Of Mario Bozzi Trails
Source: Mario Bozzi Trails
Fahrenheit 451 it's a novel Of science fiction of the 1953, written by Ray Bradbury. Set in an unspecified future, a “dystopian” society is described (a completely unpleasant and undesirable place) to read or own books is considered a crime, to counter which a special body was established firefighterscommitted to burn any kind of volume.
The memory ofFahrenheit 451,in particular the film of the same name 1966, directed byFrançois Truffaut, it came to mind on the occasion of the controversy surrounding the participation of the Altaforte Publishing House in the Turin Book Fair, controversy sparked by shouting“Never rub elbows with neo-fascists".
Bradbury's novel deals with the delicate topic of information management and control of the company e – under this particular aspect – deals with the same theme as the equally famous novel by Aldous Huxley The new world, published in 1932. In both novels, people's attention towards the actions of the government is annihilated by the imposition of mass consumption, where the ultimate goal is appearance, protagonism and consumerist satisfaction.
Books are illegal material because society must protect itself from people who might think, instigated precisely by books. The protagonist of Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag, a rebellious firefighter, who saves some volumes from the fire and begins to read them secretly, it is not difficult to assimilate him to Francesco Polacchi, patron of Altaforte (it isn't – after all – a case that the first ONC, Non-Compliant Occupation, created in 2002 in Rome, in via Tiberina, by Gianluca Iannone, it was called CasaMontag).
But what is Altaforte Edizioni? ? An editorial brand, one of many among those born in recent years (among these: Ferrogallico, Passage to the Woods, Eclectic, Seaplane) committed to offering alternative interpretations compared to the approved and politically correct interpretations. For this reason his books must be censored and thrown into a ghetto ?
We are on an exquisitely cultural level. The comparison must be developed on this level. For this reason, the complaint presented by the President of the Piedmont Region and the Mayor of Turin against Polacchi for the crime of apologia for fascism shows all its "structural" weakness. There are some fundamental issues at stake regarding freedom of thought, cultural equality among citizens, the pluralism of ideas, the right to "think". This should be talked about, also in anticipation of similar appointments, for which we hope preventative censorship/exclusion tools will not be put in place.
George Orwell, another author of “dystopian” literature, in1984he wrote: “Orthodoxy consists in not thinking — in not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unawareness”. Certain complaints, certain scandalized positions taken (“Never rub elbows with neo-fascists”) they seem to be in line with Orwellian Orthodoxy and therefore with an idea of ​​single thought, ready for mass media fire, to preconceived exclusion, to the cultural satisfaction denounced by Huxley. We may not like certain positions taken by Francesco Polacchi, but from here to put him in the stocks, in an attempt to “purge” his publishing enterprise, it didn't happen. Unless you want to apply constitutional rights at an alternating pace. To put it – here too – with Orwell deAnimal Farm, someone evidently thinks that - thanks to the anti-fascist license - we are all equal, but there are those who are more equal than others. And then the "non-compliant" books are burned at the stake”.