Because I didn't get enough of essays in school

I have been able to read more books this year than any other in my life (textbook excluded)! So I thought, with my entire learning and motivation now squarely upon my shoulders, that it would be fun to write reviews of books after I finish them. I figure it will also help compound the brain exercise a book can provide. So today instead of napping with my boy, I wrote this review on Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I must admit it really turned out to be more of an essay, but I must also admit I am proud of it. Since I have been home, I have made lots of effort to still learn new things--they say to continue your education and learning your whole life! It's also neat because for once I get to choose what I study and learn. For example, this winter when it gets dark at 5 and walks are less frequent, Tyler and I are signing up for netflix and I'm going to do some research and do a pseudo self-taught film class and watch and study all those famous films that we should know about but scarcely ever do.

So anyway, no one needs to feel obligated to read my review, but it is part of the process for me to post it here. Also, if you have ever thought about reading the book this might help.

I have heard if one wishes to see the future, read social/political futuristic authors; they normally hit closer to the mark than one thinks. Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 almost 60 years ago about a future time. Guy Montag, the book's protagonist, lives in a world bent on entertainment and opposed to any real thinking because it can cause discomfort and misery. Although some details can still seem sci-fi to us today, there are many instances in which he predicted our world in a hauntingly accurate way: a world in which people wear radio pods in their ears night and day; TVs take up entire walls; interaction is confined to trivial knowledge and pop culture; women do not want children and if they do they are brought into the world C-section for ease and then sent to school and camps 27 days out of 30; relationships are dispensable; the country is at war and the people unaware or apathetic (remember, the book was written right after WWII and such behavior was most likely unimaginable); enjoyment and immediate satisfaction reigns supreme, stifling--at first by choice by the people and then by law by the government--anything that could pose a threat such as books, a primary premise in the story. Surely one will agree that in 1950 a man that could imagine and flesh out these things in a story proves prophetic.

Since Bradbury proves himself an oracle in such matters, I find myself determined to find the real moral of the story. Most often you hear censorship is the issue at hand. However, in the current interview with Bradbury at the end of the 50 year anniversary edition, he states be believes censorship is not as much an issue today because of the many special interest groups that keep each other in check and PC. And I agree that censorship, while it may have caused a fire of emotions in days past, since I do not hear much of it today, seems to be an issue of the past. So does that mean the book no longer speaks? What can we take from this book today?

I believe the intrinsic value for me in reading this book, the real "applicable-today" moral, is laid forth by a character named Faber, who is an underground intellectual Montag seeks out in his quest for self discovery. Faber explains that what has happened to their world, how it inevitably got to that point, can be summed in the loss of three important things: first, quality of information; second, leisure to digest it; and third, the right to carry out actions based on what one learns from the interaction of the first two.

First, quality of information. What this says to me is that we must be particular about how we spend our time and what we ingest. How many of us really seek out the truth anymore or just get fed and believe everything the news tell us? Or even better, how many of us even watch the news at all and instead opt for a sitcom? Or how many of us choose to read People or USWeekly magazine instead of the great authors, current and classic? Quality of information.

And what about our frantic schedules? What about the pace of life we have grown accustomed to? How many of us have any of what we consider "leisure time" anymore? According to Bradbury, leisure time, not just "free time," is time in which to think and digest what we have encountered and learned. He argues that such is imperative. I couldn't agree more. Take time to smell the roses. Enjoy the simple things again. Sort out what is really important, such as family, friends, and quiet sanity, from what isn't, like catching the next episode of our show or staying informed about celebrity gossip. Perhaps with more leisure less of us would need therapists to do that sorting for us.

The freedom to carry out our actions is the third component. We must fight to keep our freedoms at all cost. We must trouble ourselves with keeping an eye on our governments to know what they are doing so we don't wake up one day and realize we have given up our role as "we the people" to "we the rich and powerful." If you ever feel yourself taking your freedoms for granite, talk to someone who has been without.

Quality of information, leisure, and freedom to act. These are the principles the reader of Fahrenheit 451 must ponder, apply to their life, and use to make a change for the better. If not, reading the book will have been a sheer act of entertainment, exactly what Bradbury is making a statement against.