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Chrono
Salo is a messenger from the planet Tralfamadore whose ship breaks down while he is delivering a message across the universe, leaving him stranded on Titan for 200,000 years. Salo has a strange appearance, with tangerine-colored skin, inflatable feet that deflate into suction cups, three eyes, and a head that dangles on gimbals. Back on Tralfamadore, he is telepathically selected as the best version of his species, which qualifies him to the deliver the message. After he gets stranded, the entirety of human civilization is designed as an elaborate ploy by his fellow Tralfamadorians to help get him the missing part. While waiting on Titan, Salo takes up sculpture and daisy-breeding. He also befriends Rumfoord, whom he comes to love deeply. Rumfoord demands to know the contents of the message Salo is carrying, even though Salo has sworn to keep it sealed. He decides to open it, thereby overcoming his obedience as a machine out of love for Rumfoord. However, it is too late, as at this point Rumfoord is already dead. Devastated, Salo commits suicide by disassembling himself. However, Constant puts him back together, and Salo ends up dropping Constant back on Earth after returning to his journey. In the end, Salo is shown to be the kindest and most generous character by far, despite the fact that he is a machine.
Salo Quotes in The Sirens of Titan
The The Sirens of Titan quotes below are all either spoken by Salo or refer to Salo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 12: The Gentleman From Tralfamadore
Quotes
Salo did not question the good sense of his errand, since he was, like all Tralfamadorians, a machine. As a machine, he had to do what he was supposed to do.
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Once upon a time on Tralfamadore there were creatures who weren’t anything like machines. They weren’t dependable. They weren’t efficient. They weren’t predictable. They weren’t durable. And these poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others.
These creatures spent most of their time trying to find out what their purpose was. And every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame.
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“There it is—friend,” he said to his memory of Rumfoord, “and much consolation may it give you, Skip. Much pain it cost your old friend Salo. In order to give it to you—even too late—your old friend Salo had to make war against the core of his being, against the very nature of being a machine.
“You asked the impossible of a machine,” said Salo, “and the machine complied.”
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Chrono had always known that his good-luck piece had extraordinary powers and extraordinary meanings.
And he had always suspected that some superior creature would eventually come to claim the good-luck piece as his own. It was the nature of truly effective good-luck pieces that human beings never really owned them.
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Get the entire The Sirens of Titan LitChart as a printable PDF.
Salo Quotes in The Sirens of Titan
The The Sirens of Titan quotes below are all either spoken by Salo or refer to Salo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 12: The Gentleman From Tralfamadore
Quotes
Salo did not question the good sense of his errand, since he was, like all Tralfamadorians, a machine. As a machine, he had to do what he was supposed to do.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Once upon a time on Tralfamadore there were creatures who weren’t anything like machines. They weren’t dependable. They weren’t efficient. They weren’t predictable. They weren’t durable. And these poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others.
These creatures spent most of their time trying to find out what their purpose was. And every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“There it is—friend,” he said to his memory of Rumfoord, “and much consolation may it give you, Skip. Much pain it cost your old friend Salo. In order to give it to you—even too late—your old friend Salo had to make war against the core of his being, against the very nature of being a machine.
“You asked the impossible of a machine,” said Salo, “and the machine complied.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chrono had always known that his good-luck piece had extraordinary powers and extraordinary meanings.
And he had always suspected that some superior creature would eventually come to claim the good-luck piece as his own. It was the nature of truly effective good-luck pieces that human beings never really owned them.
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