The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Anyone read it?

I love this bizarre, insightful novel.

Anyone else?

 

No, but I have read Cat's Cradle.
the JC is a prime example of a False Karass.

 

No but I just finished Slaughterhouse Five about a month ago.

Vonnegut is a great writer, I've got alot of time for his stuff so if you remommend Sirens Of Titan I might check it out sometime.

 

I just read Breakfast of Champions last month and I love Cat's Cradle, Player Piano, and Slaughterhouse Five.

Haven't checked out the other stuff yet. It's on my list.

 

I read Sirens oh, last summer, I think. I like the idea of an indifferent God that Vonnegut proposes in said book.

Has anyone read God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater? I remember liking that one more than Sirens. Or what about Timequake? The synopsis for it sounds great, but I've been too busy to have a chance to pick it up.

And I have yet to read Slaughterhouse.

 

I grew up in the same neighborhood Vonnegut did.

 

Really, that's cool.

There's more insight into the human condition packed into a single Kurt Vonnegut novel than 99% of the plays, books and movies in the world.

Vonnegut's unique voice remains relevant today, because people don't change.

All of the other Vonnegut novels mentioned above are good, but my favorite, for it's sheer audacity, has to be THE SIRENS OF TITAN. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is a strong runner up and so is BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is partly based on the true experiences (I think I have this right)
of Kurt Vonnegut who was trapped in the Dresden, Germany firestorm in WW2. What a hellish place that must've been, being an American and being attacked by U.S. warplanes. Talk about irony!

I don't know how many JC'ers read books, but as THE SIRENS OF TITAN has to do with space travel, and this is after all, a STAR WARS site, you might want to put it at the top of your list. It is truly a literary classic.
And it is science-fiction with a social commentary "edge" of a very high order.

Read THE SIRENS OF TITAN!
Learn how to create a fortune using hidden messages in the Bible! Learn how millions of Earthlings LOVED it when the Martians invaded and we shot 'em all DEAD. And asked for MORE martians to kill!

Learn about Salo, the sad-eyed little robot that discovered the depth of human savagery in the form of brutal, predatory teenage boy. Learn how the Great Wall of China is actually a code, visible from space, built to signal an alien race. Learn about chrono-synclastic fundibular materialization. Discover the gentle harmoniums! And take an intelligence test on the planet Mercury.

Hear an irritated mother say to her small child, "If you don't behave yourself, I am never going to take you to a materialization again!"

 

My favorite quote from the novel THE SIRENS OF TITAN:

"It took us that long to realize that the purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."

 

I love Sirens of Titan. I got hooked on Vonnegut with Slaughter House Five and I have to say that while I've read most of them, Sirens of Titan is definitely my favorite. I love the chapters where they are down in the caves of the alien planet and all the little...crap, what are they called...luminations? are attracted to the music. Pure masterpiece.

 

I've meen meaning to check this one out for a long time (loved Cat's Cradle, and saw Vonnegut give a great lecture once in college... "Most people are living under the mistaken belief that their lives are somehow inferior because they wouldn't make a good novel.") and seeing it mentioned here I now have that much more impetus to scare up a copy.

I do know that it was one of Jerry Garcia's favorite books, and in fact he owned the film rights to it for a number of years. He got Tom Davis (old school Saturday Night Live writer) to work on a script, and I guess they came fairly close to actually making something happen with it, but from what I understand they were having trouble really translating it to screenplay form in a way which did justice to the book as a whole. (Knowing how Garcia's mind worked, though, I have no doubt that if they COULD have made it work it would have been an absolute blast as a movie.) But to Garcia and Davis' credit, they appear to have had the sense to realize that if it didn't work 100% then there was no reason to make it into a film.

 

Patrick, everything you said makes perfect sense because the structure (if you can even call it that, lol) of the novel would not easily lend itself to a film adaption. It would be a challenge for anyone to do it, but as much grass as Jerry smoked, I'm sure Tom Davis would need to try and give it some clarity.

I heard at one time that Bruce Willis was going to obtain the rights and make it into a film, but I don't know if anything ever came of it.

It's definitely worth the time to read it.

 

Ariana, the little creatures on the planet Mercury that feed off of music are called
"harmoniums."

 

Vonnegut isn't a bad writer. His novels are fairly intresting. He doesn't hold a candle to Bradbury though. He also writes the worst short stories in print.

 

"Patrick, everything you said makes perfect sense because the structure (if you can even call it that, lol) of the novel would not easily lend itself to a film adaption. It would be a challenge for anyone to do it, but as much grass as Jerry smoked, I'm sure Tom Davis would need to try and give it some clarity."

LOL!! Yeah, it would have been a tough one to translate to film, from what I understand. What was amazing about Jerry, though, was how incredibly lucid the guy was so much of the time. One of the best interview subjects I've ever read. For all his playing with all manner of recreational intoxicants, the guy had so much detail in his head it was frightening. I actually think that had he and Davis been able to work out a script to Sirens, it'd have been a lot better than we'd probably expect. (It would have been infused with some pretty quirky humor, that's for sure.) ;^)

Gotta pick up a copy... my curiosity about it is piqued once again.

 

Harmoniums! That's it! I love those guys! I want one as a pet.

 

A lot of people on these boards could use a peaceful harmonium as a pet! They are very soothing. (I won't name names...sometimes even I need to relax...it's just a MESSAGE BOARD! lol)

 

One of the coolest things about the book is that it is quite unlike any other book ever written. A lot of Vonnegut's books are like that.

 

I've read Sirens of Titan but I didn't like it as much as Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse-Five.

 

that's cool...different strokes for different folks.

that's the happiest darth maul face I've ever seen!

 

Well, he must be happy sometimes.

 

LOL, Maybe he just got his horns sharpened and he's feelin' frisky!

 

i read that book about 12 years ago, enjoyed every minute of it... that one and slapstick are my favorites by k.v.

 

Does anyone know if it's still in print?
It came out originally in the fifties.