TY  - BOOK
AU  - Jones,Alice Eleanor
AU  - Freas,Kelly
TI  - The Happy Clown
T2  - Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1955
AV  - PS 
PY  - 2019///
CY  - Salt Lake City, UT
PB  - Project Gutenberg
KW  - Science fiction
KW  - Short stories
KW  - Psychological fiction
KW  - Conformity -- Fiction
N1  - Release date is 2019-05-03; Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net; Original publication data not identified
N2  - "The Happy Clown" by Alice Eleanor Jones is a science fiction novella written in the mid-20th century. The narrative unfolds in a future society characterized by enforced conformity and societal perfection, exploring themes of individuality and nonconformity through the life of a young boy named Steven Russell, who struggles against the pressures of a homogenized world.   Throughout the story, Steven, born a nonconformist in a society that prioritizes uniformity, faces numerous challenges stemming from his discontent with the artificial perfection surrounding him. As he grows up, his peculiarities lead his parents to seek help from a clinic, where his brilliance is recognized but ultimately pressured into conformity through a procedure known as "Steyner." This leads Steven into a successful career as the Happy Clown, a television persona that epitomizes the very ideals he despises. Despite achieving societal approval, he grapples with feelings of loneliness and a loss of identity, especially after a traumatic experience surrounding the woman he loves, Denise. The story culminates in his resignation from the acting world and a return to a more ordinary life, revealing both the price of conformity and the lingering desire for authentic connections. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
UR  - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59418
ER  -