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Vonnegut: a society without productivity variation has no Edisons.
- aditya 18y agoVery nice. Like a combination of Ayn Rand's Anthem and Orwell. Vonnegut rocks.
- akkartik 18y agoYeah, here's a counterpoint: http://akkartik.name/blog/money-river http://akkartik.name/blog/money-river On balance I think Vonnegut was socialist. But he had less of an agenda, and that made him able to see more, lent nuance to his writing.
- lallysingh 18y agoVonnegut identified himself as a socialist in his last book.
- kaens 18y agoMore than just his last book.
- rw 18y agoThere are plenty of capitalists with agendas :)
- akkartik 18y agoOf course. I meant, 'less of an agenda than Orwell.'
- larryfreeman 18y agoWow. I really miss Kurt Vonnegut. I think his main point was usually life is crazy and people are even crazier.
- kaens 18y agoI just received a collection of Vonnegut books, so I've been reading them. From the prologue to Jailbird: John Figler is a law-abiding high-school student. He says in his letter that he has read almost everything of mine and is now prepared to state the single idea that lies at the core of my life's word so far. The words are his: "Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail" This seems true to me--and complete. So I am now in the abashed condition, five days after my fifty-sixth birthday, of realizing that I needn't have bothered to write several books. A seven-word telegram would have done the job. Seriously.
- anthonyrubin 18y agoSeveral months ago I heard about this story and found that it was published in Welcome to the Monkey House. It is a great collection of some of his short stories.
- gaius 18y agoHarrison Bergeron is an excellent film, it's out on VHS but not DVD for some inexplicable reason.
- c3o 18y agoIt's online here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-175006468841636088 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-175006468841636088
- craigbellot 18y agoI just wish more of the intellectually stimulation women were that beautiful.
- gaius 18y agoThanks!
- davidw 18y agoI can't stand science fiction stories that strive to Hit you over the Head with a Message.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- notquitehere188 18y agoTrue, that is what really annoys me about 1984. But independent of the message, I have always found the image of the scene following Harrison's entrance to be rather awesome.
- njharman 18y agoI agree with "Harrison Bergeron"'s message but Edison was a corrupt, greedy, egotistical, complete asshole. We would be much better off with less of his type and more of Tesla's type.
- akkartik 18y agoThe title was subtle karma whoring (http://paulgraham.com/gh.html http://paulgraham.com/gh.html)
- kirubakaran 18y agoFYI... Didn't find it subtle at all.
- akkartik 18y ago:)
- lsc 18y agoreally? While I agree that Tesla was much more of a genius (and that Edison did both himself and the world a disfavor by not putting up with him) I do think there is a place in the world for Edisons. (though I think they need to be careful to treat their Teslas well.) Tesla, while brilliant, was also kindof crazy, and from what I understand, had poor human and business skills. He died penniless, and getting funding for his work was always a problem. (a travesty, I think, after his early successes.) The optimal solution, I think, would have been for Edison to keep his ego in check (at least around Tesla) - I bet if Edison had handled the situation better, and managed to keep Tesla happier working for him, Tesla would have had a much more productive life. I mean, If you are lucky enough to have a Tesla, and he gives you something as awesome as AC, I'd set aside a portion of the resulting money for his future projects. Buy him a lab and some assistants (and whatever else he wanted) and let him focus on his next idea, rather than on trying to get funding. Edison could have done this... From what I understand that was kindof his business model, only he failed to keep Tesla happy.
- bd 18y agoSociety without productivity variation could also be just Edisons (depending on the definition of "Edison").