Fahrenheit 451 has a very interesting theme to me though. Bradbury suggests that the absence of literature will be our downfall. He paints a world where people have no interest in reading. They are more interested in TV walls. Suicide attempts are common. Firefighters do not put out fires - they start them to burn books. I started thinking about this and the importance of literature in our lives. Literature has the power to challenge our ideas and make us think more deeply about the problems in ourselves and society. Bradbury suggests that we will not have our freedoms taken from us, but will voluntarily give them up in favor of momentary happiness. I'm so grateful we live in a country where I can walk to the library and check out copies of the Bible, the Quran, and the Tanakh all at the same time.
What do you think of dystopian literature?
I freakin' love dystopian literature. Metropole, ELantris, The Hunger Games, the Uglies series, are all on my read shelf. I have read (and loved!) the other two you post here as well. I even read a very silly Jasper Fforde take on dystopian literature, Shades of Grey, as well as lots of Philip Dick. (Apparently I need to update my Goodreads even more than I do.)
ReplyDeleteI like the dark themes, the struggle of the individual against society, and the sense of interiority we get. I think this genre is sometimes shunted as mere sci-fi, but I think it engages a lot of deeply human themes. Cultural anomie will never get old.
I have always been a fan, although there are always holes somewhere along the line of how exactly the society got to be dystopian.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read The Road by Cormac Mccarthy? It's the only dystopian book I have ever really gotten into. But BOY DID I LOVE IT. And you keep waiting to hear how the world as we know it ended in the first place but then you realize, oh they are never going to explain it are they? You just read to find out how everyone copes. And to smile and cry and almost pee your pants.
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