"The only way to be happy is
for everyone to be made equal."
YESTERDAY I POSTED AN essay about the current Huckleberry Finn controversy and the urge to censor books reflecting "unpleasant facts," touching off an interesting discussion. But others have said it all much better than I ever could, and whenever this issue comes up I can't help turning my thoughts back to Ray Bradbury's chilling novel "Fahrenheit 451" and to the eery film version directed by Francois Truffaut.
Contrary to popular notions about the book, Bradbury was not so much concerned with actual censorship and book burning itself as with the systematic dumbing down of society through mass media and manipulative entertainments, which can obviously include bad books as well. (In the video commentary to the movie, actress Julie Christie muses that we actually have attained the society that Bradbury warned us against, only that no one bothers to burn thought-provoking books because few people ever bother to crack their covers.) Bradbury specifically foresaw widescreen TVs, reality television, permanent warfare, designer drugs and iPods, which the passive inhabitants of his dystopian world systematically use to avoid reflecting on their own condition.
But let's not forget that American censorship is also about turning a buck:
Don't step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchant, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy.
In the novel, Montag learns that his fellow citizens were actually more than happy to abandon their written culture and devote themselves to TV and drugs instead. For most people the fire department to which he belongs represents a public service rather than an instrument of oppression.
One of the best ways to dumb down and control a population is to eliminate controversy and introspection. In the following I present an excerpt from Truffaut's screenplay, in which Captain Beatty shows fireman Montag a secret library and explains to him the real reason why books have to be burned: it's for people's own good!
There's nothing far-fetched about this scenario. It's the classic modus operandi of authoritarian societies. I recall an East German academic explaining to me in all earnestness that in her environment people regarded oppositional writings or even Western newspapers as a sort of ideological pornography, rather like Hustler magazine, that had to be kept away from impressionable minds for their own protection. I've heard the same claim being made about Darwin's theory. Wherever censors use this argument (as in the Huckleberry Finn affair) they function as prophets of Bradbury's vision.
To watch the entire scene, click HERE.
**************
What are these books all about?
Ah, Montag.
I knew it. I knew it.
Of course, all this...
The existence of a secret...
Library was known
in high places,
But there was no way
of getting at it.
Only once before have I seen
so many books in one place.
I was just an ordinary
fireman at the time.
I wasn't even qualified
to use the flamethrower.
It's all ours, Montag.
There's nothing there.
Listen to me, Montag.
Once to each fireman,
at least once in his career,
He just itches to know what
these books are all about.
He just aches to know.
Isn't that so?
Take my word for it, Montag,
there's nothing there.
The books have nothing
to say!
(Click to enlarge)
Look, these are all novels.
All about people
that never existed.
The people that read them, it makes
them unhappy with their own lives,
Makes them want to live in other
ways that can never really be.
What's happening?
This house is condemned. They said to
burn the books here with everything else.
Burning the house is one thing.
Burning the books is another, isn't it?
It's never any good
burning everything together.
Come on, Montag. All this
philosophy, let's get rid of it.
It's even worse
than the novels.
Thinkers, philosophers, all of
them saying exactly the same thing:
"Only I am right.
The others are all idiots."
One century, they tell you
man's destiny is predetermined.
The next, they say that
he has freedom of choice.
It's just a matter of fashion,
that's all. Philosophy.
Just like short dresses this
year, long dresses next year.
Look. All stories of the
dead. Biography that's called.
And autobiography.
My life. My diary.
My memoirs.
My intimate memoirs.
Of course, when they started out,
it was just the urge to write.
Then after the second or third book, all
they wanted was to satisfy their own vanity,
To stand out from the crowd,
to be different,
To be able to look down
on all the others.
Ah, critic's prize.
This is a good one.
Of course, he had the critics
on his side. Lucky fellow.
Just tell me this, Montag,
at a guess,
How many literary awards were made in
this country, on an average each year?
Five, ten, forty? Hmm?
No less than 1,200.
Anybody that put pen to paper was
bound to win some prize someday.
Ah, Robinson Crusoe. The negroes didn't
like that because of his man, Friday.
And Nietzsche. Ah, Nietzsche.
The Jews didn't like Nietzsche.
Now, here's a book
about lung cancer.
All the cigarette smokers got into a panic,
so for everybody's peace of mind, we burn it.
"It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have
the fourth wall installed."
Ah, now this one must be very
profound. The Ethics of Aristotle.
Now anybody that read that must believe
he's a cut above anybody that hadn't.
You see, it's no good, Montag.
We've all got to be alike.
The only way to be happy is
for everyone to be made equal.
So, we must burn the books,
Montag.
All the books.
The fundamentalist Christians don't like Harry Potter.
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Comments
I might be uninformed, but I cannot think of anything else that was censored in such a way or would need to be censored in such a way. Not in this country. I don't think the publisher should have the right to alter anyone's work, once published and in circulation. It is ridiculous. Should Mein Kampf be censored? Banned perhaps, but censored? Censoring alters the fundamental train of thought in a book, the basic message. You can rewrite what you think you must for television, video, theater, but the book itself? The book in its original form is the springboard of more ideas than what is even showcased therein, to alter it is to chisel a new nose on G-d.
Well stated! Thanks for stopping by.
@Elijah
Amen to that!
I'll consider burning books if they start with their bible.
Well, they've got to dispose of all those millions of copies somehow. I guess it never occurred to her to make them biodegradable.
The film is indeed dated, and yet I enjoy it for the chilling, sub-Soviet welfare state 60s vision it presents - this is still the pre-"summer of love" era, after all. (I also like virtually everything with Julie Christie in it!) I'd love to see a new version, but somehow I seriously doubt the filmmakers would get it right.
The interesting thing in America, is that current employment law, under the "employment at will" doctrine, allows employers to fire employees who subscribe to left-wing publications like Mother Jones, or even sectarian publications like Tikkun.
Out-of-work reading habits are fair-game, under current employment law jurisprudence. As long as the Government isn't doing it, its ok. Its not state action. Employer-based discrimination is much less regulated, provided it doesn't run afoul of statute. But anti-employment based discrimination isn't based on the Constitution, but various Congressional Statutes, the scope of which is always being narrowed.
We shall see what comes of it. You are lucky to be in Germany. America is going fascist and Deutschland, for once, is a beacon of freedom and liberty. Ironic, isn't it?
And now you will have to replace the word "negro".
I wasn't aware of that. I imagine home Internet use will be next. How can a country in which you can be fired because of your private reading habits call itself "the land of the free"?
I will definitely be pondering this as I make my way through my 2011 reading.
And, I can't help but think back to my visit to the Bebelplatz in Berlin.
Of all the monuments I've seen, that one honestly comes to mind most often.
I can't get staring into those white empty bookshelves out of my head these days.
Yes, it's a magnificent monument confirming the notion that, sometimes, "less is more" - in this case, rows and rows of empty shelves...
A careerist at 17... What a horrible prospect! But there seems to be method in the madness, don't you think? (See above)
“The interesting thing in America, is that current employment law, under the ‘employment at will’ doctrine, allows employers to fire employees who subscribe to left-wing publications like Mother Jones, or even sectarian publications like Tikkun.”
Employers can also fire employees who read the National Review, watch Fox News, or wear ugly shoes. Under “at-will” employment, absent a written contract specifying otherwise, an employee may be terminated at any time for any reason, or may voluntarily quit at any time and for any reason. So what’s the point?