#fahrenheight 451

[palant1r]

Week 2: The Right is Right about "Brave New World"

Every so often, some right-wing talking head will state that our current world is just like 1984 or Fahrenheight 451 or Brave New World, the most recent example being Elon Musk. This inevitably results in rightful mockery from Tumblr and Twitter, pointing out that the figure in question likely has not read the books, or if they had, did not understand them. This is, in all cases, likely true. However, I feel like there's an implied corollary in this response: that the reason we can tell that Elon Musk or Ben Shapiro or whoever didn't understand these books is that these books do not actually align with their politics, and they're simply using the surface-level signifiers of dystopia without actually comprehending the actual societal issues the author was taking aim at.

In the case of Brave New World, this is false. Aldous Huxley would be horrified at today's world, and would likely see his dystopian creation mirrored in it. This is because Brave New World is incredibly reactionary.

Dystopia is a very powerful tool for social critique in literature, because it exaggerates the problems the author wishes to highlight to the degree that they cannot be ignored or excused, forcing the reader to confront the true implications of processes or norms they may have come to take for granted. However, this also makes it harder to immediately disagree with the politics compared with a dystopian work, and makes it important to isolate what issues a dystopia is actually taking aim at, and what anxieties such writing stems from.

Brave New World is a progressive dystopia — unlike, say, the Handmaid's Tale, the world Huxley depicts was ruined by progress and new ideas. It's a book that longs for the old world. Its thesis can be summed up by "Reject modernity, embrace tradition," which is an automatic red flag.

I won't go fully into detail as to how I've derived what Brave New World is taking aim at, given that this is just a blog post about my book of the week and not an essay. I shall instead give a numbered list of the things that Aldous Huxley is trying to say that I don't like.

The nuclear, heterosexual, monogamous family is an essential facet of a good and just civilization. Any deviation from that is a modern perversion.

New art is not valuable, and it is dangerous in its valuelessness. The old works of the broader Western canon must be the basis by which we judge the aesthetic and moral value of art.

Conflict and struggle is necessary to form the moral core and solidarity of a nation, and should be elevated to a place of glory. (Yes, this is fascist as hell)

A society cannot be moral and individuals cannot be grounded without God. Modernity leaves no room for God. (The Native Americans in this story worship Jesus, which helps John become Enlightened. It's fucking weird and racist.)

Contraception is a direct agent in the degradation of important sexual norms, and these strict sexual norms are essential for humanity to experience its fullest potential. It's also bad because it deprives women of their natural need for motherhood.

Globalism Bad because World Too Big

Eugenics is bad, not because of any of the actual reasons that eugenics is bad, but because it is New Science and results in the undermining of what is natural

What is natural is good.

The arrival of radio and other new forms of storytelling represents the dearth of societal intellectual development

When the masses are given control, they will clamor for happiness instead of fulfillment

There's absolutely more wild reactionary stuff in Brave New World, but I'm not in the mood to fully analyze it. My point is, I'm starting to realize how much I've internalized the idea that classic dystopias are taking aim at the modern realizations of the things they criticize, rather than contemporary anxieties about modernity. It's important to remember that just because an author wrote a popular social critique doesn't mean they have a monopoly on what is Bad in society.

And when conservatives cite Brave New World as proof of modern society's degeneracy, yeah sure, it's fun to dunk on them for not reading it. But I need to make sure I don't fall into the trap of arguing that they're wrong because they didn't read the book — even if they read and totally understand the book, I do not want the direction of society to be shaped by Aldous Huxley. Modern conservatives are not misinterpreting Huxley's work. They are the modern custodians of the worldview it represents.

[aethernightmare]

Easily over half of the books I read during middle/high school have been banned or have/are being challenged to be banned, and that's another reason I'm so anti-censorship.

A lot of posts on this site relate the phenomena solely back to fandom and fanfiction, or just in general erotica on the internet, but it is a much bigger cultural problem than that.

Just a few that immediately jumped out at me (this is nowhere near a full list), include:

1984 - George Orwell

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? - Bill Martin, Jr.

Captain Underpants - Dav Pilkey

Fahrenheight 451 - Ray Bradbury

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Looking For Alaska - John Green

Lord Of The Flies - William Golding

Maus: A Survivor's Tail - Art Spiegelman

Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck

Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

The Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger

The Giver - Lois Lowry

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

The Lord Of The Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

The Misfits - James Howe

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen

Where the Sidewalks Ends - Shel Silverstein

Where The Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West - Gregory Maguire

And if you're telling me you (or your kids) truly recognize none of these...than we're in an unimaginably dire and dangerous media literacy drought.

[frombooksiveread]

I guess I'm everything they say I am, all right.  I haven't any friends.  That's supposed to prove I'm abnormal.  But everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another.  Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?

Ray Bradbury ~ Fahrenheit 451

[jekkiefan]

When you don’t agree, but you don’t wanna start a fight

[macrolit]

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

[askfrankpritchard]

DXMD and Fahrenheit 451

Yet another Fahrenheit 451 referance in DXMD that might have slipped past some people. In the Last Harvestor mission you meet Detective Karl Montag. Montag is the name of one of the characters in F451. I'm sure other people have noticed this, but I haven't seen a post about it yet, so I thought I should make one.

[trechos-delivros]

O televisor é "real" É imediato, tem dimensão. Diz o que você deve pensar e o bombardeia com isso. Ele tem que ter razão. Ele parece ter muita razão. Ele o leva tão depressa às conclusões que sua cabeça não tem tempo para protestar: "Isso é bobagem!"

Fahrenheit 451

[kaddos]

the web weaving tumblr girlies would love fahrenheight 451

[brightboisterousbananas]

Thank you for the tag @disquieted and @dracosollicitus

rules: tag people you’d like to get to know better/catch up with

Last song: Sleepyhead Sun by Chris Rice

Last Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Currently watching: Dark on Netflix (I’m obsessed!)

Currently reading: Fahrenheight 451

Currently craving: swimming at the lake! Or camping, or chocolate, or free time to make zutara art🤣😭

Tagging: @soopersara @neurologicaldamage @heavensweetheart @thebluesunflower44

[abadmillennial]

Tiene que haber algo en los libros, cosas que no podemos imaginar para hacer que una mujer permanezca en una casa que arde. Ahí tiene que haber algo. Uno no se sacrifica por nada

fahrenheit 451

[frombooksiveread]

So!  A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.  Burn it.  Take the shot from the weapon.  Breach man’s mind.  Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?

Ray Bradbury ~ Fahrenheit 451

[c-rystallize]

one / name / alias. cece!

two /  birthday. 01/27/2001

four /  height. 5′0 i think. five  /  hobbies. writing, drawing and painting,,,,watching law and order six /favorite colors. pastel pink is the best color and nobody can tell me otherwise sjsksk seven/favorite books. the hunger games franchise! theyre the last books i read not for school! fahrenheight 451 is good too! eight  /  last song listened to.  law-evading rock by neru! nine  /  last film watched. a recent horror movie that came out, brightburn! ten  /  inspiration for muse(s). i had wanted to make a bnha oc so i did! thats it sjsksk eleven  / dream job. i want to be a freelance artist! though if that doesn’t work out, I’m getting a business degree!  twelve  / meaning behind your url. i based it off of the name i have for makoto’s quirk / what woud be her hero name maybe?

tagged by: from @scholarwarriorfather !! tagging: @stitchfaced @ingenxum and anyone else who wants to do it!

[azjanai]

Do you have a favorite book??

I fucking LOVEEEE Fahrenheight 451one of the only I could read more than twice lol

[the-wolfbats]

2018 in film So Far

GOD TIER: 

Black Panther

 Annihilation 

Won't You Be My Neighbor? 

Love, Simon 

Peter Rabbit

GOOD TIER

 Incredibles 2 

A Quiet Place

 Infinity War 

Pacific Rim Uprising 

Ready Player One

FINE TIER

Uncle Drew 

Teen Titans Go 

Hotel Artemis 

Proud Mary

 Rampage

I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. CHILDREN ARE CRYING. WATER IS BURNING. WHERE IS THE LORD TIER.

Wrinkle in Time

Hurricane Heist

Disney's Zombies

Cloverfield Paradox

Fahrenheight 451 I'm not concerned about spelling.

[trechos-delivros]

Para tudo há uma estação. Sim. Um tempo para destruir e um tempo para construir. Sim. Um tempo para calar e um tempo para falar. Sim, tudo isso.

Fahrenheit 451

[phthalo-blu]

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 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.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheight 451