Fahrenheit 451

Last night we went to see the movie "V for Vendetta" and while I felt it dragged here and there, overall I loved it and wish more people would see it. It is not at all how they market it to the masses. It was another thing that really made me feel like I'm not doing enough to fight injustices. At one point early on, Evey wakes up in V's house and is surrounded by books in her room. Great teetering stacks of them, like there just wasn't any more room for them anywhere. This made Fahrenheit 451 (by Ray Bradbury) pop into my head. I read it about a year ago for the first time and was floored at how prescient Mr. Bradbury was. The book was published in 1953. It is a short intense book and I HIGHLY recommend it. It will also make clear to you why Michael Moore titled his movie "Fahrenheit 911." READ THIS BOOK. Here is what I stole from Amazon about the book: In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy." Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.