Marek Vit's Kurt Vonnegut Corner
Some comments on The Sirens of Titan
Marek Vit


	"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  to rid  himself of  his youthful
	notions  if  romanticism  and  liberalism,  to  acquire
	a context for Rumfoord's theory of time, and to isolate
	and to define the aesthetic problem raised by Dresden."
	(Somer)

     Vonnegut   writes  about   the  Martian   Army  planning  an
unsuccesful attack on Earth, probably thinking about the years he
spent in  army himself. He  describes the soldiers  as unthinking
puppets controlled by radio. In order to implant the antenna into
a soldier's  brain, his  head must  be shaved.  He also  mentions
several  individuals, who  did everything  voluntarily. Unk's son
also adds to this image of a  soldier: when you are 14 years old,
they  shave  your  head  and  you  become  a man. This Vonnegut's
description of a soldier is highly ironic.
     Another  important   thing  in  The   Sirens  of  Titan   is
Vonnegut's image  of God and various  religions. He describes how
people blindly  and hungrily follow  Gods. I think  that Vonnegut
presented a  wonderful example of this  in the part when  Unk and
Boaz were stranded on Mercury.

	     "Boaz's  home  vault  had  a  boor  on it, a round
	boulder with which he could plug the vault's mouth. The
	door was necessary, since Boaz  was God Almighty to the
	harmoniums. They could locate him by his heart beat.
	     "Had he  slept with his  door open, he  would have
	awakened  to find  himself pinned  down by  hundreds of
	thousands of  his admirers. They would  have let him up
	only when his heart stopped beating." (Vonnegut:142)

     Vonegut creates  a new kind  of religion, the  Church of God
Utterly  Indifferent. In  this  concept  he illustrates  that God
Almighty  doesn't  care  about  his  creations  (an idea that was
probably  conceived by  Dresden as  well). That's  why people can
stop  blaming everything  that happens  to them,  bad or good, on
God. This is also what circumscribes the main theme of the novel.

	     "While  an  indifferent  universe  may  confirm no
	purpose in  our existence, we can  give meaning to life
	by the way we lead it." (Reed:86)

     Vonnegut hints at  this by the first sentence  of the novel:
"Everyone  now  knows  how  to  find  the  meaning of life within
himself." (Vonnegut:7) However, it becomes more clear at the end,
when Unk is  finally on Titan with Rumfoord,  Bea, their son, and
Salo  the Tralfamadorian.  It turns  out that  the whole point of
human  civilization on  Earth was   to deliver  a spare  part for
Salo's  space  ship  and  that  the  whole  point of Salo's space
wandering was  to deliver a message  saying only, "Greetings!" to
a distant world.

	     "The point, as it always is when Vonnegut takes us
	to another  planet, is to  give us some  perspective on
	man's pride, so that we  can quit worrying about how we
	fit into cosmic purpose and start worrying about how we
	can be kind to each other." (Olderman)


References:

Olderman, Raymond  M. "Out of the  Waste Land and into  the Fire:
Catalysm  or the  Cosmic Tool"  in his  Beyond the  Waste Land: A
Study  of  the  American  Novel  in  the  Nineteen-Sixties,  Yale
University Press, 1973

Reed, Peter J.  Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Warner Paperback Library, 1972

Somer, John  "Geodesic Vonnegut; or, If  Buckminster Fuller Wrote
Novels,"  in the  Vonnegut Statement,  ed. Jerome  Klinkowitz and
John Sommer, Dell-Delta, 1973

Vonnegut,  Kurt Jr.  The Sirens  of Titan  Coronet Books: London,
1975




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Last modified: March 11, 2002
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