“A guy’s got to have kicks or he doesn’t want to live- and the only kicks left for a dumb bastard like me are the bad ones” (Vonnegut, p. An idle person, made so by some choice other than his/or her own, is going to try to do something to spice up his or her life. The country practically ran itself, and the people were left with a lot of time on their hands. Going through life accomplishing nothing save for your continued existence is not much if at all for their meals, but would they be any better for it? There were so many labor saving devices available to the people of America. There?s not much worse than knowing, deep down in your heart that nothing would change if you disappeared.
The society portrayed in Kurt Vonnegut?s Player Piano degrades and dehumanizes its inhabitants, robbing them of their dignity and literally boring them into sin. Maybe in our society these people would have acted the same way, but if you look at their alternatives, you don?t find that there?s much left for them to do in their efficient and productive country. As a reader I can see myself making those very same mistakes, and being just as childish as the ghost shirts, as conniving as Shepherd, and as manipulative as Rev. What really got to me was the fact that it?s easy to imagine people acting the way they did. His portrayal of a United States that has become a slave to it?s own ingenuity is somewhat entertaining. Victorian pianos were elaborate affairs, often veneered in burr walnut, with richly carved front legs and usually fitted with cast brass candle sconces.In Kurt Vonnegut?s first novel, Player Piano, he brings up quite a few interesting points. This is an important point for those purchasers who wish to play their pianos, rather than fill up space as decorative pieces of furniture.
Steinway followed in 1855, from which time the metal frame became gradually more standard. Experiments in cast-iron frames took place in the 1820s but it was not until 1851 that the first completely iron-framed piano by the English maker, Broadwood, was shown at the Great Exhibition. Until the middle of the 19th century, piano frames were made of wood which may shrink or warp, resulting in loss of tension on the strings and thus causing the pianos to go easily out of tune. The horizontal 'grand' pianos of course continued to be made, in form really not differing greatly, except in size, to the earlier harpsichords. From around 1835 upright pianos assumed their modern form. The earliest known Australian piano, made by John Benham in about 1835, is of this type, and on public exhibition at the Mint Museum in Sydney. In the 1830s parlour pianos began to adopt the contemporary upright form, although at first the soundboard cases were very high and the fronts often decorated with pleated silk panels or fretwork. The forte piano (literally 'loudsoft') as it was first called, was invented in the early 18th century, but did not become popular until after about 1780, when it displaced the harpsichord as the main keyboard instrument.Įarly pianos were rectangular in form, supported by a trestle base, though they were later given detachable screw legs.
0 kommentar(er)
