Zara Binte Arno, 3S1 (40)

  Prior to reading Rahmin Bahrami’s article with regards to why he found Ray Bradbury’s novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ relevant to our age, like every other news article, I expected it to be about gossip, unfortunate incidents or a list of mundane and overused reasons as to why burning books was still a huge controversy in today’s age. To my astonishment, his essay was well supported with reasons beyond the typical ‘books are knowledge’ smacked in your face. Instead, he conveyed his immense worry towards Ray Bradbury’s novel almost ‘coming to real-life’. This article has changed my view towards society today and opened my eyes to issues beyond my circle. It also enabled me to realise just how devastating it is to see social media consume us so unknowingly. 

  The article was truly an eye-opening one and had me very taken aback. Rahmin Bahrami explains that an elder he had spoken to was more than willing to have a stranger burn his books. This was very provoking because indeed similar to what Ray Bradbury had anticipated in his novel, people these days whom we may consider wiser are so quick to agree to have their books burnt away always glued and inseparable from their devices.  From my personal experience, I have indeed heard of people burning books but so far, the only form of books I heard of people burning were holy books and textbooks which as expected had many people raising their eyebrows and enraged. Something that sparked some curiosity was why books that contained knowledge are deemed as more valuable than other pieces of literature. This made me understand Montag's constant crave for answers to the endless queries he had about books. Through his experience, I was able to understand and empathise why he felt so strongly towards this book as well as his worries for the future.

  A simple truth Rahmin Bahrami expressed gave me the chills. He said "They interact with their “friends” through these screens, listening to them via “Seashells” — Bradbury’s version of Apple’s wireless AirPods — inserted in their ears. In this world, people would be crammed “full of noncombustible data” — words to popular songs, the names of state capitals, the amount of “corn Iowa grew last year.” They will “feel they’re thinking,” Bradbury wrote, “and they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.”  The fact that I am currently typing this essay on my computer screen, video calling a friend and blasting songs that do not even have any educational or critical value in my life. It made me go silent for a good ten minutes before finally realising the truth. Just exactly like how Ray Bradbury expressed it, I was doing the exact, word for word. Though it creeped me out a little, I have to be honest and admit that this was definitely a huge wake-up call for me. I would say that though I do see the benefits and advantages of the internet and the digital age, this struck a sense of tension through my blood and had me thinking what if. What if we ended up like the novel a few years down the road?

  This article reflection exercise may have just been a piece of homework assignment but by understanding it, I truly believe that this article was filled with numerous lessons for us to take away from. From the many of which, I would say my greatest take away is to value what we have today, for we never know when we'll wake up one fine day with every single piece of information on the internet altered and not even notice, blindly following due to our overly dependent nature towards the internet. This also brings up the issue of cybersecurity in today's age. The article made me question just who is the one maintaining and verifying the information of every single one of the 7 billion people on Earth? Who will guard mine and yours? Just the thought of one day living as one of the ignorant citizens in a society similar to Fahrenheit 451 makes me treasure the life we have now valuing the simplest things like our reading period and diverse pieces and types of literature.

When I read that Bahrani's 82 year old friend has no qualms about burning books and that the convenience of an electronic device replaces the physical copy of a book, I felt shocked and bewildered that even someone who is not born under the Internet age can prefer having digital instead of physical copies. However, it held a certain degree of truth as many older people have been sucked in to a life full of online information, just like teenagers who have been born into a world of advanced technology. 

What really struck a chord in me was how Bahrani compared how the characters in the book "interact with 'friends through [giant wall] screens" to how people of this day and age interact with one another; through video calls et cetera. He cited examples like how the "Seashells" in the book are Bradbury's form of Apple's wireless AirPods, and how people in Fahrenheit 451 were "crammed with noncombustible data" which is exactly what is happening in the present right now. 

All these astonishingly similar comparisons made me realise that Bradbury actually foresaw what would happen in the future. What he was worried about: people reading only headlines on the news, words being shortened and compressed (replaced by emojis, acronyms and more recently "memes") was happening right now and many of us do not even realise it. And that I feel, is the scariest part of it all: not realising that we are slowly and gradually losing a part of our humanity, becoming the ignorant characters of Bradbury's dystopian society.

Furthermore, there was a theory that Bradbury made, saying that we, humans, "voted for political and economic systems to keep us happy rather than thoughtfully informed" and "chose to give up our privacy to tech companies". The more I thought about this, the more I felt that this was true. I feel that this topic is often overlooked and there are very little discussions about this, and I know that many people are not even bothered to think about how we came to be a digitalised world. Hence, from reading this article, I felt grateful for having an opportunity to read about this and uncover truths about our society.

  Prior to reading the article, I had the preconception that burning books is merely a preposterous act discussed in the novel Farhrenheit 451. I failed to see how this act is becoming increasingly relevant or event reenact itself in modern day context. To be frank, I did not really know what to expect. Perhaps I expected the article to be discussing themes and coming up with theories for the novel, but I certainly did not expect it to link the problems shared in the novel to current youths through trivial acts such as using emojis. From what I can gather, the director who admired books burned books on his own set, his 82-year-old friend are willing to let physical books be burned and Bradbury’s worries are presented today through digital media. 

  At the start of the article, the director himself mentioned that “[They] designed powerful, kerosene-spitting flamethrowers and torched books — en masse. [That] was not easy for [him] to do. [He] was taught at a very young age to read and respect books.” With this, I would like to present you with the ironic situation that the director had found himself in. He admired books and would never do anything treacherous to degrade it, even an act as simple as “setting a teacup on a book was considered a sin”. However, he decided to direct a movie which includes burning huge amounts of books which will be presented to a large audience. If he decided not to direct this movie, he would never have to face this situation of dilemma coated with irony. However, his true intentions lie in showing us “the internet and new social-media platforms  and their potential threat to serious thought”. Hence, maybe the director’s act of self-sacrifice is required to make a point. Yet, isn’t this how Guy Montag in the novel is shown to be? Sacrificing himself by stealing books to prove to the society that books are highly important and should not be burned. 

  When the director asked his 82-year-old friend advice on directing the movie, his friend encouraged him to burn the physical books. The physical books apparently “[meant] nothing to [him]” since he has digital books. This shows how invalidating the significance of books isn’t just relevant to today’s youths, but to the elderly as well. Perhaps it is relevant to all walks of life as technology takes us by the storm. With this, the director asked a question: “If he felt this way, what would teenagers think?” Quite the opposite actually, as “Bradbury’s novel is a classic taught in high schools across America.” However, as teenagers are educated on the significance of books, does that necessary meant nothing to those of old age? 

  Bradbury’s worries are becoming reality as they reenact themselves through digital media. “Seashells” in the novel would be wireless AirPods. He was worried that people would read only headlines but “today it seems that half the words online have been replaced with emojis.” However, even if articulate thoughts and sophisticated words are more efficient in expressing oneself, emojis are practically made for self-expressionism, so what’s the harm in using them once in a while? 

  Ramin Bahrani was faced with a big question: “Do people still care about physical books?” The obvious answer will be yes. If people do not care about books, the director and his crew will not face copyright issues while trying to burn real books on set, and the art directors would not have to “designed countless original book covers that [they] could burn.” However, the underlying truth would be no. Think about it. Students only come into contact with books when textbooks are used in lessons and only start analysing their textbooks near examination periods. Cookbooks are only ever opened when someone is out of ideas to cook. The more popular books nowadays are fiction books that contained almost of no value or repeatedly expressed similar morals that are so overused that 6-year-old would have memorised them by now. The notorious “happy ending” is also overused to fulfil its readers’ wishes. If books nowadays are written and gained fame solely through pleasing the reader instead of presenting them with our world’s harsh truth, the importance of books is ignored. How will people still care about physical books if it’s not of utmost importance?