| Player Piano | |
|---|---|
 First edition, hardcover |
|
| Author | Kurt Vonnegut |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Publication date | 1952 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
Player Piano, author Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, was published in 1952. It is a dystopia of automation[1] and capitalism, describing the dereliction they cause in the quality of life.[1] The story takes place in a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized, eliminating the need for human laborers. This widespread mechanization creates conflict between the wealthy upper class—the engineers and managers who keep society running—and the lower class, whose skills and purpose in society have been replaced by machines. The book uses irony and sentimentality, which were to become a hallmark developed further in later works.[1]
This satirical take on industrialization and the rhetoric of General Electric[2] and the big corporations, which discussed arguments very topical in the post-war capitalist United States, was instead advertised by the publisher with the more innocuous and marketable label of "science fiction", a genre that was booming in mass popular culture in the 1950s.
Contents |
Influences
In a 1973 interview Vonnegut discussed his inspiration to write the book:[3]
I was working for General Electric at the time, right after World War II , and I saw a milling machine for cutting the rotors on jet engines, gas turbines. This was a very expensive thing for a machinist to do, to cut what is essentially one of those Brancusi forms. So they had a computer-operated milling machine built to cut the blades, and I was fascinated by that. This was in 1949 and the guys who were working on it were foreseeing all sorts of machines being run by little boxes and punched cards. Player Piano was my response to the implications of having everything run by little boxes. The idea of doing that, you know, made sense, perfect sense. To have a little clicking box make all the decisions wasn't a vicious thing to do. But it was too bad for the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs.
In the same interview he acknowledges that he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of Brave New World, whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We."[3]
Title
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A player piano is a modified piano that "plays itself". The piano keys move according to a pattern of holes punched in an unwinding scroll. Unlike a music synthesizer, the instrument actually produces the sound itself, with the keys moving up and down, driving hammers that strike the strings. Like its counterpart, a player piano can be played by hand as well. When a scroll is run through the ghost-operated instrument, the movement of its keys produce the illusion that an invisible performer is playing the instrument.
Vonnegut uses the player piano as a metaphor to represent how the novel's imaginary society is run by machines instead of people. Early in the book, Paul's friend and future member of the Ghost Shirt Society, Ed Finnerty, is shown playing a player piano, suggesting the idea of humans regaining control from the machines.
Science fiction branding
This satirical take on industrialization and the rhetoric of General Electric[2] and the big corporations, which discussed arguments very topical in the post-war capitalist United States, was instead advertised by the publisher with the more innocuous and marketable label of "science fiction", a genre that was booming in mass popular culture in the 1950s.
Player Piano was later released by Bantam Books in 1954 under the title Utopia 14[1] in an effort to drive sales with readers of Science Fiction.
Summary
The novel follows Doctor Paul Proteus, an engineer at the Ilium Works. The novel takes place in an America of the future where machines run everything and do everything, making people almost afterthoughts. Specialization is the norm, and all of the wealthy upper-class people have doctorate level degrees, with eight years of schooling for everyone; consequently it creates a society of well-educated thinkers and not doers. Paul seems to be on his way up the ladder of success in this techno-utopia - a perfect wife, a fast-track position at the Ilium Works and a shot at a major promotion. But he is plagued with doubts about what modern life has become. Through a strange series of events, Dr. Proteus joins a revolutionary organization called the Ghost Shirt Society and even becomes its leader, at least in name. The past where the human race was all of the hope for the world is where the ghost shirt society got their inspiration. These Ghost Shirts, their name taken from the Native American Ghost Dance, succeed in destroying much of Ilium's mechanized infrastructure. Yet, they realize the lack of hope in their mission, and at the end it becomes clear that their goal was to give man hope instead of revolutionize society.
Characters
- Paul Proteus
- Paul Proteus, the novel's protagonist, is the head of industry in Ilium, New York. He is caught in the middle of the conflict, forced to choose whether to continue his work and move on to a future of fame and success, or become the figurehead leader of a rebellion against the machine society. His father was an influential and important figure in the transition to an automated society and thus Paul finds himself in an interesting position. He is to be given a big promotion: to head Engineer at the Pittsburgh plant, the biggest center of production in the Eastern United States. His boss, Kroner, knew his father and had always groomed Paul for success, which complicates matters for Paul as his father died when he was young and he does not want to disappoint the father figure who is trying to help him.
- Anita
- Anita is Paul's wife. "Of all the people on the north side of the river [the rich ones], Anita was the only one whose contempt for those in Homestead [the poor side of the river] was laced with active hatred. She was also the only wife on the north side who had never been to college at all. [...] If Paul were ever moved to be extremely cruel to her, the cruelest thing he could do, he knew, would be to point out to her why she hated [Homesteaders] as she did: if he hadn't married her, this was where she'd be, what she'd be."[4] She is described as an attractive woman with a desire for her husband's career advancement, to a fault. She cannot bear children, although she and Paul married quickly when it seemed she was pregnant.[citation needed]
- Kroner
- Kroner is Paul's boss and one of the most important men in the country. He treats all of his underlings as if they are his children and he even refers to his wife as "Mom" when speaking of her to Paul. His Victorian mansion was "one more affirmation of Kroner's belief that nothing of value changed; that what was once true is always true; that truths were few and simple; and that a man needed no knowledge beyond these truths to deal wisely and justly with any problem whatsoever."[5] He's overtly sexist[citation needed] and believes with every fiber of his being the system of automation in place is the best thing for the country.[citation needed]
- Ed Finnerty
- Ed Finnerty is Paul's old best friend. They had come up through the Engineering ranks together and they had grown close. Their friendship waned when Finnerty took a high ranking position in Washington, D.C. and they lost touch. 'Finnerty' as he is called throughout the book had always been somewhat of a nut, never caring what others thought of him in the least, and his poor hygiene is discussed at length in the start of the book. It is Finnerty that first plants the seeds of revolution in Paul's mind.
- Dr. Shepherd
- Shepherd was once Paul's friend with Finnerty when all three were young engineers. However, when the book begins, Shepherd is jealous of Paul's success, since Paul is his boss. Shepherd constantly treats Paul as a rival, though Paul never considers him to be a threat.
- Rev. James J. Lasher
- Lasher was in a bar that Paul happened to go into to buy Irish whiskey and struck up a conversation. Lasher is the secret head of the Ghost Shirt organization.
- The Shah of Bratpuhr
- The Shah is the spiritual leader of the Kolhouri, a sect with six million adherents. He is led on a tour of the United States in a minor subplot to learn from the most powerful nation in the world how to improve the lives of the people in his mountain kingdom. In his opinion, the "ordinary working man" or "working class" are equivalent of slaves. The Shah is assisted by an interpreter named Khashdrahr Miasma.
Arguments against capitalism
| “ | Without regard for the wishes of men, any machines or techniques or forms of organization that can economically replace men do replace men. Replacement is not necessarily bad, but to do it without regard for the wishes of men is lawlessness. Without regard for the changes in human life patterns that may result, new machines, new forms of organization, new ways of increasing efficiency, are constantly being introduced. To do this without regard for the effects on life patterns is lawlessness. (Chap. XXX) |
” |
| “ | Without rank, without guest priviledges, he lived on a primitive level of social justice. (Chap. XXIII) | ” |
| “ | 'This is your living?' said Paul. He hadn't succeeded in keeping the sense of whimsy out of his voice, and quick resentment was all about him. (Chap. IX) | ” |
| “ | 'Things are certainly set up for a class war based on conveniently established lines of demarcation. And I must say that the basic assumption of the present set-up is a grade-A incitement to violence: the smarter you are, the better you are. Used to be that the richer you were, the better you were. Either one is, you'll have to admit, pretty tough for the have-nots' to take. The criterion of brain is better than the one of money, but'-he held his thumb and forefingher about a sixteenth of an inch apart-'about that much better.' 'It's about as rigid a hierarchy as you can get,' said Finnerty. 'How's somebody going to up his I.Q.?' |
” |
The book discusses how the increases in worker's productivity, by way of more advanced machinery or organizational changes, impact the lives of workers themselves. The increase in the number of vacuum tubes was a crucial technological breakthrough in the post-war 1950s. In that period:
| “ | the tubes increased like rabbits." "And dope addiction, alcoholism, and suicide went up proportionately," said Finnerty. |
” |
Adaptations
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of Player Piano, narrated by Christian Rummel, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
References
- ^ a b c d Stableford, Brian (1993). "Vonnegut, Kurt Jr.". in John Clute & Peter Nicholls (eds.). The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction (2nd edition ed.). Orbit, London. pp. 1289. ISBN 1-85723-124-4.
- ^ a b Interview from Bagombo Snuff Box [1], quote: "It is a lampoon on GE. I bit the hand that used to feed me."
- ^ a b Playboy Magazine interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., July 1973. [2]
- ^ Chapter XVIII, pp.150-1
- ^ Chapter XII, p. 108
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