It's Gettin' Hot in Herre
Fahrenheit 451.
This was a hard book to review. It's not that it was difficult to read or understand, but the reputation that comes with the book invokes this feeling of responsibility to unearth a hidden truth or profoundly state the true meaning of the work. I'm just not like that. The feeling that was evoke most prominently, after the aforementioned one subsided, was fear. I was scared that our country could develop into this sort of society. The society that demands conformity to ignorance. You are labeled and perform. There is no consideration of society. Everything is laid out in a neat little pattern and failure to conform means you have been provoked by outside forces and your possessions must be searched and the offending ones exterminated. I know what I fear will not come about in my lifetime or even my children's lifetimes, but if there is a leaning today, there may be a movement tomorrow.
The point of this review is not to spout socio-political rantings (God knows there's enough blogs like that out there), but the book provides the springboard for such a conversation. So, I'll keep this review short and sweet. I like Montag's development in the story. There is this nagging thing in the ventilator at his home that urges him to open a cover and discover. I like Clarisse who pushed Montag to think about things for himself. I want to be one of those people. One of the reasons I want to be a college professor is so I can engage in intelligent debate and, hopefully, challenge students (and colleagues) to try different perspectives and to never be satisfied with what they are being fed. I don't want to be stuck in the rut of accepting things at face value and fear challenges. When we hesitate broaching a topic of conversation for fear of having to defend ourselves, we are more than likely holding to a position that is too weak to defend. Whatever passion burns in us, we must constantly reflect on our motives and methods to determine whether we are out of touch or we need to step back and help some others along.
For the political side of things: I'm with the people who are shouting "Injustice!" when government goes to far and starts indicting those who have done their job and happen to have exposed the not-so-pleasant side of things.
This book made me ecstatic.
Watch your step.
Up next...As you can probably tell by my lengthy absence, life has been crazy for the past few weeks. The parents have visited, three birthdays have happened, the kids have gone to West Virginia, the wife and I have been spending some much needed quality time together and I have only read the sixth Harry Potter book. My priorities have suddenly shifted. I tried to adjust the look of things so that it's not so annoying to look at and I'm working on a couple of books. I'm trying. Maybe next will be my Cigar Aficianado magazine. It's got Michael Jordan!
[more inside]
This was a hard book to review. It's not that it was difficult to read or understand, but the reputation that comes with the book invokes this feeling of responsibility to unearth a hidden truth or profoundly state the true meaning of the work. I'm just not like that. The feeling that was evoke most prominently, after the aforementioned one subsided, was fear. I was scared that our country could develop into this sort of society. The society that demands conformity to ignorance. You are labeled and perform. There is no consideration of society. Everything is laid out in a neat little pattern and failure to conform means you have been provoked by outside forces and your possessions must be searched and the offending ones exterminated. I know what I fear will not come about in my lifetime or even my children's lifetimes, but if there is a leaning today, there may be a movement tomorrow.
The point of this review is not to spout socio-political rantings (God knows there's enough blogs like that out there), but the book provides the springboard for such a conversation. So, I'll keep this review short and sweet. I like Montag's development in the story. There is this nagging thing in the ventilator at his home that urges him to open a cover and discover. I like Clarisse who pushed Montag to think about things for himself. I want to be one of those people. One of the reasons I want to be a college professor is so I can engage in intelligent debate and, hopefully, challenge students (and colleagues) to try different perspectives and to never be satisfied with what they are being fed. I don't want to be stuck in the rut of accepting things at face value and fear challenges. When we hesitate broaching a topic of conversation for fear of having to defend ourselves, we are more than likely holding to a position that is too weak to defend. Whatever passion burns in us, we must constantly reflect on our motives and methods to determine whether we are out of touch or we need to step back and help some others along.
For the political side of things: I'm with the people who are shouting "Injustice!" when government goes to far and starts indicting those who have done their job and happen to have exposed the not-so-pleasant side of things.
This book made me ecstatic.
Watch your step.
Up next...As you can probably tell by my lengthy absence, life has been crazy for the past few weeks. The parents have visited, three birthdays have happened, the kids have gone to West Virginia, the wife and I have been spending some much needed quality time together and I have only read the sixth Harry Potter book. My priorities have suddenly shifted. I tried to adjust the look of things so that it's not so annoying to look at and I'm working on a couple of books. I'm trying. Maybe next will be my Cigar Aficianado magazine. It's got Michael Jordan!
[more inside]
