The Whole Book

 329.

We make the obligatory stop for provisions along the route and Preston drops us at the cabin. We have another seventy-two hours of freedom, a situation for which we search for the precise word that means, "non hair on fire mode." Mustang has already authored a syllabus for the unexpected opportunity, and as I stock the refrigerator with our perishable bounty, she begins the oral outline for my consideration.

"I believe that it is better to understand than to memorize," she begins as I examine the ridiculously expensive mushrooms. "I have found, and several studies concur, that once we make the sincere commitment to truly grasp the subject material, a chemical process begins that triggers brain function to optimize detail elements critical towards success."

I glance over the counter at her in the hope of adding to my initial response to her professorial introduction but decide to keep it at 'typical.' "You sound as if a long and boring lecture is about to begin."

"Well, definitely long, but only as boring as we decide to allow, yes?" She says completely devoid of any tone relative to the key of Defensive minor. "What are some tricks you used when faced with similar assignments?"

I place the Black Morels (morchella importuna I recall) gently washed and patted dry, under a checkered tablecloth on the old Frigidaire's grated top shelf. As if propelled by their cousin's more potent magical powers, I see a vivid image of Guy Montag at the critical moment when he decides that some things deserve to be committed to memory, should other forms of preserving societies collected wisdom be unavailable.

"We were taught to break down long texts into manageable chunks, my max being about two pages, double spaced. Accomplishing that, we read aloud to any audience available, or into a mirror if no one could be rented or bribed. Lastly I would go back and highlight the key points of each paragraph and try to find some logical connection to link them thematically into some sort of flowing lyric. Something that I am sure made sense to me alone."

"Excellent, did you get pretty good at it?"

Again I see Bradbury's characters deciding at long last to decide for themselves what is important and what is censorship. Making a point of testing the sharpness of my favorite knife, I dial up the conversational temperature, "Good enough to graduate and rise fairly smoothly through the ranks, but somewhere along the line I realized that the one element missing from the routine was my opinion of it. Once I inserted myself into the equation, even with a simple yea or nay, right or wrong, good or bad, the challenge became more than just memorizing a bunch of words, or even grandiose ideas, it became personal. My spin. Variations on a theme by yours truly. I could add, subtract, modernize, juxtapose, emphasize and most importantly, personalize, to fit my needs and requirements. Risky, yes, but also exhilarating. Like starting a fire."

"They frown on that in law school, you know."

"Yes, but my response to that has always been that is the very reason why we have amendments to the Constitution. Things change. Time marches along. Civilization learns critical and abstract thought. We act independently and resist over-bearing fascist paradigms. We stop burning books and write philosophical essays. We decide not to live in fear."

"Not so far a stretch from Fahrenheit 451 to our current assignment, is it?" She asks.

"We need not to be left alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"

"You memorized that quote, impressive."

"The whole book."