The unexamined life

"Fahrenheit 451" is a science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury.

Guy Montag is 30 and is having a mid-life crisis. Like all modern men having a mid-life crisis he gets involved with a younger woman. In a normal novel this would normally lead to sex and the breakdown of Montag's life. Unfortunately for him, he is living in the bleak future that extends from modern day political correctness. Instead of sex, Guy Montag will be on a search for his soul, not to prove that he is a man, but to prove that he is human.

This concept is the heart and soul of "Fahrenheit 451", and it sets out to prove that the unexamined life is not worth living. In fact the very act of examining a life that has no meaning, no bearing and no relevance to society imbues the seeker with a worthwhile thought. Guy Montag's life has been that of a fireman of the future, and in the future where no contradictory thoughts are allowed, firemen do not put out fires, but start them so that they can burn books. What society has set out to do is to equalize everyone, so that mindless television is everywhere, a blandness of life is achieved and no one can conceive of having different thoughts from everyone else. Books are burned as representatives of diversity of viewpoint, and that very diversity of thought is antithetical to the society of the our future.

Written in 1953 (from a 1940 short story), Ray Bradbury presents us with a grim future that is slowly coming true around us. Television is all pervasive, though not to the point of taking over all of the interior wall space of our homes. Yet. The medium of television is used to portray banal soap operas around ill-defined characters who live no real life and yet are considered 'family' by everyone. Some trade journals and technical magazines are left, but the great magazines of culture have all been discontinued for lack of interest and their back issues burned. In today's world, of course, nothing like that happens except at libraries that microfilm papers and magazines. They trash the original paper product and within a decade or two the micro-film starts to decay so that no record is left of the original material.

Mr. Bradbury sees a long decay of the literate culture of America due to the influences of mass media, intolerance with intolerance, and move to the lowest common denominator of culture. That lowest part of culture is that of a low grade moron who can barely speak. He encapsulates this resulting non-culture into "Fahrenheit 451" and then shows us one of the guardians of that culture slowly coming to the realization that there is more to life than watching television and burning books. His wife could agree less, but as they can barely remember where they met or why they married the very concept of dissenting with each other's opinion is foreign to them.

The crystallization of Montag's thoughts happen when a neighbor girl, Clarisse, intrudes upon his life and makes him slow down so that he can observe and think. Clarisse is attracted to Montag and the feelings become mutual, though hidden. And it is only once Clarisse is taken away, presumably by the state, that Montag's conception of who and what he is becomes horrible to him. And from that horror to open revolt is just one, simple step of reading a book. Once done Montag's life will never be the same again.

This book is more than JUST about censorship as it strikes straight to the core of what it is to be a human. To achieve that state one must reflect upon their life and see if they measure up to the standards that they have come to expect for themselves. And in a future where every thought and expression is geared to the lowest of expectations any concept of a standard even just a bit above the norm will lead to the depressing conclusion that the one doing the examining has fallen far short of their expectations. After that one needs the courage to stand up for their expectations and to try and achieve them against the will of an unwilling, uncaring society that tends to crush individual through indifference or conformity. Or it may just make you disappear, like it did with Clarisse.

For all of the changes in technology, Mr. Bradbury has clearly delineated the final goals of any political correctness movement. And the end state of that society is one without culture, without scope of reasoning to do anything and one in which the individual is harshly dealt with whenever a different idea is espoused.

Welcome to the future.

In the breadth of dystopian fiction this work stands as an equal with such works as: "1984" by George Orwell, "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, and the television show (of all things!) THE PRISONER as conceived by Patric McGoohan.

An interesting afterword to my 1979 edition of "Fahrenheit 451" by Mr. Bradbury is that Judy-Lynn Del Rey had found when she became an editor at Ballantine Books, that over the years 75 separate sections of the novel had been censored by the editorial staff. Check the print date of your edition and make sure that it isn't before 1979 so that you won't miss out on any of the juicy bits that were deemed too extreme for young readers.

It seems that evil done in the name of children can not be denied.