Player Piano: A good, old-fashioned Dystopic comedy

The first thing I ever read by Vonnegut was Breakfast of Champions, which I read last year. By then, he had constructed a layered universe whose rabbit hole split into different stories which sometimes spilled into one another.

*as always, SPOILERS!*

  Player Piano, Vonnegut's first novel, predates the universe, and takes place in an alternate version of the 70s or 80s, as someone in the 1950s imagines it. Far enough in the future that it's difficult to foresee, but not so far that no one in the story remembers the present day. In his pessimistic (dystopic, really) vision of this unspecified time in America's future, machines have taken up all manual labor--and more--from humans, leaving the most high-level jobs for the highly intelligent; specifically, managers and engineers, who are put on a pedestal in this American society. For those who don't make the elite, there is only the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps (nicknamed the "reeks and wrecks") or the army. 

The protagonist is Dr. Paul Proteus, the son of one of the most successful engineers in recent history, and who had once held the highest level in the land (not the presidency--that at this point is a figurehead position). Like all dystopian protagonists, Paul is unhappy, but can't figure out why, until his old friend Ed Finnerty shows up and exposes him to discontented thinking. Proteus' gradual breakaway from his comfortable life at Ilium Works--and eventual revolution--is broken up by snippets of an Arab tourist and the man who shows him around, uncovering stories of other discontented people they meet on their tour. In the end, the revolution fails, and Paul and his co-horts turn themselves in.

  Player Piano is suspenseful, fast-paced, and bitingly humorous, characteristic of many of his novels. I didn't want to stop reading--though I did for other reasons. The fiction he presents us bears an eerie resemblance to today's reality (machines do more than they did 60 years ago; in fact we rely a ton on machines today--though of the digital variety; Vonnegut's machines are more analog) showing how technology transforms society. More people are unable to find jobs in the private sector, since machines do the job they would have had; therefore, the government gives them jobs and keeps them comfortable (with pension, health care, and even pre-bought furniture) to forestall a revolution.

 What is in place is far from the American Dream; instead, the class system is upheld by intelligence aptitude tests; those who don't pass remain in their class. Paul, as the son of a successful engineer, was set from the start. The biggest thing Player Piano didn't take into account was the advancement of women and minorities--their representations in the novel (as housewives and secretaries and simple-minded and invisible) are strictly retro. So today's world is a bit more complicated. Our new service economy favors what is now known as "women's work." Universal Health Care is a good thing. We have a black president. We're afraid of Muslims. But of course it's fiction, not meant to be a prediction.

  Player Piano is a classically dystopian tale,though a lot funnier than your average read. It gets you thinking about men and machines, and whether all progress--especially mechanization and digitalization--is completely a good thing. We lose contact with other human beings, with the earth from which all life comes--can we regain these connections, or is the damage done? Vonnegut's answer, like many dark comedies, is not a hopeful one. I rate 4/5 because of the cartoonish depictions of women and minorities and the trivialization of American Indians (i.e., blatant racism and sexism). Note that I am giving the novel a high rating, however--I am not super-offended (and it was a different time, after all: one can hardly expect a white dude over 25 to be progressive in the 50s).