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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:
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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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Salo Character Timeline in The Sirens of Titan
The timeline below shows where the character Salo appears in The Sirens of Titan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: A Deserter in Time of War
...which he was born. Other months are named things like “Winston,” “Rumfoord,” “Kazak,” “Infundibulum,” and “Salo.” The month Salo is named after a “creature” whom Rumfoord knows from Titan. Salo has...
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Chapter 7: Victory
...children). The “elaborate suicide of Mars” was designed by Rumfoord, but is technologically executed by Salo. Salo is a messenger from the planet Tralfamadore, which is located in the Small Magellanic...
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Even in its broken state, Salo’s spaceship outranks all Earth spaceships to a significant degree. Even more significantly, Salo is in...
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Chapter 12: The Gentleman From Tralfamadore
The only other person on Titan is Salo. He is 11 million Earthling years old. His skin is the color of a tangerine;...
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Thousands of years ago, Salo is nominated to carry a message from Tralfamadore across the universe. It has been prepared...
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Salo is stranded on Titan due to technical problems on his spaceship resulting from a missing...
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After that, Salo receives four further messages; the first is the Great Wall of China, the second is...
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Salo watches as the spaceship containing Constant, Beatrice, and Chrono descends onto Titan. He has made...
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Kazak runs toward Salo, but immediately Salo notices that something is wrong; Kazak looks poisoned. Suddenly, Kazak lights up...
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Irritated, Rumfoord suggests that he and Salo “drop this guise of friendship.” Salo is heartbroken, and tells Rumfoord he thought they really...
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Salo realizes that Rumfoord now knows that he was personally being controlled by Tralfamadore, and that...
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...that he is crying. As a parting wish, he demands to know the contents of Salo’s message. Salo hesitates, but Rumfoord insists “in the name of our friendship.” Meanwhile, Constant, Beatrice,...
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...a creature rowing a “gilded rowboat” in the distance, near Rumfoord’s palace. The creature is Salo, who is rowing for the first time and isn’t very good at it. When Salo...
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Salo tells them they are welcome to kill him. He says he wishes he was dead....
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Rumfoord then points at Chrono and explains that Chrono has the part that Salo needs. It is the good-luck piece. He explains that he asked Salo to show him...
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Just at this moment, Salo comes racing over, shouting “Skip! The message! I’ll tell you the message!” However, he then...
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Having announced this, Salo races away and kills himself by disassembling his parts and flinging them all over. Chrono...
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Epilogue: Reunion with Stony
...old, and die within 24 hours of each other. Before Constant’s death, he lives inside Salo’s spaceship, which Constant never tries to fly because it’s too complicated. However, he does manage...
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...System which rejects the idea that human existence was controlled by the Tralfamadorians to help Salo complete his mission. Sometimes she reads parts of the manuscript to Constant, as she does...
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Back at the palace, Salo comes to greet Constant and thanks him for putting him back together. Constant admits he...
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Salo offers Constant and Chrono a ride back to Earth. Constant explains that Chrono has joined...
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Just before they reach Earth, Salo hypnotizes Constant, implanting a soothing illusion in his mind that will appear when he dies....
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