The past called. It is not amused.

Re-reading Fahrenheit 451 and They

They, a 1977 dystopian novel by the British novelist Kay Dick, has had something of a revival. Penguin reissued it in 2022 with a slew of new recommendation blurbs (Margaret Atwood, Emily St. John Mandel, Eimear McBride, Carmen Maria Machado) and on first read, the book does resonate today. “They” in the novel are groups of people who don’t say much but follow artists and writers around, go into their homes and steal or damage their work because it is for a variety of undefined reasons unacceptable. Gradually we learn that the artists themselves are eliminated too, depending on the severity of the speech crime. No one knows what exactly is the sin they’re committing, except for the fact that they’re freely painting, sculpting and playing music. The very activity is suspect.