Book Review: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

 

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

 224 pages, Paperback SF Masterworks Series
Published September 9, 1999 by Gollancz

First published January 1, 1959
 

Literary awards

Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1960), 

Seiun Award 星雲賞 for Best Foreign Novel (1973)

I am way behind on my book reviews, and Vonnegut’s 5th novel is not exactly dying for attention so I may not give this book its due. Let's face it, Vonnegut as genius as he is…how do you sum him up? It is hilarious and weird. 

There are space operas and there are Space absurdities that can range full on slapstick like Hitchhiker’s Guide, Fredric Brown  or Robert Sheckley and there is the surrealist Malzberg or PKD - that is always underrated for its humor.  Slaughterhouse 5 is, of course, just as much SF as this or say Martian Time Slip. Vonnegut often gets a pass out of the genre ghetto, but let's face that is where this novel was meant to live. 

Malachi Constant is our POV character. He gets around the solar system. Through Malachi Vonnegut is able to express some opinions on the human race, as he has a habit to do.  

 

“To hell with the human race,” Said Beatrice.

"You are a member of it you know," Said Rumfoord. 

"Then I would like to put in a transfer to the Chimpanzee..."

 

Many works of Vonnegut are about a desire to look at the human race from the outside, SOT is unique in that it is the one that was directly written to be marketed as Science fiction, with a desire to make money commercially and as such he is throwing grand ideas about good/evil, the universe, the importance of love and still nothing is taken so seriously that you won’t laugh throughout the books.

“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.”

This line made me think about how the political figures with ethical standards kinda screwed us to have to deal with the ones who don’t care condemned us.  If the good people could act a little more shitty sometimes, maybe we would get balance. This is a story afterall about a rich guy traveling around the universe 

 

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

Malachi travels the universe and comments on the universe, and it is not much of a plot, but a frame for Vonnegut to express ideas and points of view. In lesser hands, this would be an absurdist mess, but in a master’s hands, this is an entertaining read. 

“. . . 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.”