The Sirens of Titan

I've been reading more, and just recently finished the book The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend you do so before reading this post. It's worth it.

Writing this while listening to a playlist of peaceful music, pondering what on Earth the book may have meant. I mean, what on Titan it may have meant.

The book started out here on Earth following the life of a man named Malachi Constant. Constant was considered the luckiest man alive, as his father had amassed billions of dollars that were passed down to his son. The money was accumulated through pure luck and chance, as his father had simply invested in stocks that were made up of the letters from sentences in the Bible. It was by this method that his father lucked out, and yet, it did not allow his father to feel any sort of happiness.

Constant grew up to never really know his father, but only his legacy. He wallowed in wealth. He never knew anything but luxury. Except one day, when Constant made a series of blunders which cost him his entire fortune.

I rush through this summary of the first part of the book because I want to point out the first part that made me pause. Constant's father had written a letter to his son which his son would only be given in the case that his luck "ever really turned sour." The man who delivered the letter to Constant said "if the letter seems to cast the vaguest light on what life might be about, I would appreciate your telephoning me at home."

I think that's what the book is actually about. What is life actually about? Is there something it is about, or does it really not make any sense? In the letter, Constant's father wrote about how he felt like he was a dead man walking. That his entire life, he never felt loved, nor did he really fall in love with much of anything. No hobbies, no passion. Just pure luck. And yet, he wrote, "The only thing I ever learned was that some people are lucky and other people aren't and not even a graduate of the Harvard Business School can say why."

Isn't that sentence wonderful? It makes you stop and think. The business success of so many can be boiled down to just pure luck. A little bit of skill and a lot of luck can get us anywhere.

And it isn't fair, either. Why is it that some people suffer so mightily, while others seem to get off so easily? As Neil DeGrasse Tyson said, "the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." I would add, "nor does the universe owe you anything."

Many people use the phrase "The Lord gives; the Lord takes away." While I would argue that the invocation of religion is unnecessary, the sentiment is still true. The universe is not fair, it is arbitrary. The universe does not care if good things happen to you; good things are merely subjectively defined, anyway. With or without us, the universe will continue on. And even if we are wrong and the universe does not continue for eternity, what is that to the universe itself? Nothing. So no, with all our knowledge and all our power, we still cannot simply say why some people are lucky and others are not. Because it is not an answerable question to ask. It is beyond rhetorical, and more just plain unhelpful.

People ask "what is the meaning of life" all the time. I would submit that there is no meaning, there is no purpose. "The" purpose of life is as unhelpful of a phrase as asking "what is the best cereal." The point is, who is asking? What makes something the best? What makes a purpose?

A prime example comes from The Sirens of Titan. In another section of the book, Vonnegut explores the purpose of life with the invention of an odd type of creature on the planet Mercury. These creates, dubbed "harmoniums," are kite-like, flat, glowing beings which survive simply based on vibrations. They cling to walls and stay there for extremely long periods of time, enjoying the vibrations of the cave walls in the deep part of the planet. But if the harmoniums get overstimulated with vibrations, they curl up and die.

At one point, the main character, Unk, figured out how to get out of the caves of Mercury. He told his companion Boaz, who had befriended the harmoniums and who played them music every day. He loved the creatures and provided them with music to give them new, fresh vibrations which would bring them joy. Unfortunately, when Unk told Boaz how to get off the planet, Boaz was momentarily distracted with preparing to leave, and the following exchange occurred:

"And then, all of a sudden," said Boaz, "I remember all the crazy little animals I been making so happy so easy with music. And I go find thousands of 'em lying around dead, on account of Boaz forgot all about 'em, he was so excited about being free. And ever' one of them lost lives I could have saved, if I'd have just kept my mind on what I was doing. And then I say to myself," said Boaz, "I ain't never been nothing good to people, and people never been nothing good to me. So what I want to be free in crowds of people for? And then I knew what I was going to say to you, Unk, when I got back here. I found me a place where I can do good without doing any harm, and I can see I'm doing 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. And when I die down here some day," said Boaz," I'm going to be able to say to myself, 'Boaz - you made millions of lives worth living. Ain't nobody ever spread more joy. You ain't got an enemy in the Universe.'"

Take a moment and read that section again. Is that not the meaning of life?

At the end of the novel, it is revealed that the entire purpose of everything - all of human history on Earth, all of the crazy events of the novel, everything, was ordered and determined by an alien robotic society millions of light years away, all for what seems to be ultimately a small an unimportant goal. Naturally, the characters have a hard time accepting that the purpose of their lives and every life they have ever experienced is so small, so ... unexciting. But now I think back to the beginning of the book, and Constant's father's letter. Did it shed light on the purpose of life?

I would argue yes it did, as did the rest of the book. The meaning that people put onto the things they do, the objects they possess, the ideas they create; those are the meanings of life. There is no one purpose, and if there was, it wouldn't make sense to us, anyways. How could it? What one single meaning could possibly encompass everyone and every thing?

I guess I can wrap all of this up by writing one thing. We humans need to remember that every other living thing on this planet and everywhere else has a purpose. And we don't have to know what that purpose is - the only creature that knows it is the living being itself. And if they don't know their purpose, it is not for us to tell them what it is. We need to stop forcing our notions of good and bad and right and wrong onto everything and learn to just live in the universe, with the universe.

It seems to me that we are constantly waging a war against the world we live in instead of living with it. We chase the Sirens, continuously beckoning us toward what seems a bigger, grander, better life. When really, the harmoniums had it figured out. Exist on the vibrations of the universe.

And thus, in a way, nothing is fair, which makes everything fair. Nothing is right, thus, everything is right. Nothing is good, but everything is good. The constant balance, the tug-of-war, the internal struggle about the outside struggles, the everything. All of it. We make the purpose of life. Or I should say, we make our purpose of life. Every one of us.

While there are many more thoughts that crossed my mind while reading this novel, this stands out to me to be a big takeaway. Have you read the novel? What did you think?