Wednesday, November 21, 2007

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury

I think pretty much everybody had to read this in high school; that's when I first read it. Along with Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 is part of the English class dystopian trinity.

I picked the book up again because I recently saw the 1966 film, and it had a gaping plot hole that I didn't recall from the novel. In the movie, there is no printed material of any kind (even the credits are narrated). If this is the case, how is anyone literate? How is Montag able to read his pilfered books? (For the record, it is clearly set forth in the novel that this is not the case.)

I'm not going to talk about the most obvious theme, state-sponsored censorship (you all wrote English papers on it, no doubt). Bradbury, as I understand it, said that he was more focused on how television decreases interest in books. Anyway, there are more interesting themes going on here. Certainly not to be missed is the retarding effect of television; Montag's wife, who consumes television all day long, is a pitiful creature. She has no sense of responsibility to herself or to the world.

Most interesting to me is that the finger of blame for censorship is pointed squarely at the mongers of political correctness. In 1950, when this book was published, political correctness's primary issue was banning of books from libraries.

Today, political correctness has evolved into a fire-breathing hydra. I am not against the principles behind political correctness – that is, I believe that we (particularly as Christians) should be courteous of the beliefs and feelings of others, and should be careful not to give offense. That said, today the beast is out of control. I feel like political correctness these days is not about not giving offense; rather, it is about quickly taking offense. Some people go out of their ways to get offended. Certainly, everybody has an underlying point that is typically valid, but by and large we really need to have more constructive uses of our time.