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On Famous Quotes
April 24th, 2021
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I have to admit that many of the philosophers, thinkers, and writers of books
that have stood the test of time, I only know through the famous quotes
they've left behind. I call that my "motivational poster knowledge" of them.
How many people quote Plato or Aristotle, Kant or Kierkegaard, Thoreau or
Ruskin, Orwell or Huxley, without having read their works but cited them
by quotation alone? I have been guilty of this. And have lost all nuance and
the context from which they came in the process.
This hit me like a ton of bricks when reading Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It's
a book most people have heard of and many have quoted as the book about the
burning of books. It gets boiled down to being called a treatise on
censorship. But it's more than just a monograph on the subject.
I read Montag's subway trip and his first meeting with Faber a dozen times
because of how pivotal it is in the book and how insightful it is in general.
When ideas from the mid-20th century relate in such a prescient manner to our
current Internet era, I am immediately drawn to them. I am pulled into a
mindset of self-reflection and thoughts of changing my relationship with the
Internet--to be more diligent and thoughtful--much in the same way Faber
describes as important for books and our relationship to them.
Quotes can also miss the deeper allegories and general symbolism in the book.
Much in the same way fireman can go from putting out fires to the ones who
burn houses and books and start the fires. Warnings and insights about the
problems of their day, when written allegorically and understood by the reader
can lead to making sense of present circumstances from a more careful and
considered perspective. However, any sufficiently complex problems require
some time and careful consideration which simple quotes and immediate response
will not suffice.
When ideas get boiled down too far their meanings are lost--they're burned--
like syrup turned to an inpenetrable rock of sugar. Or like books in a house
doused in kerosene. The immediacy of the feed-driven comment-and-response,
such as the Internet's social media sites, elicits and provokes response
without reflection. Deeper discourse and long-form nuanced ideas are glossed-
over. Books on the subjects being discussed are not needed.
Long form journalism and essays are also interspersed with advertising like
"Denham's Dentifrice", much like Montag's train ride. Sitting down to discuss
these ideas nowadays is equally interrupted by smartphones chiming in their
notifications and message alerts from elsewhere. A train-of-thought becomes
a train-of-stops losing passengers along the way and conversations that
restart having gone nowhere.
At home, the parlour walls are the 10-13" screens carried everywhere from the
kitchen, to living room, to bedroom, and every hallway inbetween. The
senseless stories of the Netflix and Disney dramas turning us into Mildreds.
"To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent
to grading the whole surface of the planet." -- Thoreau (Walden, 1854)
Quotations can be useful as a dash of salt in a larger dish. They can bring
out a flavour. But they cannot replace it. They are a part of the nuance of
flavours that pull us in to a tasty dish. Those who have written them and
shared them likely did so originally to highlight something they related to.
Don't quote nor consume them verbatim but let them draw us in.
I want to avoid becoming a Mildred in this world. I want to live deliberately,
not as a consumer so that corporations may be enriched, caught by hair-spring
triggers of my own traps trying to catch comfort and convenience.
"I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish
to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep
and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as
to put to rout all that was not life..."
