Day 175 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

I finished a couple of books this week. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Overton Window by Glenn Beck. Oddly, the two books sort of go together.

Bradbury’s classic is about censorship of books; Beck’s new release is a thriller about how far things can get out of hand when the wrong people are in charge.

Fahrenheit 451 is brilliantly written. You start out in the mind of Guy Montag. The writing is almost what you might call stream of consciousness. Until I realized what Bradbury was doing, I found it jarring to read. But once you realize that you’re reading what Montag is thinking, it makes more sense. After all, how many people actually think in complete, well-structured, grammatically-correct sentences? When Bradbury shifts views, the writing style shifts with it. Very cool.

Anyway, the book is about Guy Montag who is a fireman at some point in the future U.S. In the time that this takes place, firemen don’t put fires out – they start them. Their job is to burn books because books help you to think, to ask questions, and those in charge don’t want people thinking. People are content with their “parlors” – four walls of giant television screens where the people on the shows are your “family.”

Montag’s life changes when a seventeen year old begins talking to him and asks him one simple question: Are you happy? Montag is confused at first, but slowly begins to wonder, to think, to want to know – even wanting to read, which of course is in complete conflict with his job.

The book goes on to take you through Montag’s struggle within himself and with trying to figure out what he should do if he’s even able to do anything.

In the edition that I have (a commemorative edition of the Ballantine hardcover), the end has a Coda by Bradbury. He talks about how censorship has already taken over, how you can’t write a play that features only men, or only one ethnic group because that would be prejudiced. He talks about an anthology of 400 short stories that was put together for school readers. He says:

Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito—out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron’s mouth twitch—gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer—lost!

Do you being to get the damned and incredible picture?

He ends his Coda with this final message to editors:

In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works… I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book. All you umpires, back to the bleachers. It’s my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset I’ve won or lost. At sunrise, I’m out again, giving it the old try. And no one can help me. Not even you.

Obviously, this is a man with a very passionate view about the topic he wrote about and it shows in Fahrenheit 451.

Glenn Beck takes a different course, more extreme, but the same point about government control is there. In The Overton Window, Beck attempts to spread his writing wings to the thriller genre. The story is described as “faction” – completely fictional but rooted in fact.

As a note (for those who have heard of Glenn Beck’s political views) I do occasionally watch his show and for the most part, I like his point of view. I don’t agree with everything, and there are times when I think he’s over-the-top or off-the-mark. That said… back to the book.

He takes the son of the world’s most power Public Relations guru and sets out to “open” his eyes to what is really going on in the United States. There are good guys, bad guys, lies, government cover-ups, etc that you would find in a typical thriller – but this story is all based on statistics and facts that are listed on the last 25-30 pages of the book (and where to find them). Not all of the stats are there and he recommends you look up any quote or stat found in the book that piques your interest.

He admits that this story is taken to the extreme, and though it’s a good story, Beck is lacking as a thriller writer. What truly makes this book interesting is that it is based on the facts that have come from the mouths of government officials or from official documents… all cited as I mentioned before. It does make you think.

He does not affiliate good guys with this political party and bad guys with that one. You don’t meet real government people. You do meet spin doctors. You learn about how propaganda is used – quite effectively once you read his fact list in the back – to sway public opinion on any topic from bottled water to the right to bear arms to terrorism and bailouts for Wall Street.

Even if you detest Beck, I suggest you pick up the book and read the last 25-30 pages and look up his references. It will make you think.