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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO the Alternative Worlds in the Sirens Of MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTYOF EDUCATION Departmentof EnglishLanguageandLiterature The Alternative Worlds in the Sirens of Titan Bachelor Thesis Brno 2007 Author: Supervisor: Bohdana Skýpalová Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. 1 I declare that I worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. I agree with this bachelor thesis being deposited in the Library of the Faculty of Education at the Masaryk University and being made available for study purposes. Brno, 10 August 2007 Bohdana Skýpalová 2 Acknowledgements Iwouldlike tothankMgr.LuciePodroužková,Ph.D.,forher patience,kindguidance andvaluable professionaladvice. 3 CONTENTS Introduction…………………………………………..………………………………….5 0.1 KurtVonnegut’s biography……………………………………………………….....7 0.2 TheSirensofTitan…………………………………………………………………11 1.1 EverythingbeginsandendsonEarth…………………………………...………….13 1.2 Everybodyisamarionetteoftheuniverse…………………………...…………….16 1.2.1AnordinarymillionaireMalachiConstant…………………………………….....17 1.2.2The powerlessgodRumfoord…………………………………………………….19 2.BloodyandflamingMars………………………………………………………...….22 3.1FreezingandburningMercury…………………………………………….……….25 3.2Couldharmoniums exist?………………………………………………………….28 4.1Themysterious,delusivemoon…………………………………………………….32 4.2Monstersorgorgeouscreatures? …………………………………………………..36 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...39 Resume…………………………...…………………………………………………….41 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………42 Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….43 4 Introduction The aim of this thesis is toanalyze the secondof Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, The Sirens of Titan writtenin1959.I have readseveral Kurt Vonnegut’s novels andhe has become one of my favorite writers. Compared to other Vonnegut’s novels, it discusses herein a number of significant features of the science fiction genre that “presents its fantastic elements as plausible against a backgroundof science” (Literature Online). It is a space travel storyinwhichVonnegut invents alternative worlds as a way of satirically commenting upon the follies and foibles of this world (Literature Online). Therefore the settings inthis novel are particularly interesting.Vonnegut fills his worldswithtopsy-turvyimages andpopulates them byraces of his owncreationlike the Harmoniums (The New York Times). He creates four complex, distinct worlds whichare scatteredaroundthe whole of our solar system.The plot starts onthe planet Earth and then it gradually develops on Mars, Mercury and Titan, where it nearly reaches its climax, and finally terminates back on Earth. Each of the four following chaptersofthe bachelor thesis isdedicatedtooneofthesecelestial bodies. The bachelor thesis provides a detailedanalysis of the novel. Withinthese four distinct alternative worlds,I concentrate onansweringthe question towhat extent the author’s visionof these celestial bodies corresponds tothe knownastronomical facts.In other words, how muchandinwhat aspects Kurt Vonnegut uses his imaginationwhen describingthe planets and the satellite. The names of all the celestial bodies are also analyzed from the mythological point of view.Most importantly, the thesis examines the reasonwhyVonnegut chooses preciselythese celestial bodies,andwhat ‘worlds’ he creates onthem.Inother words,what author might have wantedtoevoke inreaders’ mindswhendepictingthesceneryofthe planetsandtheirinhabitants. From the formal standpoint,the thesis is concernedwiththe various features of the literarygenres andstyles.It especiallytries totrace the aspects of postmodernism suchas its typical temporal disorder,paranoia like not only a private apprehension, but alsoa distressingspeculationthat the whole societyis a plot against the citizen,as well as the postmodern belief that everything is a game (Sim 124131). The thesis is interestedin the questionof free will,cosmological determinism or the critical approach toward the society, within the novel. It tries to distinguish what Vonnegut’s personal beliefsandmoralvaluesareencodedinthemessagehedeliverstothereader. 5 Inorder to make the analysis inthe four mainchapters more comprehensible, two introductory chapters, one presenting Kurt Vonnegut’s biography and views of literarycritics onhis work,andone shortlysummarizingthe plot of the book,precede them. 6 0.1 Kurt Vonnegut’s biography Kurt Vonnegut was a writer whose workis oftenconsideredquite controversial andstill produces quandaries amongthe literarycritics.It is not surprisingas his case is utterlyunique.He hadbecome a cult of the undergroundmovement andhis paperback books,especiallyhis unique work Cat’s Cradle , publishedin1963,hadbeenthe most widely read and quoted texts of the movement, even before respected literary critics noticed him. Vonnegut’s pacifist ideas, blended with the criticism of naivety of American nationalism, and his ironical almost cynical attitude to the technocratic westernsocietyattractedthestudentsandcritics of bourgeoisAmerica(Jařab408). Kurt Vonnegut Jr.was bornonNovember 11,1922in Indianapolis,Indiana,and diedinNew YorkonApril 11,2007atthe age of eightyfour. The newsabout his death, which ran round the world in all the media, was reported by his wife Jill Krementz, whose one comment onher husband’ deathwas that: “He diedat the top of his game, andI don’t thinkanyone wouldever want todomore thanthat” (CNN).His grandfather was the first licensed architect in Indiana, and his father was successful in the profession.Kurt,as well as his twoolder siblings,BernardandAlice, was born to the third-generation GermanAmerican parents, and because of anti-German sentiment in the United States after World War I, was brought up without any knowledge of the German language. Referring to his parents, Vonnegut once remarked that “they volunteeredtomake me ignorant androotless as proof of their patriotism” (Literature Online). Paradoxically,Vonnegut,havingjoined the U.S.ArmyduringWorldWar II, was imprisonedinGermany.Hiddeninanundergroundcellar of a slaughterhouse five, inspiringhis later novel namedafter this “lifesavingshelter”,he survivedthe bombing ofDresdenbyAlliedforcesin1945: “Utter destruction,” he recalls. “Carnage unfathomable.” The Nazis put him to work gathering bodies for mass burial …Vonnegut explains. “But there were too many corpses to bury. So Instead The Nazis sent in guys with flamethrowers. All these civilians´ remains were burned to ashes.” (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia) Vonnegut was one of just sevenAmericanwar prisoners tosurvive the firebombingof Dresden,whichresultedinthousands of lost lives.Althoughhis books oftencombine 7 philosophywithscience fiction andjokes,a war theme appears inmanyof them,most notablyinhis bestknownwork: His experience in Dresden was the basis of “Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade,” which was published in 1966 against the backdrop of war in Vietnam, racial unrest and cultural and social upheaval. The novel, wrote the critic Jerome Klinkowitz, “so perfectly caught America’s transformative mood that its story and structure become bestselling metaphors for the new age.” (The New York Times) Slaughterhouse-Five ,whichis regardedtobe Vonnegut’s masterpiece andone of the most significant works of American fiction in the twentieth century (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia), dealt directly with the Dresden bombing, but there are the other books like The Sirens of Titan or Player Piano intowhichawar conflictis incorporated, too. His first writing attempts began while studying at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis,from whichhe graduatedin1940. He was the editor of andalsowrote for the school newspaper The Daily Echo .Suchan earlyexperience of writingfor a wide audience has probablyinfluencedhis writingstyle.Vonnegut’s workis far from being academic. On the contrary, his style is very simple, rough, sometimes even vulgar, whichiswhyheatonce attractssomereadersandshocks,evenrepelsothers. After graduating from Shortridge, Vonnegut headed for Cornell University. “His father wantedhim tostudysomethingthat was solidanddependable,like science, soVonnegut beganhiscollegecareerasachemistryandbiologymajor,followinginthe footsteps ofhis older brother,Bernard,whowas toeventually be the discoverer of cloud seeding to induce precipitation” (Literature Online). Until 1943 when he joined the U.S. Army, he served as an opinion section editor for student’s newspaper the Cornell Daily Sun . Just before he left for Germany, his mother committed suicide, “another event that wouldhaunt Vonnegut’s soul” (CNN).After the war,he attended the Universityof Chicagoas a graduate anthropologystudent andworked for the City News Bureau of Chicago as a police reporter. His master’s thesis was rejected, and Vonnegut left for Schenectedy, New York, to work in public relations for General Electric. Here begun his writing career. His first novel, the dystopian science fiction Player Piano ,influencedbyhis backgroundat General Electric,andthe secondwork 8 The Sirens of Titan have most science fictionfeatures,but theyare not the orthodoxsci- fi.“Some critics saidhe hadinventeda new literarytype,infusingthe science-fiction form withhumour andmoral relevance andelevatingit toserious literature” (The New York Times). Vonnegut’s science-fiction is not only a means but also the aim of his critical and satirical opinions. “His scientific background would serve him well as a writer. He possessed a knowledge of technological and chemical innovations that distinguish him from his literary peers. It meant that he was uniquely placed to comment upon the dehumanising qualities of technological
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