mostly fine #15: My Disdain for Speculative Fiction
Wherein I contradict myself almost immediately...
A couple weeks ago, I tested positive for Covid for the first time ever. All in all, as a fairly healthy 30 year-old man, it wasn’t too bad - at least not relative to the description of the initial strain back in early 2020. Still, it wasn’t fun and it was difficult to be productive while I was ill. Even now I’m not at the same level of energy and productivity that I once was (hence this being late).
However in the onset of my four day fever, I promised to explain my disdain for speculative fiction, and so I shall stay true to my word.
But first…
A Perfectly Fine Purchase
The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood, featuring my story Lay, Lie, Lie is now available for purchase. I was really happy to be included in this anthology. I took a lot of time and care to fit this within the world of The Perfectly Fine House. Still, in traditional Gavin fashion, there is a tired malaise and sense of defeat to the characters… I should probably talk to my therapist about that.
The book is available on Amazon, and I think it should be popping up on B&N at some point also, but don’t quote me on that.
And Now, as Promised
Missouri State Senator Bill Eigel is currently running for the Republican nomination for Governor. Like most states affected by realignments, Missouri has been dominated by a single political party (in this case, Republican), and winning the nomination is essentially winning the general election. Thus, Eigel, who is attempting to secede current GOP Governor Mike Parson, does not need to win over moderate or liberal voters. He just needs to win over conservatives, and to do that, he must prove he is more conservative than the other candidates in the primary.
But Eigel is a dark horse candidate, trailing greatly in the polls. If he could only get some attention, then the voters would see he was their conservative savior. Considering his party’s manufactured hysteria of pornographic books in schools (a problem that does not actually exist) and weird obsession with firearms and faux-masculinity, Eigel felt he had the perfect opportunity to make that splash. He would set boxes on fire and promise to burn any pornographic imagery found in the Missouri public school system.
The video went viral with many drawing a direct line from Eigel’s actions to Ray Bradbury’s seminal work, Fahrenheit 451. However, that is where the conversation seemed to end. Critics pointed to the the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 and claimed that the novel warned us about this. That was the point of Fahrenheit 451! Burning books is bad!
Except these comparisons benefited no one and betrayed the point of Fahrenheit 451.
A Quick Concession
I believe burning books is bad. Eigel’s behaviors and the push to censor books is indeed troubling and a danger to the survival of a pluralist society. I am in no way saying people concerned with this are overreacting. However, I do believe that their means of expressing concern is reflective of a dumbed down dialogue that often dodges the importance of discussing the subject thoroughly.
And Now my Contradiction
I have a deep disdain for speculative fiction, and I love Fahrenheit 451. It is a succinct and thoughtful projection of the effects of censorship states. However, the current dialogue of the book, particularly as it related to Eigel’s actions, is more reflective of a SparkNotes summary essay than the full message of what the book says. To illustrate this point, we need to talk about how the book ends. So there will be spoilers ahead for those who have intended to read this novel but have yet to do so.
In the final pages of the Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist Guy Montag has hidden books which he was supposed to burn. Montag finds himself on the run as bombs blanket the city in which he lives, and eventually he crosses paths with outcast intellectuals. They, like Montag, have read and memorized portions of books. They live in exile but share these passages with one another. The wait out the bombing and with the city then destroyed, the exiles can return to rebuild society with their knowledge.
And that is the key takeaway from the novel.
You see, these exiles in the book have memorized passages of texts. Thus the ideas which the texts conveyed have survived. Despite the fire, despite the bombs, despite the efforts of an authoritarian government, the ideas live on.
In many ways, Fahrenheit 451 is less a cautionary tale of the dangers of a dumbed down society and more a warning to those who wish to squash any idea they dislike through abuse of power. It is a message of hope to some and a warning to those who wish to censor free thought:
Ideas will survive long beyond the bureaucratic, punitive systems of nation states.
This is such a powerful statement, but aside from warning the authoritarians that they cannot control the thoughts of the masses, it is simultaneously a warning to decent folks. You see, by this logic we will never be able to expel hate speech from society through content restrictions. And perhaps that’s why so many skip this message and reduce the novel to “burning books is bad.” It’s not fun to admit that hateful thoughts will survive alongside philosophical musings.
We would love it if we could simply say, “Hey, you write something racist, it gets deleted. You write something homophobic or transphobic, it gets deleted. And then one day, you’ll all stop being such terrible people because we’re not letting you say those bad things online and in print.” But the racism and homophobia and transphobia and general doucheyness of humans will persist beyond the best intentions of content enforcement.
This is not to say those comments shouldn’t be removed from social media. They absolutely should, and it will likely reduce the acceptance of such vile behavior. Unfortunately, however, these people will still exist, and that is the dark flipside of the promise that ideas will survive beyond governments. For every sonnet and Psalm, there will be an anonymous blogger calling theater kids “f*****s.”
So when people like Eigel and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promise to remove and destroy books, the conversation tends to go “Fahrenheit 451 said this was bad,” with no elaboration. To elaborate leads us to the realization that the creeds Eigel and DeSantis pander to can also survive destruction. Yet this must be acknowledged, because when we participate in such surface level observations, we reduce works like Fahrenheit 451 to simple media references and are more like the society within the novel than we realize.
Summation
Be it Fahrenheit 451, Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, or some lesser known work, I just can’t enjoy speculative fiction. It often reduces complex issues to the lowest common denominator and enables a faction of performative faux intellectuals online to feel smarter than they are. So I often lose interest in these books and never bother picking them up.
On an unrelated note, I am very much looking forward to Jason Pargin’s new novel Zoey is too Drunk for this Dystopia, which continues to speculate about how the future is dumb.
Media Recommendations for you to Ignore
Music: Much Love by Microwave - I am back on the Microwave train, falling down a rabbit hole of nihilistic dirges expressing a fear of wasted potential. It’s sincere and honest song writing. Nothing surface level, which I deeply appreciate, even if I have my reservations about the condescension expressed towards Christians. I will say that the condescension here feels more understandable, coming from a place of hurt, than it does from someone like Streetlight Manifesto, who approach it more from a Christopher Hitchens “we’re so enlightened because we’re atheist” perspective.
Movies: The Warriors - I finally watched The Warriors. This film probably doesn’t need me to sing its praises. In fact, the acting often sucked, but the uniformed gangs made for a fun watch. I hadn’t realized it was based on a novel, and when I saw this, I nearly turned off the movie with plans to read the book first. However I’d been wanting to watch this movie for years and to finally find it streaming, I decided I would just go ahead and watch, as I suspect the film cut some of the more nitty-gritty elements that may be found in the novel.