Harrison Bergeron

Kurt Vonnegut (d. 2007)

There are a number of things not to approve of with regard to the late Kurt Vonnegut, but he was a Really Big Thing during my high school years and thereabouts, and I read a lot of his stuff.  Unfortunately, unlike Ray Bradbury (who was the patron saint of our writing club), he never visited my high school.  But he had a curious — though, now, rather dimly remembered — influence on me that probably continues to this day, if only subconsciously.

I particularly recall enjoying his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” which often seems to me amazingly prescient, given the trend of American politics.

I just looked at it again.  I think I’m going to dust off some of my old Vonnegut novels.