by Sean Begin
After 55 years, Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “The Sirens of Titan” remains not only one of my favorite Vonnegut works, but one of my favorite pieces of fiction–ever.
Combining elements of science fiction with his acerbic wit and deeply rooted beliefs on religion, humanity and society, Vonnegut crafts a darkly satirical piece about the true nature of our existence on Earth.
The novel focuses on several key characters, mainly 22nd-century America’s richest man, Malachi Constant. Malachi is the name of a Jewish prophet in the Hebrew Bible whose name is derived from the Hebrew word mal’akhi meaning “the messenger.”
The novel follows Constant as he is unwittingly dragged from Earth to Mars to participate in the Martian invasion of Earth; then from Mars to Venus, where he takes refuge with another survivor deep in the fractured crust of the solar system’s second planet; back to Earth, where he is ridiculed for everything wrong with humanity; and finally to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, where he meets the man responsible for his downfall and journey: Winston Niles Rumfoord.
Rumfoord is a wealthy man from Rhode Island who built a spaceship and traveled into the solar system where he gets trapped in what is called a chrono-synclastic infundibulum.
These spots exist throughout the universe as locations where any species existing in the universe (whose views of the universe can be wildly different yet still correct) can coexist.
Rumfoord and his dog Kazak have been traveling this infundibulum, both everywhere and nowhere all at once, with knowledge of both the past and the future.
It is stuck in this phenomenon that Rumfoord discovers the truth behind humanity’s existence: we are nothing more than a means of communication for a robot alien race known as the Tralfamadorians to one of their own left stranded on Titan, named Salo.
While “The Sirens of Titan” is only Vonnegut’s second work, it perhaps is one of the best examples of his satirical humor regarding religion and his disgust for the concept of God; or, at least, his disgust for humanity’s perversions of God.
In “Sirens,” Vonnegut explains that the Tralfamadorians have used something called the Universal Will to Become, which is the greatest form of energy in the universe and is what created the universe in the first place.
The Tralfamadorians have used the UWTB to manipulate human evolution in order to build a part necessary to repair Salo’s ship. Every action Rumfoord takes after entering the infundibulum was planned: from the building of the Martian army to Constant’s role in arriving at Titan.
In the end, human evolution and existence has occurred simply to bring to Salo a small, metal strip no bigger than a human forearm so Salo can deliver a message to the other side of the universe.
This highly inconsequential reason for humanity’s existence is the crux of Vonnegut’s argument, against not only religion but against humanity trying to find a reason to that eternal question: why are we here?
Vonnegut, through his satire and wit in “Sirens,” is mocking thousands of years of religious and philosophical instillations, pushing an idea that living without religion and God will lead to a unified human race–a truth seen in Vonnegut’s Church of God the Utterly Indifferent that is established in “Sirens” in the wake of the Earth-Mars war.
While “The Sirens of Titan” is Vonnegut’s second published novel, it is one of his best tales and is filled with examples of the dark satire that would come to dominate the writing of his career.
