We Don't Need Books

By Aaron Holder (Class of 2017)

“It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books.”

There once was a time I considered myself a well-read individual.  I prided myself in having read the classics, from Bronte and Conrad, to Salinger and Hawthorne.  The bug that was my pride, however, was promptly squashed under college’s heel.  Things I thought I knew about myself--my politics, my theology, what makes me tick--fell away, like sand through the fingers.  

The McConnell Center--for better or worse--is to blame for my metamorphosis into a moral amoeba.  Last semester, we took an in-depth look at The Republic of Plato, The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.  These works came together to create a perfect storm of sorts, which forced me to ask big questions, like:  What is just?  Is liberty better than equality, or vice versa?  And what part of the soul should govern a man?  After much frustration, brooding, tossing and turning, I still can’t say that I’ve come to a definite answer.  The lack of an answer has left me questioning who I am, and what it is I really value and, upon revisiting Ray Bradbury’s prophetic Fahrenheit 451, I think that perhaps I’ve found my answer.

I come from a long line of hard-boiled southern Kentuckians and, admittedly, we are all a bit too stubborn for our own good.  The things we know how to do, we know well, and not one of us likes to stray from the well-trodden path.  I’ve realized, however, that in order to receive an education good-and-proper, you must first learn that you know nothing.  Coming to college and reading things I would never choose to read of my own accord has presented me with quite the challenge.  I realize that what I know isn’t necessarily all true, and that the only way to learn is to wrestle with tough questions.  This way, we may come to a more holistic view of who we are and what we believe.

In Fahrenheit 451, protagonist Guy Montag wrestles with these tough questions in a similar way; he sees that it is no longer practical to simply continue through life half-asleep.  He goes to a reclusive academic--Faber--for aid, asking him for books.  Faber tells him that he doesn’t need books.  He tells Guy that he needs what’s in books--the ideas that stand against the current, that challenge what he’s always known and accepted.  This, I believe, is what every student needs.  The first step on the path to enlightenment rests upon a stepping stone of ignorance.  

Aaron Holder is a freshman McConnell Scholar from Allen County. Holder is studying Political Science.