just finished Fahrenheit 451 and off the bat one of the things I can tie into modern day is the way everyone wants everything summarized or made easier with AI. Don’t want to read Shakespeare? Have the robot summarize it for you. Dont want to write? Have the robot do it for you. Not to sound insane but I do notice a parallel- the way Ms. Montang can’t make sense of a book or simply doesn’t want to the same way I notice a LOT of my classmates refuse to read and write their own things. The way both people in the book and in the modern world intentionally avoid talking about tragedy, illness, grief, war- or talk of it lightly, as if it’s the weather and not someone’s real, lived experience or life now gone. And when it is brought up, some people get upset because it’s too dark, or doesn’t affect them- which yeah, okay, I get not wanting a depressing situation 24/7 but we still need to acknowledge things instead of shoving our faces full of media that doesn’t have any passion behind it or putting our heads in the sand and saying everything is fine
The way Clarisse is seen as odd and weird because she openly expresses her curiosity for this world instead of taking everything at face value, and how it’s seen as disruptive/disrespectful to ask genuine questions in classroom environments.
The way the tv/media of that futuristic world parallels the shallowness/repetitiveness of what I notice goes around in modern day- how a.i stories plague every video platform I’ve been on. (except Twitch? then again I’m not on there as a viewer often lmao) and how most people OFF the internet (at least, around me) don’t seem to care as much if some book or artwork or source is AI generated. And yeah, at this point it’s becoming part of daily life- but at the same time, what I notice my peers are using it for takes away from the point. Why our curriculums in the us have us read these books and write proper ELA- Format essays on them. It’s partly busywork, yes- but behind it, there’s connection. These books, music records and discs, old tapes of podcasts and radio shows- they connect us with a past we’d never get to see again otherwise. The beauty of humanity is in connection, in the way we keep passing down stories and keep creating, writing despite whatever goes on in the world. Those English classes- especially in highschool- are trying to show us that connection, that history. To teach us how we’ve gotten here, why some ideas should never be repeated or executed. When you watch the world turn to AI for everything instead of thinking a thought for yourself, it’s.. surreal.
idk. maybe I’m just insane in the membrane for reading this book leisurely and not for school. that’s my takeaway 👍
