The Sirens of Titan

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meaning and purpose

i think my own preference comes from the fact that despite its final message and continuous humor, sirens mostly made me feel empty inside rather than comforted by what it had to say. There is quite a bit more that I’m pretty sure of after reading this Vonnegut classic, but on the above I am very confidant. I had so much fun with this book and I am sure that I still missed some of what Vonnegut was trying to say. His delivery is so dry and understated that if your attention wonders even for a moment, you can miss his point. I think this is one of those books that just screams to be read in a group and discussed. Maybe that’s why books like this lend themselves so well to re-reading every so often, because there is so much more there to find upon closer inspection. Exact Words: Rumfoord predicts everything that's going to happen to Malachi over the course of the novel right at the start, and everything he says is technically true, but he makes it sound like it's going to be an exciting, pulpy adventure rather than the years-spanning Trauma Conga Line it actually turns out to be. Trying to summarize a book by Vonnegut is a very hard task to perform without sounding crazy but I will do my best. One guy, Winston Niles Rumfoord, sets to travel to Mars together with his dog where he falls into a Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum which makes him to repeatedly and periodically materialize in different places. He materializes at his mansion every 50 days or so. During one of his appearances Rumfoord meets with Malachi Constant, the richest man on Earth, and predicts that the latter will travel to Mars, Earth and Titan. He also tells Constant that he will have a child with Rumfoord’s wife. Malachi refuses to believe the prophecy and does anything in his power to disprove it, even selling his stakes in the only company which was producing a ship capable to fly into space. From here, the novel follows a series of extraordinary and absurd events that will lead to the fulfilment of Rumfoors’s words. For people who read Slaughterhouse-five, Tralfamadore makes an appearance here as well.

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What holds these oddities together is what holds everything of Vonnegut together, an ethical theology. His sci-fi is a way of displacing talk about God just enough to do some serious thinking. And he may indeed have inspired a new generation of thinkers about God as a consequence. But I suppose it's gotten the attention it has gotten for one big reason. It has depth, too. A lot to say about God. Insanity. Memory. And almost nothing good to say about modern society. It is, in every respect, a light satire. Sirens of Titan is by no means a normal novel. It’s plotting is odd, different, unusual. The characters are all odd, disjointed, and never quite fit in or get along. Player Piano may have been the first book published by Kurt Vonnegut, but Sirens of Titan was the first Vonnegut book. Brooke-Rose, Christine (1981): A Rhetoric of the Unreal. Studies in Narrative and Structure, Especially of the Fantastic. Cambridge: Carcanet.

Mustazza, Leonard (1990): Forever Pursuing Genesis. The Myth of Eden in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut. London and Toronto: Associated UPs. So the ethic of Vonnegut's theology is direct and clear. There is only one commandment: "These words will be written on that flag in gold letters on a blue field: Take Care of the People, and God Almighty Will Take Care of Himself." This mandate requires no complicated exegesis or commentary. Nevertheless it's profundity takes a while to sink in: “It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” Legal Information Random House v. RosettaBooks ten years later from rosettabooks.com. Retrieved 2012-05-22

Needless to say, I do not agree with this view, although Allen also tries to give a positive note to his assessment by suggesting that in this novel Vonnegut lays the foundations for his later work. 27 I shall therefore try to show where in my view the main achievement of The Sirens of Titan lies and it what way it is seminal for Vonnegut's later work. Rented a tent, a tent, a tent; Rented a tent, a tent, a tent. Rented a tent! Rented a tent! Rented a, rented a tent.” The Sirens of Titan is the 5th novel I’ve read by Kurt Vonnegut so you can say I am a fan. While it does not compare with Slaughterhouse-five and the Cat’s Cradle it was still good and I enjoyed returning to the humour the absurdity that I love. If you are interested to read Vonnegut I would not recommend starting this one. Any of the two that I mentioned above are a better choice.

Without leaking too many details regarding the myriad of uncut gems that Vonnegut includes in this story, I do want to point out a few of my favorites. These unhappy agents found what had already been found in abundance on Earth – a nightmare of meaninglessness without end. The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death.Throw the Dog a Bone: After everything he goes through (see Trauma Conga Line, below), Malachi gets thrown one in the end as his death triggers a Dying Dream wherein his dead best friend comes down from Heaven to fetch him, and tells him that actually, yes - someone up there does like him! In this way, Malachi's voyage through the solar system appears as an allegory on contemporary man's psychical condition and the steps he would have to take to change it. Most importantly, he would have to break through his egotistical isolation which is caused by his preoccupation with the self. Significantly, the name "Malachi Constant" translates as "faithful messenger", but it is not "a first-class message from God to someone equally distinguished" as Malachi hopes, that he is made to carry, but rather a message that "Unk" sends to himself on Mars in a desperate bid to maintain his identity. 22 Ironically, he is not able to recognise it for what it is. The most he or anyone can aspire to achieve in the way of personal communication is apparently on the level of the harmoniums' "Here I am " - "So glad you are" or Salo's "Greetings". 23