I just finished my third Kurt Vonnegut novel. I had high hopes for this one. It is always cited as one of his most ‘famous’ works, behind Slaughterhouse-Five. I found Slaughterhouse-Five to be incredibly creative and captivating. It is a once-in-a-lifetime type of work. Even Breakfast of Champions was fun to read despite being Vonnegut’s own least favorite work.
I just checked to see where in his career Vonnegut wrote this novel. It was his first. That explains some things. He seemed to have some portions of the book really polished, but there were others that seemed below par for a writer of his caliber. The pictures he paints so vividly in other novels are obviously being painted with tools he did not enjoy at this point in his career. Player Piano was published in 1952, and Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969. That is a world of difference. I am a little happier with having read the book, knowing this. I got to see the progression of a really great writer. He must have really worked on his craft.
The book starts off in a world where everything has been automated and there is no need for the “average” worker. The automation equipment that produces everything is run by only the most educated engineers. Revenue is generated by taxing the automation equipment. The tax proceeds are then distributed to the common people in the form of furnished housing and small stipends. Anyone with an IQ below a certain number is destined for a life without purpose. Those with a higher IQ are allowed to maintain the equipment and run the manufacturing facilities. These higher IQ people are not given lavish wages, but but are given many times the discretionary income of the average person.
Most people fell below the high IQ threshold and were thus marginalized. Many of them were skilled machinists or tradesmen before the complete takeover of automation. They were not the smartest people IQ-wise, but some were able to do extraordinarily skilled tasks. They were proud of their skills and they wanted to use them. Being provided for was not enough. A life without a purpose was not a life.
Early in the story, the main character, Paul, a high IQ engineer, stops in a bar frequented by those with lesser IQ’s. He sees that he is despised for what he has, and what they do not. He recognizes that his wife enjoys the life of someone with a high IQ despite not having one herself. She married into it. He recognizes that this status is all she desires. She doesn’t really care for him. This situation causes Paul to become despondent and push away the system that he seems to be the benefactor of. In the end, he becomes the unlikely figurehead of the “Ghost Shirt Society” that eventually rebels and overthrows the oppressive machines.