Sirens Of Titen
Sirens Of Titen"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." (Vonnegut:220)
The Sirens of Titan is Kurt Vonnegut's second novel. He has
written it in 1959, seven years after his previous Player Piano.
It has been described as a pure science fiction novel and, after
only one reading, it really can be considered to be one. The
intricate plot and fascinating detail may obscure the serious
intent of the novel. If compared to other novels by this author,
it makes much smoother reading because there are much fewer
subplots, digressions and simultaneous developments. The
storyline of Sirens of Titan is much more straightforward than in
the other works (e.g. Slaughterhouse-Five, Galapagos, Hocus
Pocus, Breakfast of Champions etc.)
"The Sirens of Titan, for all its wonderings,
futurity and concern with larger, abstract questions,
transmits a greater sense of direction and
concreteness. Rather surprising, too, is the fact that
the novel with its science fiction orientation, with
its robots and near-robot humans, and with its several
central characters who are intentionally presented as
being rather cold-hearted, generates more human warmth
than Player Piano which is directly concerned with the
agonies of exploring and following conscience, emotion
and love. Three possible explanations for this
fenomenon present themselves: first, Vonnegut's skill
has grown in the intervening seven years; second, the
science fiction mode affords the author more
detachment, and he is less didactic in this work;
third, the positive forces, particularly love, carry
more weight." (Reed:66)
The Sirens of Titan has been, as many other Vonnegut's books,
influenced by his experiences from World War Two (The
Fire-bombing of Dresden was a benefit just to one man, to Kurt
Vonnegut. Over the years, he got five dollars for each corpse, as
he himself says.) The war is not the novel's primary target, yet
it has a great effect on it.
"In this, his second novel, Vonnegut discovered an
answer to Dresden, but he did not yet know how to apply
it. Winston Niles Rumfoord's discovery that 'everything
that ever has been always will be, and everything that
ever will be always has been' (Vonnegut:19-20) lies
inert in the novel, separate from its aesthetic
resolution. In order to exorcise Dresden with this new
vision, Vonnegut had...
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