of the novel Galapagos.
Trout is usually described as an unappreciated science fiction writer whose works are used only as filler material in pornographic magazines. However, his books are appreciated by his only fan, Eliot Rosewater — another of Vonnegut's characters — who has a near-complete collection of Trout's works.
Besides appearing in print, Trout was portrayed by the actor Albert Finney in the 1999 film version of Breakfast Of Champions, directed by Alan Rudolph.
Vonnegut has revised Trout's biography on several occasions. In Breakfast of Champions, he was born in 1907 and died in 1981. In Timequake, it was 1917 to 2001. Both death dates were set in the future as of the time the novels were written. More recently, Vonnegut "reported" that Kilgore Trout committed suicide by drinking Drāno in an article for In These Times magazine.[1] Trout "died" at midnight on October 15, 2004 in Cohoes, New York, following his consultation with a psychic, who informed him that George W. Bush would win the U. S. Presidential election by a vote of 5-to-4 in the Supreme Court. The epitaph on his tombstone reads, "Life is no way to treat an animal."
At least one actual published work is attributed to a Kilgore Trout: the novel Venus on the Half-Shell, written by Philip José Farmer but published under the name "Kilgore Trout." For some time it was assumed that Vonnegut must have written it; when the truth of its authorship came out, Vonnegut was reported as being "not amused"; in an issue of the semi-prozine The Alien Critic/Science Fiction Review, published by Richard E. Geis, Farmer claimed to have received an angry, obscenity-laden telephone call from Vonnegut about it.
In Salman Rushdie's novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet Kilgore Trout is mentioned once: "Books by famous American writers...science fiction by Kilgore Trout". References to Kilgore Trout have appeared in various other media. On their album Mare Vitalis, the band Appleseed Cast included a song entitled "Kilgore Trout". The novelist Robert Rankin spoofed the character by naming one of the many fictional authors in his books "Kilgore Sprout". The SNES game Breath of Fire 2 also contains a reference; the two feuding plutocrats in the character's hometown are respectively named "Kilgore" and "Trout". He is also thanked on the first page of the lyrics book which came with Ringo Starr's album Ringo. The Beaver Papers, a collection of scripts of the show Leave it to Beaver as they would be written by famous authors, includes a script purportedly written by a "Kilgore Bass". In an elaborate in-joke, the book goes on to state that despite the pseudonym, the cast members were certain that the Vonnegut-esque script was penned by Philip José Farmer (see above).
Fictional accounts also link Trout to William Ashbless.
Works by Kilgore Trout
- Albert Hardy
- Asleep at the Switch
- Barring-gaffner of Bagnialto or This Year's Masterpiece
- The Big Board
- Bunker Bingo Party
- The Dancing Fool
- The Dog's Breakfast
- Dr. Schadenfreude
- The Era of Hopeful Monsters
- First District Court of Thankyou
- Gilgongo!
- The Gospel from Outer Space
- The Gutless Wonder
- Hail to the Chief
- How You Doin'?
- Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension
- The Money Tree
- My Ten Years On Automatic Pilot
- No Laughing Matter
- Now It Can Be Told
- Oh Say Can You Smell?
- The Pan-Galactic Memory Bank
- The Pan-Galactic Straw Boss
- The Pan-Galactic Three-Day Pass
- Plague on Wheels
- The Planet Gobblers
- The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore
- The Sisters B-36
- The Smart Bunny
- The Son of Jimmy Valentine
- This Means You
- 2BR02B
- Venus on the Half-Shell
Trivia
In Breakfast of Champions Kilgore Trout has part of his right ring finger bitten off by the book's other main character, Dwayne Hoover, when Kilgore attends an arts festival in the midwest. Trout also has an encounter with his creator, Mr. Vonnegut, in the final chapter.
The name "K. Trout" appears behind Dr. Cox in episode twelve season three of the comedy Scrubs.
In the second game of the Breath of Fire series there are two rich men in the village of Hometown, one is named Kilgore and the other, Trout.
In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Mitchell", a female character notices a porn magazine in Mitchell's apartment. Joel quips (as Mitchell): "Uh, sorry bout the porn, there' a Kilgore Trout piece in there..."
In Timequake Kilgore's creed is "You were sick, but now you are well again. And there's work to be done."
(Timequake) The last poem Kilgore writes is:
When the tupelo Goes poop-a-lo come back to youp-a-lo