The Sirens of Titan, A Review

There is something about a book that drives someone to read the first chapter again after finishing it. I derive a certain joy in being able to read the last page of a book, close it, and being able to reflect on the experience, but sometimes a book will end in such an amazing fashion that I am compelled to start over again just to see how it all fit together. It is like a magic trick that the magician repeats over and over to an enraptured audience trying to figure out how in the world they did it.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut is one of those books. It helps though that the book starts with millionaire Malachi Constant going to a mansion he has been invited to see a man caught in a chrono-synclastic infundibula who has a prophesy to tell him. How Malachi takes that prophesy is reminiscent of a certain classic Greek tale, but that is only a fraction of the story. Sirens of Titan uses science fiction to explore some of the deepest and hard to deal with aspects of religion, society, humanity, and our place in the the universe.

The book isn’t just about Malachi Constant, it is about how the things that happen to him come about. Kurt Vonnegut does  an excellent job of giving his novels a sort of “democratic” feel. While there are characters do influence the narrative more, they all feel like they are a part a the puzzle that creates the universe around them. Even the narrator of the story reads more like a character. The way the story can jump from subject to subject, giving motivations and insight into the world, it all feels like someone is telling their story, allowing for certain perspectives and points of view to bleed through. It is what makes The Sirens of Titan feel so honest; no one has a 100% unbiased version of the truth.

The way the book jumps around and gives insight to the world and society feels a lot like another science fiction book, Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy uses humor and satire to explain the universe (megaverse?) that the protagonist Arthur Dent lives in. The thing that made Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy worth reading is how that humor and satire would comment on the sort of sad realities of modern life. Sirens of Titan, on the other hand, uses the sad realities of modern life to create humor and satire. I found nothing in Sirens of Titan laugh out loud funny, but the sort of dark humor that festers on the edges of the tragedy, sadness, and hopelessness of what happens to Malachi Constant is something I found even honestly more funny (even if the humor is found in a sort of “self-defense” between myself and what the book is trying to say).

 One of the reasons I love Kurt Vonnegut, and by extension, The Sirens of Titan, is how all his books manage to be much more interesting than a plot summary could convey. The Siren of Titan is an example of how the journey is more important than the destination.   I feel this is an important aspect of writing. If a story just uses words as a sort of makeshift bridge to try and struggle to the next plot point, then the story isn’t worth reading. This is also why The Sirens of Titan is worth reading.