MEMÓRIA, ACELERAÇÃO E ESQUECIMENTO EM FAHRENHEIT 451 (1953), DE RAY BRADBURY

Abstract

According to the french novelist Jean-Philippe de Tonnac (2010), our civilization has the book as a holy object, because, by performing the function of storing information about historical events and enabling its transmission to future generations, it came to be one of the main vehicles for preserving memory. In Fahenreit 451 (1953), by Ray Bradbury, there is the fictional elaboration of a society that decided to put an end to books, repressing the reading of literary, historical and philosophical works. prohibiting, in addition, activities that demand the use of slow time, such as walking quietly and talking on the balcony, both essential for strengthening affective bonds between the few individuals who resist the current order. Thus, following this thought-provoking narrative, this article aims to: discuss the value of the book, especially the literary work, as a mnemonic object; to ponder over the acceleration and oblivion arising from it as mechanisms of domination; as well as thinking about the role of orality in the preservation of “underground memories” capable of resisting the periods of erasure that are constantly repeated throughout history. To this end, Maurice Halbwachs (2013), Jacques Le Goff (2013), Paolo Rossi (2010), Bauman (2001), Pollak (1989), among others, are used as theoretical support. In this sense, we can understand Bradbury's narrative as an interesting metaphor about the slow, arduous and tireless work of humanity, in its struggle against oblivion, as well as the preponderant place of the literary text in this struggle.