Wednesday

Mini-Review

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953).

Choice quote: “'But I know something else you don't. There's dew on the grass in the morning.' He suddenly couldn't remember if he had known this or not, and it made him quite irritable.”

Everyone knows about the firemen. In this futuristic novel, if you're found with a book, the firemen show up and burn them . . . along with your house. Books are banned, but it isn't a “top down” thing. It was a grassroots movement. People had stopped reading books already, especially the classics. The government just gave them what they wanted: more TV and fun. Books made people melancholy. Those who read them were often confused . . and were thereby made melancholy. Those who didn't read them felt like they were leading shallow lives . . . and were thereby made melancholy. The answer was simple: ban them altogether in favor of awesome home entertainment. Among other things banned or effectively banned: front porches and strolling. Anything that could open a person to levels of intimacy or self-knowledge beyond the shallowest were cast out of this Bradburian world. How do front porches open a person up? Because people could come by and talk with you, one-on-one, without the TV intermediary (reminds me of George Costanza's exasperated statement to his mom, “We need a TV. Without a TV, this relationship is nothing!”–rough quote). And strolling? Well, everyone knows that, to be a true philosopher, you need to learn to walk very slowly. Aristotle and that peripatetic thing. Of course, I walk too fast to be Aristotle, but I do sit on the front porch. So I'm not all lost.