Ilium is a fictional town in eastern

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

state, used as a setting for many of

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...

's novels and stories, including ''

Player Piano A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home ...

'', ''

Cat's Cradle ''Cat's Cradle'' is a satirical postmodern novel, with science fiction elements, by American writer Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut's fourth novel, it was first published on March 18, 1963, exploring and satirizing issues of science, technology, the p ...

'', ''

Slaughterhouse-Five ''Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his ...

'', and the stories "

Deer in the Works "Deer in the Works" is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. It first appeared in ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'' in April 1955, and was anthologized in ''Welcome to the Monkey House''. In 1980, the story was made into a short film with a running lengt ...

", " Poor Little Rich Town", and " Ed Luby's Key Club". The town is dominated by its major industry leader, the Ilium Works, which produces scientific marvels to assist, or possibly harm, human life. The Ilium Works is Vonnegut's symbol for the "impersonal corporate giant" with the power to alter humankind's destiny. The town has been compared to Zenith, the fictional setting in

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...

's 1922 novel '' Babbitt''. In one sense, the name may refer to

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

because "''Ilium''" was the name the Romans gave to ancient

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

, although Troy is mentioned as a separate city in ''

''. This name could also provide

irony Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...

, for Ilium is such an ancient name for such a satirical and shallow city. In many other respects, Ilium closely resembles

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

, with the fictional

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

River standing in for the real

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson R ...

, which flows west–east through Schenectady. The Ilium Works is in roughly the same geographic location as the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

(GE) plant in Schenectady, where Vonnegut worked as a public relations writer. In '' Galápagos'' (1985), GEFFCo is cited as Ilium's principal industry—GE having once been a principal employer in Schenectady. The city of Ilium is distinct from Schenectady in ''Player Piano'' (1952), ''

'' (1963), and ''

'' (1969). In those novels, characters refer to Schenectady as a separate place. It also could be a reference to

Ilion, NY Ilion is a village in Herkimer County, New York, United States. Located in the Mohawk Valley region, the population was 7,646 at the 2020 census. The village is at the northern edge of the town of German Flatts, though a tiny portion is in the ...

because of the similar spelling and that Ilium may have been the intended name for the town of Ilion. Cohoes, longtime residence of Vonnegut's character

Kilgore Trout Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007). Trout is a notably unsuccessful author of paperback science fiction novels. "Trout" was inspired by the name of the author Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985), Vo ...

, is in the vicinity of Ilium, and of the real towns that inspired it. For example, Cohoes is located immediately west of Troy. In ''Galápagos'', Mary Hepburn was a high school teacher in Ilium and her husband Roy worked at GEFFCo. In ''Cat's Cradle'', Ilium is the former home of Dr. Felix Hoenikker—one of the fathers of the atomic bomb—thus, it is the town that Jonah visits to interview Dr. Asa Breed, Hoenikker's former supervisor. In ''Player Piano'', it is where most of the action takes place. In ''Slaughterhouse-Five'', it is also the home town of the book's primary protagonist,

Billy Pilgrim ''Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his t ...

References

{{Kurt Vonnegut Fictional populated places in New York (state) Kurt Vonnegut Fictional elements introduced in 1952