Book 35 - The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut

I've shifted into high gear trying to catch up! This is my third book since Sunday, and I'm pretty sure I can finish another before the week ends on Saturday. However, there isn't much time left, and I've got a long way to go.

Book 35 - The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut

The governments of the world have suspended all manned space flight due to the discovery of a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, a kind of time vortex that exists between Earth and Mars. This does not stop Winston Niles Rumsford, a wealthy American aristocrat, from buying his own spaceship and flying it to Mars himself, accompanied only by his mastiff, Kazak. He flies directly into the vortex, and he and the dog are scattered through not just space, but also through time. He and the dog materialize in various locations at specific intervals, one of these locations being Rumsford's estate, where he appears to his wife and their butler every fifty-nine days.

Malachi Constant is also a very wealthy man, but lacks the aristocratic background of Rumsford. The Constant family fortune was amassed by Malachi's father Noel, who devised an investment scheme so disconnected from the market as to be almost completely random, if it weren't for the religious overtone to it. He hands this system down to Malachi upon his death, who continues to be wildly successful, growing the fortune to staggering proportions.

Rumsford's wife, Beatrice, does not allow anyone on the estate grounds for the materializations, so it comes as a shock when Malachi is invited to attend. It turns out that Winston wishes to share some information about Malachi's future with him. He tells him that he will father a child with Beatrice, and that he will travel not only to Mars, but to Mercury and to Saturn's moon, Titan. Neither Beatrice nor Malachi want these events to transpire, and start to take actions that they think will keep the prophecy from coming true. In actuality, these actions drive them closer to their destiny.

Malachi and Beatrice aren't the only ones swept up in Winston's plans. They are but pieces of a vast scheme to promote world unity and the brotherhood of man by creating a common enemy for mankind to fight against, then making them feel shame afterwards, and finally by creating a new religion through which they can be redeemed. This religion, The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent, of which Malachi becomes an unwitting prophet, seems remarkably absurdist in nature, especially after just having finished Albert Camus' The Stranger (http://the52booksin52weekspersonalchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/it-seems-that-i-am-repeating-myself.html). God/The Universe could care less about what happens to you, and you are so insignificant that nothing you could do could please him/it either. The irony to this in Vonnegut's story is that there is a higher order of things; a grand plan so to speak. It's just not the one you think it is, and it has very little to do with your interests.

There are several recurring themes that occur in Vonnegut's books, the foremost of which is time travel. Winston is unstuck in time and space in a similar fashion to Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse Five. The planet Tralfamador also figures heavily in both books, a planet that seems to have undue influence on the human race. The members of the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent believe that no one should have an advantage over another person, and therefore they employ physical and mental handicaps to hobble whatever superior natural abilities they might possess, something very similar to what was done in Vonnegut's famous short story "Harrison Bergeron." These repetitions of theme do not seem redundant however, possibly because they were so imaginative to begin with. Instead they seem like recurring motifs in a larger work, like musical themes and variations as a part of a larger symphonic work.

Do I recommend it? Of course! It's Kurt Vonnegut, after all! And before you say, "but I don't like science fiction," let me stop you right there and say that this is not science fiction. It is social satire that happens to take place on other planets aside from earth. Try it, you might like it!