Dystopian Society

I was just thinking...


After way too long without having read it, I finally sat down and read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I've always been a fan of novels of dystopian society, and as a book-lover it was kind of silly that I wouldn't have read the one about burning books. But now I have! With my reading load this semester, this will probably be the last book I read for leisure this semester.

In any case, as far as dystopian novels are concerned, I've read just a few. I have a bunch on my list that I really do need to read, like Animal Farm, Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Children of Men (I've seen the movies for these two). All I've read is Fahrenheit 451, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Road, A Clockwork Orange and The Giver.

The five that I have read number my list of top novels I have ever read, and for good reason. They're all exceptionally well-written, and I apparently have an affinity for their subject matter. I'm not quite sure what it is that attracts me to this genre, but I can't get enough. I think I'm just really into messed up worlds, with messed up people, which would also explain my love for Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk's work has been described as "trangressive fiction," which I thoroughly enjoy because of my interest in fringe/alternative cultures. For this same reason, I also consider myself a fan of cult films. (I'm even taking a class this semester on the logics of cult films)

But I digress. Fahrenheit 451 was everything I wanted it to be. It was exciting, it presented such an alternative world, while still holding onto some parts of our own world. The irony of reading a book about a society that burns books didn't hurt my interest, either. Regularly, I would explore a book in entirety here, but I have decided to focus on one important aspect of their alternate world that I found, to say the least, amusing.

Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953. I know this is simplifying it, but for our sake let us assume that it is around this time (it was) that televisions began to become more present in people's lives, particularly in their homes. The rise of television was a main point of criticism that Bradbury presents in this book. The protagonist, Guy Montag, has a wife, Mildred, who spends the majority of her time with her "family," which are understood to be television characters. In this society, people's parlors and living rooms have become legitimate "television rooms," as televisions can cover the entire wall, and multiple walls. (The Montag's have three walls with televisions installed) Mildred seems to be more involved in the life of these people on the walls than with her life with Montag. She is almost completely surrounded by the lives of the "parlor family," both literally and figuratively. Now here comes the part I find most interesting: The parlor family does not seem to be on a real show, with a plot for each episode or anything like that. It doesn't seem like there even are episodes. It appears (I could be wrong), that the parlor family is a live feed of these people's lives. Wait, doesn't that sound familiar? YES, YES IT DOES!

How Bradbury could have known about the direction of television towards reality TV is beyond me, but it does appear as if he has predicted it, maybe even more advanced than we have reached in 2011. The immersion that people have in television (reality television especially) is almost sickening at this point in our society, and people really do live through these people, the ones they see on these screens.

Although most people do not have television screens spanning the whole wall of every wall in a particular room, people do have access to television shows everywhere; be it on the actual TV, on their computers, or on their phones, TV is everywhere. I am just as guilty as the next guy for succumbing to the ethereal glow of the television, but I fully understand its significance as a sign for the depletion of our society. TV has spelled the downfall of books, (with a little help from the movies, also present on TV), and people, for the majority, are none-the-wiser for it. Sure, TV news is quick and accessible, so it has become easier to stay in the know, but knowledge from reading books, even novels, has greatly fallen. Many people today chose not to read because it is "easier" to just turn on the TV than to read a book. They also make the argument that if the book is really that good, they will wait until the movie comes out. That, my friends, is disgusting.

What have we become? Yes, we don't burn books, but they are shunned by a good portion of society. Like many other dystopian novels, our society has become dangerously close to what these books have "predicted." Is this what we really want? I don't think so! So, go read a book, turn off the TV, and repeal the PATRIOT Act.