Fahrenheit 451: If Books Disappeared, What Would We Lose?

What may happen if books were to be no more?

Ray Bradbury's Farenheti 451 is an attempt at answering this.

The New Mexico artist Georgio O'keefe says, "to see takes time."

In the world of Farenheti 451 there is no time for a good long look. Billboards for advertisement are made 200 foot long because cars were rushing past them too quickly to notice. Life is fast, people are entertained and conversations are superficial. What comes below the surface is just more surface.

In a world where superficiality is the norm, people with depth seem strange. It shouldn't be surprising that Montag, the fireman whose job was to burn books, found Clarise strange. Clarise's strangeness which unsettles Montag. Clarise asks Montag if he is happy. Montag is bothered because he had not thought deeply about this question. He feels flustered.

Clarise is based on a character called Leanord Mead from one of Ray Bradbury's short stories. In this short story Leanord loves to go on late night walks to get "see." He is arrested and taken to a psychiatric hospital because he is considered abnormal for wanting to go on a walk to see instead of seeing with the "viewing screens" (TV) his house was provided with. He reminds me of Georgia O'Keefe whatever you look at, look at it for a long time.

Even though Montag was flustered about the encounter with Clarise. Something had shifted, Montag feels like she really saw him. The encounter with her gave him a deeper interiority, a space for self reflection. The German sociologist Harmuth Rosa calls this encounter Resonance. In the book Social Acceleration Rosa says that in modernity people often live in a state of 'frenzied standstill' - they feel like they need to be on a treadmill just to keep up. In this state people feel alienated with themselves, with people they love and their own life stories.

Clarise is the first person with whom Montag has resonance. The encounter leads him to self-reflect ask himself questions he had never asked himself before. Was he truly happy. He realizes that does not remember where and how he and his wife, Linda, met. He asks her she couldn't remember either. It did not bother Linda that she couldn't. Montag is shocked that Linda wasn't bothered about their inability to remember where they met. Montag living in a world without books, the ability to take good long looks had lost his humanity.

This ability to self-reflect helps Montag to go on a journey of self discovery. It reminds me of St. Augustine who in his Confessions as he talks to God says, he hid his face from himself so he did not have to see the truth of his self. He goes on to tell God, "You put my face in front of me so I could see me and also my need for you." Augustine had a moment of resonance with God that took him on a journey of self-discovery.

At the climax of Montag's journey, he arrives in the wilderness and truly sees the world around him. At that point he feels the presence of Clarise at this space. He also remembers where he had met his wife Linda. Montag becomes fully human.

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