I first read this Ray Bradbury classic while barely in my teens and
the image of firemen dousing a burning pile of books with kerosene
instead of water was still with me when I decided to pick it up
again recently.
But of course, now the deeper meanings that elevate this novel to
it's timeless status are what catch the attention and fuel the
imagination - the dangers of censorship and conformity, along with
a contemplation of the true value of books and the importance of
critical thought.
Here's just a sampling of the gems of wisdom that are found in this
book:
First is Captain Beatty's defense of censorship:
"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two
sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give
him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war."
"Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more
popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa
grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them
so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely
'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking,
they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy,
because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any
slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with.
That way lies melancholy."
But of course, Faber, the retired English teacher understands more:
" The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through
the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it's not books at
all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old
phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look
for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one
type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid
we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic
is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the
universe together into one garment for us. Of course you couldn't
know this, of course you still can't understand what I mean when I
say all this."
"The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're
Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the
avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' Most of us can't rush
around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we
haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking
for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap
will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask
for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing,
person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you
drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore."
Finally, here is some of what I call the "big picture":
"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather
said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or
a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand
touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and
when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're
there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you
change something from the way it was before you touched it into
something that's like you after you take your hands away. The
difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener
is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not
have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."
"'I hate a Roman named Status Quo!' he said to me. 'Stuff your eyes
with wonder,' he said, 'live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds.
See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for
in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never
was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the
great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day,
sleeping its life away. To hell with that,' he said, 'shake the
tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'"
"There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ:
every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He
must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself
up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again.
And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but
we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn
silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've
done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always
have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the
goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them. We pick
up a few more people that remember, every generation."
This is a novel that would have to fall under the category of "MUST
READ", along with others like "1984" . The ideas contained within
these novels are just too important to ignore.