According to NASA, since 1967, scientists have intensively studied the Earth’s future state of habitability. From extensive analysis of the Sun comparted to other similar astrological bodies, the Earth has only three-hundred million years or fewer before becoming inhospitable for life to continue. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Walker’s The Age of Miracles both present futuristic circumstances where society is on the brink of disappearing. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag lives in a society where books are heavily restricted, and people do not think independently or spend time by themselves. Montag works as a fireman who burns books for the Ministry, the government. His faith in his profession and the Ministry’s propagandic hatred for books declines and he turns against his society. Montag aligns with a group of roaming book-intellectuals who plan on rebuilding a new society. In The Age of Miracles, Julia struggles with coming of age while the world around her deteriorates. The whole world panics when scientists announced, “the slowing,” the Earth’s gradual rotational deceleration. At the start of “the slowing,” marital problems build between Julia’s secretive father and ignorant mother. As “the slowing” progressives, the Earth’s movement lessens, and the days elongate. Society is divided up between the majority “real-timers” and the outcast “clock-timers”. Julia loses all the people who were close to her; she reflects on the past and longs that her world will be remembered in the future. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 proposes a more relevant and applicable progressively problematic scenario for our society than does Walker’s The Age of Miracles due to Bradbury’s more realistic depiction of the ominous interaction between societal repression and mindless amusements.
Although climate change and other environmental crises are prevalent in society today, Walker presents a physically impossible and oversimplified condition of the Earth. As it makes one rotation every twenty-four hours, the Earth spins approximately a thousand miles per hour. Julia remarks about “the slowing,” “We didn’t notice it right away. We couldn’t feel it,” that later sends her mother frantically preparing resources for the unknown future (Walker 3). This humanity faces severe environmental issues caused by increased daylight stretches. For an unexplained phenomenon to slow down the Earth’s rotation suddenly seems far-fetched and almost laughable for a scientifically savvy audience. Furthermore, the outcomes of “the slowing” are unexplainable and trivial to caution today’s society. As “the slowing” noticeably develops more, the change in the Earth’s rotation catastrophically affects gravity. Julia records the permanent affects caused by this. “After the slowing, every action required a little more force than it used to. The physics had changed.” (83). Physical actions now take more energy to complete and are notably more difficult. The laws of physics are defied, and science has become counterproductive. As a byproduct, humans physiologically experience more dizziness, pains, and symptoms of “gravity sickness.” Birds inexplicably fall from the sky. “The slowing” withered Earth’s magnetic field and humans are more exposed to the sun’s rays and extreme radiation. The output of “the slowing” remains frivolous and has no aspects or hints of realism. Today’s society will more likely be adversely exacerbated by repressive political structures than a malicious deus ex machina.
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The Ministry’s censorship and suppression of somewhat reflects today’s broadcast of selective information. In Fahrenheit 451, Beatty backs the Ministry’s alienation of books by explaining to Montag the idea of pleasing everyone. “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book.” (Bradbury 57) For a long period of time, Beatty remembers the conflicts and discord books initiated. He reasons everyone needs to be satisfied and that the reading contained inside of books cannot accomplish this. Likewise in today’s society, the widespread “political correctness” culture attempts to make everyone content. Like the restrictions of books, it hinders our development as a society by overprioritizing happiness and esteem.
If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. … Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. (58)
Beatty ultimately explains the Ministry’s undisputed power stems from society’s ignorance. The Ministry obscure the people from seeing their failings by distracting them with meaningless facts. In turn, the people believe they are advocating for a better world when in truth, they are blindly thinking without any real motive. In the new Anti-Information Age, misinformation boarding on censorship has become a growing problem in the United States. Evidence by schools’ Banned Books lists, authorities may suppress publications and philosophies that they consider encourage uncivil behavior. The US government and the Ministry withhold specific information in order to exert dominant control over the populace. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury warns of the possible harm to intelligence and critical thinking by giving the government too much power over information.
With the new digital age and people pushing for technology advancement, Bradbury cautions of the harmful effects of the frequent practice of mindless activities. Every home contains exorbitant interactive televisions, which take up entire walls of a house known as “parlor walls.” Montag has three parlor walls installed with Mildred pestering him for a fourth. The parlor walls display shows with fast-moving colors, massive explosions, and a myriad of senseless babbles to keep the viewer engaged.
“Abruptly the room took off on a rocket flight into the clouds; it plunged into a lime-green sea where blue fish ate red and yellow fish. A minute later, three White Cartoon Clowns chopped off each other’s limbs to the accompaniment of immense incoming tides of laughter. Two minutes more and the room whipped out of town to the jet cars wildly circling an arena, bashing and backing up and bashing each other again. Montag saw a number of bodies fly in the air.” (90)
Upon returning home, Montag watches The White Clown Cartoon with Mildred and her friends. Mildred and her friends intensely engage with the clowns endlessly attacking each other while Montag watches in disgust and confusion. The White Clown serves as society’s cheap amusement and unsophisticated humor. The show airs episodes of clowns who do silly and violent things, such as chop off each other’s limbs. The clowns have nurtured society’s frivolous superficial attitude towards violence and normalized perpetual warfare. With an ongoing war and jet planes flying across the city repeatedly, the women discuss their family’s involvement as if it is a ordinary civic job. The husbands fight on the weekdays and return on the weekends, only to go back to the battlefield on Monday. Society views acts such as driving racecars unreasonably fast on local roads, burning houses, and killing people as entertainment. With today’s vast array of electronic devices, scientists and pediatricians worry about the negative effects technology and video games can cause for children. Countless studies have shown that too much screen time aggravate obesity, sleep problems, behavioral issues, and childhood retrogression. All of the negative stigmas around phones and electronics have forced some of the biggest technological companies, such as Apple, to introduce a screen time timer to its products. Ultimately, Bradbury illustrates the increasingly problematic technology overuse with Montag’s society’s enjoyment of mindless activities.
In both Fahrenheit 451 and The Age of Miracles, Bradbury and Walker both warn of the future nature of however, Fahrenheit 451 more realistically treats problems suited pertinent to political and cultural issues. The Age of Miracles presents a scientific dystopian world forced by an unexpected slowing of the Earth. This premiere can be better treated as a science fantasy book than an allegorical caution. Fahrenheit 451 introduces a futuristic American world where society becomes increasingly dysfunctional due to the restrictions put on books. The subsequent societal regression and mindless activities demonstrated in Fahrenheit 451 may closely pertain to issues prevalent in today’s society. Like any warning, its helpfulness and effect will only come from whether heeded or not.
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