Posted by Jeff (24.30.53.181) on October 06, 2001 at 13:14:49:
In Reply to: H.G. Wells and US posted by parhad on October 06, 2001 at 10:38:03:
One of the best teachers that I ever had, an English teacher, Ms. Rafalski, showed us The Time Machine (the movie). The same teacher had us read 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, etc. etc. I would have never thought an English teacher would teach us so much about freedom, or lack of freedom, and about life.
If I remember correctly, the end of the Time Machine involves the main character going BACK to the future, with books. Books... a common theme in all of these books. After getting some advice from a freind who said that I should read books before I go to bed (helps you sleep, and makes you more enlightened), I decided to re-read Fahrenheit 451. What an amazing book, honestly. There's a seection that stuck in my mind which seems relevant to the topic: It's Captain Beatty, explaining to Guy Montag why books are useless, and how they "get rid" of those few indiviauals like Clarisse McClellan (and, in our community, Fred Parhad)
"Luckily, queer ones like her don't happen, often. We know how to nip most of them
in the bud, early. You can't build a house without nails and wood. If you don't want a
house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don't want a man unhappy politically,
don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him
none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the Government is inefficient,
top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace,
Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more
popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year.
Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they
feel stuffed, but absolutely `brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking,
they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of
that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology
to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy. Any man who can take a TV wall
apart and put it back together again, and most men can nowadays, is happier than
any man who tries to slide-rule, measure, and equate the universe, which just won't
be measured or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely. I know, I've tried
it; to hell with it. So bring on your clubs and parties, your acrobats and magicians,
your dare-devils, jet cars, motor-cycle helicopters, your sex and heroin, more of
everything to do with automatic reflex. If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if
the play is hollow, sting me with the theremin, loudly. I'll think I'm responding to the
play, when it's only a tactile reaction to vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid
entertainment."
Jeff