Fahrenheit 451 - 4/16 blog

Fahrenheit 451 was somewhat disappointing. I really wanted there to be a large uprising of some sort. Unfortunately there wasn't much of anything once Montag got away. The fight became a silent one. One that people chose to fight with their minds and hearts instead of their fists.

There is a lesson to be learned from this type of non-violent protest. Bradbury's message to us all is to fight back with knowledge. The idea that knowledge is power and that if we allowed the government to control the flow of knowledge then they will have all the power. This is why they changed the schools in the novel to teach only jobs instead of ideas. This is the same deteriation of education that took place in Feed. People felt it was okay to stop thinking for themselves and when they did they gave up all their power.

Bradbury wants us to realize how important the written word is to survival. We as a society must not let the printed page die. If we do we will lose a vital weapon to fight back. It will create a domino effect of lost freedoms. If you are feeling let down by the government fight back by learning all you can learn and sharing that knowledge with anyone who will listen. This is true about any oppression that may enter your life.

The Temperature at Which Paper Burns- Fahrenheit 451

For some reason I have had a difficult time getting past the beginning of the last 2 novels. This is probably most due to my lack of sleep which decreases my ability to stay awake. Needless to say this novel is a much easier read than the previous. I was pretty much hooked once he stole the book from Mrs. Blakes house. I realized then that the beginning was working up to this moment.

Bradbury used Clarisse to bring out how unhappy Montag was. He subtly deals with the unhappiness and suicide attempt of Mildred by having doctors come and take all the "bad stuff" out. The irony overflows from the story when Beatty states that the point of burning books is to act as "the custodians of our peace of mind." (pg. 59) He elaborates that one cannot have the minorities stirred so that if the "Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. [...] Take your fight outiside, better yet to the incinerator." (pg 59). This passage could not be more untrue. Burning paper with words does not erase the feelings that they create. But the real crime is to stop them from being written at all.

Bradbury shows us with Beatty's next explanation that it was not the government who allowed print to go out of preference, but it was the people. Our natural desire to have whats fast and in picture form has allowed our lives to be controlled without a fight. This novel clearly illustrates its relevancy in today's society as we witness the decline of library checkouts. I was listening to National Public Radio a few weeks ago and they were running a program that identifies products that will be obsolete in a few years. I.E. products or services going extinct in the next 20 or so years. Libraries were on the list because most visitors of the library go there to use a computer not check out books.

Sadly many people I know are okay with "not being a reader." It has become socially acceptable to just not be good at it or not like it. It is truly sad to witness the downfall of literature. Bradbury was just one of many that saw it coming.

1984 - The end.

George Orwell had many true and sad things to say about American society. He managed to write the most unsettling book I have read in a long time. Reading this novel reminds me why I trust so few people. There are people like O'Brien who collect information about you and then use it against you later. He baited Julia and Winston into telling him the depth of their loyalty to one another. With this information he was able to see what he would have to break to completely destroy them. He knew that if he got them to betray one another that then they would love big brother. But what kind of love is it that is motivated by such fear?

1984 is highly predictive of where we are now. The veneration that big brother receives is created and on page 208 it explains why they use that cover. "His function is to act as a focusing point for love, fear, and reverence, emotions which are more easily felt toward an individual than toward an organization." This is the same pretense through which America votes. They vote for the person and not the party. It amazes me that a book written this many years ago can still have this level of relevance in modern day society.

The hardest part of this book to swallow was the many chapters of torture. I cannot imagine the level of heinous pain you have to reach in order to denounce all truth in favor of lies. The worst part about this was when he was describing the rats that were going to be released to eat Winston. There are not many people I would not sacrifice to avoid this. What is more strange is that once the party got Winston to betray Julia they let them both free. Their entire motivation was to obtain absolute control and power. They were not going to kill them, they just wanted to be in complete control. This is Orwell's warning. When you give up the control of your life to someone or something else, you cease to be conscious and one loses their humanity.

1984

I have to admit that the first 20 pages of this novel are severely wordy and dry. I feel like his sentences just go on and on and on. I didn't begin to get interested until there was that ominous knock at the door after Winston had wrote "Down with Big Brother." I thought for sure something bad was going to happen to him them.

This book so far is really scary. It concerns me that it was written in 1949 and that he saw this dreary life coming then. On page 37 the idea of "memory holes" are introduced. It amazes me how they just rewrite history in an effort for the party to never be wrong. They destroy all proof and reissue the original copy to reflect that. This is beyond any government that I ever want to see.

It makes you wonder. Are we headed to this extreme socialist existence? This existence equalizes society but makes it so everyone has nothing except the elites. Hopefully I can make it through the rest of this dreary novel. I am sure along the way I will commit a few "facecrimes." (62).

Feed

Reading "Feed" after "Culture Jam" was definitely a strategic move on the part of Dr. Mortimore. It helped to set the stage for "Feed." "Culture Jam" awakened our senses to exactly what we are letting into our brains. "Feed" put a sci-fi fiction spin onto our reality. It showed you where we are headed if we continue to give up our power to think independently.

One disturbing part was the Schools(TM) system. The explanation was that basically the federal government was unable to keep the schools running in the intended way. As a solution big corporations took over and cleaned up the schools but also gained control over the curriculum. Titus said that in school they mostly just taught you how to use your feed. That idea is scary.

The reality is that our school systems are already in trouble. They are already short on money. Many of the schools now place ads in schools or serve commercial food in exchange for donations or gifts to the school. It is not publicized but it happens.

Even more scary then that was the bodily mutilation because it was "cool." I could not believe that oozing wounds could ever be "cool" no matter how many people had them. I feel Anderson definitely accomplished his goal of shocking the reader. He wanted you to make comparisons to your world. He wanted to draw attention to a lot of the negative fads we all fall accustomed too. The only way to accomplish that was to get the reader to say "I would never go that far to fit in."

The Dumbest Generation?

Unfortunately I really had to agree with Bauerlein on most of his points about today's youth. Even two years ago I would have argued tooth and nail that we are not dumb. Thinking about this caused me to recall when exactly I came to the realization that the intelligence level of children is in fact deteriorating. I remember it vividly. I was trying to get back into college and had to visit my high school to sign for my transcripts to be released.

Two girls came into the office angry because one girl's iPod was had been taken. She had been listening to it during class and became irate because the teacher did not give her a "warning" before she took the iPod. Before I began to judge, I tried to recall if I was ever so fickle. She rudely addresses the secretary with 25 years of tenure about recovering her iPod. The woman informs her that she has to talk to Mrs. Baumgartner the principle.

I'm thinking to myself. Was I ever that dumb? Was I ever that rude, even when I was dead wrong? It cannot possibly be true. In those moments, I felt old. I felt so different from these kids. It had been less than four years since I walked these halls as a student. It had been less than three years that I had been a parent. How had I transformed so much in that time? I am sure that having a child had an effect on how I viewed the world but I also know that post being a parent I still had common sense.

Maybe we are not only dumb when it comes to a knowledge of literary classics. Maybe there has been a decline in our level of common sense. I am really not sure.

I feel that one of my best qualities is that I know I am a work in progress. I understand that I will never be perfect. I understand that I will always need to work towards some change. Knowing that is exactly what Bell Hooks described in her video. She stated that the only way that one can transform their life is to develop an ability to think critically. One needs to think critically about themselves, others, and their environment.

Weather your environment is Yale or an urban community do not let it go unquestioned. This lead to her next controversial point about the Urban childrens lack of entitlement. I agree with her. I agree because I have seen it. I have seen people afraid to try because they are certain they will fail. I have seen an environment of violence and negativity destroy a once hopeful mind.

Another intriguing phrase that Hook introduced was "White Supremicist Capitalist Patriarchy." When I first heard her say this, I thought that she was moving in the wrong direction. I immediately thought that this ideal was going to perpetuate more division. Her explanation of this phrase is what changed my mind. She said that using this phrase helped her to problemize racism beyond race. It's not about color, but about the institutions (government, media etc) that foster inequality. She even notes that these institutions have caused many minorities to destroy other minorities. The point is that racism is beyond one person or a group of people, it is global.