The Fahrenheit 451 Project
In this week’s LitWit Challenge you are called upon to protect literature itself.
Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a near future (or maybe the present) in which books are outlawed and condemned to burn along with the houses that contain them. A group of rebels have taken it upon themselves to preserve these books—by becoming them. Each of them memorizes a book in the hope that someday, the books can be consigned to paper and read once again.
“How many of you are there?”
“Thousands on the roads, the abandoned railtracks, tonight, bums on the outside, libraries inside. It wasn’t planned, at first. Each man had a book he wanted to remember, and did. Then, over a period of twenty years or so, we met each other, traveling, and got the loose network together and set out a plan. The most important single thing we had to pound into ourselves is that we were not important, we mustn’t be pedants; we were not to feel superior to anyone else in the world. We’re nothing more than dust jackets for books, of no significance otherwise.”
Now imagine a present in which floods engulf cities and libraries end up underwater. It’s not science-fiction anymore, is it?
My question is: Which book will you be?
The book must be at least 100 pages (of text) long. You cannot answer The Great Gatsby, The Catcher In The Rye, Macbeth, The Stranger by Camus, or A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (We dibs those). If you pick a fairy tale, it’ll have to be the whole collection, i.e. The Complete Brothers Grimm. It’s one book per person, and if the book you want has been posted by someone else, you’ll have to pick a different book. (If a book is chosen more than once, the post with the earliest time stamp is the one eligible for a prize. So post a different book.)
Entries will be accepted until 11.59 pm of Friday, 9 October 2009. Oh right, the prize. The three winners will receive. . .
The 50th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451.
The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Bookstore.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 5th, 2009 at 12:43
Hindi dapat kalimutan ang:
Balarila (ng Wikang Pambansa) ni Lope K. Santos
Ito po ang isasaulo ko.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:47
I am re-posting my entry as I did not see it here yet. I wonder what happened to the answer I posted yesterday? Anyway, I chose The Picture of Dorian Gray , the only published book by Oscar Wilde and the last of its genre (goth) in his era. I was actually reading it online via questria or another online book collection. I am yet to finish it but am happy it is going to be in the theaters soon as a classic remake. It has intriguing themes from homosexuality to narcissism. I also would like to memorize a book on humor(The Psychology of Laughter). Cultivating anew our humor would be helpful after a deluge.
October 5th, 2009 at 13:36
Okay so somebody got Lolita first. I’ll be The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, instead. Makes sense to be a book about dislocations in a post-apocalyptic world. Also, it’s a lot of fun, so at least I’ll have a good time.
October 5th, 2009 at 14:04
I’ll memorize Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.
October 5th, 2009 at 15:08
i’d be clockwork orange by anthony burgess….me sariling vernacular…mejo safe hindi halata hehehe…..
October 5th, 2009 at 16:16
I’ll be the “Les Miserables” by victor hugo….because it contains factual and historic events that instill social awareness to its readers. I wanted to be an agent of change!
October 5th, 2009 at 19:30
I’d be Thomason’s Blackjack for the Clueless. Easy to memorize except for the math/probability part. Lol.
October 5th, 2009 at 19:35
Gusto kong isaulo ang Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag ni Edgardo M. Reyes. Kahit hirap na akong akong mag-memorize dahil sa edad ko. Paano naman nasagad na ata ang temporal lobe ng cortex ko dahil sa saulo dito, saulo doon noong nag-aaral pa ako. Isaulo ang past tense at past participle ng irregular verbs. Memorize the formula for finding the areas of a circle, rectangle, at triangle. Maging sa science, memorize the steps in scientific method. Memorize the symbols of the elements. Kulang na lang buong periodic table eh, ikabesa. Wala ka namang magawa dahil yan ang sistema noon. Rote learning. Ewan ko lang ngayon.
Pero ikakabesa ko ang nobelang ito. Ayaw kong bukas-makalawa’y mabura na sa mapa ang Misercordia, Doroteo Jose, Abenida Rizal at Estero Sunog-Apo. Ang Arranque Market, Central Market, Quinta Market, at Divisoria ay ayaw ko ring mangawala. Dahil ang mga ito’y para ng mga nagkasanga-sangang ugat sa aking katawan at isipan. Dahil ako ang orihinal na Ligaya Paraiso!(LigayaP nga, noh?) Haydee palang ang ginagawa ni Hilda noon, kabisado ko na ang Kabanata 16 (Siya’y si Ligaya). Natalbugan lang ako ni Hilda sa pelikula ni Brocka dahil ang monologue niya’y nangyari sa motel, nakakumot lang sya, at mayroon pang mga props na sigarilyo at salamin. (Teka, paanong natutong manigarilyo ni Ligaya?) Samantalang ako’y sa restauran lang at tanging serbilyeta lamang ang pamahid sa mata. Paano akong makapag-eemote nang husto eh wala ngang privacy, di bah?
Pero sa totoo lang, kakabesahin ko to dahil malapit sa puso ko! Isinulat ito ng isang Pilipino at sa ating sariling wika. Bukod pa sa sabi nilang ang memorization daw ay mabisang paraan upang labanan ng mga matatanda ang memory loss. Mahirap ang maging ulyanin, di bah?
October 5th, 2009 at 19:39
Correction. Dapat Sunog-Apog. Pasensya na, hindi ko napindot ang g. Salamat.
October 5th, 2009 at 21:40
i’d be She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb. it’s dark, it’s sad, and it’s about fat people like me. somehow, i find solace in this book.
October 5th, 2009 at 22:04
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
October 5th, 2009 at 23:03
I’ll be Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s one of the true American classics, written in simple, really clear prose. I love most its concept about us having our own Tiffany’s where nothing bad happens. Where everything is beautiful. We could use some of that nowadays.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:16
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Sticky and salty like sweat.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:24
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
The good Sisters have taught me to live life in fear of purgatory and hell and to hope for paradise. But without a book to read is purgatory and hell itself, so if I have to memorize something even if it would be in Italian I would do it. It would already be paradise in itself too. ;-)
October 6th, 2009 at 12:12
oh, I’m so sorry, since the Les miserables has been taken, my alternative is the “A TALE OF TWO CITIES” by Charles Dickens….
“Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend,” observed the Marquis, “will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof,” looking up to it, “shuts out the sky.” These lines emphasizes the social realities which are deeply observed yet intentionally forsaken…
October 6th, 2009 at 14:00
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”
October 6th, 2009 at 17:47
I’ll memorize Martin Amis’ The Information. Deceptively important-sounding, but you’ll laugh a good deal so it’s OK to be have been fooled that it contains any relevant insight to the human condition. LOL
October 6th, 2009 at 18:44
on beauty by Zadie Smith
— catcher in the rye isnt an option…
— somebody already chose kafka on the shore…
— one of the 3 books that hunts me for months after reading it…
October 6th, 2009 at 23:09
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
In a dark and dreary world, feelings of love and adventure would brighten up the day of the young ones.
October 6th, 2009 at 23:29
I’ll be The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
October 6th, 2009 at 23:35
Someone has got to keep tabs on female’s sexuality or else everyone will go crazy. I’ll be Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho!!
October 7th, 2009 at 01:43
“Einstein’s Dreams” by Alan Lightman
October 7th, 2009 at 10:35
I will be Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. A surprisingly easy read, no over-wrought sentences whatsoever, so I won’t have to bust my brain cells memorizing. And yet it’s lovely and spunky and quirky and lonely and, dare i say it, deep. And anyone can read this and appreciate, you don’t have to know snow firsthand to do. After all, we are all outcasts in one way or another.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:44
Well then I’ll go for E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Hiding in a museum always seemed fun. :)
October 7th, 2009 at 15:24
I’d be the under-rated book of C.S. Lewis (arguably his best), “Till We Have Faces.”
October 8th, 2009 at 06:36
I would be “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis — born into a culture of consumption and corruption, occasionally lucid, inexplicably angry at people who can make reservations at hip restaurants and truly meant for Christian Bale.
October 8th, 2009 at 07:25
I’ll be Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” no matter how pre-Apocalyptic the future would be a good personal and military book is a must.
October 8th, 2009 at 17:32
John Lennon’s first book: In His Own Write.
October 9th, 2009 at 09:32
I’d be Anthem by Ayn Rand. I was thinking about being Atlas too but it’s too long and I don’t have a good memory. The setting is similar to Fahrenheit 451 Project where people live in a society where “I” is forbidden and no books were something of the long forgotten past.
I believe this book needs to be preserved cause we are starting to live in a time when individual rights and liberties are sacrificed for the good of the “we”.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:45
I’d like to be “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” but I think the book is less than a hundred pages long, so I’d take on the task of memorizing “T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays (1909-1950)” since the Old Possum poems are already in there. Besides, I think The Waste Land and the Prufrock poems would be appropriate for our doomsday scenario. We need to preserve at least one book of poetry.
October 9th, 2009 at 15:58
I’d love to memorise the Oxford English Dictionary! When my great-grandma’s house burned in 1947, she was only able to save a chest full of clothes and inside was an english dictionary. With that she taught my grandma how to read in english and she grew up to be a lawyer. The world may be in chaos, but precious words will never be forgotten!
October 9th, 2009 at 17:59
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov.
October 9th, 2009 at 18:04
the fountainhead by ayn rand. that’s what i’ll commit to memory.
in a world that rewards the compromise of one’s personal convictions, a story about sticking to one’s personal vision should be told.
i hope to be that voice.
(spotlight on me…wind blowing the hair from my face and swirling my pale pink debbie co gown…while a choir sings in the background…)
October 9th, 2009 at 18:32
gusto kong maging no one belongs here more than you ni miranda july. Title pa lang parang tinatawag na ko. Tapos pag basahin mo yung preview ng book mga short stories pala so ayus ako na ako na naman- pang short-time lang. At isa sa mga kuwento ay tungkol sa isang swimming teacher na nagtuturo ng swimming lessons sa living room niya. Okay, bayaran na yang libro na yan kahit wala ka nang pamasahe pauwi.
At pag binasa mo yung libro hindi pala pa-wierd- maganda talaga. Pang-special nga. Kung anu man yung special dun ay maraming dahilan. Di ko sinasabi sayo na special ako, pero sasabihin mo special nga kung ako ikaw. yun pa lang special na, boring at nakakairita pero special. special spacial special.
October 9th, 2009 at 21:25
I would be The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigaro. The story of Stevens resonates with every Filipino, be a teacher or a domestic helper, who devoted his life to fulfill his duty and responsibility at the expense of his personal happiness. How many teachers or yayas became old maids because of blind devotion to their profession?
The love story of Stevens and Miss Kenton is simply heartbreaking. The ending is indeed devastating! Consider the following passages: “Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day. After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? “……. “But that doesn’t meant to say, of course, there aren’t occasions now and then – extremely desolate occasions – when you think to yourself: What a terrible mistake I’ve made with my life. And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had.”
October 10th, 2009 at 15:33
i am going to be war and peace just to be clear about it. i already how i am going to do it.. be a memory palace like in the enchanhtress of florence. i hope it does not take my whole memory to fit war and peace though because i do love some of my memories.