This may be considered a book review, or perhaps my own vain babblings about this disturbing book, Fahrenheit 451, that Ray Bradbury wrote. Ray scored a hit by attacking his own medium (the printed word, including prose and poetry) as dangerous and worthy of death if regarded with anything more than disdain.
Here's the scene: Montag (the fireman) is in bed, pretending to be sick so he can stay home and read the book that he surreptitiously brought home from a fire. Beatty (the fire chief) is visiting him, trying to feel him out with his remarks and questionings. It is his speech to Montag that sums up the reasons why myriad books are banned and burned, along with the homes they are hidden in. Herein is the excerpted and paraphrased speech delivered to Montag in his bed:
Once, books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths. Films, radio, magazines and books let us down to a sort of paste-pudding norm. Classics cut to fit 15 minute radio shows, then cut again to fit a 2 minute magazine column, winding up as a 10 or 12 line dictionary resume. Out of the nursery, into the college, back to the nursery. Whirl man's mind around so fast under the pumping hand of exploiters and broadcasters that the centrifuge flings off all time wasting thought. Disciplines relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling, gradually, gradually neglected, until finally almost completely ignored. Why learn anything save pressing buttons? Life becomes one big pratfall, everything bang, boff and wow. Now, let's consider the minorities. The people in this book, play or TV serial are not meant to represent any actual working person, the bigger your market, the less you handle controversy. But don't step on anyone's toes - magazines became a nice blend of tapioca, books were dishwater. Technology, mass exploitation and minority pressure carried the day. Thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time.
At first I had a simple comment on the fact that Montag had found a rare copy of the Bible and was having great difficulty understanding it. I was going to say that, for instance, if we locked 20 people in a room with a copy of, say, a primer on algebra, that the more the 20 people argued and studied the book, the more they will begin to think alike. BUT – place those same 20 people in a room with a copy of the Bible, and the more they argue and study it – the more they will think differently.
However, I thought this was a timely commentary on our situation here – are WE helping this prophesied state of affairs to come about? I write, perhaps being the non-fiction writer, an article that condenses a work that took someone years to manifest into a one-column summary. I feel proud and accomplished that I could bring this knowledge to the masses that have no time for such nonsense, but would otherwise be devoid of the author's thoughts. I'm almost sorry that I read Ray Bradbury's book, for he paints an all-to-real vision of the future. I see people on other sites who post comments without the use of punctuation, or even capitalization – simple grammar they should have learned years ago. Are they just lazy freaks? No, because it is a time wasting (an old-school labeling) way to write on the internet these days. "Hey, Bob – THAT guy is using punctuation! HA! Who does he think he is?!"
I don't know what I'm trying to say here, but I just wanting to vent my feelings. Thanks to Shemps #1 and Pilsner Panther for your understanding.
