Player Piano- FINISHED

Analysis of Quote:

"Anita slept-- utterly satisfied, not so much by Paul as by the social orgasm of, after years of the system's love play, being offered Pittsburgh" (135).

This quote describes the relationship between Paul and Anita, and what Anita is truly concerned about. In a world where material objects and social status are the only important aspects of life, Anita is much more focused on Paul as a high-status business man than as her husband. The use of the words "social orgasm"and "system's love play" show that economic and social status are synonomous in Anita's mind with human interaction and affection. Paul would be nothing to her without his career. Although she and Paul say "I love you" to each other, it seems rather automatic and like it's not a genuine statement. It is as if they only say it because it's what's expected of them by societal standards as husband and wife.

Analysis of Symbol:

I think I should get extra points for having this picture of Ipecac on my phone and sending it to my email during class.

EPICAC computer system:

The EPICAC computer system is the functional basis of the entire city of Ilium. It represents the systematic society where interactions between people are not so much on an individual personal level as they are on a level concerning their place on the social and career ladder. Everyone in the career world (especially Anita, about Paul's career) is concerned with being the best and outcompeting everyone else for status. The EPICAC system is claimed to be such a high-tech system, with no other system coming close to its power and level of technological advancement. The name EPICAC alludes to a substance called Ipecac used to induce vomiting in people who have swallowed something fatally poisonous, and this reflects the nature of the impersonal, robotic society of Ilium as the people in it are allowing their lives to go to waste by having them revolve around things that are ultimately nothing but materialistic value.

Reflection:

After what I've heard about Kurt Vonnegut as an author from several people, particularly about his work Cat's Cradle, I expected to enjoy this book a lot more than I did. Although it was one of the easier ones to get through and understand, especially compared to Heart of Darkness, I found it to be rather uninteresting and uneventful, and I had a very difficult time getting into it when I picked it up to read it. There were no events in the book that really captured my interest and made me want to continue reading on. The part of the book that I found more entertaining than anything else was when the cat got shocked on the fence which made it pop and glow bright green. It was the only image in the book that I could actually get a good picture of in my head, and it made the book a little more enjoyable. Overall, I liked this book more than the other two we read this marking period, but I would have liked it to have a little more action throughout the book.