This article is missing information about third-party analysis of the story.(December 2023) |
"Harrison Bergeron" | |
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Short story by Kurt Vonnegut | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Dystopia, science fiction, political fiction, satire |
Publication | |
Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction |
Publication type | Periodical |
Media type | Print (magazine) |
Publication date | 1961 |
"Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical dystopian science-fiction short story by American writer Kurt Vonnegut, first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , the story was republished in the author's Welcome to the Monkey House collection in 1968.
"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General."
In the year 2081, the Constitution dictates that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, and her agents enforce the equality laws by forcing citizens to wear "handicaps" such as ugly masks for those who are too beautiful, earpiece radios for the intelligent that broadcast irritating noises meant to disrupt thoughts, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic.
George and Hazel Bergeron have a 14-year old son named Harrison. He takes after his father, who is highly intelligent and physically strong. The government removes Harrison from his home. His parents are barely aware because of Hazel's low intelligence and George's mandated handicaps.
George and Hazel watch a ballet on TV one day. Some dancers are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to hide their attractiveness. George's thoughts are continually interrupted by the different noises emitted by his handicap radio. Hazel urges George to lie down and rest his "handicap bag," (which is a 47 pounds (21 kg) cloth bag filled with birdshot locked around his neck). She suggests taking a few of the weights out of the bag, but George resists because it is against the law and he will have to endure two years of prison and pay a $2,000 fine per every birdshot he takes out.
On TV, a reporter with a speech impediment (like all announcers) struggles to read a bulletin and hands it to the ballerina wearing the most grotesque mask and heaviest weights. She begins reading in her natural, beautiful voice before switching to a more unpleasant one. Harrison's escape from prison is announced, and a full-body photograph of him is shown upright after several tries to face it upright by the showrunners. He is seven feet (2.1 m) tall and burdened by three hundred pounds (140 kg) of handicaps.
George recognizes his son for a moment, before having the thought eliminated by his radio. Harrison storms the TV studio in an attempt to overthrow the government. He declares himself emperor and rips off both of his own handicaps and those of the ballerina who previously read the news bulletin, who elects to be his empress when given the option. Bergerson then orders the present musicians within the television studio to play their best music while the two of them dance.
Suddenly, the Handicapper General bursts into the studio and kills Harrison and the Empress on the spot with two shotgun blasts while they are in the middle of a long kiss. She threatens the musicians at gunpoint to put on their handicaps again before the TV goes dark. George, who left to get a beer, returns. He asks Hazel why she is crying, to which she replies that something sad happened on television that she cannot remember.
The story has been adapted for the screen several times.
In 2005, the story was quoted by attorneys in a brief before the Kansas Supreme Court. Vonnegut was quoted as saying that while he did not mind the story being used in the suit, he disagreed with the lawyers' interpretation of it. [4]
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia quoted the story in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin . [5]
A 2013 academic paper criticizing the new hyperandrogenism policies of the International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Olympic Committee was entitled "The Harrison Bergeron Olympics" [6] and several non-academics had similar criticisms. [7] [8]
Kurt Vonnegut was an American author known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works over fifty-plus years; further works have been published since his death.
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Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut, published by Delacorte in August 1968. The stories range from wartime epics to futuristic thrillers, given with satire and Vonnegut's unique edge. The stories are often intertwined and convey the same underlying messages on human nature and mid-twentieth century society.
Julie Beth Hagerty is an American actress. She starred as Elaine Dickinson in the films Airplane! (1980) and Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). Her other film roles include A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), Lost in America (1985), What About Bob? (1991), She’s the Man (2006), A Master Builder (2014), Instant Family (2018), Noelle, Marriage Story, and A Christmas Story Christmas (2022).
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PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661 (2001), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to professional golf tours.
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"Welcome to the Monkey House" is a Kurt Vonnegut short story that is part of the collection of the same name. It is alluded to in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater as one of Kilgore Trout's stories.
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"EPICAC" is a short story in the book Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. It was the first story to feature the fictional EPICAC computer later used in Vonnegut's novel Player Piano in 1952. It was published on 25 November 1950, for Collier's Weekly, and reprinted in the February 1983 PC Magazine.
2081 is a 2009 science fiction featurette which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 29, 2009. It is directed and written by Chandler Tuttle, based on the 1961 short story "Harrison Bergeron" by author Kurt Vonnegut. The cast is led by James Cosmo, Julie Hagerty, Patricia Clarkson, and Armie Hammer. The story paints a picture through the use of hyperbole of a future in which a powerful, dictatorial government goes to extreme measures to ensure that absolute equality exists between all individuals.
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