"So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax
moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from the chemistry of the earth. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality. Do you know the legend of Hercules and Antaeus, the giant wrestler, whose strength was incredible so long as he stood firmly on the earth. But when he was held, rootless, in mid-air, by Hercules, he perished easily. If there isn't something in that legend for us annotations.
This quote is trying to pass across a message that prove hate books now because of fear of knowledge which would lead to the downfall of mankind. It states that people would rather thrive in illusion fantasy by likening it to flowers living on flowers instead knowing the underlying factor behind the existence of the flower. People choosing to see the world the way they want it instead of seeing it the way it is.
