Kurt Vonnegut wrote a master’s thesis on the taxonomy of a story. “The fundamental idea is that stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper, and that the shape of a given society’s stories is at least as interesting as the shape of its pots or spearheads,” Vonnegut said. He published the transcript of his humorous lecture on this subject that includes the drawings in his book which is part memoir, part rant, and part joke as it is described on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Country-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/081297736X/
Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana. His favorite writer was George Orwell. “I like his concern for the poor, I like his socialism, I like his simplicity.”
Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller list solidifying his fame.
“Fear of the loss of one’s purpose in life is a theme in Vonnegut’s works.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut
“Most of the time, reading Kurt Vonnegut feels more like being spoken to by a very close friend. There’s an inclusiveness to his writing that draws you in, and his narrative voice is seldom absent from the story for any length of time. Usually, it’s right there in the foreground – direct, involving and extremely idiosyncratic.”