Alright, I finished my third novel, and it was a good one. I really like Kurt Vonnegut’s style. He is able to portray each character in such a way that the reader completely grasps his or her personality. Player Piano was a great satire on modern life. The United States essentially becomes a socialist country run by machines. Technology is so advanced that human’s have no responsibilities or tasks to complete. The food supply is unlimited, everyone has enough money, yet there is a huge class distinction. The engineers and managers are the only people that still need to work, so people’s IQ’s are screened by machines and labeled according to a hierarchical system. The average citizens are either thrown into the Recreation and Reconstruction Corps. or the Army. There are no more wars, and machines do all the small tasks, therefore both these groups of people feel worthless to humanity. The story shows that work is what keep the mind turning, and the creativity flowing. Imagination and creativity or what really make Human beings unique. Outsourcing work to machines may make everything run more efficiently, and raise the standard of living, but it is how we judge success that determines whether people are happy or not. People making less money, but earning their money are worth more than people being given handouts and a superficial job just to waste time. I really enjoyed this book and I am excited to read more from this author. Social satires are entertaining yet stimulating at the same time.
I think Vonnegut is such a powerful writer, because not only is he using traditional elements of science fiction, he is making notable social commentary. (I guess that really is what good sci fi does, like 1984...) I appreciate Vonnegut's quirky wit. Unlike Orwell, he manages to hold a mirror up to society without portraying it as lost and hopeless.
ReplyDeleteIronic, because with all of our technological improvement these days i could easily see this happening in the near future. I was always scared though thinking about that probably just from watching Irobot and Eagle Eye, where the computers become smarter and kind of take things into their own hands when humans got too power-hungry.
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