As in Ray Bradbury’s infamous dystopian book Fahrenheit 451, today’s society holds a disdain for books, preferring experiences that are more immediate and less intellectual. Written almost a century ago, this novel predicted a social structure that has great resemblance to what one can see today in many respects. One of the most interesting is the preference for immediate, true sensations instead of the textually-based and more intellectual benefits and pleasures that books may bring. In the book, Beatty states, “books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. They’re about non-existent people, figments of imagination” (Bradbury 30), showing the extent to which books are dismissed in this society. In this quote, one can perceive the total annulment of books, saying that they are completely worthless. Furthermore, one can explain that this is because they do not stand a supposed test of realness, which something real would validate itself by. This is expressed in present times with the exaltation of physical, sensible experiences over intellectual ones. Contemporary culture favors tangible, three dimensional, touchable events, rather than the ones that take place in one’s mind. In this sense, the sports star or the pop artist is revered much more than literature writers or mathematicians. In fact, this could be one of the greatest reasons why many people have such a difficult time with math. First, they are not too interested, as they have no role models; but, second, the world develops empirical abilities more than abstract ones, which means that the mind is being atrophied. In conclusion, one can ominously see in the contemporary world a preference for experience over imaginations, just as in Farenheit 451.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Brookwood High School. 09 Apr 2015. PDF. <http://www.brookwoodhighschool.net/Portals/0/teachers/amclane/F451%20Complete%20TExt.pdf>.
