Player Piano

E845164

Player Piano is Kurt Vonnegut’s debut dystopian novel, depicting a future society dominated by automation where human labor and purpose have been rendered largely obsolete.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Player Piano canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf novel
author Kurt Vonnegut NERFINISHED
centralTheme alienation
automation
class division
dehumanization
loss of human purpose
technocracy
comparedTo Brave New World NERFINISHED
Nineteen Eighty-Four NERFINISHED
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
criticalReception recognized as an early critique of automation and corporate technocracy
exploresConcept corporate control
machine versus human labor
meritocracy
resistance to technology
followedBy The Sirens of Titan NERFINISHED
genre dystopian fiction
satire
science fiction
hasAdaptation Between Time and Timbuktu NERFINISHED
hasCharacter Anita Proteus NERFINISHED
Bud Calhoun NERFINISHED
Ed Finnerty NERFINISHED
hasISBN 978-0-385-33348-1
hasMotif corporate bureaucracy
machines replacing humans
rebellion against systems
hasTitleOrigin named after self-playing mechanical pianos
influencedBy industrial automation
post–World War II American society
language English
literaryMovement postmodern literature
mainCharacter Paul Proteus NERFINISHED
mediaType print
narrativePerspective third-person
notableFor being Kurt Vonnegut's first published novel
pageCount approx. 300 pages
partOf Kurt Vonnegut bibliography NERFINISHED
plotSummary In an automated future, engineer Paul Proteus becomes disillusioned with a technocratic system that has made most human labor obsolete and joins a rebellion against the machine-run order.
protagonistAffiliation Ilium Works NERFINISHED
protagonistOccupation engineer
publicationDate 1952
publisher Scribner NERFINISHED
settingPeriod near future
settingPlace Ilium, New York NERFINISHED
targetAudience adult readers

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Kurt Vonnegut notableWork Player Piano