Sirens of Titans
I chose to do the alternative reading this
week and read Sirens of Titan by Kurt
Vonnegut. I completed the novel and it was the classic Vonnegut style I was
expecting. The novel throws logical sciences out the window and brings
reasoning for human life to question and on some level, as reading it does
become impossible to complete the novel without a pause for introspection. An anecdote that could be imbibed from this
novel is to question everything. We
as humans are mere specks. It would be ignorant to believe that there is not
life elsewhere in the vastness of space.
In the novel, you begin the story with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the 22nd century continuing on in his father’s good fortune. He sets forth on a excursion to Earth and Mars preparing for interplanetary war with a Martian survivor, then travels to Mercury where is to be punished for his transgressions. He is then exiled to Titan where meets Winston Rumfoord, the man responsible for Constant’s terrible fortune. Rumfoord is a rich space explorer who, with his dog became trapped in the chrono-synclastic infundibulum (which I did not understand part very much because it was imaginary science) but it is where “different kinds of truths fit together.” This made Rumfoord aware of the past and future establishing the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. It also only gave him the ability to materialize on certain planets at certain times as he travels through the chrono-synclastic infundibulum spiral, which essentially created the interplanetary war and the turn of events that follow. He then meets the robot, Salo from Tralfamadore. Salo’s spaceship is broken and needs a replacement part to get it working. Fortunately, it runs on the UWTB (Universal Will to Become), which creates matter out of nothingness. The UWTB originally created the universe and the Tralfamadorians manipulate human history so that they will prosper and evolve to create this missing part for their ship. In the end, Constant brings Salo the missing part and eventually Salo returns Constant to Earth where he dies and has a pleasant hallucination implanted in his mind by Salo.
I found the write style of the book to be very loose and casual. This actually helped when the actual content of the book became confusing and all the made-up science became all too much for my literal brain to handle. If the Tralfamadorians controlled the UWTB, why couldn’t they create the part they were missing? Why manipulate the course of human history for them to create the part? I had more questions than answers when it came to this novel and found it confusing at times, but found it over all very good! Classic Vonnegut.
In the novel, you begin the story with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the 22nd century continuing on in his father’s good fortune. He sets forth on a excursion to Earth and Mars preparing for interplanetary war with a Martian survivor, then travels to Mercury where is to be punished for his transgressions. He is then exiled to Titan where meets Winston Rumfoord, the man responsible for Constant’s terrible fortune. Rumfoord is a rich space explorer who, with his dog became trapped in the chrono-synclastic infundibulum (which I did not understand part very much because it was imaginary science) but it is where “different kinds of truths fit together.” This made Rumfoord aware of the past and future establishing the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. It also only gave him the ability to materialize on certain planets at certain times as he travels through the chrono-synclastic infundibulum spiral, which essentially created the interplanetary war and the turn of events that follow. He then meets the robot, Salo from Tralfamadore. Salo’s spaceship is broken and needs a replacement part to get it working. Fortunately, it runs on the UWTB (Universal Will to Become), which creates matter out of nothingness. The UWTB originally created the universe and the Tralfamadorians manipulate human history so that they will prosper and evolve to create this missing part for their ship. In the end, Constant brings Salo the missing part and eventually Salo returns Constant to Earth where he dies and has a pleasant hallucination implanted in his mind by Salo.
I found the write style of the book to be very loose and casual. This actually helped when the actual content of the book became confusing and all the made-up science became all too much for my literal brain to handle. If the Tralfamadorians controlled the UWTB, why couldn’t they create the part they were missing? Why manipulate the course of human history for them to create the part? I had more questions than answers when it came to this novel and found it confusing at times, but found it over all very good! Classic Vonnegut.
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