Talk:Harrison Bergeron

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Contents

[edit] Article

I Just Read This Article [1], Which Reminded Me Of This Story. Maybe This Article Should Be Mentioned Here?--GorillazFan Adam 00:22, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Licensing?

Is this story in the public domain? I don't think we can link to an unauthorized copy of the story if it's still copyrighted. -Branddobbe 07:54, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

  • I agree, and I removed it. Notinasnaid 10:17, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
    • I disagree, and I put it back in. It's not true that we can't link to what might be a copyright violation. The whole web would shut down if that were the case. —Chowbok 16:41, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

How can an article have hundreds of edits and still be this bad? Ltbarcly 04:36, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's not a great article, but I can't agree that your rewrite was better. In particular (1) you removed a spoiler warning (2) you removed a relevant external link (3) your rewrite significantly increased the use of fair use quotes from the story, I think beyond a sustainable level (4) you removed italics from the formatting of quotes, so that it just looks like a misplaced paragraph. So, thank you for your work, but I feel I need to revert it. Notinasnaid 07:10, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Movie page?

Should there be a separate page for the Sean Aston movie of the same name that was based upon the short story? The movie is VERY different from the actual story, and only has two or so scenes from the story itself.

I would favour instead trimming the very detailed description of the plot right down. If someone wants that much detail, they can read the story. In my view, this reads like a high school book report, not an encyclopedia article. It is in the nature of Wikipedia that people visit and add stuff until articles become overburdened with useless trivia. I propose this as a starting point:
The title character has exceptional intelligence, height, strength and beauty. As a result he has to bear enormous handicaps. These include distracting noise, three hundred of excess weight, eyeglasses to give him headaches, and cosmetic changes to make him ugly. Despite this he is able to invade a TV station and declare himself emperor. As he dances with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded, both are shot dead by the Handicapper General. Added poignancy is created by the framing story in which Bergeron's parents are watching the TV, but cannot concentrate or remember the incident.

Notinasnaid 17:07, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

No takers? Ok, done. Notinasnaid 19:40, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

I signed up as a result of the original article. I'm very happy with your edit. It's concise and represents a great glimpse of the actual story. Personal and sociopolitical interpretation remains with the reader. Well done, and thanks. ×Naturopathetic 19:35, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Movie Correction

It states here that in the movie Harrison kills himself before the guards break in, but what actually happens in the movie is that the General orders that he isn't killed. Harrison is ordered to apologise on television and swear it was an act, and while doing so he breaks from his orders and tells the camera that it was all true, before shooting himself on air.

I can't think of the right words to put into the actual article, but someone might.

MaddenedMan (talk) 11:46, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removing link to full story

I removed the link to the story because of what is stated in Wikipedia:External links. That is: "Linking to copyrighted works is usually not a problem, as long as you have made a reasonable effort to determine that the page is not violating copyright per contributors' rights and obligations. Knowingly and intentionally directing others to a site that violates copyright has been considered a form of contributory infringement in the United States." So I think it was important to remove this link. I intend to remove it again, unless a discussion reveals we should do otherwise. Notinasnaid 07:11, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Huh. I didn't know about that. It's too bad it was brought up here, because we could have claimed ignorance before, but now it's obvious that we're "knowingly and intentionally" directing people to a copyright violation. Lesson for the future is don't say anything when you see these.
Still, it's hard to see how Google can legally link to that but not us. —Chowbok 15:25, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
I am so sick of copyright BS.
So am I, and I'm also sick of this silly restriction whereby I'm not allowed to simply kill everyone who gets in my way; unfortunately, these restrictions are there for good reasons, and we have to abide by them.

KB Doesnt anyone else think the ending of the film was not optimistic as stated? I think it shows that his suicide was in vain as it had no impact on the masses, this is a sad ending.

[edit] Going to look for usable link re: Incredibles

I've run across various blogs that point out what I noticed on my own, which is that the movie The Incredibles shares certain themes. I'll be looking for reliable sources to quote on that one. Lawikitejana 12:14, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] See Also: Flowers For Algernon?

It seems to me that the theme of Harrison Bergeron is similar (though not exactly equivalent) to that of Daniel Keyes' Flowers For Algernon (in which a moron becomes a genius through drug treatment, which unfortunately eventually wears off).

Is this similarity close enough to warrant a mention on this page? Korax1214 (talk) 16:56, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

You've got to be kidding, dude. The link between Flowers for Algernon and Harrison Bergeron is the series of statements when the Xtacles misunderstand one another in the Frisky Dingo episode "Flowers for Nearl". That is the only link between them. Of course, your comment was posted a few weeks after that episode came out, because before that episode of Frisky Dingo, so one would every have linked these two works. They were only linked in that cartoon because they sounded alike. Just iTunes that episode and all of your questions will be answered. And no- there is no reason to mention "similarity" here because there is no similarity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.164.220.167 (talk) 03:35, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Other than the above reply, I've never heard of Frisky Dingo. And I don't see how anyone can claim that there's "no" similarity between these two stories, when in fact there's quite a lot of similarity; how is there "no similarity" between a story where a moron is artifically boosted to genius level (Flowers) and this story, where everybody is artificially dragged down to moron level? -- Korax1214 (talk) 11:06, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
I suspect that the fact that the post to which I was replying was not only made by an anonymous IP user, but one who didn't even bother to sign his post, probably says it all about the "accuracy" and "reliability" of said post. -- Korax1214 (talk) 02:36, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Satire?

I read a claim that the story was actually meant to be a caricature of right-wing fears of Communist rule, but backfired, as it read a lot like 1984. Has anybody heard anything like that from a more reliable source? --129.7.240.199 (talk) 22:03, 17 April 2008 (UTC)