In the swirling shit storm that our post Trump world has become, I found it necessary to consult a book I have loved since my late teens. "Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in many ways could be my favorite book of all time. It's not perfect, or particularly deep or important but it does combine many things that I love-It is an irreverent depiction of post war American morals- It is an existential satirical road trip through 1950's pulp sic-fi and mostly in the end it is a moving book about love, friendship and the purpose of being a sentient life form. When I was young I wanted to be a writer. I don't have the required skills or patience to do it properly. In recent years I have painted Sci-Fi pulp covers in homage to Kurt Vonnegut's alter ego, science fiction hack Kilgore Trout. My own novel "The Chronic Yard Sale" has the fingerprints of Kilgore Trout all over it. Sirens of Titan was the source of all that. It was a revelation when I first read it, like discovering a new dimension to your personality, which for a cynical, frankly depressed 1970's era teenager was welcome. I have re-read this probably four times, at critical points in my life- as a college student, as a young man unsure of my direction, as a new father and now as a decrepit and hollowed out bitter shell of a man,- Re-reading it during our present downward spiral to apocalypse was bitter sweet. It actually holds up well in it's pulp ethos, though it seems fairly naive now, the real world incongruence and garishness eclipsing it's much sweeter oddball vision. The theme of being used by history seemed actually preferable to the present chaos we find ourselves in.
