Book Review: Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

The Sirens of Titan
by Kurt Vonnegut

This novel, like all of Vonnegut's creations, is both strange and beautiful, painful and peaceful, relaxing and anxiety producing. Emotional responses, often of a contradicting nature, are Vonnegut's specialties. As usual, Vonnegut provides no answers to the great questions of human existence which his characters often attempt, knowingly and unknowingly, to stumble upon. He has a remarkable ability to come so hair-splitting close to a profound and controversial commentary on humanity, but successfully destroys it with a well placed and memorable quotation from one of the main characters. Absolutely fantastic. Though many of his novels have the same feel to them, (i.e. unknowing character encounters forces beyond his control to come in question with the purpose of life, only to find that there is no universal purpose) I am still excited, by the prospect of self-enlightenment and self-awareness, every time I stumble across a new novel. I love Vonnegut for this reason. His books are timeless and his style is unmatched.

As for this particular novel, The Sirens of Titan, the concepts of religion, fate, space travel, robots and aliens are all discussed. I mean, who could ask for more in a novel, right? Although not nearly his best work, it is still a provocative piece of literature and is worth the few hours of reading time from a Vonnegut fan.

Now, I do not want to delve too deeply into the plot, as to not give away the story, but I think some main points are worth discussing. The main character encounters a man who, while flying in space, encountered a scientific conundrum, something like a black hole of sorts, which forced him into a position of omnipotence. The man in space existed everywhere and at all times, knowing everything from the past, present and future of this small corner of the Milky Way Galaxy (from the Sun to Betelgeuse). This man reveals the future of the main character and tells him what is going to happen. The story then spirals out into a glorious manifestation of the questions of freewill, the existence of gods and the uses of religion.

The reader is easily able to connect these topics and motifs to the real world and real religion and real science, but the novel is still entertaining if one does not want to dive into the philosophical realm. I dove. And I loved every mind twisting moment of it.

Recommended Questions to Think About:

Who is God and what makes him/her/it care about humans?
Is/are there (a) God/gods?
What purpose does religion serve to humanity?
How does one start a religion?
What is the purpose of life if one's only goal is to exist happy after death?

Lessons Learned:

Life is painful and wondrous, enjoy it while you can because you never know what's around the next chrono-synclastic infundibulum.