Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano

“Don't you see, Doctor?" said Lasher. "The machines are to practically everbody what the white men were to the Indians. People are finding that, because of the way the machines are changing the world, more and more of their old values don't apply any more. People have no choice but to become second-rate machines themselves, or wards of the machines.” 

I finally finished Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano. It is far more conventional than Vonnegut's later works, and lacking some of his characteristic writing. It does, however, have an influence on his later novels through the fictional city of Ilium, New York. Vonnegut also explores similar themes regarding technology, war, religion, and human nature through satire and absurdity in this fully automated society, dominated by engineers and managers. 

While the premise of the plot is quite common in dystopic science fiction (Player Piano reminds me of Brave New World), Vonnegut's future America is still relevant to our present and stands out because of some of his nascent penchant for subplots and dark humor. The chapters about the visiting Shah and Halyward were particularly amusing, since readers are allowed to see the horrors of American society automated and ruled by engineers. Indeed, these chapters were the most reminiscent of Vonnegut's future novels.

Those expecting some of the out there Vonnegut might be disappointed, but Player Piano features many of the same ideas, places, and themes pervasive in his work. Where it was weaker, in my opinion, is in the length of the story, which I think could be whittled down. Nevertheless, once halfway through the novel, things pick up and I could not help but think of his later novels, The Sirens of Titan, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Cat's Cradle, which explore similar themes regarding technology, war, religion, and America's class system. 

Player Piano is a complex, nuanced novel, one cannot help but think Vonnegut's ultimate aim here is to defend a 'middle way' between being fully dependent on machines and ensuring human life has purpose, or work to provide meaning to life. Also reflecting on the meaning of human existence, Vonnegut pursues this theme more impressively in Sirens of Titan.