What does Faber mean by “it’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books”?
Faber delivers much wisdom to Montag, not least of which is the introduction to the fact that there exist ways of being beyond what the state demands of its people. The moment Montag begins his search for a story/moment/place of origin from which to understand the books, he inscribes, for the first time in his life, his own story, in which he is protagonist and his actions might produce legitimate consequences affecting his reality. Literature in this sense provides a pedagogical function in teaching him how to open himself up to a form of learning that requires intellectual engagement rather than passive acceptance.
In describing how words and ideas took on objective essences, Beatty recounts a society in which minorities were the first to burn books, inciting others to do the same so as to satisfy everyone and eradicate room for discussion and dissent. “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book” (56). To note this initial form of censorship is to note one of the most pervasive social narratives in the world of Fahrenheit 451: that which has any chance of offending, unsettling, or making anyone unhappy (“happiness” being touted as everyone’s consistent state of being) should be eradicated to satisfy the masses. If engaged with profoundly, books should surface frustration, confusion, and dissent, in that they force people to encounter uncomfortable places within themselves and society. People in Bradbury's world have not been taught to engage with their own discomfort - in essence, their humanness - and are thus far less likely to even know how to begin advocating for a better world.
Thus, it is intellectual engagement with books that render books powerful. As we know from state-mandated literature and propaganda, a book can fully perpetuate an agenda, much in the same way that TV can. The types of stories perpetuated by the media in Bradbury's world are presented as objective, overarching, and, as noted when a man is killed in place of Montag, definitively not true. A book or a TV program coming from the state might portray the plight of murderers and victims, but do so for entertainment value rather than imploring people to examine motivation, culpability, or consequence. In this sense, stories told by the state generate and recapitulate tropes of “good,” “bad,” or “enemy,” but destroy the powers of subjective interpretation and emotional inquiry rendered by literature.
When Montag visits Faber to ask for help comprehending texts, Faber calls him a "hopeless romantic" and tells Montag, "It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books" (Bradbury, 39). Faber then proceeds to explain to Montag that he seeks the "infinite detail" that was once illustrated and depicted in books and other types of media. Faber goes on to tell Montag that the things written in books were also expressed through radio, television, music, and movies. Essentially, Faber is telling Montag that he seeks any type of media that will authentically depict and illustrate genuine human experiences. In Bradbury's dystopian society, drama, spontaneity, joy, faith, and uncertainty are not illustrated through any forms of modern media. The parlour wall televisions only display the superficial, meaningless aspects of life and do not mirror authentic human experiences. Faber is telling Montag that books are not the only places that once contained and depicted detailed aspects of life and meaningful experiences.
Comments
Post a Comment