Thursday, October 27, 2011

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Harrison was not the same as everyone else, he was extraordinary and for that he was punished.  The law of the land is to be exactly like everyone else, and if you were any better then you were to wear a handicap so that you would soon be like everyone else.  George was special, he was smart and for that he had to wear a head radio that gave sounds on a set interval that made him stop thinking.  George's wife, Hazel, was not special.  She often forgot things and didn't really know what was going on, very confused.  George was thinking about his son Harrison when he got another sound.  Harrison was fourteen when he was taken to jail because no handicap could stop him and he was planning to overthrow the government.  A new bulletin came on the television that said that Harrison had escaped and not to try to reason with him.  When all of the sudden Harrison was at the ballet that George and Hazel were watching.  Harrison declared that he was the emperor and he took off all of his handicaps to reveal how beautiful, masculine and strong he really was.  He said that any woman that was willing to take off her handicaps would be his empress.  A ballerina did so and Harrison took off her mask last to reveal how stunning she was.  He then ordered the musicians to play without their handicap and he and the ballerina danced.  Next the pair defied the rules of gravity and kissed the ceiling!  When all of the sudden the woman in charge of the handicaps came in and shot them both and gave the musicians 10 seconds to get their handicaps back on or they'd be shot too.  George had left the room to get a beer and when he returned he asked why Hazel had been crying.  She didn't know, saying it was something that was on the television.  George told her to put the bad out of her head and everything seemed to be back to their normal.

FOR REAL???!?!!!?!

I love competition and everyone wanting to do better than someone else.  This makes our society advance because there are always improvements.  The trick is knowing when something is a competition and when something isn't.

I find it funny that George wouldn't take out the balls because if someone was better than another they could slip back into the dark ages.  To me the world they're living in are the dark ages.  I couldn't imagine being just like everyone else, there's no way any of those people could be happy.  In America now I believe that there are people who are still unequal in rights, however I think that everyone should be unequal when it comes to their abilities.  In one scene Hazel says that the announcer should get a nice raise for trying his best, though he has a speech impediment.  Hazel says that he tried with the abilities that God gave him, he did his best.  Well aren't we hindering those who have the handicaps?  God made them different than average, He gave them gifts and by putting handicaps on people we're taking away gifts that God has given.

The Handicapper General definitely had a God complex.  She made all of the rules, figured out how to handicap those who were special and when someone defied the law she killed them.  If they're trying to get away from competition and some people being better than others, then why does she have so much power?  Shouldn't she have a handicap?  I definitely feel that she's allowed to think and isn't that against the rules?

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