ABSTRACT
Kurt Vonnegut’s future fantasy thus deals with some of the most important issues of the 1950s, issues of conformity, boredom and mechanization, but in a popular form. It is no accident, then, that when people in Player Piano do mount a revolution it takes the form of a large circle, at first departing from the habits of Third Industrial Revolution but after much effort ending up almost precisely where they began. The logic of Player Piano’s vision reinforces Dr. Paul’s view that the process is an endless circle whose happiest issue is death. To the common theme that a rosy future is really not so rosy, he adds the notion that even the most exotic matters turn out to be pretty familiar after all. The hardcover trade edition published in 1952 by Charles Scribner’s Sons failed miserably: less than third of its first printing of 7600 copies was purchased.
