I just finished Slaughterhouse-Five around 2 weeks ago, thoroughly delighted with my first Vonnegut experience. Naturally, I immediately went to the store and bought more Vonnegut. Sirens of Titan was suggested by many as a great next read, and I'm now extremely glad that I took that advice!
I haven't finished it quite yet, but as I read through the passage below, it sounded alarmingly familiar.
He raised his hand to brush away the wetness on his cheek, and rattled the blue canvas bag of lead shot that was strapped around his wrist.
There were similar bags of shot around his ankles and his other wrist, and two heavy slabs of iron hung on shoulder straps-one slab on his chest and one on his back.
These weights were his handicaps in the race of life.
Immediately my brain reverts back to high school English, and I think to myself, "Huh, that sounds a lot like Harrison Bergeron."
Cue lightbulb moment.
I pulled out my phone and immediately search Harrison Bergeron, and what do you know? Published in 1961 by Kurt Vonnegut, 2 years after Sirens of Titan. I always had this nagging feeling that I had read Vonnegut before, but I could never determine what it was because I was only searching for novels and not short stories.
For any number of reason(s), Harrison Bergeron has stuck with me for over a decade after reading it in High School. And now re-discovering that it was Vonnegut who wrote it absolutely tickles me.
I've heard a lot of love from Vonnegut fans about the ways he ties various parts of his works together, and I can safely say that I'm beyond hooked. There is no way that I'm ending the night without finishing the rest of Sirens of Titan, and I have Cat's Cradle on my shelf already, giving me Bambi eyes.
by PsyferRL