MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature 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 I would like to thank Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D., for her patience, kind guidance and valuable professional advice.
3
CONTENTS
Introduction…………………………………………..………………………………….5 0.1 Kurt Vonnegut’s biography……………………………………………………….....7 0.2 The Sirens of Titan…………………………………………………………………11 1.1 Everything begins and ends on Earth…………………………………...………….13 1.2 Everybody is a marionette of the universe…………………………...…………….16 1.2.1 An ordinary millionaire Malachi Constant…………………………………….....17 1.2.2 The powerless god Rumfoord…………………………………………………….19 2. Bloody and flaming Mars………………………………………………………...….22 3.1 Freezing and burning Mercury…………………………………………….……….25 3.2 Could harmoniums exist? ………………………………………………………….28 4.1 The mysterious, delusive moon…………………………………………………….32 4.2 Monsters or gorgeous creatures? …………………………………………………..36 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...39 Resume…………………………...…………………………………………………….41 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………42 Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….43
4 Introduction
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the second of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, The Sirens of Titan written in 1959. I have read several Kurt Vonnegut’s novels and he 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 background of science” (Literature Online). It is a space travel story in which Vonnegut invents alternative worlds as a way of satirically commenting upon the follies and foibles of this world (Literature Online). Therefore the settings in this novel are particularly interesting. Vonnegut fills his worlds with topsy turvy images and populates them by races of his own creation like the Harmoniums (The New York Times). He creates four complex, distinct worlds which are scattered around the whole of our solar system. The plot starts on the 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 chapters of the bachelor thesis is dedicated to one of these celestial bodies. The bachelor thesis provides a detailed analysis of the novel. Within these four distinct alternative worlds, I concentrate on answering the question to what extent the author’s vision of these celestial bodies corresponds to the known astronomical facts. In other words, how much and in what aspects Kurt Vonnegut uses his imagination when describing the 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 reason why Vonnegut chooses precisely these celestial bodies, and what ‘worlds’ he creates on them. In other words, what author might have wanted to evoke in readers’ minds when depicting the scenery of the planets and their inhabitants. From the formal standpoint, the thesis is concerned with the various features of the literary genres and styles. It especially tries to trace the aspects of postmodernism such as its typical temporal disorder, paranoia like not only a private apprehension, but also a distressing speculation that the whole society is a plot against the citizen, as well as the postmodern belief that everything is a game (Sim 124 131). The thesis is interested in the question of free will, cosmological determinism or the critical approach toward the society, within the novel. It tries to distinguish what Vonnegut’s personal beliefs and moral values are encoded in the message he delivers to the reader.
5 In order to make the analysis in the four main chapters more comprehensible, two introductory chapters, one presenting Kurt Vonnegut’s biography and views of literary critics on his work, and one shortly summarizing the plot of the book, precede them.
6 0.1 Kurt Vonnegut’s biography Kurt Vonnegut was a writer whose work is often considered quite controversial and still produces quandaries among the literary critics. It is not surprising as his case is utterly unique. He had become a cult of the underground movement and his paperback books, especially his unique work Cat’s Cradle , published in 1963, had been the 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 western society attracted the students and critics of bourgeois America (Jařab 408). Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and died in New York on April 11, 2007 at the age of eighty four. The news about his death, which ran round the world in all the media, was reported by his wife Jill Krementz, whose one comment on her husband’ death was that: “He died at the top of his game, and I don’t think anyone would ever want to do more than that” (CNN). His grandfather was the first licensed architect in Indiana, and his father was successful in the profession. Kurt, as well as his two older siblings, Bernard and Alice, was born to the third generation German American 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 volunteered to make me ignorant and rootless as proof of their patriotism” (Literature Online). Paradoxically, Vonnegut, having joined the U.S. Army during World War II, was imprisoned in Germany. Hidden in an underground cellar of a slaughterhouse five, inspiring his later novel named after this “lifesaving shelter”, he survived the bombing of Dresden by Allied forces in 1945: “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 seven American war prisoners to survive the firebombing of Dresden, which resulted in thousands of lost lives. Although his books often combine
7 philosophy with science fiction and jokes, a war theme appears in many of them, most notably in his best known work: 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 , which is regarded to be Vonnegut’s masterpiece and one 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 into which a war conflict is incorporated, too. His first writing attempts began while studying at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, from which he graduated in 1940. He was the editor of and also wrote for the school newspaper The Daily Echo . Such an early experience of writing for a wide audience has probably influenced his writing style. Vonnegut’s work is far from being academic. On the contrary, his style is very simple, rough, sometimes even vulgar, which is why he at once attracts some readers and shocks, even repels others. After graduating from Shortridge, Vonnegut headed for Cornell University. “His father wanted him to study something that was solid and dependable, like science, so Vonnegut began his college career as a chemistry and biology major, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Bernard, who was to eventually 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 would haunt Vonnegut’s soul” (CNN). After the war, he attended the University of Chicago as a graduate anthropology student and worked 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 , influenced by his background at General Electric, and the second work
8 The Sirens of Titan have most science fiction features, but they are not the orthodox sci fi. “Some critics said he had invented a new literary type, infusing the science fiction form with humour and moral relevance and elevating it to serious 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 ‘progress’ “ (Literature Online). He sees extraordinary things to be normal and in ordinary things reveals something extraordinary, explains the problems of modern society and offers his readers various moral dilemmas (Jařab 408). “With a blend of science fiction, philosophy and jokes, he wrote about the banalities of consumer culture or the destruction of environment” (The New York Times). All in all, although Vonnegut employs aspects of sci fi such as spaceships, time travel, and distant galaxies in his novels, he is a writer whose works, when read closely, “ultimately warn against the dangerous ideas that exist within science fiction. At the centre of his canon resides the notion that science fiction is capable of filling humanity with false realities and empty promises for Utopian societies that do not and, perhaps most importantly, cannot exist” (Literature Online). It is not easy to classify a literary genre Kurt Vonnegut’s writing belongs to. Most of the literary critics see features of various literary styles in his work when individual books, some more some less, bear postmodernist, naturalistic, realistic or science fictional signs. Nevertheless, postmodernism, with its typical indefiniteness of genres, is probably the literary movement that classifies Vonnegut’s work best. Postmodernism is also typical of the attempt to refrain from dividing art into high and low genres: Most postmodernist works attempt to subvert the distinction between “high” and “low” culture. The result is often a blending or pastiche of techniques, genres, and even media. In literature the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Kurt Vonnegut […] are especially good examples of the ways that this combining takes place to discourage easy categorization. With this works it is not always possible to tell if one is reading an autobiography, a history, a novel, or literary criticism (Literature Online).
9 Since publishing his first book in 1952 until 2006 when he came out with the short story collection A Man Without a Country , he wrote fourteen novels, three short story collections, five books of collected essays and five plays. His extensive life long career inspired other artists and many of his works were adapted for stage, film or television. Despite Vonnegut’s irony and criticism of modern society, he refused to surrender to the commonly spread feeling that it is impossible to change the world we live in (Jařab 411). He believed that since decency, kindness, feelings of happiness, human mutuality and family solidarity and particularly love, exist, there is still a way out of the moral decline of the society and this belief of his is projected into his literary work. One of the eloquent samples expressing moral values Vonnegut advocated sums up the protagonist of his novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater saying: ‘Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies – ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind’” (The New York Times).
10 0.2 The Sirens of Titan
The story starts on the planet Earth, in Newport in the U.S.A., where the main characters Malachi Constant, Winston Niles Rumford and his wife Beatrice first meet. It is here when Malachi learns from Rumfoord that he is going to travel around the universe. However, Malachi does not believe Rumfoord’s prediction and he does his best to ward off the predicted occurrences. Nevertheless, he does not escape his fate and soon set off for a journey that takes him from Earth to Mars in preparation for an interplanetary war between Earth and Mars. On the spacecraft during the journey, after a wild drinking bout, he unconsciously rapes Beatrice, who is also travelling to Mars. When they terminate on Mars, their brains are washed so as to be navigated by antennas that are implanted into their heads. This is the case of every man that is to become an obedient Martian. Winston Niles Rumfoord, a wealthy space traveller, exists along with his dog Kazak in a spiral called “chrono synclastic infundibulum”, which is defined as “those places… where all the different kinds of truths fit together” (Vonnegut 14). When he entered the infundibulum he began aware of the future and past and he became immaterial “wave phenomena” stretching along the spiral. He can permanently exist in a material form only on Titan, or can temporarily materialize on other planets when any of them intersects the spiral. The war between Mars and Earth is Rumfoord’s idea so as to sacrifice Martians for the sake of uniting the planet Earth after a Martian invasion. It is also Rumfoord that initiates other Malachi Constant’s travels from Mars to Mercury, then to Earth and lastly to Titan, where they meet for the last time. Only there, Malachi learns the whole truth about his universe travels as Rumfoord explains to him that real initiators of the entire happening are extraterrestrial robots from a distant galaxy, the dwellers of Tralfarmadore. When Rumfoord materializes on Titan he befriends one of the Tralfarmadorians, an explorer Salo, who needs a small metal component to repair his damaged spaceship. Salo was sent many millennia earlier to carry a message to a distant galaxy when a component on his spacecraft broke. He landed on Titan and requested help from Tralfamadore. Therefore, his fellow robots manipulated human history so that civilization on Earth could produce the replacement part: “The reply was written on Earth in huge stones on a plain […] “ (Vonnegut 271). Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, the Golden House of the Roman Emperor Nero, the Palace of the League of Nations, and the Kremlin are all messages in the Tralfamadorian geometrical
11 language. Salo is informed that the replacement part is a small metal strip that is to be brought to him by Constant’s son Chrono. When Constant, Beatrice and Chrono finally come to Titan, a sunspot disrupts Rumfoord’s spiral, throwing him into the vastness of space. Salo, distraught because of an argument with Rumfoord a moment before his disappearance, disassembles himself. Thus Constant, Beatrice and Chrono are stranded on Titan. Chrono chooses to live among the Titanian birds. His mother Beatrice dies after thirty two years living happily with Constant. Constant, seeing no point in remaining on Titan, wants to travel back to Earth. Salo, reassembled by Constant and decided to deliver his message, offers to give him a lift. And so he does. Malachi Constant, back on Earth in Indianapolis, dies peacefully at the bus stop.
12 1.1 Everything begins and ends on Earth The planet Earth is only one of the planets on which the story of The Sirens of Titan is set. The narrator uses a simple sentence,: “The town was Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A., Earth, Solar System, Milky Way” (Vonnegut 9) to introduce the place in which the story begins. But this sentence also indicates that it is not going to be the only town, country not even planet or solar system the story is set in. Such a precise location indicates that other planets or even Solar Systems may be the places where the narrator is going to lead the readers to. The assumption is later confirmed when the narrator provides the explanation of where and how one of the main characters Winston Niles Rumfoord, along with his dog Kazak, will exist. The novel explains that Winston runs his space ship into the heart of something so called “chrono synclastic infundibulum”, which spreads two days from Mars: The Solar System seems to be full of chrono synclastic infundibula. There is one big one we are sure of that likes to stay between Earth and Mars [...]. Chrono (kroh no) means time. Synclastic (sin classtick) means curved towards the same side in all directions, like the skin of the orange. infundibulum (in fun dib u lum) is what the ancient Romans like Julius Caesar and Nero called a funnel (Vonnegut 14,15). The form of Rumfoord’s and Kazak’s existence is described as a wave phenomenon,: “apparently pulsing in a distorted spiral with its origin in the Sun and its terminal in Betelgeuse” (Vonnegut 13). The only time their bodies can exist in a material form is when the planet Earth intercepts the spiral and such a phenomenon happens every fifty nine days, lasts mere one hour and is called materialization (Vonnegut 18). It is precisely the materialization of Winston Niles Rumfoord and his mastiff Kazak on Earth that is a starting point of the space story The Sirens of Titan , and during which all the main characters Malachi Constant, Winston Niles Rumfoord and his wife Beatrice meet for the first time. The materialization takes place at Rumford’s residence, which is described in detail:
13 The Rumfoord mansion was marble, an extended reproduction of the banqueting hall of Whitehall Palace in London [...]. The Rumfoord mansion was a hilariously impressive expression of the concept: People of substance. It was surely one of the greatest essays on density since the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The density and the permanence of the mansion were, of course, at ironic variance with the fact that the quondam master of the house, except for one hour in every fifty nine days, was no more substantial than a moonbeam (Vonnegut 18). The depiction of the residence is supposed to symbolize wealth and superiority of the class the Rumfoords belong to. Not only their house as a building but also the interiors is a vehicle by means of which the image of Winston and Beatrice as people of great wealth, importance and honor is evoked. This status of theirs can be seen even more clearly in the moment of Malachi entering the house and meeting Winston in the foyer. Winston comes into the foyer, the floor of which is a splendid mosaic, showing the signs of zodiac encircling a sun in the middle. When he extends his hand to greet Constant, he is standing right on the golden shining sun (Vonnegut 20). The sun, which represents the central point of our solar system and the essential source of energy without which the life on Earth would not be possible, undoubtedly personifies Winston Rumfoord’s supernatural power of being able to influence future lives of terrestrials. Moreover, the description of the garden has the same impact: The one entrance to the estate was an Alice in Wonderland door in the west wall. The door was only four and a half feet high. It was made of iron and held shut by a great Yale lock. The wide gates of the estate were bricked in [...]. Beware of the dog! said a sign over the small iron door. The fires of the summer sunset flickered among the razors and needles of broken glass set in concrete on the top of the wall (Vonnegut 10,11). The image of the Rumfoords estate secured as an impregnable castle surrounded by a thick walls strengthens the feeling that the inhabitants of such a building are superior people. That they do not want to come to a contact with ordinary citizens as they think it is degrading. All in all, the description of the Rumfoords house helps to stabilize
14 Rumfoord’s role as a ruler, which he is given in the book, and Beatrice as a dignified wife of a future seer. However, both their status appears not to be as unwavering towards the end of the book as it seems to be at its beginning. The change of their roles might indicate some deeper intention. One of the possibilities why the narrator degraded Rumfoord, the rule, to a role of man misused by robots, and Beatrice, a symbol of pride, to a humiliated, ordinary woman, could be seen as a moral. It warns the reader that a value of property and a position in society neither gives anybody right to misuse other people or act against their will, nor is something importantly influencing the real value of our lives: For all his talents Rumfoord is not much closer to understanding the ultimate purpose of life than the common people who expect him to render their lives meaningful […]. The more he knows of the future, the more constrained his actions and ultimately his free will – he must do what he is predetermined to do […]. Thus the creatures who should posses the highest degree of knowledge are as ignorant as the creatures on the lowest level. The hierarchy, then, is delusive; it is pseudo hierarchy (Pettersson 186,187). Similarly, Malachi’s estate and the hotel room in which Malachi’s father Noel spent nearly all his life are described in great details. On the other hand, the narrator does not pay much attention to illustration of the planet Earth. But his attitude to Earth is apparent throughout the whole book and it can be seen behind the lines that the main focus is placed just on Earth and more importantly mankind. The final comeback of Malachi on the planet Earth shows not only Malachi’s but also Salo’s affection for this planet, which is in Salo’s case very surprising since he is extraterrestrial, as well as it uncovers the narrator’s warm affection for Earth and the ordinary earthly life: “Good luck,” whispered Salo. “We don’t say that down here,” whispered Constant. Salo winked. “I’m not from down here,” he whispered. He looked around at the perfectly white world, felt the wet kisses of the snowflakes, pondered hidden meaning in the pale yellow streetlights that shone in a world so whitely asleep. “Beautiful,” he whispered. “Isn’t it?” whispered Constant (Vonnegut 317,318).
15 To sum up, the fact that the story of The Sirens of Titan begins on Earth as well as it terminates on Earth seems to be Vonnegut’s intention to convey a message to the humankind. At the beginning of the story, the sirens of Titan are a symbol of Constant’s and also all men’s lust for the futile quest for the meaning of life. For Constant’s temptation to find the sirens, Vonnegut sends him on a long voyage around the universe. However, at the end of this voyage when back on the planet Earth, “the sirens come to symbolize the maturity ‘Constant as well as’ man must attain before his spiritual growth can begin. Like Ulysses, he must pass the sirens to find his way home” (Pettersson 183). Only after he has traveled the universe and found no all encompassing truth can he perceive a purpose in simple down to earth life. An ‘ordinary’ life, that has no other meaning except for living it to the best of one’s knowledge, is what Vonnegut deeply believed in. Moreover, he also believed that people should respect the explicitness and simplicity of the earthly life, as well as they should regard the planet Earth more highly. He gave voice to this belief of his in the interviews many times when he said: The biggest truth to face now – what is probably making me unfunny for the remaining one third of my life – is that I don’t think people give a damn whether the planet goes on or not. It seems to me as if everyone is living as member of Alcoholics Anonymous do, day by day. And a few more days will be enough. I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren (Literature Online). 1.2 Everybody is a marionette of the universe
Although the story is set in the far future, Vonnegut does not alter the mankind in any of its features. The terrestrials in the novel lead basically the same lives as people nowadays. Therefore, the main topic of this subchapter is not devoted to the humankind as such, but to two of its representatives. The two representatives I have chosen to describe are also the two main characters of the novel, Malachi Constant and Winston Niles Rumfoord. Their fates fade into one another. Although different in personal
16 qualities, they change throughout the story so much that their roles are actually swapped. Malachi, dull, conceited, consumer oriented with no feelings for anybody, becomes a modest, wise man with great affections towards his ‘mate’ Beatrice. On the contrary, Rumfoord’s role of a dignified, wise man with the ability to foresee and affect the future gradually develops into a mere pawn with no power to change his fate. Such alterations in the roles of the principal actors upset the black and white world of, otherwise strictly established, roles of heroes and villains so typical of the science fiction genre (Pettersson 179,180). The protagonists, Malachi and Rumfoord, with their changeable roles support the idea that the sci fi is not the right drawer for Vonnegut, in fact they emphasize the postmodern aspect of “playing games” in his work. 1.2.1 An ordinary millionaire Malachi Constant
The protagonist of the book is the richest man in America of the twenty second century Malachi Constant. Originally of Hollywood, California, he possesses extraordinary luck, which he has used to expand his fortune. After his father’s death, Malachi inherits Magnum Opus, the Los Angeles Corporation. The fact of attaining such a fortune without the slightest endeavor draws a parallel to the fact that Malachi’s father, Noel Constant, also amassed this great capital without ‘lifting a finger’ or being intelligent. His father Noel Constant is cast into a role of a loser that does not abound in any remarkable abilities or intellect, but despite this becomes a rich owner of a prosperous company: Magnum Opus began as an idea in the head of a Yankee traveling salesman of copper bottomed cookware. That Yankee was Noel Constant, a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts […]. He took the Gideon Bible that was in his room, and he started with the first sentence in Genesis. The first sentence in Genesis […] is: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Noel Constant wrote the sentence in capital letters, put periods between the letters, divided the letters into pairs, rendering the sentence as follows: “I.N., T.H., E.B., E.G., I.N., N.I., N.G., G.O., D.C., R.E., A.T., E.D., T.H., E.H., E.A., V.E., N.A., N.D., T.H., E.E., A.R., T.H.,.”
17 And then he looked for corporations with those initials, and bought shares in them (Vonnegut 71 74). Malachi Constant not only comes into his father’s fortune, but he also inherits inexplicable luck, as it can be hardly called a method, in his financial affairs. But, like his father, he has done nothing significant with his life: “He is not even well educated. He had been thrown out of the University of Virginia in the middle of his freshman year” (Vonnegut 11). Malachi leads a wasteful, empty life of a millionaire who has enormous means and possibilities, but is not able to use them efficiently. Vonnegut shapes Malachi’s character in a way so as to provide a typical representative of the consumer society of the 1950s, and casts him in a role of a space traveler. The progress of the story and the events Malachi has to go though and which shape his character conveys the author’s message that there are many things in our lives which can neither be explained nor do they make sense. “The people who can’t understand it are people who have to believe, for their own peace of mind, that tremendous wealth can be produced only by tremendous cleverness” (Vonnegut 73). Both Malachi and Rumfoord have obvious roles of a puppet that can not influence who and how ‘pull its strings’. By contrast, Malachi’s character, although being a part of an uncontrollable game, shapes and changes. A typical consumer, influenced by a series of coincidences, becomes a character that finds his ‘own face’, although in his declining years. Malachi’s transformation already begins with his stay on Mars, where he, for the first time, starts recognizing his feelings for Beatrice and their son Chrono. However, the identification with his inner ideas and affections is aggravated by brainwashing. All Martians are brainwashed as they are not supposed to remember or feel anything. In this, the reader can clearly see Vonnegut’s attitude towards the authorities. He was “a frequent lecturer, telling audience to be skeptical of authority and stay true to their humanity in a dehumanizing world” (CNN). Later on Mercury, Malachi, free from the control of the antenna in his head, is given one more chance to order his thoughts and feelings. Malachi’s character finally takes shape on Titan, where he finds his way to Beatrice’s heart and accepts Chrono as his son. His stay on Titan becomes his life’s destiny as he lives there as long as his ‘mate’ is alive. After her death, there is no point for Malachi in staying on Titan any longer: “’My mate died today […]. It’s a lonely place here now that –‘ He shook his head” (Vonnegut 313, 314). This moment is a real climax of Malachi Constant’s personality. Not only his inner beliefs and feelings have matured,
18 but he is also given a right to make his own, meaningful decision. So, after the whole life space travel, being drawn by Rumfoord from planet to planet, he himself chooses a place to live the rest of his life: “Indianapolis, Indiana,” said Constant, is the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for a murder of an Indian. The kind of people who’ll hang a white man for murdering an Indian – “ said Constant, “that’s the kind of people for me.” (Vonnegut 314,315). Malachi’s comeback at the end of his voyage and his life, as well as his self discovery stands as a symbol for a destiny every terrestrial should aim for. The fundamental legacy of the novel that there is neither divine guidance nor point in trying to ‘explain the world’ is one of the primary beliefs of postmodernism (Trávníček 622). 1.2.2 The powerless god Rumfoord Winston Niles Rumfoord is the second most important figure in the story that helps Vonnegut to express his moral believes; therefore he pays attention to Rumfoord’s description. Rumfoord comes from a wealthy New England background, which classifies him as a dignified, proud and mighty man. To build up such an image, the narrator says: Winston Niles Rumfoord was a member of the one true American class. The class was a true one because its limits had been clearly defined for at least two centuries – clearly defined for anyone with an eye for definitions. From Rumfoord’s small class had become a tenth of America’s presidents, a quarter of its explorers, a third of its Eastern Seaboard governors, a half of its full time ornithologists, three quarters of its yachtsmen […] (Vonnegut 26). Moreover, his dignity and might are not predetermined only by his origin but also the impression he makes on other people makes his superior:
19 Winston Niles Rumfoord was much heavier than Malachi Constant – and he was the first person who had ever made Constant think that there might actually be a person superior to himself […]. Winston Niles Rumfoord was something else again – morally, spatially, socially, sexually, and electrically. Winston Niles Rumfoord’s smile and handshake dismantled Constant’s high opinion of himself as efficiently as carnival roustabouts might dismantle a Ferris wheel. Constant panicked before the very moderate greatness of Rumfoord (Vonnegut 20,21). In addition, Rumfoord’s private fortune helps him to fund the construction of a personal spacecraft and become a space explorer. While traveling in the universe, his ship enters the “chrono synclastic infundibulum” and he becomes aware of the past and the future, he predicts future events and his predictions always come true, unless he is lying deliberately: “I can read your mind, you know,” said Rumfoord. “Can you?” said Constant humbly. “Easiest thing in the world,” said Rumfoord. His eyes twinkled. “You’re not a bad sort, you know –“ he said, “Particularly when you forget who you are.” He touched Constant lightly on the arm. It was a politician’s gesture – a vulgar public gesture by a man who in private, among his own kind, would take wincing pains never to touch anyone (Vonnegut 22,23). This ability of his makes him look even more powerful. On the other hand, the powerful man Rumfoord is well aware of the fact that he is a mere part of a cosmological mechanism like anybody else. “His superior knowledge includes the realization that free will is an illusion” (Pettersson 188). Although he directs all the happening on the planet Earth and other celestial bodies and arranges Malachi’s space travel, he appears a more helpless prisoner of time than anybody else: “‘Tralfarmadore,’ said Rumfoord bitterly ‘reached into the Solar System, picked me up, and used me like a handy dandy potato peeler!’” (Vonnegut 285). This typically postmodern belief that a human life is nothing more than ‘a game of chess’, in which each of us is only a pawn, permeates throughout the whole novel. Rumfoord perfectly fits Richard Dawkins’s theory of postmodernism
20 in which he asks whether or not postmodernism claims only to be ‘playing games’: “Isn’t it the whole point of their philosophy that anything goes […]“ (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia)?
21 2.1 Bloody and flaming Mars Mars, the second smallest planet after Mercury, is a planet that has drawn attention of astronomers ever since people became aware of the existence of other planets than Earth. It is the second planet on which the story of The Sirens of Titan is set. There is no reliable information about when Mars was observed for the first time, but it is likely that it was between 3,000 and 4,000 BC. All ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians and the Greeks knew about this, so called “wandering star” (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). It is the closest planet to Earth, easily observed from Earth when in opposition to the Sun, and the one which has always been the source of speculations about being a possible place of existence of life. Therefore it is not surprising that it has become a setting of many science fictional books and films. Kurt Vonnegut decided to give Mars a role in his novel too, and it is needless to say that not an unimportant role. Mars is the first destination of Malachi Constant’s cosmic travel. The narrator does not seemingly pay much attention to the depiction of this planet, except a few details. The rusted orange surface of solid iron (Vonnegut 97), as the ground of Mars is described, is likely to have been inspired by the real astronomical knowledge of this planet. Mars’s colour is red due to the fact that its surface contains of iron compounds (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). This is not the only similarity between the real planet Mars and Mars in The Sirens of Titan . In the novel, the only city on Mars is called Phoebe and: “nobody knows why it is called Phoebe” (Vonnegut 127). For anybody who is interested in astronomy and particularly in Mars, there is an obvious connection with Phobos, the bigger satellite of two Mars’s satellites. Both satellites Phobos and Deimos were discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877, who named them after the god Mart’s sons. In translation Phobos means fear and Demios terror. Neither name evokes pleasant images but only one of them poses a real threat for Mars and it is Phobos. Phobos orbits Mars faster than it rotates around its own axis, which slows down the rotation and also reduces the distance between the planet and the satellite. It is estimated that in fifty thousands years, Phobos will hit into Mars causing total destruction of the satellite and great damage of Mars (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). Taking this prediction into consideration, the fact that the narrator names the only city on Mars Phoebe seems to have a symbolical meaning. The name Phoebe symbolizes a city that is doomed and this is the case of Phoebe in the novel. The dwellers of Phoebe are people brought from Earth in order to lead a war against people
22 living on Earth. But having been brainwashed and made constantly obey orders, transmitting into their brains by antennas, they do not realize how horrifying a fate awaits them. They are supposed to be sacrificed so as to change the situation on Earth: It was Rumfoord’s intention that Mars should lose the war – that Mars should lose it foolishly and horribly. As a seer of the future, Rumfoord knew for certain that this would be the case – and he was content. He wished to change the World for the better by means of the great and unforgettable suicide of Mars (Vonnegut 174). Therefore the above cited sentence: “nobody knows why it is called Phoebe” (Vonnegut 127) does not seem to be true for the author. It appears not to be coincidence that Kurt Vonnegut chose precisely the name Phoebe for the city predetermined for self destruction. Furthermore, the name Phoebe can in a similar way symbolize the fear that is likely to rise in a reader’s mind. It evokes a fearful image of being misused and not being able to act according our own will. The question is whether such an image represents the motif of cosmological determinism or whether it is supposed to draw a link to the social determinism, or if it refers to the postmodern idea of playing games. Rumfoord’s intention to sacrifice thousands of lives for higher aims, as he claims that: “they are going to fight for the privilege of being the first army that ever died in a good cause,” (Vonnegut 142), supports Vonnegut’s conviction that the culture we live in determines our lives strongly. On the other hand, as it has been already stated in the previous chapter, Rumfoord’s whole life and all his deeds appear to be ruled by extraterrestrials from the faraway planet Tralfamadore. And yet, the Tralfamadorians are robots whose bodies are powered and lives are organized by “a phenomenon known as UWTB, or the Universal Will to Become. “UWTB is what makes universes out of nothingness – that makes nothingness insist on becoming somethingness” (Vonnegut 138), and this emphasis the postmodern aspect in the novel. All this evidence points to a conclusion that Kurt Vonnegut works with an idea of cosmological determinism and “its two aspects, predestination and extraterrestrial influence” (Petterson 177) to parody science fiction practices. This parody as well as metafictional determinism denoting his postmodern sensibility “indicate the main affinities in Vonnegut’s fiction: postmodern (self reflexiveness), science fiction (a broad perspective on human existence), and naturalism (sociological and physiological
23 influences)” (Pettersson 35). A close reader can spot various features of different literary genres. A close reader can also sense what Vonnegut wants Mars to symbolize. Mars is to be a symbol of war and violence. The two images, the sacrificial Mars city of Phoebe, the dwellers of which start the war against the planet Earth, and the ideology of enslaving and humiliating Martians’ minds, evoke such a symbol in the reader’s mind. A perceptive reader that is, at least slightly, interested in astronomy can immediately understand why Vonnegut chooses Mars for war symbolism. Due to its red or pink orange shade, already the ancient cultures considered Mars as a symbol of fire and blood, which might also be the possible reason why it was given its name after Mart, the Roman god of war (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia).
24 3.1 Freezing and burning Mercury
The planet Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun in our solar system, plays an important part in the book. Mercury is the second planet, after Mars, which the main character Malachi Constant visits. Malachi, nicknamed by his fellow soldiers Unk, accompanied by another soldier from Mars, Boaz do not intend to land on Mercury. They leave Mars together with other thousands space ships which are supposed to attack Earth. Nevertheless, the automatic pilot navigator of the space ship Malachi and Boaz travelled with carries Unk and Boaz to the planet Mercury first and then from there to Earth. It is Rumfoord that sets their space ship computer to land on Mercury because he wants Unk to stay in a safe place and not to be killed in the war between Mars and Earth (Vonnegut 176). Moreover, it also seems that even Vonnegut has his precise idea about for what purposes should Mercury in the novel serve. This chapter do not only analyse the description of Mercury from the astronomic point of view, but it also tries to explain what reasons could Vonnegut have to describe this planet in the way he does. Mercury, similarly like many other planets, derives its name from mythology. In this case it comes partly from Roman mythology, to which the god of commerce, travel and thievery Mercury belongs, and from Greek mythology too, as Mercury is the Roman counterpart of Greek god Hermes, known as the messenger of the gods (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). “The Romans named the planet after the fleet footed messenger Mercury, probably for its fast apparent motion in the twilight sky” (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). Mercury is a very small planet just 1.4 times the size of the Moon and is similar to the Moon in many aspects. Its surface is heavily cratered and very old. Nevertheless, Mercury is much denser than the Moon; to be precise it is the second densest celestial body in the solar system, after Earth. On the other hand the density of Mercury’s atmosphere is so small that it can be hardly considered atmosphere at all: “Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere consisting of atoms blasted off its surface by the solar wind. Because Mercury is so hot, these atoms quickly escape into space. Thus in contrast to the Earth and Venus whose atmospheres are stable, Mercury's atmosphere is constantly being replenished” (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). The absence of atmosphere causes enormous differences in temperature between the dark side of Mercury and the side exposed to the Sun. The temperature on the dark side of the planet reaches minus 180°C, whereas the opposite side radiates with plus 500°C. Until 1962 Mercury was thought to keep that
25 same face to the Sun much as the Moon does to the Earth, since it was believed that one day on Mercury was the same length as a year. But it is now known that Mercury rotates around its own axis three times in two of its years (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). The description of Mercury in The Sirens of Titan meets the features of the real planet in many ways. Unk and Boaz land on the dark side of the planet: One side of Mercury faces the Sun. That side has always faced the Sun. That side is a sea of white hot dust. The other side faces the nothingness of space eternal. That side has always faced the nothingness of space eternal. That side is a forest of giant blue white crystals, aching cold (Vonnegut 184). The planet with its freezing side and its hot side corresponds to the astronomical knowledge about Mercury. Even the fact that its one side always faces the Sun seems to be based on the astronomical observations, since the book was written in 1959 when this was still believed. But imagination is given a scope in the detailed description too: It seemed to Unk and Boaz that their ship was settling slowly among skyscrapers over which searchlights played. “They aren’t shooting,” said Boaz. “Either the war’s over, or it ain’t begun.” The merry beams of lights they saw were not from searchlights. The beams came from tall crystals on the borderline between the light and dark hemispheres of Mercury. Those crystals were catching beams from the sun, were bending them prismatically, playing them over the dark side [...]. It was easy to mistake the dense forest of giant blue white crystals for skyscrapers, stupendous and beautiful (Vonnegut 187,188). Such crystals are not known to exist on the planet and therefore seem to be a mere figment of the narrator’s imagination. However, it is the imagination which helps to create the image of Mercury as a beautiful planet. Moreover, Mercury in the novel does not have any atmosphere as there is a vacuum and this is generally believed to be true for the real planet. Although the absence of atmosphere is regarded unsuitable for any form of life, it does not seem to be a problem for Unk and Boaz. They both learned how
26 to survive in a vacuum during their service in the Martian army. The technique so called “Schliemann breathing” was taught to every recruit of the Martian army, servicemen of which Unk and Boaz were. Since the atmosphere of Mars does not contain oxygen, it has to be provided in other way than by lungs breathing. To solve this problem, Vonnegut conceived special pills, Goofballs, which every Martian has to take in regular intervals. The pills release the necessary oxygen into the small intestine through which it is absorbed into blood (Vonnegut 148). So, on condition that the method of breathing which Vonnegut describes in the book was possible, Mercury could be the place suitable for man to live in. On the other hand, there are a few differences between the way the narrator sees Mercury and the astronomical knowledge. The major difference can be found in the likelihood of possible survival of a man in unfavorable temperatures of the planet. Unk and Boaz land on the bottom of deep caves of Mercury, which provide suitable environment for survival as the caves are cozily warm in their depths (Vonnegut 185). However, according to observations of astronomers, there are shallow craters on Mercury; similar to craters on the Moon, but the existence of deep underground caves is unlikely. Consequently, the extreme temperature on Mercury makes it impossible for a man to live there. Even any other forms of live are highly improbable to endure such conditions. Nevertheless, the author does not deal with these obstacles at all and enables Unk and Boaz to spend parts of their lives on Mercury. Moreover, there are other living creatures, so called harmoniums, which dwell on the planet permanently. All in all, although the real planet Mercury is not a favourable celestial body for life, the narrator gives it an image of a beautiful and harmonious planet and enables the protagonist Malachi stop there for some time. This stop seems to have a symbolical meaning for Vonnegut. It appears that the peaceful and harmonious image of Mercury has its purpose to establish Mercury as a counterbalance to the war between Mars and Earth. Moreover, this stop has a significant meaning in Malachi’s life. It is a stop when he, accompanied only by Boaz, has plenty of time to organize his thoughts and values in his head, and makes him determined to find Beatrice and their son Chrono. Therefore, Mercury does not serve Vonnegut as a peace symbol, but also as a symbol of self determination. This symbol of self determination is also distinguished in Boaz’s case. Boaz is captivated by splendid harmoniums and the way they cohabitate peacefully with the planet and each other and he decides to spend the rest of his life on Mercury: “I found me a place where I can do good without doing any harm, and I can see I’m doing
27 good, and them I’m doing good for know I’M doing it, and they love me, Unk, as best they can. I found me a home” (Vonnegut 214,215). 3.2 Could harmoniums exist?
This chapter is concerned with creatures that live on Mercury called “HARMONIUM The only known form of life on the planet Mercury. The harmonium is a cave dweller. A more gracious creature would be hard to imagine” (Vonnegut 184). Vonnegut pays a great attention to harmoniums’ description in which the reader can see his affection for these creatures. When fully mature, harmoniums are translucent, diamond shaped, a foot high, eight inches wide and very thin like the skin of a toy balloon. They are very similar to spineless kites with four feeble suction cups, one at each of their corners. The cups enable them to cling to the deep walls of Mercury’s caves, where harmoniums live. The harmonium is nourished by vibrations produced by the song the planet Mercury sings and reproduces by flaking. The creatures have only one sense, touch, and there is only one sex. When mature, they do not deteriorate but stay in full bloom as long as Mercury sings its song (Vonnegut 185, 186). The planet Mercury has not been explored enough to invalidate the existence of such creatures. However, the data about this planet are in favour of the theory that any form of life on Mercury is highly unlikely. This provokes to ask the question what could possibly inspire Vonnegut to invent harmoniums and why he endowers them with such qualities. The most straightforward association is a musical instrument as it is commonly known. The certain connection between this musical instrument and Vonnegut’s Mercurial creatures can be seen. They are both concerned with music. Nevertheless, a real musical instrument produces music whereas harmoniums from Mercury absorb music as their only source of energy they live on. The second possible connection could be made with Harmonium (1923, rev. ed. 1931) the first collection of poems by Wallace Stevens. In this case, there is not only one aspect but two in which Stevens’s and Vonnegut’s works can be compared. Firstly, it is the choice of colours that both authors used in their works, which in Stevens’s Harmonium is, according to some literary critics, supposed to be symbolical:
28 Vendler notes that the first task undertaken by the early critics of Stevens was to "decode" his "symbols" […]. Colour symbolism is a vital part of Stevens’ poetic technique, according to a symbolist critics writing in 1975, who propose the following colour scheme for reading Stevens. blue – imagination green – the physical red – reality gold – sun purple – delight in the imagination Vendler accuses the decoders of producing "some commentary of extraordinary banality". It seems safe to affirm however that Stevens's symbolism is in aid of a polarity between "things as they are" and "things imagined". Imagination, order and the ideal are often symbolized by blue, the moon, the polar north, winter, music, poetry, and art. Actuality and disorder are often represented by yellow, the sun, the tropic south, summer, physical nature. For instance, sun and moon represent this duality in Harmonium' s ”The Comedian as the letter C”, in which the protagonist, Crispin, conceives his voyage of self discovery as a poet to be (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). Vonnegut’s harmoniums are creatures that change the coulour of light the caves produce and that might be perceived as an allusion to Steven’s Harmonium . Since the harmoniums are translucent,: “when they cling to the walls, light from the phosphorescent walls comes right through them. The yellow light from the walls, however, is turned, when passed through the bodies of the creatures, to a vivid aquamarine (Vonnegut 185). It is a questing whether Vonnegut’s choice of coulours to portrait harmoniums was inspired by Stevens, so as to create the same symbolical impression or whether it is just incidental. Whatever the answer to such a question is, it is apparent that the authors not only use the same colours, yellow and blue, but they also carry similar symbolical meaning. Yellow stands for something that is physical and natural, which are the caves on Mercury. On the contrary, imagination as something transitory and ungraspable is expressed by blue. Vonnegut’s harmoniums are creatures that change yellow light penetrating their bodies into bright aquamarine blue. In other words, the luminous, fragile and peaceful cave dwellers seem to be mediums conveying the author’s imagination. The usage of both colours, blue and yellow might also express
29 “a polarity between "things as they are" and "things imagined"” (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). Secondly, there is a link between Crispins, the protagonist of the poem The Comedian as the letter C, which is the longest poem of Steven’s Harmonium, traveling to find himself (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia) and Malachi Constant, the main character of The Sirens of Titan , whose space voyage helps to find and give his life sense. Bo Pettersson claims that in The Sirens of Titan there are even more allusions to various literary classics. Constant’s travels and his meeting with the sirens very much remind readers of the Odyssey. Besides, Constant’s deep belief in divine guidance, which he often comments with: “I guess somebody up there likes me” (Vonnegut 20), is close to Dr. Pangloss’s philosophical optimism and even Constant’s later contentment as a gardener seems to have roots in Candide’s thoughts. “Since ‘The comedian as the letter C’ is a picaresque and metaphysical travelogue with allusions to both the Odyssey and Candide , it seems likely that Vonnegut had it in mind while writing The Sirens of Titan “ (Pettersson 225). Lastly and most importantly, the word harmonium itself is associated with harmony. To evoke harmony in the reader’s mind seems to be the main author’s aim why he ‘stars’ harmoniums in his novel. They are described as flat kite shaped organisms which live in harmony to each other and to their surrounding: “There are creatures in the deep caves of Mercury. The song their planet sings is important to them, for the creatures are nourished by vibration. They feed on mechanical energy. The creatures cling to the singing walls of their caves. In that way, they eat the song of Mercury” (Vonnegut 185). The way in which the harmoniums are depicted further makes them fantastic, outstanding creatures: There is one last characteristic of the creatures that has not been explained on utilitarian ground: the creatures seem to like to arrange themselves in striking patterns on the phosphorescent walls. Though blind and indifferent to anyone’s watching, they often arrange themselves so as to present a regular and dazzling pattern of jonquil yellow and vivid aquamarine diamonds […] Because of their love for music and their willingness to deploy themselves in the service of beauty, the creatures are given a lovely name by Earthings.
30 They call them harmoniums (Vonnegut 186,187). Although their only sense is touch, they use their colourful, glaring bodies and organize themselves so as to create beautiful, spectacular ornaments on the walls of Mercury’s caves. However, they do not have any preceptors to perceive visual reality, nor are there any other living creatures on Mercury which could observe their magnificent performance. The lives of these subtle inhabitants seem to be devoted to beauty and harmony. Harmoniums do not know any trouble causing things such as hunger, envy, ambition, fear, indignation or religion, not even sexual lust as their sex can not be distinguished because they are one like another (Vonnegut 186). Harmoniums do not bear one feature which could spoil their harmonious existence. “There is no way in which one creature can harm another, and no motive for one’s harming another” (Vonnegut 186). All this suggests that Vonnegut uses harmoniums to fix the image of Mercury a harmonious planet.
31 4.1 The mysterious, delusive moon
Titan is the biggest of forty seven Saturn’s satellites known so far and the second biggest moon in our solar system. It was named after the Titans, the twelve children of the god of the skies Uranus, and the goddess of the earth Gaia. The twelve first generation Titans were led by the youngest, Cronus, who overthrew their father. As Greek mythology says, a fight between a son and father repeated itself once more. Cronus’s son Zeus, who led the Olympians, eventually overthrew the Titans in the Titanomachy and imprisoned them in Tartarus, the depths of the underworld (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). This fierce and protracted fight is well known as the War of the Titans and in the course of time it has inspired many writers and film producers. One of the most famous films on this topic is English film Clash of the Titans . This film of 1981 directed by Desmond Davis did not only excellently treat this mythological topic, but was also one of the best fantasy films of that time. In The Sirens of Titan , there is also a war conflict. It is the war between the terrestrials and the inhabitants of Mars. Although the war between Mars and Earth did not last so long as the war of the Titans: “The war between Mars and Earth lasted 67 Earthling days” (Vonnegut 166), it has an important feature that corresponds with the War of the Titans. The Martians are not extraterrestrials, as might be supposed. They are people who are offered to travel to Mars, where they are brainwashed and recruited into the Army of Mars. In other words, the war between Mars and Earth is a fight of terrestrials against terrestrials; similarly the fight of the Titans against the Olympians is a fight between relatives. Except this aspect, there are no other links to Greek mythology which could have inspired Vonnegut to choose just Titan as one of the settings for his story. It is more interesting to compare the picture of Vonnegut’s Titan with the astronomical knowledge about the real planet. According to the latest observations in astronomy, Titan appears to have a net of canals, lakes and seas. These, consisting mainly of liquid hydrocarbon, provide a possible source for elementary forms of life, similarly to Titan’s atmosphere, rich in organic compounds (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). Kurt Vonnegut lifted his creative pen to write The Sirens of Titan in the 1950s, long before the significant discoveries about Titan were made. It then appears very bizarre that his description of Titan approaches reality in so many aspects:
32 There are three seas on Titan, each the size of Earthling Lake Michigan. The waters of three are fresh and emerald clear. The names of the three are the Winston Sea, the Niles Sea, and the Rumfoord Sea. There is a cluster of ninety three lakes, incipiently a fourth sea. The cluster is known as the Kazak Pools. Connecting the Winston Sea, the Niles Sea, the Rumfoord Sea and the Kazak Pools are there three great rivers. Three rivers, with their tributaries, are moody – variously roaring, listless, and torn. Their moods are determined by the wildly fluctuating tugs of eight fellow moons, and by the prodigious influence of Saturn, which has ninety five times the mass of Earth. The three rivers are known as the Winston River, the Niles River, and the Rumfoord River (Vonnegut 265,266). Titan has always drawn attention of astronomers for its favourable conditions for life existence. Thus, many science fiction authors have chosen this particular satellite as a setting for their stories. Kurt Vonnegut is known to have been interested in science and astronomy since his early studies at university. It might have been this belief of his that Titan is a suitable place for life, which led him to chose this place as one of the setting. However, the detailed observations and many new discoveries have been carried out in only the last twenty years and hence the similarity of the author’s description and the real Titan is incredible. It is a typical aspect of postmodern literature that “virtually everything and everyone exist in such a radical state of distortion and aberration that there is no way of determining from which condition in the real world they have been derived or from which conditions in the real world they have been derived” (Sim 123). Another interesting aspect is the way in which the author describes Titan’s landscape. Titan is the only place in the solar system where Rumfoord can exist as a solid human being and not as a broadcast image. Therefore, it seems obvious that he names its rivers and seas after himself. However, the reader might perceive it as a means to convey the author’s critical attitude towards Winston. Winston Rumfoord, described as an absolute ruler, who wishes to change the world for the better as he says in his Pocket History of Mars : “Any man who would change the World in a significant way must have showmanship, a genial willingness to shed other people’s blood […]“.
33 “Enough of these fizzles of leadership, in which millions die for nothing or less!” says Rumfoord. “Let us have, for a change, a magnificently led few who die for a great deal.” Rumfoord had that magnificently led few on Mars and he was their leader. He had showmanship. He was genially willing to shed the blood of others (Vonnegut 174). In other words, Rumfoord can be seen as an embodiment of the self centred behaviour of the modern society and Vonnegut uses him as a vehicle to criticize the culture of the 1950s. Not only are the humans capable of destroying the planet they live on, but they are so self important and ignorant that they dare to expand into the universe in the intention of ruling it. ‘How typical of humankind’ is what can be read between the lines and The Sirens of Titan is not the only case Vonnegut criticise ‘the world’. New York State Writers Institute claims that: “elements of pathos, fantasy, didacticism and dark humor merge in Vonnegut’s novels to provide an arresting mixture of entertainment and biting social critique” (New York Writers Institute). Nonetheless, the narrator simultaneously points at Winston’s naïve narcissism when he explains that Titan’s natural phenomena are affected ‘merely’ by Saturn and its other forty six satellites. However, Saturn has ninety five times the mass of Earth (Vonnegut 266). So enormous are the powers that operate the development of the universe that it burlesques the Rumfoord’s foolish attempt to ‘play Gods’. In other words, although Rumfoord regards himself to be the one who gives the world order, and manipulate people, it becomes more and more apparent that this is not the case. On no account is he a godlike man, in fact he proves to be the one who has been manipulated and abused most when he admits to Beatrice: “Some day on Titan, it will be revealed to you just how ruthlessly I’ve been used, and by whom, and to what disgustingly paltry ends” (Vonnegut 64). Finally, in order to undermine the importance of Rumfoord’s deeds and attempts to change the life on Earth, as well as to highlight the immensity of everlasting, unknown and inexplicable powers that shape our lives, the narrator leaves Rumfoord and his dog Kazak at the mercy of the universe. Captured by chrono synclastic influndibula and thrown out of Titan into the infinite, desolated space, they disappear:
34 “In a punctual way of speaking,” came Rumford’s glottal tenor from the cocoon, “good by.” The cocoon and Rumfoord disappeared with a pft . Rumfoord and his dog were never seen again (Vonnegut 298). All this evidence reveals the author’s opinion on human triviality in the contract with the universe. On the other hand, “Vonnegut forces his reader to consider what it means to be human in a chaotic, often abused and irrational universe” (Literature Online). Moreover, he believes there is a way out of this chaos, violence and irrationality as Jay MacInerny says about Vonnegut: “he is a satirist with heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, a cynic who wants to believe” (New York State Writers Institute). He not only believes, but also uncovers this deepest belief of his to all his readers. It is the importance of basic human decency in a world of madness, chaos and pain, and his belief in love that is usually the main message Vonnegut wants the reader to get. This basic but important idea appears right at the beginning of the book: Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them. They could not name even one of the fifty three portals to the soul. Mankind, ignorant of the truths that lie within every human being, looked outward – pushed ever outward. What mankind hoped to learn in its outward push was who was actually in charge of all creation, and what all creation was all about. Mankind flung its advance agents ever outward, ever outward. Eventually it flung them out into space, into the colourless, tasteless, weightless sea of outwardness without end. These unhappy agents found what had already been found in abundance on Earth – a nightmare of meaninglessness without end. Outwardness lost, at last, its imagined attraction. Only inwardness remained to be explored. Only the human soul remained terra incognita. This was the beginning of goodness and wisdom (Vonnegut 7,8). The starting point ‘now’ in the book refers to the future in reality; that is when the narrator recollects the past; he actually points at the present reality. So, the memory of
35 the past is in fact supposed to give an account of the present state of the society. This ability of Vonnegut’s to discuss significant issues is manifest in his novels. Moreover, he is excellent at sharing his ideas to the readers in a natural and casual way such as throughout the description of the landscape or characters. The first two pages of the twelfth chapter of The Sirens of Titan , depicting the water resources on Titan, in which the narrator points at contradiction of the power and uselessness of Rumfoord, as well as Rumfoord’s personality portrait itself, are eloquent samples of author’s art to appeal to readers. Vonnegut succeeds in giving Titan a role of imaginary and delusive world. Titan, a beautiful planet with “the most pleasant climate imaginable” (Vonnegut 36), which is the only celestial body Rumfoord can physically exist on, emerges at the end of the story as a mere chimera. It is Rumfoord’s illusion, as he finally disappears. It is Malachi’s illusion, as he finally returns to Earth knowing it is not a place but people that gives sense to one’s life. Moreover, it can be seen as an illusion that the mankind pursues in order to discover the meaning of life in relation to the universe or noble aims. Vonnegut simply says that there is only one meaning why to live, and that is ourselves and people we love.
4.2 Monsters or gorgeous creatures?
Sirens, the daughters of Achelous and Terpsichore, were sea nymphs. They lived on islands in the seawaters surrounding Greece and lured sailors with their enchanting singing. The entranced sailors sailed on the cliffs near the island and drowned. Speculations on the sirens’ appearance vary. They were often presented as female figures with the legs of birds and wings, or, alternatively, as little birds with women’s faces. Whatever the variety among the different descriptions of those creatures might be, they all see the Sirens as a mutation of female and bird body together. Birds were chosen to characterise their beautiful voices and the female aspect personifies their seductiveness (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia). According to one of the legends, Aphrodite made them winged, for they were the very opposite of inconstant women and were not susceptible to love (Zamarovský 422). At the same time, Vonnegut’s sirens are incredibly beautiful, almost supernatural women. The picture of them appears in front of Constant’s eyes when Winston Rumfoord tries to explain what will happen to Constant. But he neither believes
36 Rumfoord, nor can he see the point in his foreseen cosmic travels. He is more than satisfied with his life on the Earth and thinks that there is no place in the universe which could entice him away from his terrestrial property, nor there is a woman who would achieve to do so. However, he is not so convinced when he looks at the picture: Within the margins lay shimmering depths. The effect was much like that of a rectangular glass window in the surface of a clear, shallow, coral bay. At the bottom of that seeming coral bay were three women – one white, one gold, one brown. They looked up at Constant, begging him to come to them to make them whole with love. Their beauty was to the beauty of Miss Canal Zone as the glory of the Sun was to the glory of a lightning bug. Constant sank into a wing chair again. He had to look away from all that beauty in order to keep from bursting into tears (Vonnegut 38). The celestial beauty of the sirens is not the only thing in which the author’s vision corresponds to Greek mythology. In addition, the sirens in the photograph are under water, which strengthens the thought that these three charming women are similar to the mythical sea creatures. But first and foremost, their tantalizing glamour appeal to Constant, and therefore to the reader, in the same way as the singing of the Greek nymphs appealed to the sailors. Not being able to take his eyes off the photograph, Constant realizes how foolish his thoughts were and how difficult it is not to surrender to lust. It seems that the sirens personify the universe. Their singing is as seductive as the human temptation to explore the universe. The longing to know more, to discover new words and further destinations is as old as mankind. On the one hand, sirens present irresistible temptation. On the other hand, the latter reference shows absurdity of such a temptation: In the bottom of the pool, in eight feet of water, were the three sirens of Titan, the three beautiful human females […]. They were statues made by Salo of Titanic peat. Of the millions of statues made by Salo, only these three were painted with lifelike colors. It had been necessary to paint them in order to give them importance in the sumptuous, oriental scheme of things in Rumford’s palace […]. The pool‘s bottoms and
37 sides were lined with a blanket of viscid slime, and the three statues in the middle, the Sirens od Titan, were under a mucilaginous hump (Vonnegut 278,309). This extract, in contrast with the first one, divulges the truth about the sirens. The fact that sirens are not living women but mere statues made of Titanic peat, the beauty of which is finally ruined, is not just the narrator’s way of describing the sirens, but presumably attempts to show deeper thoughts. This betraying recognition might be seen as the author’s opinion on the space exploration or the progress in technology and science. Although the space exploration, and progress in technology extends peoples’ knowledge and science constantly alters their lives, none of this changes our private relationships, fears, or happiness. Vonnegut represents his belief that the modern society is possessed by searching for meaning of the existence and therefore explores the universe. Nevertheless, people often forget to care for each other, to fulfill their roles as mothers, sons, friends, husbands satisfactorily. Thanks to the sirens, Vonnegut encourages his belief that there is no other meaning of life but love. This is aptly expressed at the end of the novel when he puts his words into Malachi Constant’ mouth: “You finally fell in love, I see,” said Salo. “Only an Earthling year ago,” said Constant. “It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” (Vonnegut 313).
38 Conclusion
What, then, have I traced and learned on my way though the fictional worlds of The Sirens of Titan ? Although I have always been keen on Vonnegut’s novels, I have discovered a lot of interesting new aspects in this novel and now I view Kurt Vonnegut’s work from slightly different angle. Considering the individual chapters, I would like to comment on what are the four complex, distinct worlds that Vonnegut achieves to design on the four celestial bodies. Analyzing the planet Earth and the two protagonists in the first chapter, I have come to a conclusion that Vonnegut is well aware of the Earth’s values. He sees Earth as the only suitable planet for the mankind and appeals to people to realize this and take better care of it. He considers the space exploration of different planets as possible places to live on pointless. Similarly he sees the endless desire of a man to discover the underlying order and who is in control of it – that is, “what’s going on”. The aim of the second chapter is to prove the author’s intention to treat the planet Mars as a war symbol. It is obvious that Vonnegut thought this issue through with great acumen as there is a number of details that point at the fact that he chooses Mars to symbolize war and violence intentionally. Mercury, the centre point of the next chapter, proves to be a symbol of harmony. It does not only symbolize harmony as such, but also helps the reader to understand what a base for ‘finding our own inner harmony’ is. The last chapter, in order to emphasize the role of the plane Earth, illustrates Titan to be an embodiment of human curiosity about outer worlds. Titan is designed so as to warn the reader against false images and delusive aims. The analysis, in general, succeeds in tracing various postmodern feature and beliefs in The Sirens of Titan . I have revealed the aspect of ‘playing games’, as well as the blend of fiction and reality, or “the threat of total engulfment by somebody else’s system” (Sim 129), all of which are typical of the postmodernism. In spite of the fact that the novel is considered to be the most sci fi of all Vonnegut’s books, I have also identified an aspect that supports the argument that he was not an ordinary science fiction writer. The unstable roles of the main characters that change throughout the novel disrupt the ordinary science fictional concept of strictly fixed characters. This revelation of mine would probably please Vonnegut as he himself did not feel to be a sci fi writer once saying: “I learned, in 1952 from the reviews of Player Piano , that I
39 was a science fiction writer […]. I have been a soreheaded occupant of the file drawer labeled science fiction ever since, and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer far a urinal” (Literature Online). Nonetheless, it is Vonnegut’s particularly legacy to the reader that constitutes the strongest point of this novel. He encourages the readers to be concerned with their inner lives, to take greater care of the planet Earth as well as of the people they love, and not to allow themselves to be corrupted by the authorities. The novel is penetrated with common decency, kindness and love. However skeptical or critical attitude towards the modern society Vonnegut voices, it is clear that he is an optimist who believes his appeal will find ‘an ear sensitive enough’ to hear it. Finally, the most interesting revelation I have come to is how thoroughly Vonnegut worked with various mythological and astronomical details when inventing his alternative worlds. I have found it very puzzling that even in cases where he uses his imagination to illustrate these worlds, he comes incredibly close to the facts which were only discovered later. The fact that Vonnegut’s vision of Titan is so close to the real satellite, although the important discoveries about Titan were made after The Sirens of Titan had been written increases the feeling that the author’s message this novel tries to pass to the reader should be taken very seriously.
40 Resumé
Tato práce analyzuje alternativní světy, které Kurt Vonnegut vytváří ve své vesmírní novele Sirény z Titanu . V úvodu jsem se krátce věnovala Vonnegutově životní a literární cestě a, pro lepší srozumitelnost mé práce, jsem stručně zpracovala obsah knihy. Jelikož román Sirény z Titanu se odehrává na čtyřech různých vesmírných tělesech, má práce se zaměřuje na tato čtyři prostředí děje. Každá jednotlivá kapitola je věnována jedné planetě, Zemi, Marsu, Merkuru a Titanu, seřazeny ve stejném pořadí jako je navštívil hlavní hrdina Malachi Constant. Zabývám se tím zda a do jaké míry se Vonnegut drží astronomických faktů při popisu vesmírných těles, či jestli volba právě těchto planet souvisí nějakým způsobem s mytologii. V analýze se také snažím rozpoznat jednotlivé prvky postmodernismu a scifi, a tím prokázat zda tato kniha patří do tohoto literárního směru a žánru. Hlavní cíl mé práce se ovšem soustředí ne jen na to jaké světy se Vonnegutovi daří ve své novele vytvořit a jak tyto světy působí na čtenáře, co v něm evokují, ale především na odkaz tohoto díla, který vyjadřuje spisovatelovy postoje, přesvědčení a hodnoty. Resume
This work analyses the alternative worlds Kurt Vonnegut creates in his novel The Sirens of Titan . In the first two pre chapters, I briefly introduce Vonnegut’s literary style and life. To make my work more comprehensible, I also summarize the plot of the story. As the novel The Sirens of Titan is set on four different celestial bodies, I focus on these four settings in my work. Each chapter is devoted to one of the planets, Earth, Mars, Mercury and Titan, ordering them in the same way that the main character Malachi Constant visits them. I am concerned with the question of whether and to what extend Vonnegut’s description of the planets keeps to the astronomical knowledge, or whether his choice was inspired by mythology. I also attempt to trace features of postmodernism or sci fi in the novel. Nevertheless, the main aim of my bachelor thesis concentrates not only on what worlds Vonnegut invents and what such worlds evoke in reader’s mind, but also on the legacy of the book that expresses the author’s beliefs and values.
41 Bibliography
Vonnegut, Kurt. The Sirens of Titan . New York: Dell, 1977. Pettersson, Bo. The World According to Kurt Vonnegut . Kaskisgatan: Abo Akademi University Press, 1994. Sim, Stuart. Postmodernism . London: Routledge, 2001. Trávníček, Jiří, and Jiří Holý. Lexikon teorie literatury a kultury (Dictionary of Literary and Cultural Theory) . Brno: Host, 2006. Zámarovský, Vojtěch. Bohové a Hrdinové Antických Bájí (The gods and Heroes of the Ancient Legends) . Praha: Máj, 1965. Jařab, Josef; in ed. Hlinský, Martin, Zelenka, Jan. Od poea k Postmodernismu (From Poe to Posrmodernism) . Praha: Odeon, 1993. “Kurt Vonnegut.” Literature Online . 25 October 2006
42 Apendix 1: Kurt Vonnegut’s portraits
Kurt Vonnegut (11 November1922 – 11 April 2007)
One liner Self portrait
43 Appendix 2: The fourth celestial bodies The Sirens of Titan is set on
The planet Mars
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The planet Mercury
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The Saturn’s satellite Titan
46
The planet Earth Appendix 3:
47 Kurt Vonnegut’s work Novels: 1952 Player Piano 1959 The Sirens of Titan 1960 Mother Night 1963 Cat’s Cradle 1965 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s crusade 1973 Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye, Blue Monday 1976 Slapstick or Lonesome No More 1979 Jailbird 1982 Deadeye Dick 1985 Galápagos 1988 Bluebeard 1989 Hocus Pocus 1996 Timequake
Short story collections: 1961 Canary in a Cathouse 1968 Welcome in the Monkey House 1999 Bagombo Snuff Box
Collected essays: 1974 Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons 1981 Palm Sunday, An Autobiographical Collage 1990 Fates Worse than Death, An Autobiographical Collage 2000 God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian 2005 A Man Without a Country
Plays:
48 1970 Happy Birthday, Wanda June 1972 Between Time and Timbuktu, or Prometheus Five: A Space Fantasy 1993 Make up Your Mind 1993 Miss Temptation 1993 L’Histoire du Soldat
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