"We shall this day light such a candle, as I trust shall never be put out." - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
I kicked off 2020 reading Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian political fiction published in 1951, largely about book burning,
anti-intellectualism, and the mutual importance of free thought and critical thinking.
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Riding along the fast-paced narrative, Bradbury uses dialogue and classical quotes to debate freedom of choice and quality of information, arguing the pros and cons of a society either left to cope with the internal volatility that books evoke
- with empathy, imagination, and philosophical thought itself -
or spared such experience under the drip of a tasteless, digital state media pandered to the lowest common denominator.
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Another layer worth mentioning here is the argument that choice itself is too dangerous a weapon for the individual
and that a figure of authority is necessary to protect us against such a burden. 451's big brother state propagates
not only that the two-sidedness of any argument is bad enough for causing two sides of war between the single-minded,
but further that having the mind to even consider both sides of an argument can only lead to insanity.
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Bradbury's clearest emphasis, of course, is the lasting power of words and the liberation that books offer to anyone, from any time or place.
My hope is to attract new readers to my favorite banned books with these illustrated book covers.
