Having read almost half of Vonnegut's work, I would have to say this novel is in his top two. I knew virtually nothing about "The Sirens of Titan" when I started it, and I was enthralled by the journey that it took me on. This early work of Vonnegut's, I believe it was his second published novel, plays fast and loose with the themes that would dominate his career: free will, the role/idea of God in a universe that does not make sense, uses of war, and (I think most profoundly) friendship.
"The Sirens of Titan" can be read on a multitude of levels, but I believe at its heart it is about religion, and the destructive and positive powers it can hold over a society. Almost every element of this text comes back to that idea, and Vonnegut does not dare to give a definitive answer. That is the reader's role! While probing these essential questions of humanity Vonnegut riffs on predestination and friendship in a manner that I think is unique, simple, and quite profound.
One conspicuous difference between this early work and later texts is the absence of an authorial persona which is a device that would come to play such an important role in subsequent Vonnegut books. Although I like the authorial intrusion in most of Vonnegut's works it was an excellent idea to not use it here. The story stands on its own, you enter its world completely, and as a result you can interact with its ideas without interference. It reads more like an uninterrupted novel than many other Vonnegut texts.
I also greatly enjoyed Vonnegut's exploration of friendship and the impact it has on the value of human life. Ironically, this theme was most touchingly explored through the character of a machine named Salo. I don't want to give away plot points, but I have rarely read a text that made me value companionship and people that are dear to me so much. The novel's ending (I won't spoil it) also reinforces to a huge degree this theme.
Speaking of the text's ending, it floored me. I was wowed by it, and when I mulled it over in the following days it got to me even more. You will not be disappointed by it.
Religion could be a completely manmade construct with no inherent value, or it may be the tool with which we create hope for ourselves in this unknowable universe we inhabit. Vonnegut does not pretend to know the answer, and I don't either. One thing this text does stress however is that if we value our shared humanity, and we value companionship and love, regardless of how the journey ends at least it will have been worthwhile.

I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.

All the hallmarks of Vonnegut’s signature style are on full display and it’s only his second book. Satirizing the human race’s search for the meaning of life,religion, love, friendship and other trivia with lots of repetition and absurdist/pessimistic philosophy. It’s even got a tralfalmadorian in it (sadly no Kilgore trout) this is on par with his best work, if you like his on the nose style you’ll love this.

❤️

"Твърде много време трябваше да мине, за да разберем, че смисълът на човешкия живот, без значение кой го контролира, е да се обича някой, който може да бъде обичан."

Смело мога да кажа, че Сирените е може би най-любимата ми книга, от прочетените ми романи на Вонегът. Космическа одисея, загатваща образи от бъдещите му романи.
"Сирените от Титан" показва съчуствието на Вонегът към безмислостните приумици на късмета и каквото-там-има-да-се-случва, иронията към упоритостта на човешката природа сам да избираш съдбата си, вечните стремежи към нещо по-голямо и поредната безумна и безмислена война. Всъщност, всичко голямо изглежда без смисъл в края, освен възможнстта да преоткриеш радостта в малките прозаични неща.
Но това все пак е Вонегът и хуморът и лекотата на писане оформят тази история за безмилостната съдба, която се оказва нещо много по-абсурдно.
Може би най-човечната книга на Вонегът, емпатията му към персонажите, които са просто шахматни фигури, я усетих много по-осезаемо.
Много, много ми хареса.

Only a few pages into this Sci Fi satire is an excerpt from the fourteenth edition of A Child’s Cyclopedia of Wonders and Things to Do. Was Douglas Adams influenced by Kurt Vonnegut Jr I asked myself? A very quick internet search said yes, with specific reference to this specific title. Well done Kurt, I thought to myself. In my a long time ago readings of both authors, I had never noticed. But then my youthful readings may have been wasted on me in some cases. And though I did not read this one in my youth, I know it would have been “just” a Sci Fi read with little understanding of its concepts.

As a now ancient person this was for me this was a fantastic read that I took as comment on the lack of an interventionist god, the intervention of others in one’s life on the other hand? There is plenty of that.

The plot I found is rather convoluted but came together beautifully at the end. The point of the story simplistically is that a super-rich man thanks the lord above for his constant luck but gets his comeuppance, (or does he?) by an all-knowing, of both the past, present and future, time traveller stuck in an odd time loop. It makes for a wonderful satire on why we might do what we do and might think what we think.

At least I think that is what it is all about haa haa!

A bit like Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s first book, the technical ideas are of their times but so what. Conceptually, this is great stuff. As to the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent? Brilliant.

My 2nd read in my attempt to read Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s oeuvre from first to last.
My review of number 1 here. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Onwards to the next.

Eh. Vonnegut thinks life is a bitch, and so has bitch-slapped some odd characters. Neither absurd nor insightful enough to be great. Indeed, there's something lazy about this book. And I can't be bothered to pin it down.

Since discovering that I love me some Vonnegut a few years ago after a humorless eighth-grade English teacher nearly kept me from ever giving him another go, I've read a not immediately dismissive number of his works. And they've all left me in various degrees of speechless. It can't be helped. He delights me in the way that only a favorite writer can.

Reading Vonnegut makes me realize that there's nothing I can say that he hadn't already said better and more cleverly. And that's not really a bad thing because he made some idea I so fundamentally agree with sound so good that other people have to agree with him and, therefore, also me. And knowing that continues to make me feel a little better about the world.

експрес-відгук на тг каналі sepagraf

“. . . but the Universe is an awfully big place. There is room enough for an awful lot of people to be right about things and still not agree.”

We all love to believe that we have absolute free will over our lives and are in full control of our destiny, and that notion gives our lives meaning and empowers us to weather the unpredictable storms of life. n  But what if free will is nothing but an illusion, and what if the entire purpose of our lives is to be chess pieces in someone else's agenda?n Kurt Vonnegut Jr. explores this notion through this absurdist work of fiction, when a disgraced formerly privileged man named Malachi Constant is sent on a mission to Mars alongside a beautiful woman he could only dream of being with. There is a catch, however, and that catch is quite big.

The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody. Thank you for using me, even though I didn't want to be used by anybody.

This work of comedic sci-fi humorously explores the concept of free will and our role in the grand scheme of things, when a series of very weird and seemingly inexplicable events take our main character all the way to Mars to participate in an invasion on earth orchestrated by an elusive mastermind. Throughout this work, our main character has no idea why he is doing what he does, and is just moving with the waves, doing what he is expected to be doing. This series of misadventures take him from Earth to Mars, from Mars to Mercury, from Mercury back to Earth, and from Earth to one of Saturn's moons.

"The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death."

When we finally reach the final destination, we get an explanation of the meaning behind most of the events that have taken place on Earth, ultimately leading to the invasion that is discussed in this novel, and that explanation, if anything, n   is a giant slap in the face. n The humour in this book is dry and somewhat subtle, with absurd events taking place that would make a person's jaw drop and snicker not only at the events themselves but at the muted reaction of the characters in the story, who just accept what "life" seems to throw at them with a sense of defeated resignation. In an albeit exaggerated way, this seems to mirror our state of mind as human beings, always seeming to follow forces bigger than us, whether it is more powerful people, bigger political agendas, and who knows what other grand scheme we as a humanity are not aware of.

“. . . but the Universe is an awfully big place. There is room enough for an awful lot of people to be right about things and still not agree.”

If you're into dry humour and witty satire, I recommend reading this book. I was very entertained most of the time, and the ending which I found to be hilarious as well as touching made this a memorable reading experience.

n  4 stars!n

“Mankind flung its advance agents ever outward, ever outward. Eventually it flung them out into space, into the colorless, tasteless, weightless sea of outwardness without end.

It flung them like stones.”

3RD READ-THROUGH 4/18/17: Since I was about 19, I’ve been referring to this novel as my “favorite book.” I don’t know if *quite* holds that distinction still, having read a lot more in the succeeding 15 years, but it is STILL, without question one of the best! This book might be the “plottiest” of all of Vonnegut’s novels, while I enjoy the voice later Vonnegut much more (The Sirens of Titan was only his second book) the ideas presented here are deep and varied, lying what is obviously the philosophical and spiritual groundwork for a lifetime of work to still come. This book still hits, and it hits HARD. If you haven’t read this and don’t rectify that immediately, then I don’t think we can be friends. 5 GIGANTIC STARS!

This is my favorite Vonnegut book, and I've read them all, except for one, which I am afraid to read because he is dead now and once I read that last book there won't be any more to read and my life will be meaningless.

Vonnegut was constantly developing his deterministic views--his leaning toward eternal recurrence. But when reading one of his novels one must always remember his quote: "We are here on Earth to fart around."

Amidst his whimsy he manages to be about as imaginative as any writer you might read. He also is able, during the course of humorous and outlandish scenes and the overall narrative, to ponder life's most burning questions. And though he never provides solid answers (who ever has?), he does flirt with some profound revelations.

One particular alien he dreams up feeds on sound vibrations and might just squirm to death in rapture if it gets too close to some nice chamber music. Humans, for all our ostensible imagination, are not too inventive. The aliens we create in our little brains are usually humanoids with the same five senses as our own, just with bigger heads and smaller bodies. Vonnegut is far too clever for this type of humdrum depiction.

The plot itself, as with most of the author's tales, is secondary to the style, theme, and substance.

Vonnegut was singular. It is a good thing that he was also prolific.

This is Vonnegut at his best. Ever since reading Slaughterhouse-Five I've been looking for something that could compare to it. While Vonnegut's other books are also great, they didn't combine the same blend of science fiction, humor, and grand moral tale that his masterpiece did. The Sirens of Titan is worthy of being held in the same light and is truly great science fiction. This book makes me remember why I fell in love with Vonnegut in the first place.

'The Sirens of Titan' was written in 1959. I wish I had read it before now, August 2018. I feel like Kurt Vonnegut included in this fictional story every awareness of reality I have gained from my own hard-earned experience in living:

-the social manipulation by all leadership intent on their own ends invisible to the manipulated;
-the complete clarity in seeing the illusions of any and every religion in the world;
-the disparities of social class caused by having money;
-the pointlessness of assuming there is any direction or rules in being alive other than enjoying oneself and one's loved ones.

Reading this fun science-fiction satire was not just enjoyable, it was entirely a grand affirmation that every belief I hold is also shared by others.

Yet in spite of all of the failings and illusions of Humanity I listed above, most of us want to do Good, save people. So, those of us lucky (?!?) to see behind the curtain, or maybe we only believe we are seeing 'The Man' behind the curtain, we allow ourselves to be manipulated to accomplish our own goals of doing Good. Hopefully.

However, there is, perhaps, an existential flaw in all of these human suppositions, a good reason for having much angst about the lives of human beings and our world. What if human lives are determined by only Fate and not Free Will, or not a mix of the two? And what if Religion, Politics, Governance, Wars, Social Partnerships, Wealth, Technological Progress, the ups and downs of individual lives - are not all simply tools for manipulation by manipulators, but all are preordained acts having already occurred in a finished Timeline.  And maybe also caused by the superior Time technology of hidden manipulators from space, of whom we are completely unaware, for their own selfish motivations and detrimental to us.

Maybe the future has happened already because it is how the Universe works and we only believe the future hasn't happened yet. Everything functions like the pages in a book; history was no accident of events. Does it make you feel better if your Timeline is preordained and your every action is actually formed from living as if inside an unabridged non-fiction book? After all, this is one of the main teachings of most Religions, however illogically and confusingly it is fitted into the concept of commiting Sin. Are we actually programmed robots living in an illusion of choices? Are we actually manipulated by gods like chess pieces for their own edification and satisfaction? The story of Job indicates this is the Answer to all of our questions, after all.

This is the supposition Vonnegut satirically explores in 'The Sirens of Titan'. At least, I think so, gentle reader. But of course, it isn't spelled out. If you read this novel, and I recommend you do so, you very likely may disagree with me.

About me: Vonnegut is my guru. In my opinion, there is almost no intellectual space between what Vonnegut thought, believed and perceived about Life, Humanity, Religion, Sociology, History, and my thinking. At least, what I think Vonnegut thought.

: )



A link to Wikipedia about the author Kurt Vonnegut:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_...



What are Sirens?

"In Greek mythology, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirēn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirēnes) were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island."

"Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with large women's heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps. The tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda says that from their chests up, Sirens had the form of sparrows, and below they were women or, alternatively, that they were little birds with women's faces. Birds were chosen because of their beautiful voices. Later Sirens were sometimes depicted as beautiful women, whose bodies, not only their voices, are seductive."

A link to the Wikipedia page about sirens:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren...

Those of you who have read the book will understand the small satirical jab the author took at where the character Chrono ends up.



As for the symbolic satire behind the name of the character of Malachi Constant, the unfortunate plaything of Winston Niles Rumfoord:

Malachi means “messenger of YHWH”. YHWH is the word for the Jewish god. I suggest this is a major clue behind the story of being about religious faith along with other things. Kurt Vonnegut was an atheist, after all.

From Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi:

“The Prophet Malachi...was the writer of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Neviim (prophets) section in the Hebrew Bible...

The social conditions portrayed appear to be those of the period of the Restoration. More specifically, Malachi probably lived and labored during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. The abuses which Malachi mentions in his writings correspond so exactly with those which Nehemiah found on his 2nd visit to Jerusalem in 432 BCE (Nehemiah 13:7) that it seems reasonably certain that he prophesied concurrently with Nehemiah or shortly after.

According to Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, ""Malachi describes a priesthood that is forgetful of its duties, a Temple that is underfunded because the people have lost interest in it, and a society in which Jewish men divorce their Jewish wives to marry out of the faith."”

Rumfoord, waveform man, a man living out a life and also a victim of partially understood newly discovered aspects of amazing and cool Science Discoveries, which appeared to give hope for the creation of a better and happier (even if it must be a manipulated) society, later was to understand some unsettling things about, well, I must leave that as a surprise!

Vonnegut said in an interview the character of Rumfoord was a symbolic one of Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States during the Great Depression and World War II.

In my opinion Kurt Vonnegut is a smart perceptive author who skewered and satirized Humanity through showing us who we are in fictional and allegorical stories, and our persistent illusions to this day, and how sad that is we are like we are.