The Sirens of Titan is an intriguing
and thought-provoking novel. If the world is a meaningless place, then
how are we to act? It is a challenging question that many of us will
have to try to answer.
The Sirens of Titan
(1959) is Kurt Vonnegut's second published novel. It tells the story
of the interlocking lives of the major characters Winston Niles Rumfoord
and Malachi Constant. In it we find many of the themes that featured
in his subsequent novels.
While travelling between Earth and Mars with his dog Kazak, Rumfoord becomes
trapped in a cosmological anomaly called a chrono-synclastic
infundibulum. As a result, he gains almost god-like powers of
omniscience and omnipresence. He uses these powers to shape the course
of human history. But is Rumfoord just a pawn in a much bigger cosmic
game?
Malachi Constant inherits the greatest personal
fortune in history but lives a reckless and hedonistic lifestyle. His
father had built this fortune by sheer dumb luck (or by Providence), and
for a while it seems that Constant has inherited his father's
preposterous luck. Then things go wrong. Constant loses his fortune
and, after acting on some advice from his dead father, he lives a
degraded and nightmarish life on Mars. Has he got what it takes to
change the trajectory of his life and redeem himself?
The first theme presented in The Sirens of Titan
is that of meaning, or meaninglessness, in life. Is there a purpose
and a design to the Universe, or is it all just sheer, dumb luck? "I
guess someone up there likes me," says Malachi Constant as an
explanation for his seeming good luck. And, yes, Providence is one
possible explanation; serendipity is another.
Of
course, what Vonnegut is seeking is a viable humanistic response to a
meaningless universe. Rumfoord's use of total war to bring about
universal peace on Earth raises the old question of the ends justifying
the means. We see Constant following his instincts, doing what he feels
is right, to reunite himself with his lost family. And there is the
example of the sadistic Boaz having a revelation about living a
meaningful life:
I found me a place where I can do good without doing any harm, and I can see I'm doing good, and them I'm doing good for [some creatures he found on Mercury] know I'm doing it, and they love me ... as best they can. I found me a home.
Another theme is that of free will. This is a theme Vonnegut revisits in many of his subsequent novels. In The Sirens of Titan,
we see Rumfoord using alien technology to rob humans of their free
will, their memories and their identities. A later development in the
book suggests that human free will has been an illusion for at least a
few hundreds of millennia.
As is the case in his later
novels, Vonnegut is capable of turning a cynical and memorable phrase
about human behaviour. Of an investment strategy presented to the elder
Constant, the narrator says:
It was a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance ... Noel Constant was so impressed by this monument to hypocrisy and sharp practice that he wanted to buy stock in it without even referring to his Bible.
The Sirens of Titan contains many images and metaphors that may strike those readers from a Christian background. There are analogues of Jonah, Job, Judas, Jesus, the second coming, Jacob's ladder and much more. This makes the book all the more intriguing to read and decode.
I read the ebook version published by Rosetta Books. Apart from one typo, it is very well presented.
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