The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Dec
'07
Vonnegut is one of those authors that came highly recommended by everyone who has read him, but more usefully to me, by someone who was willing to lend me a collection of his books. I’ve had it sitting in my house since I lived in my old apartment, which is only a few minutes away but which required so much messy, unorganized packing that for a while I thought I’d have to buy said recommender a new collection of Kurt Vonnegut books. After I unpacked most of my books, there it was with its bright red cover, calling to me, saying, “Remember me? You’ve now borrowed me for nearly seven months and you haven’t read one thing. He’s going to ask about me soon and you’re going to have to sheepishly say, ‘No, sorry, I haven’t picked it up yet.’”
So I picked it up. It was given to me on the purpose of reading Breakfast of Champions, as I own a copy of Slaughterhouse Five and in any case, Breakfast of Champions had just come in for trade and was a topic of discussion for long enough to make me interested. Instead, however, I read the first one which drew me in: The Sirens of Titan. I was incredibly interested to find out how these Sirens were being used, and to what end, and why they were on Titan. For some reason I was still surprised when it turned out to be a science-fiction novel; I am not sure why. Perhaps I expected more mythology.
What was interesting to me on that thought was that the Sirens themselves were not introduced more than three times (or so) in the entirety of the novel, and yet they caused much of the events of the book. Malachi Constant is drawn into the prospect of space travel to Mars by a single picture of these Sirens, and it is a single picture of these Sirens that later draws him back to memory and what he’s lost because of them. When they are mentioned again would probably be considered a “spoiler,” so I won’t detail it, but that seems to be when he is finally brought back to reality, which is slightly different from the returning memory I previously mentioned.
I didn’t jump on the bandwagon to read Kurt Vonnegut when he died, neither did I jump on the Norman Mailer bandwagon (though I had been interested in Castle in the Forest since it came out in hardcover and will probably be reading it soon, it isn’t merely because he is no longer “with us” that I feel it necessary to read his writing), and I find it to be much more rewarding to read a book because I want to. I joined a lot of challenges this year and I tried to stick to books that were “recommended,” books which I “should read,” classics that are on everyone’s bookshelves and which most people probably read for school. I found about half of them enjoyable, one of them completely unreadable, and another so detested that I’ll openly comment on people’s livejournals about how they’re not missing much by not having read it. So even though towards the end of the year I have read a few books “on my own,” as it were - outside of challenges or the thouhts of others - this is the first book by an author that was previously recommended, which I’ve picked up on a whim and enjoyed. I didn’t read it because I thought I must; I read it because it looked interesting to me.
Kurt Vonnegut, among others, has made me see how to morph my reading habits over the years. I keep telling myself I read these things because they’re supposedly good books, but I should be reading because I want to.
I digress.
This book reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 in bits and pieces. Winston Niles Rumfoord, the time-traveller and awed dematerializer who tells Malachi Constant that he will eventually be “mating” Rumfoord’s wife, Beatrice, and producing a child which will hold a very important metal object as a good-luck piece, has set all the motions in place as a way to set up a new religion for Earth. It’s a strange layer of things going on in this book: For one, there’s the Sirens that I’ve mentioned, which directly influence Constant in ways that impact his life greatly. Then there’s Rumfoord who “controls” the Martians who control the Martian Army that will eventually attack Earth, fail miserably, and lead the way for this new religion. On the other hand, an explorer from Tralfamadore (a very distant planet in a separate galaxy) is biding his time on Titan until his planet sends him a piece for his ship, which has broken down at the dawn of Earth’s time. The importance there? Apparently the Tralfamadores have been determining the major events in Earth’s history by way of sending messages to the explorer on Titan. Everything is a means to an end in this book, and no matter if one person feels they are the important “doer;” there is always someone behind them pushing them along.
In any case, that is not why it reminded me of Fahrenheit 451: It’s the religion - Church of God the Utterly Indifferent - that reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s book. Basically, God cares nothing for you, what you do, where you go in life, and so on. He’s “utterly indifferent.” So instead of living your life in the hope of pleasing Him, you should live your life in the hope of pleasing your fellow people. Care about each other; live for human life. No one is special or unique; no one has any priviledge much higher than anyone else. No one can say that God favors him because it’s common knowledge that God favors no one and would just as soon kill you as keep you alive. It matters not to this being which humanity had put its faith in for so long, so why continue serving it? In Fahrenheit 451, of course, everything was leading to the point where nothing is spectacular and no one is different, however through the course of banning books and keeping minds free of extracurricular fantasies.
The Sirens of Titan was published in 1959, Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. I am not entirely sure I’m up to another depressing tale of humanity’s future as percieved in the 50s any time soon. It would be interesting to me to try to find books today which have that same theme - the destruction of humankind based on how we’re currently living - to see how it differs. Does everyone end up the same anymore, or is everyone going to be a very destructive “different?”
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