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... can almen, pioneers, and whalers. Machines do our jobs for us; all we need to know how to do is push a few buttons. Many Americans are jobless because of the computerization in corporations, and Vonnegut blames American scientists and technologists for this (Uphaus 466). Technology is so destructive that it has taken our jobs away from us and takes away our pride. He believes that only those who still have manual labor to perform are truly happy.
He shows this belief in his stories, if he ever were to write a sentimental novel with a conventional happy ending the hero almost certainly will be wearing a blue collar. In his novel, Player Piano, the people who still have manual labor to do are the happiest. Science and technology hasnt affected these people; they still have a job to perform. Kurt Vonnegut is not only aware of the destructive social impact of science and technology; he tries to make you aware of it through his writing. Technology is the villain in his writings because of this awareness.
He knows its ability to destroy society and he tries to make you aware of it. Accomplishing what few other writers dare to attempt, he makes Americans see themselves (Korea 570). Vonnegut has put his finger on an essential problem of our times (Hicks 451). Science and technology has destroyed communication between family members, our ability to use our imagination and has even destroyed the American dream. Kurt Vonnegut has a deep hatred of corporate insensitivity.
This hatred stems from a job Vonnegut once held at General Electric in Schenectady, NY. He worked in public relations as an official. His job, the General Electric plant and the town would provide with an abundance of material for his novels. His experiences in the corporate world reappear throughout his novels. While working at G. E.
he noticed a computer-operated milling machine. His novel Player Piano was his response to the implication of everything having run by little boxes. It made perfect sense to have the box make the decisions. This would cut down on human error and increase production. But it was too bad for the humans who get dignity from their jobs.
The corporation did not care though; they benefit from the computer-operated machine and as long as they are making more money, they are not concerned with the human who they put out of employment (Lundquist 88). His brush with science at G. E. instilled in him a profound dislike of technology (Goldsmith Introduction). In the corporate world, he hated how machines were replacing humans and no one but the people who were losing their jobs cared.
While working at General Electric he found profit motives couched in sentimental tributes to pure science and individual freedom was sacrificed for personal advancement. He also noticed how technology was developed in a moral vacuum. All of these things he noticed through his work and contributed to his hatred of the insensitivity of the corporate world (Giannone 6). He eventually quit his job at G. E. to write a novel about people and machines.
Also, he deeply despises any institution, be it scientific, religious, or political that dehumanizes men and considers him a mere number and not a human being (Schatt 348). In many novels he portrays society as a group of stupid, unthinking sheep. He does this because he believes this is how institutions and insensitive corporations view society. Too many corporations view us as parts of one big animal. However, we are separate universes each with its own way of ignoring, celebrating or fending off the effects of technology. Too many corporations view their employees as a group.
They are too insensitive to care that they are individual people. His hatred of corporate insensitivity contributes to technology being the villain in his writing. From his experiences, Vonnegut knows that feelings get in the way of progress (Giannone 14). Corporations use this policy; they automate everything they possibly can.
He is annoyed by the trend toward automation and the submergence of the individual into a collective state. Corporations do both of these things and that is why they are insensitive. They do not care about the individual employee and they do not care about the dignity the employee gets from completing his job. All of these things contribute to technology being the villain in his writing. His experiences with insensitive corporations have made him hate technology and automation.
Therefore, Kurt Vonnegut portrays technology as the villain. In Kurt Vonnegut's writing, technology is often the villain. In his novel, Player Piano machines have replaced most of the jobs of humans. Machines replace manual labor and computers have taken over most of the supervision of the machines. The factory is then staffed by a handful of men (Reed 25).
Business and industry have discovered that they could function more efficiently without inefficient people. As a result, society is almost fully automated with the exceptions of a few jobs computers could not take over, barbering and bartending, because attempts to automate them had failed. The smarter you are in this society the better you are. The computer in this novel, EPICAC XIV, annihilates whatever impedes its efficiency. If you get in the way the machine wipes you out. He portrays technology in a disturbing way in this book.
He describes the future as bleak because companies will have computerized successfully. Most everybody will be put out of jobs because of computerization. He writes of the mechanical millenium to come (Klinkowitz 348). Technology is obviously the villain in this novel. Technology has taken over the companies due to corporate insensitivity and society is destroyed because of it. He rails against the mechanization of man in this novel.
Other writers may choose to ignore the technological infringement upon our lives and grope for the cause of the dismay in the lives of their characters, Vonnegut knows the cause and he portrays it as the villain. He constantly warns of the bleak future due to the advancement of technology. He hints that humanity, like the dinosaur and the saber-toothed tiger, face extinction. Humanity is clearly competing with the machines for survival.
In Cats Cradle, the creation of the ice-nine finishes the destruction of the world that began with the atomic bomb. He blames this destruction on the fact that the man who discovered ice-nine never picked up a novel or short story to read. He lived in a technological world where reading was not important. Vonnegut believes, Without literature a person dies of either putrescence of the heart of atrophy of the nervous system (Giannone 124). The society has been destroyed by technology so the scientist never experiences reading.
Vonnegut suggests that if he had, he may not have developed the ice-nine and technology would not have destroyed the world. Technology is the common villain in Kurt Vonnegut's writing because he deeply believes it will eventually do away with humans and destroy the world. Works Cited Freedman, David H. ; Schafer, Sarah. Vonnegut and Clancy on Technology.
Technology Nov 95: 63 Gone, Richard. Vonnegut: A Preface to His Novels. NY: Kennikat Press, 1977. Goldsmith, David H. Kurt Vonnegut Fantasist of Fire and Ice.
Ohio: Bowling Green University Poplar Press, 1972. Klinkowitz, Jerome. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and the Crime of His Times. Rpt.
In Contemporary Literary Criticism Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 348. Lundquist, James.
Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Fredrick Ungar Publishing Co. , Inc. , 1977. Pickering, Carol. Shelf life. Forbes 6 April, 1998: 24 Reed, Peter J. Writers for the Seventies: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1972. Schatt, Stanley. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1976. Schatt, Stanley. The World of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 348.
Schulz, Max F. The Unconfirmed Thesis: Kurt Vonnegut, Black Humor, and Contemporary Art. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 347 - 348.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Technology and Civilization. Forbes 30 November, 1998: 266
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Research essay sample on The Role Of Technology In Kurt Vonnegut Writing
