Player piano

Probably closer to a very strong 3.5/5. I had a good time with this!

A lot to think about with it, as usual. Vonnegut's satiric style is biting and anything but subtle, but when the writing is this good, who needs subtlety? The themes around the first industrial revolution devaluing muscle power and the second (ongoing in the book) devaluing brain power/know-how are fascinating to read today. In 1952, I imagine Vonnegut would have been thinking mainly of very early computation and then robots in automotive plants (as one example). 70some years later we're well into that, and into the emergence of a technology that got its start back in the 50s and is now sort of blasting into popular knowledge. A lot of the discussions I have around AI are tinted with fear of how emerging technologies could replace people. The little scene where an Engineer invents a gizmo that puts him and all 71 of his counterparts out of their jobs hits pretty well in that context.

It's interesting to see that, from the very beginning, Vonnegut uses outsiders as a way to poke and prod at assumptions and ask very pointed questions. The interludes with the Shah, while pretty well divorced from the main narrative of the story, are great vignettes of life and opportunities for Vonnegut to interrogate ideas.

I'm rating this as a three (or 3.5) because it didn't really smack me upside the head with inspiration. It was a fun read with a lot of ideas that really haven't aged a day. But, it won't be an annual re-read like Slaughterhouse Five.

Considering the age of this debut novel by the great Kurt Vonnegut Jr there are certain parallels to this modern life.

The major theme is that modern technology is taking over industry to the point that it leaves many of a certain skill set without a role in society. Vonnegut Jr being a brilliant satirist has made an occasional laugh out loud satire that though showing its age in terms of using the then known machineries seemed to me to have a relevance to the modern use of AI as just one example.

One of the more interesting events in the tale told is that rioters were smashing all the machines up and that the engineers behind the revolt pleaded for them to stop as they had to decide what machines were kept and what were to be destroyed. The rioters took no notice and were even destroying bakeries, for example. What to eat now was the obvious question. Hence, Vonnegut Jr asks the reader the question, if machinery makes for a dull life what do we do without it anyway? The definitive double bind for the opposition to modern technology? One could argue so.


Highly recommended to all Takaru.

P.S
I read a lot of Vonnegut Jr in my youth though the only stand-out to this day is Slaughter-House Five, so with that I have decided to read his oeuvre from the first to the last. This will take time, but so be it. This has come about for 2 reasons. Backlisted covered Galápagos and I have not read that. I need to. Also, a conversation with a well-read neighbour about Vonnegut Jr. I concluded I needed to read him out.

I usually like Vonnegut books, but found it really tough to get through this one. Almost stopped midway through. Not sure why, this one just didn't click with me.

Vonnegut never fails to deliver, this one in particular is incredible not only for being his first novel but also for remaining frighteningly relevant still today, over 70 years after it was written.


It blends two topics I've been rather interested in recently: what will the progress of AI do to the average man and his previous way of life and the cyclical nature of social revolutions.


As in Zamiatyn's We, Vonnegut reminds us we can't possibly foresee what the end of this whole process will be:


“And that left Paul. ‘To a better world,' he started to say, but he cut the toast short, thinking of the people of Ilium, eager to recreate the same old nightmare. He shrugged. ‘To the record,' he said, and smashed the empty bottle on a rock. Von Neumann considered Paul and then the broken glass. ‘This isn't the end, you know,' he said. ‘Nothing ever is, nothing ever will be–not even Judgment Day.' ‘Hands up,' said Lasher almost gaily. ‘Forward March'”

One sentence synopsis... In a dystopian society (barely different from our own) that is nearly completely automized, a conflicted engineer questions the negative impact machines have on humanity. .

Read it if you like... sci-fi, ‘Westworld', Philip K. Dick. Read it if you hate (or at least hold serious reservations about) Amazon, Facebook, technology's overwhelming and unregulated place in our lives. .

Dream casting... it's themes are huge and scary but this novel is mostly hilarious. Therefore I propose Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele as spiritual leader the Shah of Bratpuhr and his translator, respectively.

It feels unfinished. It was setting up something grand it just feels like the author ran out of time or steam.

How Vonnegut writes is just simple amazing. Every sentence a pleasure to read, every page a pure enjoyment. The whole book sounds even more important when you look at the world today. Just amazing. Highly recommended

Extremely underwhelming, with the plot extruded to excessive length and one-dimensional characters. Vonnegut's the sloppiest work, the definition of pulp fiction.