While reading 451, it took me 2 days to get to concentrate on this book, because I couldn’t make sense of the first few pages; reason was pretty stupid , too much social media and ease of having everything in front of me easily dramatized and picturized, which I realized, when the book reaches pinnacle in it’s writing, imagery, and extraordinary power of imagination by Ray Bradbury, consequently a crude reality will hit anyone who mindlessly scrolls through social media like me!
451 is not based on social media, but had it been written as it is, today, it would have been a story based on a cause faced by all of us today or a metaphor-ridden tale. What makes this story timeless is the fact that the interpretation of various symbols is left to the reader’s imagination and yet it explains enough so as to understand what is going on in the story. The way I look at it, it is a book based on basic human behaviors which vary from creating revolutions, asking logical questions to accept the tyranny over us, in fear of losing our own peace of mind. Guy Montag is the protagonist who is neck deep into his government’s propaganda against books and intellectualism but somehow he starts a revolution, not as big so as to overturn the entire government in some heroic scoop but in something as small as just looking outside of what was portrayed. Since Guy is into the bureaucracy that burns books and houses along with it, he is surrounded by people who believe in this ideology. His boss/friend is Captain Beatty, whose ideology is simple burning down and suppressing what he doesn’t understand which resonates the idea set up by the authorities in Montag’s world. One of the main issues that 451 hits (quite close to home) is the rise of suicides and depletion of mental health as a result of brainwashing and mind-numbing TV (referred to as walls). Millie aka Mildred, Montag’s wife is shown to have committed suicide when he calls for emergency , we learn that suicide is so common in that world that they don’t even send doctors just two nurses a pump out machine and transfuse Millie with new blood whilst draining out the old, and she wakes up next morning and carries on as if nothing happened . This scene is both important in establishing how Montag starts to feel uneasy with the system, in figurative terms, it also creates an eye-opening parallel with the world we live in today!
There are two incidents that pushes Montag over the edge one being astonishing powerful image portraying that act of bravery is sometimes as simple as sticking with one’s belief even if it means sacrificing oneself (this incident pushes the book into a ride of events which change the course of the book and we buckle up for some action) and Montag’s connection with a Clarisse McClellan (17-year-old) who intrigues Montag in her way of thinking and clicks to his long-forgotten eccentric side . Her sudden disappearance (later revealed death due to accident) makes Montag question everything. There are subtle and small hints that questions are cropping up in Guy Montag’s mind about the efficacy of the systems!
Putting it all together, the story is engulfing and it creates a right atmosphere, it doesn’t get lost in the mix. It is not a page-turner thriller but thought provoking piece of art. You are forced to think and draw parallels into the current scenario. In the monologue by Captain Beatty addressing Montag over why and how intellectualism and books got banned was that they created too much controversy and only one philosopher debating other , this monologue in the first chapter shows a world where if ever ignorance and knowledge came head to head, ignorance given the superficial satisfaction it provides and consequently makes people easier to control, will win and throw out those who ask questions on rationality of what is told !
If this is the reality of today what was the dystopia of yesterday then coming future stands on thin ice (pun intended). With human behavior becoming lifeless robot-like, and robots becoming human-like, the ability to question and intellectualism might go extinct and with that depth of human civilization will be lost forever. In ignorance vs knowledge choose your sides carefully, because religion doesn’t pay bills but knowledge does! In other words, I like the god damn book!
The Distorted Mind 