DID NOT LIKE

A dystopian novel in the tradition of 1984, We and Brave New World. In a way it's quite funny with modern and yet now seemingly quaint concerns. Vonnegut injects knowing humour and irony into the way the plot develops and characters react to events, and even though it's over fifty years old, the society seems more familiar with its drive for efficiency and corporate unity - more like what has come to pass than that painted by its more famous counterparts. Perhaps a little bit of a curio, as I suppose all novels of this kind are tied up with the anticipated future of a past long gone, but nonetheless a good read. ( )

I am a huge Kurt Vonnegut fan and have read a few of his works, Slaughter-House Five and The Sirens of Titan, and loved them. He is able to create stories that are, interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking. His style of writing rivals that of the best which only makes his works that much better. When given the opportunity to read a free choice novel in my English class and I found out one of the options was another book by Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano, it was an easy decision.

In Player Piano the main character Paul Proteus is stuck in the middle of a society divided into the rich and well educated and the poor and undereducated. Paul runs a factory in Ilium, New York and he reflects upon the factory and its transition to a modernized and industrialized assembly line that does not require the work of humans because all the machines can run themselves. While reflecting he begins to see the flaws of what society is becoming and joins a group called the Ghost Shirt Society which is an organization that fights against the society to try and reverse what the society is becoming.

Vonnegut, much like Huxley, analyzes the impact industrialization on society through his satirical work Player Piano. He portrays his opinion on how if society does not take action quickly all hope will be lost and humans will no longer play a role in society whatsoever. Player Piano is a dystopia however through the society’s actions the reader can see what can be done to prevent it from happening.

While I did enjoy reading Player Piano it is not my favorite Vonnegut novel. I was not as impressed with his writing in this one, I feel that it was lacking, however this is one of the first novels Vonnegut wrote so it was interesting to see how he evolved as a writer having read The Sirens of Titan and Slaughter-House Five. I would recommend Player Piano but with a warning to not be expecting too much. Don’t get me wrong it is a good book but, in my opinion, not the best of Vonnegut’s works. ( )

If you have read 1984 and Brave New World, but somehow managed to miss this novel - go buy it. ( )

Being an employee is a goddam nightmare job

The first and most anti-capitalist book by Vonnegut! In fact, he started writing it just after quitting being an employee for General Electric, a "goddam nightmare job". ( )

I loved this! While I've read a fair amount of Vonnegut since he appeared on the Daily Show when I was in early high school, nothing of his has connected with me quite like this one. I finally get what all the fuss is about.

It's a true masterpiece--the detail crafted in every single bit of onomatopoeia, the ancillary characters which tell their own stories in their own words, the surprisingly plausible view of the future...all of it indicates the master craft put forth in this novel. I made the mistake of picking it up at a garage sale during finals week, and I've just lost an entire day and a half of paper-writing to this book. I couldn't be more glad I did, though. This book got me fired up about reading again, quite simply. I love it! ( )

Ah yes, the wonderful weekend. The time where we meet here on this website to discuss the words on the pages that we consume during the weekdays.

This is the book, the book that got me to love reading as a hobby. This book changed my life and made me to start thinking about my surroundings more. Though the times of the world have changed and the ideas in the book are a little "funny", it still was a great book written for its time.

I will be getting a cue-cat scanner and scanning my library in when I have the time! Anyone recommend the ps2 or USB version on ebay? I don't know the difference. I can use Word and email, that is it. Please respond with which i should get. Thanks you all.

Chris ( )

This was my first Kurt Vonnegut book (other than Man Without a Country) and I was as happy with the book as I thought I would be. His witting style was very easy for me to read. I literally couldn't put this one down. I like the idea of technology causing problems. Even as technology friendly as I am I can see that someday there could be a meltdown and technology will be at the center of it.

Mr. Vonnegut's look into the future, from the past, was very interesting. More so to see what his idea of technology in the future would be like, and to compare it to what really exists today.

Being that this was my first Kurt Vonnegut book I am looking forward to reading even more. ( )

Player Piano is a dystopic science fiction novel in which, after a great war, mechanization and efficiency have reached new heights and all manual labor is now performed by computerized machines. The only people who have jobs are those with high enough IQs to be managers or engineers. Everyone else is either in the army or the Reconstruction & Reclamation Corps (also known as the Reeks and Wrecks), which is kind of an overstaffed city maintenance crew. [Sadly (or happily, I guess), women are left out of this whole new social structure and still do things the old way, by just marrying somebody and then being whatever class he happens to be. I like Vonnegut, but he just isn't all that imaginative when it comes to female characters...] Our hero is Dr. Paul Proteus, an engineer and the son of the man who started the whole mechanization scheme rolling. Paul is dissatisfied and wants to make a change, but will one of the key gears have any luck at leaving the rest of the machine behind?

This is Vonnegut's first novel, and while his trademark humor and cynicism are here, they are more hidden in a traditional narrative than in some of his other novels. Overall this is very readable and often surprisingly topical look at modern society, seen from the future-gazing lenses of 1952.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2009/01...] ( )

The most realistic vision of the future i've read so far. ( )

Vonnegut's first novel: the introduction to his brilliance as a thinker, writer and comedian.
Player Piano is set in a futuristic America where the world is run by machines and social status/jobs are decided by computer-IQ tests. Main character and protagonist Paul Proteus is a genius whose intelligence has brought him to become a wealthy, upper class citizen of society. Proteus grew increasingly dissatisfied with what the world had become - a machine and industrialized center where human action was no longer needed. This life left him feeling unhappy and painfully useless, longing for a more complex lifestyle. Proteus's best friend Finnerty had similar feelings about society and became the radical rebel leader of the "Ghost Shirt Society," an organization who's goal was for humans to re-gain control of this now machine-run world. Because of Finnerty's finagling, Paul found himself the new leader of this Ghost Shirt Society (once again, he was the most intelligent individual involved). The Ghost Shirt Society rebels, attempting to take over the machines that run mankind. They ultimately fail, even having acted upon their beliefs. The leaders of the Ghost Shirt Society realize it is impossible to take over what the world has already become, and finally subject themselves to the authorities of society.
Player Piano is a story of a "techno-utopia" where machines have ultimately replaced the human mind. Vonnegut wrote satirically about a world consumed with technology, everyone in a way predestined to their lives and jobs- every bit of intellect being gauged by an IQ test. It is clear that Vonnegut's view of utopia is the opposite of what this futuristic society represents. He used Paul as the protagonist, attempting to re-create the actual dystopian environment he was living in. Like Huxley, Vonnegut writes to warn the reader that technology, machines, and consumerism are taking over. He satirizes the society, but the daunting elements of reality are what open the eyes of the reader.
I rated this novel a 3.5/5. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it, though, because I did. I couldn't give it more stars because there are novels that I've become more wrapped up in than this one. I drew a lot of parallels between Huxley's Brave New World and Player Piano, which I read at the same time. This may have been a factor in my partial-dissatisfaction. However, having read three utopian novels in the past few months, I've really grown able to pick out the utopian and dystopian aspects of the story, and I've learned how to realize what message the author is advocating/teaching.
Having read other books of his, Vonnegut truly is a brilliant writer. I recommend this book to someone who will enjoy a futuristic, satirical book that opens your eyes to what the world actually may be becoming... scary! ( )

You could see Vonnegut's genius in his first novel.

On a blog I read, the Devil Vet's been thinking about hope and hopelessness in dystopian fiction. I think Player Piano is good example of how hope plays into dystopian narratives. The Ghost Shirt Society of the book rises in rebellion against the soul-numbing mechanized society even though they know they will fail. Why? Simply to show that it can be done. That there can be light at the end of that tunnel, if power is wrested from the managers and engineers who hold it in that society. "Hope in hopelessness" indeed.

But then, that's one of Vonnegut's favorite themes (literally from the beginning, as we see) to kick around. You might have the whole world against you, you might know from the beginning that stretching your wings will just result in being shot out of the sky, but the exercise of whatever freedom you can snatch is worth the fall.

Of course, he didn't rely simply on ideas. The man could spin a yarn. The whole section of the book where Proteus has to go on an annual weekend team-spirit-building retreat had me chuckling through my anger. I hate that kind of workaday pep rally crap, and that particular scenario sounds like my idea of four days of hell. And the chapter in which Proteus buys a small, old school farm - thinking that will calm his need to get out of the "we are all cogs" system - and his wife takes it completely the wrong way sort of broke my heart. Though, I have to admit, I felt some for the wife - it's not like he spent any time communicating his feelings or situation to her.

The running thread of the Shah of Bratpuhr touring the US, with his guide in more and more dire straits, was a nice touch. Sometimes that kind of show-and-tell subplot can feel tacked on or unnecessary, but Vonnegut's storytelling allowed it to weave in and out of the major action.

final thought: No surprise, I agree with him. If you take away a person's chance to do for themselves, you take away a major reason to get out of bed every morning. I'm not saying we all have to work hard or die. I'm just saying, yeah, we all need that feeling of dignity that honest work can provide, whether for decent wages or just for our own benefit. ( )

Through the perils and necessities of war, America has become a thoroughly automated, thoroughly class-divided society: the high-IQ, PhD carrying managers and engineers run the production lines (that is, they supervise the machinery) while the average citizen (low IQed) lives comfortably in his or her prepackaged, government subsidized home. While you might scoff at the idea of your entire life being determined solely on the result of a few test scores (and subject to the rigidity of machine logic), don't fret: everyone gets a television. The American dream.

Paul Proteus, the illustrious manager of the Ilium works and son of a national hero of wartime industry, loses touch with the spirit of the age. He is disillusioned with the idea that machines make life better: that the increasingly mechanized/automated aspects of human life increase the quality thereof. Though he has never known life without machines, he instinctively feels mankind (though, decidedly not womankind, as the novel lacks any strong female character) has lost part of its essence, its definitiveness.

The picture of an entirely automated existence where every citizen's lifestyle is maintained (read: checked) through a complex infrastructure of machinery originally appealed to me. As a blogger/ gmail/ greader/ google doc/ twitter/ facebook/ digsby/ ff3/ google desktop/ obsessively-GTD user, I understandably was drawn to Vonnegut's post-bellum world. But so much potential was lost on me after the first 100 pages. The story develops slowly and only begins to draw momentum toward the final chapters. Although a slow-paced narrative could easily be overcome through complex characterization or philosophical musing, Vonnegut (characteristic of his later style) attempts neither. The figure of Paul, unlike the stably stoic Billy Pilgrim, shimmers hazily just on the edge of the narrative, haphazardly jumping into the spotlight from time to time to assert... well, nothing consistent. At best, he's a Prufrock, and a mildly-placid one at that.

Glancing over the reviews of the work on LibraryThing, many readers think this early work permits glimpses of a future style characteristic of Vonnegut. Indeed. I would go further to say that Player Piano tries to hard to be not-Vonnegut. This resistance to that later style results in a thinly spread novel that tries in spite of its creator to pull back upon itself. ( )

Classic Vonnegut. Wonderful. ( )

One of his earlier books. a 50's dystopia. Quite prophetic in some ways ( )

Eh. Not one of the better dystopian novels I've read. Tells the story of a man living in a version of 1950s America in which most work is done by machines and most people perform no meaningful work. A small elite runs the machinery while ordinary people are either manual laborers or in the military. The hero is a rising star from the elite who becomes disillusioned with the system and then does nothing...for what seems like an interminably long time. Most of the plot "twists" were pretty obvious, maybe they were supposed to be. Overall, I found it just ok - perhaps disappointing. ( )

I read a lot of Vonnegut in the 70's and really liked him, and lately, maybe since his death this year, I've been thinking about rereading him and wondering what I would think of him now.

This book was assigned to me in Go Review That Book! and as it happened, I hadn't read it before so it was a perfect assignment.

However, it was his first novel.

The story is simple enough: a society divided by IQ; those intelligent enough design the machines that put those with lower IQs out of work, but they also provide them with housing and material goods and security. Well, as you can imagine, they are bored and depressed and watch lots of TV. Our hero is a guy way up at the top who has second thoughts about all this and ultimately goes to the other side.

It's not bad; it has its moments and it's an easy read and you want to find out what happens, but it's not really good. The writing is only serviceable, the characters are thin and too often serve as mouthpieces for the author and it comes across as a bit clunky and naïve.

Hmm, I thought, he probably got better. I went out to buy Slaughterhouse-Five but they didn't have that, so I bought instead A Man Without A Country, his short book of musings, written in 2005. And then it all came back. And then I found Slaughterhouse-Five and from the first few pages, it was clear the writing was about 300% better than Player Piano. I'm looking forward to my reaquaintance.

My advice is to skip this book and read a later one. ( )

http://pissandvinegar.vox.com/library... ( )

One of Vonnegut's early works. You can see where he is heading, and you can see how good a writer he really will turn out to be, but you can also he that he ain't there yet. ( )

I've not read Vonnegut's other more famous works, but it's clear that this is a first novel. None the less, it's entertaining and thought provoking, though I can't say I agree with it's central premise. As an engineering student I'd highly recommend it to anyone going into the field. ( )

This is my favorite Vonnegut book. I think it was his first? The book is about a world in which most of the labor done in the world is done by machines. (think factory machines, not computers) There are class divisions between those who are smart and control the machines, and those who are out of work, because there is no work to do. Then, all hell breaks loose. MWA HA HA. ( )

I read this when I was 14 but the only thing I remember was this one scene where he talks about looking at a white barn when the sun was out and bright and it was written so vividly that I remember my pupils dilating.

Pretty cool.

Not quite vintage Vonnegut but a great novel nonetheless. As an earlier work you can see that his genious hasn't quite fully come together but is nearly there. In our modern age it is a little dated, with computers using punch cards and vacuum tubes, but the message is not lost ( )

Science fiction is at its best when it has as much to say about the today's world as it does about the far off planets and future societies it so often depicts. The simply endless barrage of "Star Wars"/"Star Trek" knock offs don't exactly provide the kind of brain food one looks for in the best of the genre, which is why Kurt Vonnegut was such a refreshing development. Working with the tropes of pulp science fiction but with the insight of a true satirist, he often resembles something akin to a modern Jonathan Swift or G.K. Chesterton, using the fantastic as a way to comment on the temporal.

"Player Piano" is Vonnegut's first novel and shows both the promise of a brilliant writer and the faults of a still-developing talent. Depicting a future America in which machines run nearly every imaginable service and the culture is slowly outmoding itself out of existence, the novel touches on a broad range of topics. Class warfare, business culture, marketing and others all get the nice little shakedown, though it often feels like Vonnegut is pushing to cover too much ground in too little time. The novel's climax, a largely ineffective revolution against the engineer class and the machines, doesn't really come off in any kind of satisfying way. But this is still Vonnegut, and his broad-yet-incisive touch is still there. Dated at times, but still an funny and relevant read.

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net) ( )