JOHN KAMINSKI reflects on Guy Montag, “the enigmatic fireman who burned outlawed books in Ray Bradbury’s epic novel Fahrenheit 451.”

Bradbury’s narrative describes how Montag gradually began to doubt his mission after he saw how important books were to people willing to die rather than give them up, and his brittle life crumbled around him. When the book’s hero changed his mind about books and what he should be doing to them, he brought the power of the totalitarian state down upon him, before escaping into the shadows and yearning for revolution.

Bradbury never mentioned how that revolution turned out, but the future has revealed an uncanny twist in what the famous science fiction author wrote and the way reality has turned out.

Firemen are supposed to put fires out, but Bradbury’s firemen burned books the government deemed illegal.

This is how our future has progressed; what was once the truth is now a lie. Suddenly, forces once thought necessary and beneficial have now turned into their opposite — a destructive menace.

Please follow and like us: