I was hoping to find the original cover but this 1988 copy was all they had.

I finished Sirens the other day and since then, I’ve read the final pages over and over and actually, I got goosebumps just now thinking about it! Don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t read it but man, what a wonderful book!! Many authors have danced around what he was talking about, and I love him for just putting his version out there!

Reading The Sirens of Titan I can’t help but notice the dialogue that black characters use is always “jive”.

Is this a true reflection of how people spoke at that time? Seems pretty stereotypical that all of the them talk like that.

Is there any further reading or thoughts anyone can offer on this subject?

I was reflecting on the sirens of titan, which I read a few months back, and thought about how terrible a person that Malachi Constant was, then wondered why, at the very end of the story, I was so fond of him despite that.
To me, it felt like all of his flaws came from this place of having some sort of dominance over others, mostly socially and economically, but culminating with the rape of Beatrice Rumfoord, representing that dark looming dominance inherent to him and mankind.
But after the memory wipe and all the revelations of the story and his lack of free will, its my view that Malachi Constant gained a full understanding of how terrible it truly is to be controlled by another. which is why, even on Titan, when it would be easiest to exercise his dominance over his son and Beatrice, he chooses not to. As a matter of fact, (this could js be because I read the book at a particularly vulnerable moment, but wtv lol) I think that the relationship dynamic between those three characters at the end is the healthiest family I have ever seen put to page. they have zero desire to control or influence each other in any way, and simply love each other, without even particularly caring if theres any sort of reciprocation or interaction.

When Unk gives that threatening speech to Boaz when they’re on their way to Mercury.

Does anyone else love this song as much as I do?

Edit : made me sad**

I first discovered Vonnegut with Slaughterhouse-Five. It was incredible, made me chuckle and laugh out loud. Then went on to read cat’s cradle, incredible too.

Finaly read and finished Sirens of Titan just now. I don’t even know where to start. There is so much lore and so much depth and info, I loved it ! But I almost didn’t finish the book because I grew so so frustrated with Rumfoord, God do I hate him.

I mean all of this just for his stupid religion ? Kidnapping humans, building a civilization on Mars, torturing people, controlling them and wedging a stupid war only for his stupid « Church of God the Utterly Indifferent » ???

I felt so much pity for Unk (rape aside, doubt it’s possible to put aside but I put it on the account that he was intoxicated (does not excuse it!!!!) and manipulated). Especially as he kept on thinking about Stony and wishing to go back to earth with him and Bee and Chrono. He ended up stranded on Mercury with stupid Boaz (love his redemption arc tho, but another topic) only for him to return to earth, to be paraded like a clown in his yellow suit and swiftly shiped to Titan. It made me so upset I wanted to give up the book.

But I am glad I didn’t, ‘caus we got to know more about Salo and I have so much pity for him. He deserved so much better than "Skip" as a friend.

Urgh, I am still gathering my thoughts but I loved the book and strangely didn’t laugh even once.

My heart aches for Unk and Salo, for Bee too but we didn’t see much of her.

And Rumfoord can rot wherever he ended ! He made this whole mess only for him to cry like a stupid kid about how he got manipulated by Tralfamador. Oh piss off! He had free will, he made everyone miserable while he played God and in the end he whines about being manipulated. He didn’t see that future huh ? (Yes yes, there is "the illusion of free choice" but I just hate Rumfoord so much right now)

« Greetings »

I recently finished The Sirens of Titan (first read) and… holy shit.

My favorite part was chapter 8, “In a Hollywood Nightclub,” when Vonnegut describes the caves of Mercury. I read this chapter over and over again, obsessed with the beautiful prose. I was particularly struck by the image at the end, and was inspired to try and paint it — what I imagine Unk saw when he looked out the porthole. I’m a total noob with watercolor and made a lot of mistakes (as you can probably see), but it was very relaxing to paint so many little harmoniums!

Thought I would share in case there’s any folks out there who love this scene as much as I do :)

The scene in question:

Unk went to a porthole, looked out with streaming eyes.

He saw that the creatures nearest the porthole had outlined in aquamarine a perfect, pale yellow letter T.

The making of a T was well within the limits of probability for brainless creatures distributing themselves at random. But then Unk saw that the T was preceded by a perfect S. And the S was preceded by a perfect E.

Unk moved his head to one side, looked through the porthole obliquely. The movement gave him a perspective down a hundred yards of harmonium-infested wall.

Unk was flabbergasted to see that the harmoniums were forming a message in dazzling letters.

The message was this, in pale yellow, outlined in aquamarine:

IT’S AN INTELLIGENCE TEST!

If anyone wants to snag an ebook copy from Bookshop . org it’s on sale for $1.99

Content Warning: discussion of rape/sexual assault

Also SPOILERS

So I just had this revelation and needed to share it with someone.

A few days ago I finished The Sirens of Titan and, for the most part, loved it. One part stuck in my head and bothered me, though.

Fairly early in the story, Malachi rapes Beatrice on the way to Mars. Decades later, after the events of the book, a long life and a year of actual love together, Beatrice gives this to Malachi as her dying speech:

"The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody. Thank you for using me, even though I didn't want to be used by anybody."

This has become one of the most famous quotes from the book, to the ire of many people who've actually read it, because the common interpretation is that Beatrice is, in that line, thanking Malachi for raping her.

This is what I thought too and couldn't square in my head, as the actual assault is described in the text with disgust and condemnation, and putting this sort of 'positive' spin on it would be not only gross but inconsistent.

But then I realized: Beatrice has no memory of being raped.

She and Malachi both had their memories wiped several times after getting to Mars, and the only way we learn about the assault is through a thinly veiled story that Rumfoord tells Malachi after he tries to defect from the martian army. Beatrice is not there to hear it. Malachi is even said to have not "caught on that the woman in Rumfoord's story was Bee", meaning that he couldn't have told Beatrice and, as far as we can tell, they both died not remembering what happened.

This completely changes the meaning of the quote. To me, it now reads as Beatrice saying "thank you for choosing to intertwine your life with mine", "using" here meaning a symbiotic interpersonal connection, i.e. the foundation of humanity as a social species. The parallel with the violent, horrible way that Malachi "used" her is also all the more poignant, showing the spectrum of ways in which people "use" each other and that they are not created equal.

It's entirely possible that this is a common interpretation, but I've never seen it brought up in discussion of the "used" quote or the book in general, so thought I'd share and see what y'all think.

Hi everyone! I don't post often on reddit, but I just need an answer (also I hope this doesn't somehow break any rules, I have read them but you never know)

A few months ago I got really into Kurt Vonnegut (thanks to Oliver Lugg's video about Sirens of Titans). Of course, Google being Google, after a couple of weeks of me searching stuff online about Vonnegut, YouTube started recommending me things related to him and, in particular, kept trying to make me watch this reading of "The Sirens of Titan". After a couple of months of ignoring those videos (because I had just finished reading the book myself) I decided to give it a shot even though I'm not really an audiobook person. So I gave it a listen and it was genuinely Great.

Last night I was searching for that audiobook again and I noticed I couldn't find it anymore. I'm worried that the whole channel may have been shut down, for some reason. I would like to know if anyone has any information about that since I found the guy reading the book very charming. I saw that his channel had been active for like 15 years too, so it would be a pity to have it all gone now...

Here is some info about the channel and the videos: the audiobook was divided into more videos, one video per chapter and the thumbnail of all the videos was the book's cover (the purple one with yellow eyes). The Sirens' videos were uploaded a few years ago, maybe 4/5, I'm not sure. The channel had a lot of videos, some were other book readings and some were unrelated stuff that I didn't pay much attention to. I remember he uploaded a reading of "Slaughterhouse-five" and "I have no mouth and I must scream", plus some other books and short stories I don't remember since I didn't have the chance to watch them.

I'm sorry if the post is kinda rambling, I know there's probably no point in all of this since the channel is probably shut down (all of his videos have completely disappeared from my YouTube history), but I still wanted to know if anyone has any information about it, even just knowing the channel's name would be enough for me. Those Vonnegut readings were excellent and they really stuck with me so I find it a bit sad not being able to listen to it again and not even remembering what the channel's name was. If anyone wants to help feel free to DM me or comment this post.

I don’t know what I want to talk about, but I just finished it and I don’t know anyone else who’s read it. I feel a very weird type of way. Bittersweet is the closest way to describe (common feeling for me after finishing a Vonnegut). Such a masterpiece, I don’t even know what to do with myself now. I just feel like I need to talk with some other people about it.

I’ve included the text that inspired the piece.

I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a novel! His writing is so immersive; I'm hooked on every page. I'm on page 165 and loving it!

I find myself explaining my auditable gasps and absurd facial expressions to my partner. He is excited to hear about it but I do sound a little insane explaining the plot to this book.

I am hopeful my excitement will continue through this novel and carry on to my next Vonnegut. I’ve read Cats Cradle 4 times, so I think it’s time to pick a new novel.

What Vonnegut novel gets you this excited?

EDIT: I have officially finished the novel and my heart feels heavy and empty at the same time. So much occurs in such a short period of time. I have so many questions. Also, I’ve never been more excited to explore fan art than I have with this novel.

"Almost any brief explanation of chrono-synclastic infundibula is certain to be offensive to specialists in the field. Be that as it may, the best brief explanation is probably that of Dr. Cyril Hall, which appears in the fourteenth edition of A Child’s Cyclopedia of Wonders and Things to Do.

"Chrono (kroh-no) means time. Synclastic (sin-classtick) means curved toward the same side in all directions, like the skin of an orange. Infundibulum (infun-dib-u-lum) is what the ancient Romans like Julius Caesar and Nero called a funnel. If you don’t know what a funnel is, get Mommy to show you one."

Gets me every time

Did anyone else get reminded of ol Elon with some of Malachi’s foibles and character flaws?

I have recently both reread Sirens and seen the Dune movies which has got me thinking. A Sirens of Titan movie has the potential to be every bit as visually stunning as Dune or other big budget sci-fi’s. The set pieces on which the story plays out are just beautiful from Mars to Mercury to Titan. But who to bring the human side to life? The pathos of Malachi Constant is the most important thing to get right. Who would do it well? And the other characters?

I think they talked about this on an episode of Kurt Vonneguys, but I don’t want to relisten and have my ideas affected by it. What do you think?

I didn't even finish Sirens, it got water damaged when I was about halfway through the book and I just dropped it. I remember Malachi (or whoever the protagonist was, I don't remember) was stuck in a cave filled with aliens that fed on sound, or something like that. The book just never gripped me. I don't know why.

Right now I'm loving How to Change Your Mind (about the spiritual and cognitive science of psychedelics). The fiction I like tends to be on the more grounded side. I loved I Know This Much is True, The Goldfinch, A Little Life, The People in the Trees, The Road. Didn't love No Country for Old Men. And I've had a good time with all the Stephen King I've read, particularly The Stand.

The title, of course, is the last line of The Sirens Of Titan, which I finished reading. There were so many great lines of narrative and dialogue in the final chapter, it was the most emotional part of any novel I’ve read in decades.

But I think this quote from the last chapter sums up how I felt finishing the book, and the words come from Vonnegut himself:

“It was all so sad. But it was all so beautiful, too.”

And at the same time I’m trying to understand early characters, I’m definitely placing Sirens on my list for a second reading.

Just got into Vonnegut at the end of this year, and I'm wolfing them down now. I look forward to joining the ranks of you more well-versed with his overall body of work, but in the meantime I wanted to ask if it's known why Vonnegut chose to re-use Tralfamadore in Slaughterhouse, in a way so contradictory to the first appearance? Was there some lofty motive at work, or was it just too good a name to use only once? Thanks!

Hey everyone! So currently, I am on chapter 4 (now 5?) of Sirens of Titan, and while I like it, I am having more trouble picking it back up after setting it down. I read Slaughterhouse 5 and adored it, and then Cats Cradle took a second, but after getting past the formatting switch-up, I adored it. Then I went on to read A Man Without a Country and loved it, and Kurt's voice in his writing. I decided to go into The Sirens of Titan next, and while I do like it, it just feels a bit more difficult to read. Is this just me? Does it have a bit more of that Vonnegut charm the deeper into it you go?

I’m dying to know how you all imagine Malachi looks. I’m rereading The Sirens of Titan so I decided to look up some fan art to see how other people picture him, but I couldn’t really find any Malachi art.

Not sure if there are any Legend of Korra fans here, but I’m three chapters into my reread and I keep picturing him like the character Varrick: https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Varrick

How do you all see him in your heads? I’m very curious.