Call number
Genres
Publication
Dell, 1973, c1959
Pages
319
Description
Malachi Constant, "the richest man in America," gives up his indulgent lifestyle to follow an urgent calling to probe the depths of space. He participates in a Martian invasion of Earth, mates with the wife of an astronaut adrift on the tides of time, and follows the lure of the "Sirens of Titan."
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1960)
Seiun Award (Nominee — 1973)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1959-10
Physical description
319 p.; 7.1 inches
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
With an author like Vonnegut, it’s a bit daunting to know where to start. You could choose the most popular book, or the first book he published (which is often the same) or the one that won awards. I did none of those things and in some ways I wish I had. Reading The Sirens of Titan broke my
For 30 years...since I was a teenager, I have loved The Hitchhikers Guide series. Maybe not all of them equally, but they are a touchstone for me. Books that made me think on the ridiculousness of humanity. Our fixation with our own importance. Our backward approach to many ideas, situations and occurrences. The pure silliness he injects into the most serious thing. The wordplay. The funny names of things. All of it so engaging and enlightening that I thought it original. Alas, it isn’t.
Most of it originated with Vonnegut and this book. So much so that I stopped reading it for itself and read it looking for parallels to Hitchhikers. There were many. It made it very difficult to read for the story itself. To wit -
Salo’s ship is powered by UWTB, the Universal Will to Become. This reminds me of the Infinite Improbability Drive. Or an SEP field. There’s even a song about it like the one sung about the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation’s teleportation device.
Pan-Galactic Space Service. They probably drink Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters.
The Imperial Commandos reminded me of the Robots of Krikkit.
The seemingly willful, but emotional nature of the Martian vehicles is just like the computer on The Heart of Gold and the Happy Vertical People Transporters who need therapy because they can see into the future.
The meaning of Stonehenge in Trafalmadorian, when viewed from above, is: “Replacement part being rushed with all possible speed.” So like the sign that used to read Share and Enjoy, the motto of the Complaints Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, that sank into the ground and now reads in the local dialect “Go Stick Your Head in a Pig.” Well, maybe not such a great parallel, but if you count the artificially constructed earth, the Magratheans and Slartibartfast...well, you get the idea.
Then there’s Rumfoord himself who struck me as a combination of Zaphod and the man in the shack who secretly rules the Universe. Rumfoord had a dog, the man who rules the Universe a cat.
There are more, but I won’t bore you with all of them. You get the drift.
Stylistically, Vonnegut doesn’t go over the top with language or down ratholes of tangents the way Adams does, so the story is much tighter. Also, I like the spare, no the pared-down way Vonnegut delivers the story. There isn’t a whole lot of inside information about every minute and every facet of what happened to a person from situation A to situation B. Sometimes there isn’t a need and Vonnegut catapults you right into what matters. He does not digress. Even when it seems he does, it isn’t. What he’s telling you is important. And damn he could write. Well, duh, right, but here are some highlights -
“He was an anarchist, though he never got into any trouble about it, except with his wife.” p. 68
“It was a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.” p. 75
“The only thing anybody could think of to do with them was to housebreak them, teach them basic vocabulary of a thousand words, and give them jobs in military or industrial public relations.” p. 127
“The ball is no more lively than a ten-gallon hat filled with rain water.” p. 138
I also think that Vonnegut was more disturbed by capitalism and religion than Adams was and with good reason. His experiences in Dresden during WWII were horrendous and that obviously shaped his world view. Including his opinion of the military and its mindless obedience.
Like Adams does in later years, Vonnegut fleshes out his universe with legends and stories of other planets. I especially liked the one about Tralfamadore and why they were all machines and that organic life had crushed itself out, the machines themselves delivering the coup de grace. It’s absolutely lovely and clever. In it I see the origins of Deep Thought, the Ultimate Question, 42, the Golgafrinchans and Krikkit. Mad genius.
I especially thought his idea of equality brought on by this religion based on God the Indifferent was genius. So human to pervert the natural and try to control the uncontrollable. The handicapping! OMG. I think he explores this idea much further in another book, but this was absolutely wonderful. How silly we are.
“No one could then reproach you for taking advantage of the random ways of luck.” Oh how Malachi Constant would have cried.
Up to this point in writing this review, I’d had a lot of negative emotion about this book, but strangely now I’ve done the quotes and put my thoughts down, I feel better. Vonnegut was a genius and I’m glad I read this book. I may even read more. I may even read Hitchhiker’s Guide. I hope I get pleasure from both.
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heart and has altered my relationship with another author, this one a favorite. Douglas Adams. For 30 years...since I was a teenager, I have loved The Hitchhikers Guide series. Maybe not all of them equally, but they are a touchstone for me. Books that made me think on the ridiculousness of humanity. Our fixation with our own importance. Our backward approach to many ideas, situations and occurrences. The pure silliness he injects into the most serious thing. The wordplay. The funny names of things. All of it so engaging and enlightening that I thought it original. Alas, it isn’t.
Most of it originated with Vonnegut and this book. So much so that I stopped reading it for itself and read it looking for parallels to Hitchhikers. There were many. It made it very difficult to read for the story itself. To wit -
Salo’s ship is powered by UWTB, the Universal Will to Become. This reminds me of the Infinite Improbability Drive. Or an SEP field. There’s even a song about it like the one sung about the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation’s teleportation device.
Pan-Galactic Space Service. They probably drink Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters.
The Imperial Commandos reminded me of the Robots of Krikkit.
The seemingly willful, but emotional nature of the Martian vehicles is just like the computer on The Heart of Gold and the Happy Vertical People Transporters who need therapy because they can see into the future.
The meaning of Stonehenge in Trafalmadorian, when viewed from above, is: “Replacement part being rushed with all possible speed.” So like the sign that used to read Share and Enjoy, the motto of the Complaints Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, that sank into the ground and now reads in the local dialect “Go Stick Your Head in a Pig.” Well, maybe not such a great parallel, but if you count the artificially constructed earth, the Magratheans and Slartibartfast...well, you get the idea.
Then there’s Rumfoord himself who struck me as a combination of Zaphod and the man in the shack who secretly rules the Universe. Rumfoord had a dog, the man who rules the Universe a cat.
There are more, but I won’t bore you with all of them. You get the drift.
Stylistically, Vonnegut doesn’t go over the top with language or down ratholes of tangents the way Adams does, so the story is much tighter. Also, I like the spare, no the pared-down way Vonnegut delivers the story. There isn’t a whole lot of inside information about every minute and every facet of what happened to a person from situation A to situation B. Sometimes there isn’t a need and Vonnegut catapults you right into what matters. He does not digress. Even when it seems he does, it isn’t. What he’s telling you is important. And damn he could write. Well, duh, right, but here are some highlights -
“He was an anarchist, though he never got into any trouble about it, except with his wife.” p. 68
“It was a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.” p. 75
“The only thing anybody could think of to do with them was to housebreak them, teach them basic vocabulary of a thousand words, and give them jobs in military or industrial public relations.” p. 127
“The ball is no more lively than a ten-gallon hat filled with rain water.” p. 138
I also think that Vonnegut was more disturbed by capitalism and religion than Adams was and with good reason. His experiences in Dresden during WWII were horrendous and that obviously shaped his world view. Including his opinion of the military and its mindless obedience.
Like Adams does in later years, Vonnegut fleshes out his universe with legends and stories of other planets. I especially liked the one about Tralfamadore and why they were all machines and that organic life had crushed itself out, the machines themselves delivering the coup de grace. It’s absolutely lovely and clever. In it I see the origins of Deep Thought, the Ultimate Question, 42, the Golgafrinchans and Krikkit. Mad genius.
I especially thought his idea of equality brought on by this religion based on God the Indifferent was genius. So human to pervert the natural and try to control the uncontrollable. The handicapping! OMG. I think he explores this idea much further in another book, but this was absolutely wonderful. How silly we are.
“No one could then reproach you for taking advantage of the random ways of luck.” Oh how Malachi Constant would have cried.
Up to this point in writing this review, I’d had a lot of negative emotion about this book, but strangely now I’ve done the quotes and put my thoughts down, I feel better. Vonnegut was a genius and I’m glad I read this book. I may even read more. I may even read Hitchhiker’s Guide. I hope I get pleasure from both.
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LibraryThing member CBJames
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. begs the question of just how will Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. be remembered. In fact, will he be remembered at all? I found the book to be well in step with his early novels. There is a time travelling man and dog who appear regularly appear on Earth wondering
It's all in good fun with a dash or two of metaphysics thrown in. Maybe a splash of social criticism here and there for good measure. I enjoyed it, but I also found it very 60's. I've been reading Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. most of my life, probably for the last 30 years. Now that I've finished this one, I think I've read all of his published work, so you can count me as a fan. But I wonder if anyone will be reading him two or three generations from now. If they are, I suspect they'll be reading Slaughterhouse Five. Maybe a few graduate students will still be reading the rest of his novels, but I'm not sure.
It feels natural to wonder about this regarding Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. since so many of his books, The Sirens of Titan included, deal with the issue of time and the notion that all time exists simultaneously. Everything that will happen has already happened. The time travelling man and dog in The Sirens of Titan are like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five, unstuck in time and space. They travel to the future and back, from planet to planet, experiencing it all as happening at once. Billy Pilgrim could choose which parts of his life he could visit. I hope Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. can, too. That seems like a fitting heaven for him, a paradise he might want to visit now and then. Actually, it doesn't sound that bad to me, either.
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about the house where the man's disgruntled wife spends her days fighting off tourists and religious fanatics who want to see the space man. There is the richest man in the world who loses his fortune and finds himself on a rocket ship bound for Jupiter. There is an alien from Tralfamador, marooned on Titan, one of Jupiter's moon's, waiting through the centuries for the replacement part his rocket needs to arrive. And there is the suicidal Martian invasion of Earth that ends in the creation of a new religion, The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent.It's all in good fun with a dash or two of metaphysics thrown in. Maybe a splash of social criticism here and there for good measure. I enjoyed it, but I also found it very 60's. I've been reading Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. most of my life, probably for the last 30 years. Now that I've finished this one, I think I've read all of his published work, so you can count me as a fan. But I wonder if anyone will be reading him two or three generations from now. If they are, I suspect they'll be reading Slaughterhouse Five. Maybe a few graduate students will still be reading the rest of his novels, but I'm not sure.
It feels natural to wonder about this regarding Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. since so many of his books, The Sirens of Titan included, deal with the issue of time and the notion that all time exists simultaneously. Everything that will happen has already happened. The time travelling man and dog in The Sirens of Titan are like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five, unstuck in time and space. They travel to the future and back, from planet to planet, experiencing it all as happening at once. Billy Pilgrim could choose which parts of his life he could visit. I hope Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. can, too. That seems like a fitting heaven for him, a paradise he might want to visit now and then. Actually, it doesn't sound that bad to me, either.
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LibraryThing member fuzzy_patters
I have read a ton of Vonnegut. In fact, there isn't much of his that I haven't read. I'm not sure why I was so late reading this one, but it immediately became one of my favorites. It has all of the whimsy and satire of Vonnegut along with the biting social commentary that makes him great. It even
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includes a Tralfamadorian, which harkens to Slaughterhouse Five, perhaps his best work. Unfortunately, Kilgore Trout doesn't make an appearance, but I can forgive Vonnegut for that. Overall, I loved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member scottcholstad
Aside from perhaps some of the existential novels I read in college which I really enjoyed as I felt as I could really relate to them, Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan has to be one of the saddest novels I have ever read. I came close to crying several times while reading through it. It’s very,
The book is about two main characters -- Winston Niles Rumsfoord and Malachi Constant. Rumsfoord and his dog took a spaceship out to explore the galaxy and became “chrono-synclastic-infundibulated,” which means they became scattered in time and space and materialize throughout both at various points in time, witnessing the past and future. He’s viewed as a type of prophet by the masses and his materializations are looked forward to by all. Constant is the world’s richest man, having inherited a good bit of his billions from his father and having earned the rest through an odd investment scheme his father invented. He is lazy and decadent and a bit of a Hollywood playboy. This book is about their lives and how they intertwine, as well as Rumsfoord’s wife, Beatrice.
In my opinion, Rumsfoord takes on the role of Satan in this novel. He uses and abuses, tortures and slaughters, destroys and deceives. He’s a ruthless bastard and I grew to hate his guts. Constant comes to be known as Unk while living on Mars as Unk. He loses everything. He can be viewed as the Biblical Job, but without the happy ending. He and Beatrice, who Rumsfoord also attempts to destroy, wind up together ultimately on Titan with a son who is psychotic. There are also aliens, one of whom is pretty cool – Salo, the Tralfamadorian. Turns out the Tralfamadorians have been manipulating humanity for all of our history.
While Vonnegut skewers the military and organized religion, he sets his sights on the notion of God, or a kind, benevolent god. In his view, if there is any god, if he’s not totally cruel, he’s at best a being who doesn’t give a shit about humanity. Ruumsfoord drives that idea home when he creates a world religion he calls The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. The “luckiest” people in the church have to wear heavy weights on their bodies or do something to make themselves suffer in some way.
When Ruumsfoord and Constant first meet, Ruumsfoord tells him that he’s going to go to Mars, Mercury, back to Earth, and ultimately to Titan, and he’s also going to marry Beatrice and have a son with her and he’ll be very, very happy. He’s right about some of it and a lying bastard about some of it. The thing I never figured out was why he decided to pick Constant out to completely destroy. Was it simply because he was the “luckiest” man in the world and Ruumsfoord resented it? Was it really that simple? Is that good motivation? Cause Ruumsfoord went through a hell of a lot of trouble and killed tens of thousands of people just to destroy Constant and Beatrice. It doesn’t make much sense to me. What’s his motivation? Is he just jealous and, if so, why? He’s pretty damn lucky himself. He’s got a huge estate, has the only spaceship in the world, a lovely if cold wife, a good job, lots of money himself. So he decides to pick one man, the luckiest man in the world, to personally destroy just for the hell of it. Sounds like a royally evil bastard to me. This is probably a five star book because it’s so damned original and I did enjoy some of it, but I thought the section about Mars and the Army of Mars was somewhat weak and I really ended up not enjoying the book as much as I thought I would, so I’m giving it four stars. Still, recommended.
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very bleak. Of course, there’s the satire and usual black humor and of course there’s the layers of meaning one can extract from a Vonnegut novel, but just reading it at its base layer, it’s damned cold.The book is about two main characters -- Winston Niles Rumsfoord and Malachi Constant. Rumsfoord and his dog took a spaceship out to explore the galaxy and became “chrono-synclastic-infundibulated,” which means they became scattered in time and space and materialize throughout both at various points in time, witnessing the past and future. He’s viewed as a type of prophet by the masses and his materializations are looked forward to by all. Constant is the world’s richest man, having inherited a good bit of his billions from his father and having earned the rest through an odd investment scheme his father invented. He is lazy and decadent and a bit of a Hollywood playboy. This book is about their lives and how they intertwine, as well as Rumsfoord’s wife, Beatrice.
In my opinion, Rumsfoord takes on the role of Satan in this novel. He uses and abuses, tortures and slaughters, destroys and deceives. He’s a ruthless bastard and I grew to hate his guts. Constant comes to be known as Unk while living on Mars as Unk. He loses everything. He can be viewed as the Biblical Job, but without the happy ending. He and Beatrice, who Rumsfoord also attempts to destroy, wind up together ultimately on Titan with a son who is psychotic. There are also aliens, one of whom is pretty cool – Salo, the Tralfamadorian. Turns out the Tralfamadorians have been manipulating humanity for all of our history.
While Vonnegut skewers the military and organized religion, he sets his sights on the notion of God, or a kind, benevolent god. In his view, if there is any god, if he’s not totally cruel, he’s at best a being who doesn’t give a shit about humanity. Ruumsfoord drives that idea home when he creates a world religion he calls The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. The “luckiest” people in the church have to wear heavy weights on their bodies or do something to make themselves suffer in some way.
When Ruumsfoord and Constant first meet, Ruumsfoord tells him that he’s going to go to Mars, Mercury, back to Earth, and ultimately to Titan, and he’s also going to marry Beatrice and have a son with her and he’ll be very, very happy. He’s right about some of it and a lying bastard about some of it. The thing I never figured out was why he decided to pick Constant out to completely destroy. Was it simply because he was the “luckiest” man in the world and Ruumsfoord resented it? Was it really that simple? Is that good motivation? Cause Ruumsfoord went through a hell of a lot of trouble and killed tens of thousands of people just to destroy Constant and Beatrice. It doesn’t make much sense to me. What’s his motivation? Is he just jealous and, if so, why? He’s pretty damn lucky himself. He’s got a huge estate, has the only spaceship in the world, a lovely if cold wife, a good job, lots of money himself. So he decides to pick one man, the luckiest man in the world, to personally destroy just for the hell of it. Sounds like a royally evil bastard to me. This is probably a five star book because it’s so damned original and I did enjoy some of it, but I thought the section about Mars and the Army of Mars was somewhat weak and I really ended up not enjoying the book as much as I thought I would, so I’m giving it four stars. Still, recommended.
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LibraryThing member salimbol
This was my first experience with Vonnegut, and I'd definitely like to read more, because this was a terribly amusing, expectation-defying book. Which is not to say that it was a comfortable read, and nor was it a laugh-out-loud experience; the author wields humour like a scalpel, and from the
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profound to the mundane, the essential *stupidity* of humankind is sharply, often bleakly, delineated (my god, could this be the novelistic precursor to "The Office"? For me, it engendered the same kind of embarrassed-yet-fascinated squirming...). Show Less
LibraryThing member DLMorrese
Not all fiction ages well, especially science fiction. This one did. There are few obvious tells that it was first published almost 60 years ago. It also has the rare and wonderful combination of absurdity and intelligence that I personally like in speculative fiction, the kind Douglas Adams
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achieved so well in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sirens of Titan doesn't provide quite that level of laugh-out-loud absurdity, but the wit is there, along with some pause-to-think moments about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. I highly recommend this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member weeksj10
It's epic and will blow your mind. If you seek the meaning of life read this book and be enlightened.
LibraryThing member Freddy_24
When I had to choose my free choice novel for my summer reading immediately one author came to mind; Kurt Vonnegut. Having finished Slaughterhouse-Five, which I loved, I knew I had to read another one of his works, so I decided on The Sirens of Titan. Just like when I read Slaughterhouse-Five, The
Vonnegut had an amazing ability to use metaphors and similes to help describe the environment in which the main characters were surrounded by. This was essential because without vivid details the reader would not be able to connect with the characters and understand the situations in which they were placed. The main character, Malachi Constant also known as Unk and the Space Wanderer, travels from Earth, which most readers are familiar with, to Mars and Titan of which I was not familiar with. Through Vonnegut’s vivid details I was able to see the surroundings perfectly. Another major writing technique that Vonnegut used was symbolism. Malachi Constant’s name throughout the book was a symbol itself and in my opinion the most important one. Vonnegut used Constant to mock society and how it was obsessed with material wealth. In the beginning when Malachi Constant is referred to as Constant he exemplifies how society is corrupted by material wealth. Then when Constant is referred to as Unk, Constant exemplifies how material wealth is not a necessity of life or society and that one can lead a productive life without material wealth. However I found that in the beginning when Malachi Constant was referred to as Constant and then when he was referred to as Unk he exemplified two different extremes. Then when Constant was referred to as the Space Wanderer he was the middle and a perfect balance of those two extremes, however one thing was still missing. That final missing piece came when Constant was sent off to the moon Titan with his son, Chrono, and mother of his son Beatrice who was also known as Bee. The final missing piece for Constant was love. At the end of the book Constant finally gained the loved of Beatrice and was once again referred to as Malachi Constant. I believe that this symbolizes how Constant came full circle and in the end he learned and found what was really important, and thus the true meaning of life, in Vonnegut’s opinion.
I enjoyed The Sirens of Titan very much. Kurt Vonnegut still remains as one of my all time favorite American authors. Once again he was able to criticize the flaws of human society and attempt to answer questions deemed unanswerable. What makes him so great is the style in which he did it. He utilized many different writing techniques; he had amazing syntax and diction which molded the surroundings into perfect form for the reader. Overall I would have to say that I enjoyed The Sirens of Titan a little bit more than Slaughterhouse-Five, but both are amazing books.
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Sirens of Titan blew me away. The plot is constantly twisting and turning and Vonnegut’s writing style is simply amazing. Vonnegut utilizes many different writing techniques from symbolism, metaphors, similes, repetition, and foreshadowing. I was constantly motivated to keep on reading because I never knew what exactly was going to happen next. At times one of the characters, Winston Niles Rumfoord who could travel through time and see the future, would give some insight on what was to happen or to come, however the details of how it happened or if it was true was not given and I had to keep reading to find out. I found that over all the story line for The Sirens of Titan was easier to follow then that of Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut had an amazing ability to use metaphors and similes to help describe the environment in which the main characters were surrounded by. This was essential because without vivid details the reader would not be able to connect with the characters and understand the situations in which they were placed. The main character, Malachi Constant also known as Unk and the Space Wanderer, travels from Earth, which most readers are familiar with, to Mars and Titan of which I was not familiar with. Through Vonnegut’s vivid details I was able to see the surroundings perfectly. Another major writing technique that Vonnegut used was symbolism. Malachi Constant’s name throughout the book was a symbol itself and in my opinion the most important one. Vonnegut used Constant to mock society and how it was obsessed with material wealth. In the beginning when Malachi Constant is referred to as Constant he exemplifies how society is corrupted by material wealth. Then when Constant is referred to as Unk, Constant exemplifies how material wealth is not a necessity of life or society and that one can lead a productive life without material wealth. However I found that in the beginning when Malachi Constant was referred to as Constant and then when he was referred to as Unk he exemplified two different extremes. Then when Constant was referred to as the Space Wanderer he was the middle and a perfect balance of those two extremes, however one thing was still missing. That final missing piece came when Constant was sent off to the moon Titan with his son, Chrono, and mother of his son Beatrice who was also known as Bee. The final missing piece for Constant was love. At the end of the book Constant finally gained the loved of Beatrice and was once again referred to as Malachi Constant. I believe that this symbolizes how Constant came full circle and in the end he learned and found what was really important, and thus the true meaning of life, in Vonnegut’s opinion.
I enjoyed The Sirens of Titan very much. Kurt Vonnegut still remains as one of my all time favorite American authors. Once again he was able to criticize the flaws of human society and attempt to answer questions deemed unanswerable. What makes him so great is the style in which he did it. He utilized many different writing techniques; he had amazing syntax and diction which molded the surroundings into perfect form for the reader. Overall I would have to say that I enjoyed The Sirens of Titan a little bit more than Slaughterhouse-Five, but both are amazing books.
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LibraryThing member railarson
I have to admit that the main reason I was aware of Vonnegut’s second novel, written in 1959 right after the launch of the space age, was the trivia night nugget that Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead owned the movie rights for years and had actually worked up a script with SNL alum Tom Davis.
Vonnegut sends up the whims of capitalism with the main character Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. Constant is a playboy/bon vivant who, for reasons to be revealed, was born with the luck to maintain his lifestyle with very little effort on his part. At the beginning of the novel, he is summoned to the mansion of Winston Niles Rumfoord, the first man to fly a private rocket to Mars. Rumfoord is also, or so it’s understood, one of the last—having unwittingly flown into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, which effectively spread his (and his dog’s) existence throughout sort of a wormhole between the Sun and Betelgeuse. (Now you can start to imagine the types of conversations Garcia and Davis must have had.)
When Earth happens to transect the glitch, once every 59 days, Rumfoord and his dog materialize at the mansion for a short period of time where he alienates his wife, predicts the future (since he happens to actually be everywhere and when), and generally makes everyone uncomfortable. Vonnegut’s description of the first meeting of the two men is a good example of his wonderful use of language in this novel: “Winston Niles Rumfoord’s smile and handshake dismantled Constant’s high opinion of himself as efficiently as carnival roustabouts might dismantle a Ferris wheel.”
Granted, this all takes place within the first 20 pages or so. Rumfoord (and I couldn’t stop substituting Rumsfeld, especially when we begin to find out how his motives, while being altruistic from his viewpoint, are seriously fucked up) goes on to tell Constant that he will end up traveling to Mars, Mercury, Titan, and end up having a son with Mrs. Rumfoord. Awkward.
Vonnegut’s savaging of organized religion at the back end of this novel counterbalances his having peeled back the curtain hiding the machinations of the free market in the front. Along the way, Mars attacks, a shipwrecked alien manipulates all of human history in an attempt to get a part, and … just read it. I know I’ll be revisiting this one again and again.
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After discovering what an amazing feat of imagination this book is, I can see why self-styled hippie intellectuals like Garcia and Davis were drawn to it. It was quite unlike any other novel, even other Vonnegut books, I have read. At no time while devouring The Sirens of Titan could I ever say to myself, “Oh, I know where this is going.”Vonnegut sends up the whims of capitalism with the main character Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. Constant is a playboy/bon vivant who, for reasons to be revealed, was born with the luck to maintain his lifestyle with very little effort on his part. At the beginning of the novel, he is summoned to the mansion of Winston Niles Rumfoord, the first man to fly a private rocket to Mars. Rumfoord is also, or so it’s understood, one of the last—having unwittingly flown into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, which effectively spread his (and his dog’s) existence throughout sort of a wormhole between the Sun and Betelgeuse. (Now you can start to imagine the types of conversations Garcia and Davis must have had.)
When Earth happens to transect the glitch, once every 59 days, Rumfoord and his dog materialize at the mansion for a short period of time where he alienates his wife, predicts the future (since he happens to actually be everywhere and when), and generally makes everyone uncomfortable. Vonnegut’s description of the first meeting of the two men is a good example of his wonderful use of language in this novel: “Winston Niles Rumfoord’s smile and handshake dismantled Constant’s high opinion of himself as efficiently as carnival roustabouts might dismantle a Ferris wheel.”
Granted, this all takes place within the first 20 pages or so. Rumfoord (and I couldn’t stop substituting Rumsfeld, especially when we begin to find out how his motives, while being altruistic from his viewpoint, are seriously fucked up) goes on to tell Constant that he will end up traveling to Mars, Mercury, Titan, and end up having a son with Mrs. Rumfoord. Awkward.
Vonnegut’s savaging of organized religion at the back end of this novel counterbalances his having peeled back the curtain hiding the machinations of the free market in the front. Along the way, Mars attacks, a shipwrecked alien manipulates all of human history in an attempt to get a part, and … just read it. I know I’ll be revisiting this one again and again.
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LibraryThing member MikeFarquhar
The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut’s second book, is one that I first read a long time ago, and have not re-read since, Like the majority of his work it tends to get labelled “science fiction”, a label he himself hated, arguing that the themes he was trying to talk about transcended the idea
Sirens is about Winston Niles Rumford, a rich eccentric in the 22nd century who – like Billy Pilgrim to come – becomes unstuck in time, existing as a wave in space-time who periodically appears in particular locations and dispenses knowledge gleaned from his time travel. Along the way he colonises another planet, engineers a suicidal interplanetary war, and establishes a new religion – the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent – all in the name of trying to make humanity better itself, cheerfully abusing and sacrificing the book’s principle protagonist, Malachi Constant, along the way. Ultimately though, Rumford’s manipulations prove futile in the face of a realisation of a greater, and yet more arbitrary, manipulation of the entire human race. (And even knowing that revelation in advance, it still made me laugh when it turned up – it’s clear to see why Douglas Adams cited Vonnegut as a major influence when he came to write The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide…)
Vonnegut looks at religion, love, fate, beauty, and the great questions of why we’re here, and what our purpose in life is. On one level, the book’s conclusions are somewhat nihilistic, but even in the pointlessness that marks the book’s ending Vonnegut is alluding to something quintessentially more human with the potential to become something more. Malachi’s final moments have a bittersweet quality of redemption to them that suits the tone of the entire book. Beauty is where we find it and what we make of it. For a book written so early in his career, it’s amazingly well-formed. Vonnegut’s position as one of America’s finest authors is well earned.
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of genre. His books do tend to be wider-read than much SF, and deservedly so.Sirens is about Winston Niles Rumford, a rich eccentric in the 22nd century who – like Billy Pilgrim to come – becomes unstuck in time, existing as a wave in space-time who periodically appears in particular locations and dispenses knowledge gleaned from his time travel. Along the way he colonises another planet, engineers a suicidal interplanetary war, and establishes a new religion – the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent – all in the name of trying to make humanity better itself, cheerfully abusing and sacrificing the book’s principle protagonist, Malachi Constant, along the way. Ultimately though, Rumford’s manipulations prove futile in the face of a realisation of a greater, and yet more arbitrary, manipulation of the entire human race. (And even knowing that revelation in advance, it still made me laugh when it turned up – it’s clear to see why Douglas Adams cited Vonnegut as a major influence when he came to write The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide…)
Vonnegut looks at religion, love, fate, beauty, and the great questions of why we’re here, and what our purpose in life is. On one level, the book’s conclusions are somewhat nihilistic, but even in the pointlessness that marks the book’s ending Vonnegut is alluding to something quintessentially more human with the potential to become something more. Malachi’s final moments have a bittersweet quality of redemption to them that suits the tone of the entire book. Beauty is where we find it and what we make of it. For a book written so early in his career, it’s amazingly well-formed. Vonnegut’s position as one of America’s finest authors is well earned.
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LibraryThing member .Monkey.
"'Look,' said Rumfoord, 'life for a punctual person is like a roller coaster.' He turned to shiver his hands in her face. 'All kinds of things are going to happen to you! Sure,' he said, 'I can see the whole roller coaster you're on. And sure—I could give you a piece of paper that would tell you
'I don't see why not,' said Beatrice.
'Because you'd still have to take the roller-coaster ride,' said Rumfoord. 'I didn't design the roller coaster, and I don't own it, and I don't say who rides and who doesn't. I just know what it's shaped like.'"
Kurt Vonnegut must have been an interesting guy, to come up with the themes and plots in his books. In the case of Sirens of Titan, we have a case of life in the future, a man who can see all that has & will happen, and people who wind up as pawns in a much larger game than they can imagine.
Douglas Adams was incredibly enamored with the story, and it served as a huge inspiration for his Hitchhiker series; but Vonnegut's original has a very different feel to it. Where Adams had a strong focus on humor mixed with scattered poignant bits, Vonnegut's story is far less laugh-out-loud funny and more the sort that drops almost startlingly penetrating "revelations" about life (as in the above quote) alongside scattered biting witticisms about various facets of life (as in the following quote).
"The only thing anybody could think of to do with them was to housebreak them, teach them basic vocabulary of a thousand words, and give them jobs in military or industrial public relations."
I enjoyed the story a lot, I think Vonnegut had some good insights and a clear if critical overlook of the world we live in. This particular work didn't bowl me over, though. I was more fond of Cat's Cradle. But I think this one demonstrates nicely both his stinging wit and his ability to paint a wonderful picture with words.
"He looked around at the perfectly white world, felt the wet kisses of the snowflakes, pondered the hidden meanings in the pale yellow streetlights that shone in a world so whitely asleep. 'Beautiful,' he whispered."
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about every dip and turn, warn you about every bogeyman that was going to pop out at you in the tunnels. But that wouldn't help you any.''I don't see why not,' said Beatrice.
'Because you'd still have to take the roller-coaster ride,' said Rumfoord. 'I didn't design the roller coaster, and I don't own it, and I don't say who rides and who doesn't. I just know what it's shaped like.'"
Kurt Vonnegut must have been an interesting guy, to come up with the themes and plots in his books. In the case of Sirens of Titan, we have a case of life in the future, a man who can see all that has & will happen, and people who wind up as pawns in a much larger game than they can imagine.
Douglas Adams was incredibly enamored with the story, and it served as a huge inspiration for his Hitchhiker series; but Vonnegut's original has a very different feel to it. Where Adams had a strong focus on humor mixed with scattered poignant bits, Vonnegut's story is far less laugh-out-loud funny and more the sort that drops almost startlingly penetrating "revelations" about life (as in the above quote) alongside scattered biting witticisms about various facets of life (as in the following quote).
"The only thing anybody could think of to do with them was to housebreak them, teach them basic vocabulary of a thousand words, and give them jobs in military or industrial public relations."
I enjoyed the story a lot, I think Vonnegut had some good insights and a clear if critical overlook of the world we live in. This particular work didn't bowl me over, though. I was more fond of Cat's Cradle. But I think this one demonstrates nicely both his stinging wit and his ability to paint a wonderful picture with words.
"He looked around at the perfectly white world, felt the wet kisses of the snowflakes, pondered the hidden meanings in the pale yellow streetlights that shone in a world so whitely asleep. 'Beautiful,' he whispered."
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LibraryThing member Hectigo
The novel presents a very entertaining tale that offers quirky and insightful angles into different aspects of human culture. Sirens of Titan might not be quite as sharp as some of Vonnegut's later work, but there's a lot to like here, and many surprising events for a novel that explains its basic
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plot structure right in the beginning. Each section of the book also has an unique atmosphere and style - starting from a bit chaotic and ending in contemplative, while exploring everything else in between. Considering that, the plot holds together remarkably well too, and is easy to follow. Show Less
LibraryThing member akinin
How do you reconcile the Grandfather Paradox, Free Will and the meaning of life?
You ridicule them.
Vonnegut's powerful novel leaves his mark on the rest of science fiction.
Douglas Adams grossly plagiarized from this book.
great read but not as funny as other Vonnegut books.
Pulled an allnighter to
You ridicule them.
Vonnegut's powerful novel leaves his mark on the rest of science fiction.
Douglas Adams grossly plagiarized from this book.
great read but not as funny as other Vonnegut books.
Pulled an allnighter to
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finish it Show Less
LibraryThing member JuniperHoot
A great exploration of religion and militarism, done with classic Vonnegut humor. As ever, I'm in awe of the author's ability to infuse his frequently bleak tales with such wit and humanity.
LibraryThing member sublunarie
I honestly never believed I would read another Vonnegut novel I would love more than God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Upon finishing The Sirens Of Titan, I stand corrected.
I liken Vonnegut's answer to the meaning of life nearly as clear and simple and hidden as "TURN SHIP UPSIDE DOWN". It would have
I liken Vonnegut's answer to the meaning of life nearly as clear and simple and hidden as "TURN SHIP UPSIDE DOWN". It would have
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been as plain as day if only we'd stopped and thought about it a little harder. Show Less
LibraryThing member gbill
An impressive book for 1959, and for a debut. Vonnegut uses science fiction to satirize the wealthy, the military, religion, and mankind’s role in the universe, and manages to tell an entertaining tale on top of it. While fantastical, it’s brilliantly creative. There is a chrono-synclastic
The satire of the ultra-wealthy, who believe they are that way because of their consummate business skill or because “someone up there likes me,” implying a God who actually pays attention to our little lives and favors them, is not only effective but well ahead of its time, and highly relevant today. We see overpaid CEO’s who don’t understand how much sheer luck played a role in their success. We see the immorality of their excesses, war profiteering, and the “philanthropy” of buying art and lending it out to museums in reality being PR and good investments. We see the creation of shell corporations that are “a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.” We see generational wealth maintained via marrying within the set, even if it means with cousins. It’s just remarkable stuff, and one can only imagine what Vonnegut would think of the elite today.
Relative to the military, in some of his best and most chilling writing, Vonnegut describes a Martian army controlled by antenna implants into the brain and regular memory scrubbing, so that they strictly follow orders, even if it means cold-blooded killing. A military commander wears the uniform of an elite tactical group which caught his fancy, “regardless of how much hell anybody else had to go through for the privilege.” The Earthling military response is out of all proportion to the danger, with thermonuclear devices rendering the moon “unfit for human occupation for at least ten million years.”
As for religion and the delusion that there is a God looking down upon us, the story alludes to how this is weaponized, and how one of the characters creates a new church, that of the “God of the Utterly Indifferent” to combat this. Vonnegut writes: “No longer can a fool like Malachi Constant point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say, ‘Somebody up there like me.’ And no longer can a tyrant say, ‘God wants this or that to happen, and anybody who doesn’t help this or that to happen is against God.’ O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!”
As for mankind, the story plays with meaninglessness in a vast universe and free will (or lack thereof) in fanciful ways. It also alludes to our violence, creatively captured in a statue of Neanderthals roasting a human foot on a crude spit, and one of a scientist with an erection for having discovered atomic power – there being little that is pure or cooperative about the species. Bonus points for the protagonist wanting to be let down in Indianapolis near the end because it was “the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian,” referring to the Fall Creek Massacre of 1824 and subsequent hanging of three of the perpetrators the following year.
Great stuff here, full of meaning, but written in a light, engaging way. One to seek out.
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infundibula which spreads one of the characters and his dog out across space in a wave, such that they appear on Earth when its orbit regularly intersects it. There are translucent, diamond-shaped creatures in deep caves of Mercury with only one sense, touch, that cooperate with one another. There are creatures on the planet Tralfamadore who can’t find any purpose to existence and wage war against each other, ultimately turning the job over to machines ala the Terminator.The satire of the ultra-wealthy, who believe they are that way because of their consummate business skill or because “someone up there likes me,” implying a God who actually pays attention to our little lives and favors them, is not only effective but well ahead of its time, and highly relevant today. We see overpaid CEO’s who don’t understand how much sheer luck played a role in their success. We see the immorality of their excesses, war profiteering, and the “philanthropy” of buying art and lending it out to museums in reality being PR and good investments. We see the creation of shell corporations that are “a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.” We see generational wealth maintained via marrying within the set, even if it means with cousins. It’s just remarkable stuff, and one can only imagine what Vonnegut would think of the elite today.
Relative to the military, in some of his best and most chilling writing, Vonnegut describes a Martian army controlled by antenna implants into the brain and regular memory scrubbing, so that they strictly follow orders, even if it means cold-blooded killing. A military commander wears the uniform of an elite tactical group which caught his fancy, “regardless of how much hell anybody else had to go through for the privilege.” The Earthling military response is out of all proportion to the danger, with thermonuclear devices rendering the moon “unfit for human occupation for at least ten million years.”
As for religion and the delusion that there is a God looking down upon us, the story alludes to how this is weaponized, and how one of the characters creates a new church, that of the “God of the Utterly Indifferent” to combat this. Vonnegut writes: “No longer can a fool like Malachi Constant point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say, ‘Somebody up there like me.’ And no longer can a tyrant say, ‘God wants this or that to happen, and anybody who doesn’t help this or that to happen is against God.’ O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!”
As for mankind, the story plays with meaninglessness in a vast universe and free will (or lack thereof) in fanciful ways. It also alludes to our violence, creatively captured in a statue of Neanderthals roasting a human foot on a crude spit, and one of a scientist with an erection for having discovered atomic power – there being little that is pure or cooperative about the species. Bonus points for the protagonist wanting to be let down in Indianapolis near the end because it was “the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian,” referring to the Fall Creek Massacre of 1824 and subsequent hanging of three of the perpetrators the following year.
Great stuff here, full of meaning, but written in a light, engaging way. One to seek out.
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LibraryThing member NickConstantine
Sirens of Titan is one of Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction gems. This story weaves a tapestry that makes a journey spelled out for us by Winston Niles Rumfoord seem be surprising and unexpected. This novel, like many of Vonnegut’s work, is a hilarious look at fate. The book is dripping with wit.
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I think this is a good way for students who are skeptical about reading something deemed scholarly to see it in a familiar and fun genre, while students who think science fiction is a low genre can experience a great piece of literature that involves a war with mars, robots from other worlds, a trip to Jupiter’s moon Titan, and a living universe Vonnegut uses every inch of to create a great and funny story. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
A long time ago, when I was just a lowly Teen - I read this book. And totally missed the point. So, when I found a copy, I thought I would give it another try. First - this is not a bright book. Almost all the characters are unlikable (except for the Dog) and annoying. But that is the point. Its a
This book is quite tragic. All the characters are being used by someone. The ending kind of a slap in the face. The big question of the book is "is life better if life is random, or is life better if it was in service to a more advanced being?"
Yeah - its dark, satirical, Full of sad people in sad situations. But, it has merit. If you like the author, and books that are dark and takes a view of pointlessness, you should probably read it.
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story of randomness and why it means to be lucky. At times - the story is funny - very very funny for example, on the random writings of the harmoniums "The messages were written, of course, by.... He peeled off harmoniums here, slapped others up there, making the block letters".This book is quite tragic. All the characters are being used by someone. The ending kind of a slap in the face. The big question of the book is "is life better if life is random, or is life better if it was in service to a more advanced being?"
Yeah - its dark, satirical, Full of sad people in sad situations. But, it has merit. If you like the author, and books that are dark and takes a view of pointlessness, you should probably read it.
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LibraryThing member DRFP
I couldn't quite get into this one. I read it soon after Mother Night, which I liked a great deal, but it seemed very inferior.
The first quarter of the novel I found exceedingly dull. I thought it took twenty or thirty pages too long to get going. Thereafter things pick up and the Martian section
Mother Night by comparison moved at a much swifter pace and also made me care a bit more about the characters involved. It's not like Mother Night is War and Peace in terms of characterization but it just had that little bit extra that really pulled me in.
Still, Vonnegut's humanity shines through in the end - "It took us that long to realise that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.". It's just a shame that The Sirens of Titan makes good points whilst feeling sadly empty. As a result, I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping to.
The first quarter of the novel I found exceedingly dull. I thought it took twenty or thirty pages too long to get going. Thereafter things pick up and the Martian section
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is probably the best part of the book. Everything after that is decent but... lacking any real heart. Vonnegut's views and the points he puts across are good but there seemed, to me, too little invested in the characters to really draw me in.Mother Night by comparison moved at a much swifter pace and also made me care a bit more about the characters involved. It's not like Mother Night is War and Peace in terms of characterization but it just had that little bit extra that really pulled me in.
Still, Vonnegut's humanity shines through in the end - "It took us that long to realise that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.". It's just a shame that The Sirens of Titan makes good points whilst feeling sadly empty. As a result, I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping to.
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LibraryThing member dandelionroots
The richest man on Earth is sent on a harrowing journey around the Solar System, but under whose influence? "The only controls available to those on board were two push-buttons on the center post of the cabin - one labeled on and one labeled off. The on button simply started a flight from Mars. The
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off button was connected to nothing. It was installed at the insistence of Martian mental-health experts, who said that human beings were always happier with machinery they thought they could turn off." His description of Mercury's life forms, the harmoniums, is achingly beautiful. I didn't all out love this book - it may be because some of the ideas that would have blown me away, I've read before (particularly in Ray Bradbury - not sure who wrote first). Show Less
LibraryThing member stipe168
about religion, friendship, the human soul, and free-will. One of Vonnegut's earliest and one of his best. My friend Kevin told me it opened up chambers in his heart he didn't know existed. that's fair enough.
Unk: “ I was a victim of a series of accidents,” he said. “As are we all”.
Unk: “ I was a victim of a series of accidents,” he said. “As are we all”.
LibraryThing member StigE
I'm torn between three and four stars on this. On one hand the book reads like the later books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series with ideas and observations being thrown at the reader in one big jumble. On the other hand the book reads like the later books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to
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the Galaxy series with ideas and observations being thrown at the reader in one big jumble.Parts of the book are absolutely fantastic (the martian invasion stood out in my mind), other parts are dull (the invented religion) whilst the casual way rape is handled and seemingly brushed off is just troubling. It's witty, intelligent, not very well put together, memorable, frustrating and callous. It's clearly art :-)
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LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
this book taught me more about beauty when i was in high school than any other experience i ever had. sometimes i wish i had paid more attention to it.
LibraryThing member zangasta
After being deliberately sent to Mars, made to perform an execution, sent on to Mercury, and finally brought back to Earth where a reception has been planned for him in great detail, Unk's conclusion is that: "I was a victim of a series of accidents."
I can't say what that'll do for you, but I am
I can't say what that'll do for you, but I am
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registering a slight stirring of some undetermined sort in the back of my own mind. Show Less
LibraryThing member xnfec
Very funny without obviously trying to be so. Still one of Vonneguts best books