The Sirens of Titan :: Sirens of Titan Essays

The Sirens of TitanMargonk VitIt took us that enormous to realize that a purpose ofhuman life, no matter who is overbearing it, is to lovewhoever is around to be loved. (Vonnegut220) The Sirens of Titan is Kurt Vonneguts second novel. He has written it in 1959, seven-spot years later on his previous Player Piano.It has been set forth as a pure science fiction novel and, afteronly one reading, it really can be considered to be one. The tangled plot and fascinating detail may obscure the serious end of the novel. If comp bed 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 than straightforward than inthe other works (e.g. Slaughterhouse-Five, Galapagos, HocusPocus, Breakfast of Champions etc.) The Sirens of Titan, for all its wonderings, afterlife and concern with larger, abstract questions ,transmits a greater sense of direction andconcreteness. quite 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 affectionthan Player Piano which is directly concerned with theagonies of exploring and following conscience, emotionand love. leash possible explanations for thisfenomenon present themselves first, Vonneguts skillhas 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, lendmore weight. (Reed66) The Sirens of Titan has been, as many other Vonneguts books,influenced by his experiences from domain of a function War Two (TheFire-bombing of Dresden was a benefit just to one man, to KurtVonnegut. over the years, he got five dollars for each corpse, as