The Sirens of Titan :: Sirens of Titan Essays

The Sirens of TitanM arek VitIt took us that long to realize that a purpose of compassionate life, no matter who is controlling it, is to lovewhoever is around to be loved. (Vonnegut220) The Sirens of Titan is Kurt Vonneguts second novel. He haswritten it in 1959, seven years after his front Player Piano.It has been described as a pure science fiction novel and, afteronly one reading, it really can be considered to be one. Theintricate plot and fascinating detail may obscure the seriousintent of the novel. If compared to other novels by this author,it makes much smoother reading because there are much fewersubplots, digressions and simultaneous developments. Thestoryline of Sirens of Titan is much more straightforward than inthe other devises (e.g. Slaughterhouse-Five, Galapagos, HocusPocus, Breakfast of Champions etc.) The Sirens of Titan, for all its wonderings,futurity and use up with larger, abstract questions,transmits a greater sense of direction andconcreteness. Rather surprising, too, is the fact thatthe novel with its science fiction orientation, withits robots and near-robot humans, and with its severalcentral characters who are intentionally presented asbeing rather cold-hearted, generates more human warmththan Player Piano which is directly concerned with theagonies of exploring and following conscience, emotionand love. Three possible explanations for thisfenomenon present themselves first, Vonneguts attainmenthas grown in the intervening seven years second, thescience fiction mode affords the author moredetachment, and he is less didactic in this workthird, the positive forces, particularly love, carrymore weight. (Reed66) The Sirens of Titan has been, as many other Vonneguts books,influenced by his experiences from World War Two (TheFire-bombing of Dresden was a benefit vindicatory to one man, to KurtVonnegut. Over the years, he got five dollars for each corpse, as