"We live in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam ... Somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality."In Farhenheit 451, Bradbury presents a frightening world where people only want comfort, or more appropriately, don't want to worry.
Personally, I think that sounds pretty good at first glance. But Bradbury is quick to show the danger of such a world.
The truth is, humans need opposition. People can't thrive on "comfortableness" alone, and in fact, Bradbury suggests, will stagnate and become depraved without it.
So what is it about books that creates opposition, or prevents people from stagnating? As the retired English professor Faber tells Montag, "The good writers touch life often ... [Books] show the pores in the face of life." Books teach us about life and good writers teach us about both the gritty and exquisite parts of life. They show us opposition, make us think, change us.
Here's hoping there will always be people in this world that remember that, and firemen will continue to put out fires instead of start them.
First I just have to say that I completely agree about your comment that books teach us about life. . . When I was reading your overview it reminded me of a similar comment made in the move the Matrix when the guy was talking about when they first started the virtual world they made a utopia for the humans but their minds could not accept it. I think this is a very true statement that while we strive for these things if we had them it wouldn't be what we really wanted or needed.
ReplyDelete