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Science-fiction author Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Welcome to the Monkey House" and "Cat's Cradle," said he was inspired by H.G. Wells. But his greater influences have been more bizarre writers.
"My influences have been the grotesque stories that couldn't possibly be true, like `Candide,' by Voltaire, or `Gulliver's Travels,' " he said. "You start with a premise anyway and run it off like a scientific experiment."
One of those "experiments" is "Harrison Bergeron," a tale from Vonnegut's "Monkey House," which has been translated into a smashing 90-minute satire for Showtime, to be shown Sunday.
The story is about a future that values only the commonest denominator. Anyone who exhibits the slightest glimmer of intelligence or wit or innovation immediately is coerced into passive mediocrity.
Vonnegut takes serious themes like this and manages to infuse them with spurts of humor. "The way to make people laugh, give somebody a belly laugh, you have to mention death first," he said, "or something threatening. And if you think of how to tell a joke, it's with a frightening premise."
In "Harrison Bergeron," the intelligent oddball is society's pariah. Vonnegut says he understands what it's like to be lonely because one is too bright. "I was a public-relations man for General...