The Sirens of Titan is one of my favorite books. At least in the top three of my favorite Kurt Vonnegut books — up there with Player Piano and Cat’s Cradle. Sirens of Titan has an absolutely insane plot that has you guessing every step of the way. Even at the end you question if any of the characters had any free will.
At large the book is about being used and the purpose in life. In the book we thought Winston Rumford was calling all the shots manipulating people like Malachi Constant. Except nope, at the end we find out that Rumford was actually the one being used by an alien race to deliver a spare part to Salo’s space ship. In fact, Rumford wasn’t the only one being used, the entire human race was being used. The great wall of china, the pyramids and all ancient objects viewable from space were created through UWTB (Universal will to become) to send messages to Salo.
Right before dying Rumford said:
Nobody likes to think he’s being used. He’ll put off admitting it to himself until the past possible instant. It may surprise you to lean that I take a certain pride, no matter how foolishly mistaken that pride may be, in making my own decisions for my own reasons.
Rumford’s ex wife Beatrice then spends the rest of her life on Titan and she writes a massive book on the meaning on life. Right before she dyes, she tells Malachi Constant:
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.
There is a beautiful duality in this in terms of relationships. Nobody wants to be used, but everyone also wants to be used. I’ve ran into this with my own relationships. My ex felt guilty that he was “using me” to get over his past relationship. But, there is nothing to feel guilty about, I was using him for the same thing. Relationships are not all give or take. There is a symbiotic nature that happens, I give you my support and you give me yours and we both benefit greatly. Even if it’s one sided, it still feels good to be able to help someone in some way, that gives people’s life purpose. In Sirens of Titan, being useful to the aliens gave the Human race purpose however small that purpose was for. To be of no use would mean that the Human race doesn’t have any purpose outside of our own insignificant planet.