THE HOLOCAUST OF INTELLECT: FAHRENHEIT 451 AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF POSTMODERN GENERATION

Abstract

There is a futuristic world where technology is the king and superficiality is the queen. In this world, fashion resides in the palace and intellect is a fugitive. This is the world of Ray Bradbury’s classic piece of fiction Fahrenheit 451. A dystopian science fiction novel published in 1953 and replete with the metaphors of fire and ignition, Fahrenheit 451 presents an advanced and homogenized generation in which humans have almost become cyborgs and have lost their emotional capacities of empathy, compassion and love. This fragmented generation of Bradbury is very much postmodern in essence as they celebrate this very fragmentation of norms, value systems and even existences. Their emphasis on physical looks, mechanization of life, philosophy of hedonism, advocation of triviality, denial of natural beauty and disregard of past are all postmodern in nature leading them towards the dreaded intellectual deadlock.