The Sirens Of Titan
The Sirens of Titan By Kurt Vonnegut
It’s been a while since i’ve read a book that made me laugh so much. The Sirens of Titan is absurd, imaginative, ridiculously original––i’m sure it’s been copied a fair bit since––and has plenty to say, while simutainiously suggesting it’s all meaningless. A very clever book.
The Sirens of Titan is about a man named Winston Niles Rumfoord, and the impact he has on the world and the lives of others after he’s converted into energy and only briefly materialises on Earth every 59 days. How did this happen you ask?… Chronosynclastic Infundibulum of course.
Winston knows everything about the past, present and future because of his state of being, and when he tells his wife Beatrice and a billionaire playboy Malachi Constant about their unlikely future together both do everything possible to avoid their destiny, believing they make their own choices, and have their own will. But, in trying to avoid the future, do they inadvertently create it?
The book has plenty of themes running through it, but being in control of our own destiny is high on the list. That belief that while there are many things out of our control in life, making own decisions and choices is something we do have power over. But, we do, when others are pulling the string without us knowing? This idea only get larger as the story plays out going ways I didn’t imagine.
It’s these elements of the book which are most fun to me. Seeing how all the predicted––known––future comes to pass. How Malachi ends up on Mars, Mercury, back to Earth, and eventually Titan. Seeing how Beatrice losses her position in life. And how the hell they have a kid together––ok that last parts not so much fun as… well…
The third man of the second platoon of the first squadron stuff was hilarious, along with the Martian march. In fact, I loved everything on Mars including the outrageous invasion. The bits on Mercury were magnificently weird as well. The whole book just made me smile.
The style of writing within the book is great, and I imagine something very different for the time. I love when books add almost little side-notes to certain situations, it’s something i’m fond of doing myself. Some may feel the book loses focuses when it spends a chapter telling you about Malachi dad living in a hotel, or Salo’s travels, but that’s the stuff I tend to love.
It’s extremely witty through-out, and doesn’t shy away from the big topics, such as Winston creating his own religion. The author definitely caught my attention with this one and i’ll be checking out more of his work down the line. The Sirens of Titan falls into that oddball––or should I say goofball, iykyk––side of sci-fi, with maybe the closest thing I could compare it to being Hitchhikers Guide. It’s just very very funny, but also extremely philosophical. It’s a weird balance, but he makes it work.