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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Prophetic and still relevant to this day. A possible future where automation is taken to it's logical conclusion.
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Funny, ridiculous and somehow appropriate during the covid world of 2020. I haven’t been replaced by a machine but I’m feeling a lot less than useful.
This book was very much giving “baby’s first dystopian science fiction novel” and it was kinda hard to take the premise seriously. The whole thing about what if robots were the economy was very 1950s speculative fiction which makes sense. This probably would have been pretty basic except that Kurt Vonnegut writes about revolution and human emotion in a way that is very interesting and thought-provoking. Paul is a solid protagonist who makes interesting decisions and is very easy to root for.
It says a lot about the times in which we live that this dystopian novel (in the mold of Brave New World) published in 1952 depicts a world that is better than our own. Vonnegut's first novel is about a future United States where automation has eliminated all but a handful of satisfying jobs (most of which involve designing the machines that put people out of work). The result of all that automation (and the worship of efficiency and "progress" that drives it) is an underclass of average people with nothing meaningful to do. This is similar to our own world, if a little bleaker. Yet Vonneguts's vision of 60 years ago proves optimistic: in order to keep the underclasses content, the powers that be provide the masses with universal healthcare and give them menial jobs maintaining the nation's infrastructure. No doubt this seemed probable with the New Deal still looming large in public memory -- but today? This is a dystopia many would choose over the current reality.
This is Vonnegut's first novel and also, by far, his most conventional. While his sense of absurdity is on display throughout (we meet, for instance, a factory worker who invented a machine that does his job thereby leading to his own unemployment as well as that of 60 co-workers) it is always working in service of the plot. None of Vonnegut's trademark meta-fictional detours are on display. We follow the protagonist (Paul Proteus) through a familiar arc of discontentment, rebellion, and resignation. Still, Vonnegut's bleakly comical vision of humanity (and their need for discontentment) is already in evidence, as is his discomfort with any solutions (the resistance is portrayed with almost as much cynicism as those in power).
Player Piano is a solid first novel that is genuinely enjoyable to read. While it is not representative of Vonnegut's work it does contain many of the seeds that would later blossom into novels like Mother Night, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions.
I hadn't read much Vonnegut, and none in a very, very long time. I had never read Player Piano. The book is interesting, extremely well written, and well thought out. The problem is, it just doesn't hold up well over time. It depicts a society where day to day decisions and management are given over to machines and there becomes a huge dichotomy between engineers and managers on one side and everybody else on relegated to the other. The problem is that two things driving the machines are vacuum tubes and punch cards. I'm old enough to remember when that did sound like the future, but it somehow sounds like a joke today.
Kurt Vonnegut had his debut novel, Player Piano, published in 1952. Much of western civilisation was still in a period of recovery following the devastation of World War II. Vonnegut was an active serviceman and was captured in Europe...https://theforgottengeek.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/player-piano-by-kurt-vonnegut/
Vonnegut's first novel is a dystopic vision of a highly efficient America where most of the workers have been replaced by machines and most of the choices, pleasures, and freedoms are dictated by the logic of a gigantic series of computers. Our protagonist, Dr. Paul Proteus, is one of the blessed in this society -- an engineer and the son of the man who brought the mechanized society to pass during the industrial push of the last great war. But Paul is dissatisfied, and there are rumblings of revolution from the displaced workers on [b:the other side of the bridge|129783|The Other Side of the Bridge|Mary Lawson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171989412s/129783.jpg|25378]. You can tell this is early Vonnegut, but some of his later humor and absurdism still come through in this generally pretty serious look at class, society, and progress.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes