Stuff your eyes with wonder - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and thought I’d share some things that really stood out to me. Specifically two speeches, the first one made by Beatty in the beginning of the book, and the second one made by Granger at the end of the book.

Somewhere near the beginning of the book Beatty explains the world to Montag when Montag begins to ask the hard questions about how the world got to be the bleak way that it was, which actually pretty literally just happens to explain our world, the one we’re living in today. The whole lecture is fantastic.

He talks about how a larger population equals more minorities:

Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don’t step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico.

Our population has grown in the sense of our ability to connect/stay connected with one another via technology. Prior to the technology that we have today… communication between one town and another for example took more effort and it took longer as well, therefore leaving towns and even cities more isolated in a sense- more isolated in their knowledge and data and culture too in the sense that there was less data being shared and passed around on a larger scale.

Now with the technology that we have today, our population has grown in this sense of being so connected… which also sheds light on all of the minorities. It’s not that these minorities weren’t there prior, but now they can be seen and can’t be ignored.

Beatty goes on to say “the bigger your market, the less you handle controversy” because if you want to sell something to the masses you’ll stay away from controversial material and make it as inoffensive as possible, make it simple so as to appeal to a larger audience. So you start producing things that are “safe” and common for everybody because everybody is always an inch away from being offended. This reminds me of 1984 as well (one of my all time favorite books)- in which the entertainment and media is so bland and simplified and in which historical art like Shakespeare has been outlawed.

We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them tower, to judge themselves against.

The mountain mentioned here is a person who is different than everybody else.

Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally ‘bright,’ did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him.

Bradbury has clearly illustrated the crab mentality of humanity here in Beatty's speech- people don’t like it when somebody is too talented, too smart, excels too fast- and will do everything to slow them down. People don’t like these things because they don’t like being reminded that they are less, uglier, slower, stupid, unimportant. People will attack those “mountains who make them tower” in order to stomp out their own sense of inferiority, and so they can feel important again.

“It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick,” Beatty explains.

Which lead to the firemen who now burn books for a living, answering Montags question of how they came to be what they are.

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.

Dr. Suess anybody?
Cancel culture anybody?

But Grangers speech is beautiful and possibly a way to combat the darkness presented in Beatty's lecture.

I loved Grangers advise to Montag which stood out to me with force:

And hold onto one thought: You’re not important. You’re not anything.

In other words, be humbled. Because maybe if we are not humbled, maybe Beatty's reality becomes our future.

And I loved Grangers speech about his grandfather too. His grandfather hated the status quo and was an artist, a sculptor.

'Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask for no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping it’s life away. To hell with that,’ he said, ‘shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.’

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.

I found Grangers speech to be so uplifting, it balances out Beatty's bleakness. And I was inspired enough to spend a couple of hours writing about it.

Your thoughts and discussion are welcome.

a reply to: geezlouise

Personally, i've always thought Bradbury got it closer in his predictions than Orwell.

The second time I read it was around the time iPods were immensely popular and flat screen TVs were becoming the rage. I always felt Bradbury's depiction of a knowledge hating, willingly censored, drugged out society constantly hooked up to ear buds and addicted to giant screens always seemed pretty close to the way of society even back then.

a reply to: dug88

I think so too, Beatty's speech is spot on... I was blown away.

Orwell's 1984, it's a similar world maybe even the same one but I feel like it's more about brainwashing/mind control- trying to "fix" the Montags and Winstons and reinstate them into society after they stray from the status quo. Bradbury isn't about that in Fahrenheit 451.

Great thread, Lou, and Bradbury was definitely a visionary. Your impressions and the quotes you pulled out are really interesting and spot on! The towering mountain of a great man reminded me of this short story by Vonnegut-- I think you'd really enjoy it as a follow up (though there is much less to find hope from in that one)
www.bpi.edu...
(the first paragraph)

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only
equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody
was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody
else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality
was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution,
and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper
General.

.

I agree with you, dug88, too. I think there's lots of elements of 1984 and Brave New World to be found in our current state, but Farenheit 451 gets the details right better than the other two.

Thanks for the fun discussion!

Oh, I also wrote about Farenheit 451 on here; check the thread and some great comments if you'd like
www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: geezlouise


'Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask for no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping it’s life away. To hell with that,’ he said, ‘shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.’

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.

Very great observation likening "the animal security" to a sloth.

Also, I planted a peach tree a few years ago and it's getting bigger each year--love that second quote about leaving something behind. I have plans to plant more trees this year, and hope it becomes a hobby.

This is one of my all time favorite books. I think I've read it 4 or 5 times so far and have been thinking about it alot given our current situation. I also love the grandfather's speech. Love that line of his! (your title) This world is eerily beginning to echo Aldous Huxley's Brave New World as well. I'm going to reread them both soon.

a reply to: geezlouise

Yeah. I dunno, Orwell's ideas have become reality in some cases, but much of it was a bit over the top. Bradbury may have got the technology slightly wrong, but his depiction of society in general I feel was a lot closer to what reality became.

a reply to: zosimov

Omg I love Vonnegut and I love you for sharing this with me. It's so good, yessss.

a reply to: zosimov

Yes, I was just talking about how it feels like a lot of people are living under one spell or another- similar thing to me. And to me he's talking about how there's no such thing as security in this world, nothing promises it, and if something does promise it(like how the tree promises security to the sloth so the sloth can sleep in it/government promises security to the people so the people can live under its spell) then don't trust it... and show it how insecure it is by challenging it.

A peach tree! How wonderful. Does it bear fruit yet/do you get to eat from it? I always wanted a little garden. I kind of want to be buried and a tree planted on top of me when I die, be all natural and give back to the earth and all.

a reply to: Starcrossd

Yeah, Bradbury has a way with words.

I loved Brave New World as well. Oh I think that's the one where Shakespeare was outlawed, not 1984, oops! It's been awhile since I've read those. I should re-read them.

a reply to: dug88

I do agree with you. Bradbury nailed it.

originally posted by: geezlouise

And hold onto one thought: You’re not important. You’re not anything.

everything important is secret.

loved the film but haven't read the book (yet).

a reply to: RoScoLaz5

Knowledge is power.

Haven't watched the movie(s?). Maybe I'll give them a go one day.

a reply to: geezlouise

I've had that thought (a tree for a tombstone)

I planted the tree from a seed and this is year three. It's still basically a branch with a few leaves now (weird.. tried a heart symbol and it cut off the rest of this comment.) ❤

Oh! And a grandma stopped outside my house recently w/ her granddaughter to show her the trees she had planted in the front yard when she lived here. They are huge and absolutely gorgeous now.



ily always!!

a reply to: geezlouise

Geez. Howdy! Talking about timing and synchronicity, this snipped from Curtis crossed my desk today. Thought I should share.

... But you can't just sit there forever worrying about big ideas because there are millions of people out there who do want to change. And the key thing is they feel they've got nothing to lose. You might have lots to lose but they feel they've got absolutely nothing to lose.
But at the moment, they're being led by the right. So things won't remain the same, but society may go off in ways that you really don't want. So what I think, I mean, in answer to your question, what you need is a powerful vision of the future--with all it's dangers. But it's also quite thrilling. It will be an escape from the staticness of the world that we have today. And to do that, you've got to engage with the giant forces of power that now run the world at the moment. And the key thing is, in confronting those powers and trying to transform the world, you might lose a lot.
This is a sort of forgotten idea, [which] is that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea. And in the process, you might lose something, but you'd actually gain in a bigger sense, because you've changed the world for the better. I know it sounds soppy, but sort of this is the forgotten thing about politics, which is that you give up some of your individualism, to something bigger than yourself; you surrender yourself, and it's a lost idea. And I think, really an answer to your question is, you can spot real change happening when you see people from the liberal middle classes beginning to give themselves up to something, surrender themselves for something bigger than themselves. And at the moment, there is nothing like that in the liberal imagination.

Someone needs to explain to those in power, 451, 1984, etc, weren't instruction manuals, they were warnings.

Lovely a reply to: geezlouise

Cancel culture is the fireman.

Bradbury simplified the narrative actually blaming the populace itself. But in the real world, ie. the US you have a government a media fermenting the divide. When the PTB bombard you every day with stories (real or fictitious) THEN the populous takes over the reins.
But the very best truth that always will be no matter what "everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others".

My thoughts went straight to this movie and I cannot believe this full film is on youtube......it is absolutely brilliant.
It begins in black and white.

It's interesting that people are commenting on the page that they are there because of english class.

This is from a review written in 2014:

Another week, another movie about a special adolescent who saves society from the forces of darkness. Lois Lowry's popular 1993 novel, The Giver, was a trendsetter in the juvenile dystopia genre, but 21 years later, in the wake of The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Lego Movie, another movie about a kid rebelling against socially imposed "sameness" is a case of the same old, same old.www.theglobeandmail.com...

I haven't met anyone who has either seen it or even heard of it until I tell them about it.

The part of the book that stuck with me more than anything was the Mechanical Hound (spider dog as I always thought of it) with its 8 legs and muliple eyes which had a long hollow needle attached to it that could inject you with morphine etc either to sedate you or just kill you, and the fact he saw on a broadcast in the waste lands on the news that the rouge fireman (supposedly him) had been caught and it showed the mechanical hound going in for the kill (was just some random guy it hunted down for show), and he realised then, that all the news feeds were a lie to manipulate the population in the society.
Now many many many years later after reading this book, I look around and see that is exactly the case now, lies in the news, made up video/ video from totally different events, used out of context or for a completely different story to maniuplate us all. Now we got Spot (or whatever the monstrosity is called) from Boston Dynamics / DARPA trit trotting to a post near you, with camera, microphone/speakers and one day I'm sure, some sort of weapons to be used exactly like the Mechanical Hound (spider dog)..............

a reply to: zosimov

❤

a reply to: PublicOpinion

I like this part:

This is a sort of forgotten idea, [which] is that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea. And in the process, you might lose something, but you'd actually gain in a bigger sense, because you've changed the world for the better.

I think that's what Granger was trying to say when he told Montag to remember that he's not important, maybe? Thanks for sharing this.