Monday, April 14, 2014

What would you say is the motto for contemporary culture in Part I of Fahrenheit 451?

If we were tasked to come up with a motto for the social
setting in the first part, I would say that the primary focus should be on book burning
and the general desire for comfort that surrounds Montag.  One particular motto that
might work would be a paraphrase of the New York Times:  "All the
books fit to be burned."  This helps bring out the fireman's function, the purpose of
Montag's existence as the book opens. The idea of burning books and "all" of them being
"fit" for burning is critically important.  The motto does not make a distinction, and
neither does the firemen in burning books.  I think that another one would be something
like "No news is good news."  The society in which Montag lives is one where there is a
continual desire to feel comfortable and not engage in anything relevant.  There is a
desire to be disengaged, immersed only in superficiality and nothing substantive.  While
there is a war ongoing, no one really seems to care about it so long as they have their
own comforts.  In this, the motto helps to bring out the idea that as long as there is
no disruption to one's comforts, all is well.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is the meaning of the 4th stanza of Eliot's Preludes, especially the lines "I am moved by fancies...Infinitely suffering thing".

A century old this year, T.S. Eliot's Preludes raises the curtain on his great modernist masterpieces, The Love...