Fahrenheit 451 ofrece la historia de un sombrío y horroroso futuro. Montag, el protagonista, pertenece a una extraña brigada de bomberos cuya misión, paradójicamente, no es la de sofocar incendios sino la de provocarlos para quemar libros. Porque en el país de Montag está terminantemente prohibido leer. Porque leer obliga a pensar, y en el país de Montag está prohibido pen...moreFahrenheit 451 ofrece la historia de un sombrío y horroroso futuro. Montag, el protagonista, pertenece a una extraña brigada de bomberos cuya misión, paradójicamente, no es la de sofocar incendios sino la de provocarlos para quemar libros. Porque en el país de Montag está terminantemente prohibido leer. Porque leer obliga a pensar, y en el país de Montag está prohibido pensar. Porque leer impide ser ingenuamente feliz, y en el país de Montag hay que ser feliz a la fuerza...
La novela más célebre de Ray Bradbury, maestro de la ficción científica.(less)
Paperback, Best Seller, De bolsillo, 176 pages
Published
January 3rd 2006
by Plaza y Janes
(first published October 1953)
Somehow, I have gotten through life as an English major, book geek, and a science-fiction nerd without ever having read this book. I vaguely remember picking it up in high-school and not getting very far with it. It was an interesting premise, but far too depressing for my tastes at the time.
Fast-forward 15 years later. I just bought a copy the other day to register at BookCrossing for their Banned Books Month release challenge. The ALA celebrates Banned Books Week in September, so o...moreSomehow, I have gotten through life as an English major, book geek, and a science-fiction nerd without ever having read this book. I vaguely remember picking it up in high-school and not getting very far with it. It was an interesting premise, but far too depressing for my tastes at the time.
Fast-forward 15 years later. I just bought a copy the other day to register at BookCrossing for their Banned Books Month release challenge. The ALA celebrates Banned Books Week in September, so one BXer challenged us to wild release books that had at one point or another been banned in this country during the entire month. Fahrenheit 451 fits the bill -- an irony that is not lost on anyone, I trust. (Everyone knows Fahrenheit 451 is about the evils of censorship and banning books, right? The title refers to the temperature at which paper burns.)
I didn't intend to start reading it. I really didn't. Somehow it seduced me into it. I glanced at the first page and before I knew it, it was 1:00 in the morning and I was halfway through with the thing. It's really good! No wonder it's a modern classic. Montag's inner emotional and moral journey from a character who burns books gleefully and with a smile on his face to someone who is willing to risk his career, his marriage, his house, and eventually his life for the sake of books is extremely compelling. That this man, product of a culture that devalues reading and values easy, thoughtless entertainments designed to deaden the mind and prevent serious thought, could come to find literature so essential that he would kill for it...! Something about that really spoke to me.
It raises the question: why? What is it about books, about poetry, about literature that is so essential to us? There is no doubt in my mind that it is essential, if not for all individuals (although I find it hard to imagine life without books, I know there are some people who don't read for pleasure, bizarre as that seems to me), then for society. Why should that be? Books don't contain any hard-and-fast answers to all of life's questions. They might contain great philosophical Truths, but only subjectively so -- there will always be someone who will argue and disagree with whatever someone else says. In fact, as Captain Beatty, the evil fire chief, points out, no two books agree with each other. What one says, another contradicts. So what, then, is their allure? What is it that made Mildred's silly friend start to weep when Montag read the poem "Dover Beach" aloud to her? Where does the power of literature come from?
I think the reason that books are so important to our lives and to the health of our society -- of any society -- is not because they give us answers, but because they make us ask the questions. Books -- good books, the books that stay with you for years after you read them, the books that change your view of the world or your way of thinking -- aren't easy. They aren't facile. They aren't about surface; they're about depth. They are, quite literally, thought-provoking. They require complexity of thought. They require effort on the part of the reader. You get out of a book what you put into the reading of it, and therefore books satisfy in a way that other types of entertainment do not.
And they aren't mass-produced. They are individual, unique, gloriously singular. They are each an island, much-needed refuges from an increasingly homogeneous culture.
I'm glad I read Fahrenheit 451, even if the ending was rather bleak. It challenged me and made me think, stimulated me intellectually. We could all do with a bit of intellectual stimulation now and then; it makes life much more fulfilling.(less)
Oria"It was a pleasure to burn." I have rarely come across books with such a powerful start. That sentence was all I needed to buy that book and...more"It was a pleasure to burn." I have rarely come across books with such a powerful start. That sentence was all I needed to buy that book and start reading it.(less)
Apr 30, 2011 09:37pm
KellyWonderful review. Even more determined as a fellow English major, sci-fi nerd and book geek to finally read this book. It's a GCSE text in the Uk, but...moreWonderful review. Even more determined as a fellow English major, sci-fi nerd and book geek to finally read this book. It's a GCSE text in the Uk, but funnily enough I never got to study it. No matter. I can't wait to read it. anything that reflects on the beauty and importance of literature can only be a good thing. :) Great review!(less)
Jan 24, 2012 08:36am
Farenheit 451 has been analyzed and reinterpreted by every successive generation to change its meaning. This is chiefly because the book is full of assumptions and vague symbolism which can be taken many ways, and rarely does anyone come away from the book with the conclusion the author intended, which would suggest that it is a failed attempt.
Right from the title, we can see the book was rushed and inaccurate, since contemporary sources suggest paper combusts at 450 degrees Celsius,...moreFarenheit 451 has been analyzed and reinterpreted by every successive generation to change its meaning. This is chiefly because the book is full of assumptions and vague symbolism which can be taken many ways, and rarely does anyone come away from the book with the conclusion the author intended, which would suggest that it is a failed attempt.
Right from the title, we can see the book was rushed and inaccurate, since contemporary sources suggest paper combusts at 450 degrees Celsius, which in Farenheit would be more than 800 degrees. The truth is, paper combustion is gradual and dependent on many factors; even if some paper might combust at 451F, his title is at best a gross oversimplification, at worst, simply wrong. Bradbury was more interested in a punchy message than in constructing a thoughtful and accurate argument.
It's not a book about book censorship, but a book about how TV will rot your brain. Bradbury himself has stated this again and again, as evidenced in this article which quotes Bradbury and in videos from Bradbury's own website.
This book falls somewhat short of its satirical mark based on this cranky lawn-loving neighbor's message. Then again, it was written in the course of a few days in one long, uninterrupted slurry (mercifully edited by his publishers, but now available utterly restored). Contains archetypes, misconceptions, and an author surrogate; but can still be seen as a slighting view of authority and power, and of the way people are always willing to deceive themselves.
Unfortunately, Bradbury did not seem to recognize that reading has always been the province of a minority and that television would do little to kill it. More books are written, published, and read today than at any other point in history. Most of them are just redundant filler, but so is 90% of any mass creative output, books, art, movies, or TV, as Sturgeon said. And there's nothing new about that, either: cheap novels have been a joke since the Victorian.
Television is a different medium than books, and has its own strengths and weaknesses. Bradbury's critique of TV--that it will get larger, more pervasive, and become an escape for small minds--is just as true of books. As for television damaging social interaction, who is less culturally aware: the slack-jawed boy watching television or the slack-jawed boy reading one uninspired relic of genre fiction after another? I read a lot of books as a kid and watched a lot of TV, and each medium provided something different. Neither one displaced the other, since reading and watching aren't the same experience.
There is an egalitarian obsession that people are all capable of being informed and intelligent. We now send everyone to college, despite the fact that for most people, college is not a viable or useful route. The same elitism that values degrees values being 'well-read', and since this is the elitism of the current power structure, it is idealized by the less fortunate subcultures. Bradbury became informed not because he read, but by what he read. He could have read a schlocky pop novel every day for life and still been as dull as the Vidscreen zombies he condemns.
He has mistaken the medium for the message, and his is a doubly mixed message, coming from a man who had his own TV show.(less)
AngieHow does a robot cross-dress?
Nov 28, 2011 08:03pm
KeelyIt's refuge in audacity: if a critic is already committed to writing an unsupportable conclusion, adding another impossibility on top of it hardly mak...moreIt's refuge in audacity: if a critic is already committed to writing an unsupportable conclusion, adding another impossibility on top of it hardly makes it any more ridiculous--if you quote enough Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault, you can obfuscate anything.(less)
Nov 29, 2011 11:55am
One day Ray Bradbury received a letter from a student who told him that the edition of his book they were studying that term had 75 acts of censorship in it. Things the publishers thought best to remove.
It prompted this from the author, the coda to a subsequent edition:
“About two years ago, a letter arrived from a solemn young Vassar lady telling me how much she enjoyed reading my experiment in space mythology, The Martian Chronicles.
But, she added, woul
...moreOne day Ray Bradbury received a letter from a student who told him that the edition of his book they were studying that term had 75 acts of censorship in it. Things the publishers thought best to remove.
It prompted this from the author, the coda to a subsequent edition:
“About two years ago, a letter arrived from a solemn young Vassar lady telling me how much she enjoyed reading my experiment in space mythology, The Martian Chronicles.
But, she added, wouldn’t it be a good idea, this late in time, to rewrite the book inserting more women’s characters and roles?
A few years before that I got a certain amount of mail concerning the same Martian book complaining that the blacks in the book were Uncle Toms and why didn’t I “do them over”?
Along about then came a note from a Southern white suggesting that I was prejudiced in favor of the blacks and the entire story should be dropped.
Two weeks ago my mountain of mail delivered forth a pipsqueak mouse of a letter from a well-known publishing house that wanted to reprint my story “The Fog Horn” in a high school reader.
In my story, I had described a lighthouse as having, late at night, an illumination coming from it that was a “God-Light.” Looking up at it from the viewpoint of any sea-creature one would have felt that one was in “the Presence.”
The editors had deleted “God-Light” and “in the Presence.”
Some five years back, the editors of yet another anthology for school readers put together a volume with some 400 (count ‘em) short stories in it. How do you cram 400 short stories by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant, and Bierce, into one book?
Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito–out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron’s mouth twitch–gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer–lost!
Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like–in the finale–Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant’s attention–shot dead.
Do you begin to get the damned and incredible picture?
How did I react to all of the above?
By “firing” the whole lot.
By sending rejection slips to each and every one.
By ticketing the assembly of idiots to the far reaches of hell.
The point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women’s Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.
Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever.
“Shut the door, they’re coming through the window, shut the window, they’re coming through the door,” are the words to an old song. They fit my life0style with newly arriving butcher/censors every month. Only six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony. Judy-Lynn Del Rey, one of the new Ballantine editors, is having the entire book reset and republished this summer with all the damns and hells back in place.
A final test for old Job II here: I sent a play, Leviathan 99, off to a university theater a month ago. My play is based on the “Moby Dick” mythology, dedicated to Melville, and concerns a rocket crew and a blind space captain who venture forth to encounter a Great white Comet and destroy the destroyer. My drama premieres as an opera in Paris this autumn. But, for now, the university wrote back that they hardly dared do my play–it had no women in it! and the ERA ladies on campus would descend with ballbats if the drama department even tried!
Grinding my bicuspids into powder, I suggested that would mean, from now on, no more productions of Boys in the Band (no women), or The Women (no men). Or, counting heads, male and female, a good lot of Shakespeare that would never be seen again, especially if you count lines and find that all the good stuff went to the males!
I wrote back maybe they should do my play one week, and The Women the next. They probably thought I was joking, and I’m not sure that I wasn’t.
For it is a mad world and it will get madder if we allow the minorities, be they dwarf or giant, orangutan or dolphin, nuclear-hear or water-conservationist, pro-computertologist or New-Luddite, simpleton or sage, to interfere with aesthetics. The real world is the playing ground for each and every group, to make or unmake laws. But the tip of the nose of my book or stories or poems is where their rights end and my territorial imperatives begin, run, and rule. If Mormons do not like my plays, let them write their own. If the Irish hate my Dublin stories, let them rent typewriters. If teachers and grammar school editors find my jawbreaker sentences shatter their mushmilk teeth, let them eat stale cake dunked in weak tea of their own ungodly manufacture. If the Chicano intellectuals wish to re-cut my “Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” so it shapes “Zoot,” may the belt unravel and the pants fall.
For, let’s face it, digression is the soul of wit. Take philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton or Hamlet’s father’s ghost and what stays is dry bones. Laurence Sterne said it once: Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine, the life, the soul of reading! Take them out and one cold eternal winter would reign in every page. Restore them to the writer–he steps forth like a bridegroom, bids all-hail, brings in variety and forbids the appetite to fail.
In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book
All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees, hit the showers. It’s my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset I’ve won or lost. At sunrise, I’m out again, giving it the old try.
And no one can help me. Not even you.
It is currently axiomatic of literature that what matters is technique. Maybe characters. That's it. Ray Bradbury writes about ideas. Some time we will think they matter and are worthy of being considered as important as books written in tortured ways for people who think reading should be painful.(less)
It’s time to do it, isn’t it? You know it is. We’ve all done it before, no sense in resisting the temptation to do it yet again. The sun has set, the skies have turned a sensational shade of indigo, the interior lighting is seductively dimmed. The house is otherwise empty, and not expecting additional occupancy any time soon. The blinds are down, curtains drawn tightly. The stereo is playing softly; isn’t that your favorite slow-jam? Of course it is.
Thwart all possible inte...moreIt’s time to do it, isn’t it? You know it is. We’ve all done it before, no sense in resisting the temptation to do it yet again. The sun has set, the skies have turned a sensational shade of indigo, the interior lighting is seductively dimmed. The house is otherwise empty, and not expecting additional occupancy any time soon. The blinds are down, curtains drawn tightly. The stereo is playing softly; isn’t that your favorite slow-jam? Of course it is.
Thwart all possible interruptions; turn off your cell phone and disconnect the house line, only after placing a fraudulent call to the guy manning the nearest tornado alert siren telling him he’s got the night off. Nothing is going to get in your way.
You lay back slowly, hardly able to contain the anxiety of awaiting the pleasures which are soon to commence. Relax. Examine the articles which you’ve assembled to increase the forthcoming flood of sensations; silk boxers and a plush robe for maximum comfort and style, instead of the usual barrage of Coors and Captain, you’re tapping into the reserves of Lindeman’s and Chambord, a fresh pack of Camels. You’ve even put a new dryer sheet in the blow-tube. Give in to any last minute impulses: feel free to slick your hair back, put a foot over that line in the sand you ordinarily wouldn’t cross. Everything is going your way. You’re set.
Slowly place it in your hand, lift it up a little, don’t be afraid to gaze at it with affection and admiration for its worth. It’s quite a marvel, isn’t it. Perhaps the careful application of a gentle caress or a little squeeze before beginning will make all the difference. Feel free to use your non-dominant hand should you get to indulge in this more frequently than most. As a last precaution, double-check that the reduced lighting is ample for your needs, heed your mother’s warning that this can make you go blind.
While still softly cradling the underside, lovingly wrap your thumb around the side and over the top. You’re ready to manhandle it bilaterally now. It responds accordingly, the cover opens smoothly, a sharp intake of breath: Fahrenheit 451 begins.
As strange as it may seem, I don’t think I enjoyed this quite as much as I did on previous reads. Perhaps Bradbury’s classic is getting stale, or maybe I should take my own advice and employ a switch-handed approach next time. What I found to be really unexpected is that this time around I appreciated different aspects of the book than I did previously. On my first few reads of F451 I was naturally consumed (not to mention mortified) by the prospect of Fireman enlisted to seek out and destroy the world of literature my young mind was coming to embrace. Now, nearing the age where I’d always imagined I’d be sent off to the savannah to die alone, I’ve come to realize that while the Fireman aren’t necessary, I’m all for a reduction in the publication of completely pointless, brain-damaging crap. While I don’t fathom I’ll ever be entirely convinced of the heralded merits of ‘Living Green’, I will say that I’ve always considered stock car racing and the release of shitty books to be equally poor usage of natural resources. This is probably because in the elapsed time I’ve read “The Bell Jar” and “Story of the Eye”, which I am sure some people will cherish and find significant, but naturally it’s my taste that ultimately matters. Sarcasm probably doesn’t come across too well without italics.
There was the time I thought maybe Clarisse was the engrossing aspect of the book. That inspirational, blossoming young woman who contrastingly stands out in the nightmarish landscape of Bradbury’s future like a daisy springing from the concrete on Wacker drive in downtown Chicago. In time I’ve come to expect that nothing good will come to these liberated souls, and like the daisy, she is also duly pulverized by oncoming traffic.
Then came the reading where I sought to find significance behind the enigmatic nature of Fire Captain Beatty and the Hound. Beatty, who is the head book-burner capable of quoting from significant works through the ages, the self-hating bibliophile. It almost seems like a gyp that the Captain’s obviously interesting and divergent past isn’t recounted. I also thought maybe there was something more going on behind the cold, lifeless eyes of the Hound; prompted by the hostile (almost precognitive) attitude which it directs at Montag, and the announcement in the book that a Hound was released against the firemen in it’s own precinct. What might have been going on in that nameless Firehouse? Perhaps a whole station of firemen stockpiling, storing, hoarding books, the Hound finally unable to passively stand by and endure this dereliction of duty. Again, I got older and wiser, and realized what was going on here: in Montag’s world, everything has been fireproofed, thus no more need for fire hydrants, thus one upset pooch that’s been holding an aching urination for its entire existence.
Reading F451 now, what I probably liked most was the world and backstory which Bradbury built around Montag’s awakening. Previously, I felt that the story completely revolved around the concept of the Firemen, and that the ridiculous society which spawned such an occupation was mere filler. I’m now leaning the other way, mainly because I agree with a small message which Bradbury buries in the book; that the reason the world ended up this way was because the voice of the minority clusters rose up and was obeyed; as Beatty states “It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick.” In an effort to make sure nobody’s feelings were hurt, anything which offended anyone was destroyed, a pure sign of progress. Yes, sarcasm again.
“I protest, sir! Your book contains a statement in which the narrator derides someone for dancing ‘as if he had two left feet’!” trills the pear-shaped, discontented mother.
“That’s possible.” The pothead author meekly rebuts, trying to recount just what the hell his latest book was even about.
“My son was born with two left feet, and your vile, thoughtless trash insults his very nature,” she continues, “do you have any idea how he will feel should his innocent eyes happen to stray upon your story?”
“Um, I guess he might feel like clumsily side-shuffling over to kick my ass?”
And straight to the incinerator with book and author both.
I sincerely do loathe this pandering to the minority at the expense to the majority, and can only expect the bleakest outcome to follow should we persist in this path. I think about this every time I have to confirm to the ATM machine that I do indeed want my transaction in English, and feel the bile rising up as I try to ignore the Braille beneath each number, seeing as this is a drive-thru machine. You’re not supposed to voice those unpopular opinions though, that’s cruelty, probably prosecutable these days. I envision a future in which the only person you can beat the shit out of without it being recorded as a ‘hate crime’ is a clone of yourself.
It’s probably me just getting old and crotchety, but I now feel like I can better appreciate Bradbury’s dreary imaginings. The pace of life sped up beyond reason, the incessant babble pouring from the morons Mildred associates with via the wallscreens, espousing their inane thoughts on voting and child-rearing, and all the while, the few non-mutants simply falling into lockstep with this insanity, barely raising their voices to call for a cessation of the madness. I finally see F451 as something beyond a statement on censorship, I see it as an indictment of the people we’re allowing ourselves to become.
MalyanahYour first four paragraph is really long which I don't really get the connection of this book and your story. Overall, I agreed with everything that y...moreYour first four paragraph is really long which I don't really get the connection of this book and your story. Overall, I agreed with everything that you said :)(less)
Feb 19, 2010 02:27am
LausºHi Cris ... contrary to the previous comment ... I loved the first four paragraphs, and the following also. Thanks for the review!
Nov 06, 2010 03:54pm
Good writing from a very skilled writer Bradbury, the plot and characters all done well. He writes about an era where firemen create fires to burn books, one fireman decides to see what all the fuss is about and one day keeps one book for himself. This sets himself on a deadly path of self-discovery that turns him into the hunted. His life turns upside down, eventually he meets a group of people who have memorized and preserved books to memory, this society wanted to keep books of the past...more Good writing from a very skilled writer Bradbury, the plot and characters all done well. He writes about an era where firemen create fires to burn books, one fireman decides to see what all the fuss is about and one day keeps one book for himself. This sets himself on a deadly path of self-discovery that turns him into the hunted. His life turns upside down, eventually he meets a group of people who have memorized and preserved books to memory, this society wanted to keep books of the past in hope of a new generation and society to come and benefit from the knowledge. This story is in the same sort of vein as 1984 and i rate very highly and recommend. Bradbury portrays a dystopian future that could on day come about, start making those panic rooms!
Bradbury's face is in there, from one of his books..
so i decided that this is the summer i read all the books i "should" have read by now- all the classics i have not gotten around to. this was, oddly, sparked by that asshole that said to alyssa "this is why small bookstores are better - no one in big bookstores knows anything about books". which is, of course, inaccurate and ridiculous - poor alyssa is a nineteen year old girl who has not read any philip roth, and wasnt able to recommend a title to the (fifty year old) man bu...moreso i decided that this is the summer i read all the books i "should" have read by now- all the classics i have not gotten around to. this was, oddly, sparked by that asshole that said to alyssa "this is why small bookstores are better - no one in big bookstores knows anything about books". which is, of course, inaccurate and ridiculous - poor alyssa is a nineteen year old girl who has not read any philip roth, and wasnt able to recommend a title to the (fifty year old) man but has probably read more books than most people you will pass on the street today. (unless you live on bookland ave) and i love small bookstores, but that is not the point. another thing that is not the point is that there are other people in the store besides the nineteen year old girl who is really not the target audience for philip roth, and between tom and greg alone, all the philip roth books have been read. so i just started thinking about all the books i havent read that are canonical (not philip roth - ive read four and its plenty) but, say, fahrenheit 451. so long review short, i read this yesterday. and its pretty much what i expected. even if you havent read it, you know what it is about, and i think it makes important points, but it just wont make my all-time-favorite list. but im glad i read it. his afterword is very good - i think i may have liked it more than the novel itself. so.(less)
Believe me, I'm not the kind of guy who gushes over classics simply by virtue of the fact that they are classics, but this one was worth all the legend that it carries with it. I'm glad I never had to read this book in highschool. First of all, we would have ruined this truly awesome story by overanalyzing every mundane literary aspect, detail and device. Second, the story is SO much more profound in the year 2008 at the age of 30 than it could have been at 17 in 1995.
I always t...moreBelieve me, I'm not the kind of guy who gushes over classics simply by virtue of the fact that they are classics, but this one was worth all the legend that it carries with it. I'm glad I never had to read this book in highschool. First of all, we would have ruined this truly awesome story by overanalyzing every mundane literary aspect, detail and device. Second, the story is SO much more profound in the year 2008 at the age of 30 than it could have been at 17 in 1995.
I always thought this was a book about the evils of government and how the folks in charge will try to restrict thought. After all, as the title of the book indicates, this is that story about "burning books." But Bradbury goes way deeper than some mere indictment of fascism. Taking place in the future, people of society have withdrawn from each other, focusing all their attention on mindless entertainment in the form of giant TV rooms and earphones. Books in this society are banned and "firemen" are put to work burning down the houses of anyone caught in possession of them. But as one character points out, government doesn't do anything that the people aren't already calling for and this assault on books is really just the natural byproduct of a society full of self-absorbed people who are pulling away more and more from any kind of thought deeper than what their television asks of them.
Reading this book in a year where reality TV, a thousand different video game consoles and half a billion mindless internet sites provide a good chunk of our mental stimulation, and where people routinely drown the world and everyone in it out via their iPod headphones, it's eerie just how prophetic this story is... considering it was released in the 1950's.
But this book isn't merely some kind of morality play. The story itself follows the transition of Guy Montag, from a book-leery, burn-happy "fireman" into a man who is on the run for not only possessing books, but killing a fellow fireman to protect them. There's action. There's intrigue. Ther's violence. There's character development. There's a story that you can actually follow and stay interested in. There's one particularly vivid and chilling description of a woman's final moment of life before a nuclear bomb goes off over her head. And yes, woven seamlessly into the exciting narrative are plenty of ideas to ponder regarding our direction as a society and the danger of never pursuing knowledge deeper than who got booted off 'Big Brother'.(less)
Have you ever watched the jet cars race on the boulevard?...I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly...If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! He'd say, that’s grass! A pink blur! That’s a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house...moreone of my top 5 favorites of all time.
Favorite Quotes
Have you ever watched the jet cars race on the boulevard?...I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly...If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! He'd say, that’s grass! A pink blur! That’s a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.
...The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.
And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands? He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.
...Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn cutter might as well just not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.
We’ll go on the river...or we’ll go that way. Or we’ll walk the highways now. And we’ll have time to put things into ourselves. And someday, after it sets into us a long time, it’ll come out her hands and our mouths. And a lot of it will be wrong, but just enough of it will be right. We’ll just start walking around today and see the world and the way the world really looks. I want to see everything now. And while none of it will be me when it goes in, after awhile it’ll gather together inside and it’ll be me. Look at the world out there. My God, look at it out there, outside me, out there beyond my face, and the only way to really touch it is to put it where it’s finally me, where it’s in the blood, where it pumps around a thousand times ten thousand a day. I get a hold of it so it will never run off. I’ll hold on to the world tight someday. I’ve got one finger on it now. That’s a beginning.(less)
Guy Montag, the book-burning fireman from Farenheit 451 is a dystopian Jerry Maguire of sorts. After years of burning books and living with an overly-medicated wife in a society that focuses on distraction, entertainment, and "happiness", he doesn't write a mission statement...he decides to start reading banned books on his search for something *real*.
Bradbury claims that it's not about censorship here. Rather, it's about a society that asks "how" over "why...moreGuy Montag, the book-burning fireman from Farenheit 451 is a dystopian Jerry Maguire of sorts. After years of burning books and living with an overly-medicated wife in a society that focuses on distraction, entertainment, and "happiness", he doesn't write a mission statement...he decides to start reading banned books on his search for something *real*.
Bradbury claims that it's not about censorship here. Rather, it's about a society that asks "how" over "why"...that would rather watch mindless, chattering TV characters broadcast over three walls of their living room than read from Shakespeare, Whitman, or The Old Testament. The people in his world use radio broadcasting earplugs to keep them tuned into trivial noise rather than have to think about the big issues at hand...war, the value of a life, quality relationships, art, nature. A cautionary tale.
(less)
HaleiHere is some fun trivia: A man who worked at Sony invented the walkman after having read this book! ITs sort of sad and ironic really. Goes to show...moreHere is some fun trivia: A man who worked at Sony invented the walkman after having read this book! ITs sort of sad and ironic really. Goes to show you cannot controle how people might use your ideas once you've let them out.(less)
Feb 07, 2010 09:21pm
AlisonGood point--we don't have to burn the books anymore. They're still here, but people have become bored with them. They're not fast enough and loud en...moreGood point--we don't have to burn the books anymore. They're still here, but people have become bored with them. They're not fast enough and loud enough.
Yes, Halei...especially when there is money to be made from those ideas!(less)
Jun 13, 2010 01:48am
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.One of the classics. First of all, I had heard from a source or two that this book is a dystopian novel prior to reading it, and I wish to stop this here: this book, as Bradbury himself says, is about censorship and book-banning. It has slightly dystopian elements, but it is far from that. A primary part of a dystopian novel is a certain social order or hierarchy whereby one groups tries to maintain order. This is not apparent in 451 - the only kind of social groups one learned about is the ...moreOne of the classics. First of all, I had heard from a source or two that this book is a dystopian novel prior to reading it, and I wish to stop this here: this book, as Bradbury himself says, is about censorship and book-banning. It has slightly dystopian elements, but it is far from that. A primary part of a dystopian novel is a certain social order or hierarchy whereby one groups tries to maintain order. This is not apparent in 451 - the only kind of social groups one learned about is the firemen, whom have no special ranking, and book-readers, whom there is no discrimination about, so anyone, even, one would presume, a high-ranking government official.
The only reason this novel did not receive a five from me is because it does not pick up until the second part. Part one essentially sets up the story and lays the groundwork for all of the action that is to follow. Although some would say that Guy's conversations with Clarisse are the most important part of the part one, possibly even the book, I put higher importance to his discourse with Captain Beatty about there society came to be the way it is. It has shaped my views on censorship more than any other part in this book or anything elsewhere, because it's true. I can see it in my day. I do not know if Bradbury was making a prediction or looking around his world, but this book speaks to me on that level. The minorities must not be upset at risk of upsetting them. one must censor words out of books for children lest there simple minds become oh so corrupt!
The book is about the characters. Not their environment or anything like that, but just who each person is as an individual. First you have Guy, whom is struggling to accept the fact that books must be burned, even though so many people want to possess and read them. As the main character he obviously changes as the story progresses - going from someone who is weary of even hiding a book in his house to going on the wrong for killing a fire chief. Then there is the fire chief, Captain Beatty, whom is supposed to be the embodiment of the antagonist in the book - censorship. While he does fill this role quite well, I think there's more to him than that. He is Guy's pusher; if it weren't for Beatty being the type of scary and powerful man he is, Guy would never have been able to work up know just how much gutso he needed to achieve. Next there is Mildred, or 'Millie,' whom is the wife of Guy, even though it's clear that the two have no physical passion. She spends her time with the 'family' that comes on the wall-TVs, pretty much forgetting about Guy except that he is occasionally in the same house as her. She kind of embodies one side of the internal conflict with Guy; being passive to the world around you, accepting everything as is, being happy with the mindless drivel the states gives you, and not trying to upset the balance; this becomes even clearer with the fact that they live together and are separated by twin beds. Next is Faber, the old English professor who helps Guy understand the beauty of books and the world they used to be accepted in. Opposite of Mildred, Faber is the side of the internal conflict within Guy that wants to change the world, but doesn't know how, is afraid to step out of their boundaries, and has the passion for books. This is symbolized by Faber being able to speak to Guy for a while because of an earpiece (akin to a conscience) and Faber not comfortable with even stepping out of his house. Lastly there is Clarisse, the little girl who reveals Guy to the world he missed out on, one where cars don't have to go 55mph, one where people sat outside and talked and thought, one where people read books without having their homes burnt down. She appears very peculiar to Guy, but by the end of the novel, she seems normal, and he starts to feel her presence even though she was killed in a car accident.
I think the afterword and coda that were in my edition need mentioning, too. The afterword describes a play where where they gave a bit of a spin to Beatty. In the play, he has a library of books, one which he never touches. He most likely has every piece of classical literature in there, but everyday just shrugs it off. He describes his childhood as one obsessed by books, but once his world started to fall apart, he found that those that he most cherished were not helping at all, they were just offering false promises - which is what prompted him to become a fireman. I think this would have been neat to see in the novel, but Bradbury said he wanted to keep the book exactly how it was when he published it in 1953.
As for the coda, it is basically Bradbury ranting about censorship. He shares a couple of stories that reveal how censoring people can be - even a story about how 451 had been slowly censored over the thirty years since its first publication! If I could, I'd run around repeating the words to everyone.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.I have technically read this, but it was forced in the 10th grade, and remember nothing. So adding it to the list.
After reading this, there are bits that sounded kinda familiar, but overall I think I managed to not really "read" this in school. I think they should never force you to read any specific book in school, as it more often than not just makes you hate it on principle. But on to my review...
This book actually led to an hour long phone conversation wi...moreI have technically read this, but it was forced in the 10th grade, and remember nothing. So adding it to the list.
After reading this, there are bits that sounded kinda familiar, but overall I think I managed to not really "read" this in school. I think they should never force you to read any specific book in school, as it more often than not just makes you hate it on principle. But on to my review...
This book actually led to an hour long phone conversation with my mom (a sci-fi fan, Ray Bradbury fan, and just an intellectual in general) before I was even done. I stuck lots of little sticky notes (a la my mother) making references to modern society. Even though it's a sci-fi book, because it was written 55 years ago, I anticipated at least some of the themes being dated. But I am disturbed that his social commentary in 1953 is still very much a social commentary on 2008.
I found what I consider to be direct references to ipods, Wikipedia, the Never ending movie quiz on Facebook, Who wants to be a millionaire, giant wide screen/flat screen/hi-def TVs, and Barack Obama. I just skimmed an article the other day about the overuse of c-sections, and there was even a mention of that (like why would you do it any other way). The idea of children being in school more days than not, and on the not days, basically plunked in front of the TV. People filling their lives with fluff, never having a spare minute, yet never doing anything that matters. I'm disturbed by the fact that in at least the last 55 years, nothing seems to have changed, we don't appear to have learned anything. Much like the point at the end of the book. We are a race of phoenixes. Stupidly driving ourselves into the ground, destroying ourselves (directly or indirectly), rising up, only to do it all over again. This isn't news, in one sense, but for some reason, the 55 years is what's bothering me. This book was possibly meant to be a warning (I have not yet read the introduction, as I thought I should wait until after), but we seem to have fallen into the story like it was a prophecy.
Ok, I know I'm all getting "philosophical," though I use the word cautiously. I guess if I were dumber, I would be more like Millie, and think the book was crap, and the warning was crap. So the fact that I don't makes me feel like there is some hope for me. Even just to remind me every week to read the news magazine that is delivered to my door, rather than seeking out supermarket tabloid trash as a way of making myself falsely happy and oblivious.
If you haven't read this book, or did in school like I did and don't remember it, I would definately recommend it.(less)
Few appreciate irony as much as I do, so understand that I understand this review. The message of this book is decent: knowledge should not be censored. However, the rest of the book is utter shit. I found myself actually screaming at several points as Bradbury spent minutes and dozens of metaphors and allusions referring to one insignificant detail of the plot. It is too damn flowery to be understandable by anyone! In other words, an English teacher's dream. In addition, the story was about the...moreFew appreciate irony as much as I do, so understand that I understand this review. The message of this book is decent: knowledge should not be censored. However, the rest of the book is utter shit. I found myself actually screaming at several points as Bradbury spent minutes and dozens of metaphors and allusions referring to one insignificant detail of the plot. It is too damn flowery to be understandable by anyone! In other words, an English teacher's dream. In addition, the story was about the message not the story in and of itself. Those of you who know me understand that this is that I detest most about classics, tied with how everyone reveres them without reading them.
The Coda and Afterword just add to the confuse making me confused on whether Bradbury is a very hateful man or just a hypocrite. The main plot of the novel itself is that the majority rule canceled out intellectualism while in the Coda (maybe Afterword, I don't remember which was which) Bradbury blasts minorities (all, including racial, religious, etc.) for creating an overly sensitive society. Oddly enough, his heroes are the minority. Ha. Furthermore, the Coda is a hefty "Fuck you" to anyone that wants to critique his work in any way not positive. Therefore, I feel obliged to respond in turn: "Fuck you, Ray Bradbury. Your writing style is shit and I won't force it on my worst enemy." Harsh, I know, but true. If you do need to read this book, I suggest a Cliff Notes version as long as you can appreciate that irony.(less)
dan@Renee Of course, the dissonance in art is incredible. Take film, for example. Why is it that the most widely acclaimed films of the past twenty years...more@Renee Of course, the dissonance in art is incredible. Take film, for example. Why is it that the most widely acclaimed films of the past twenty years are full of profanity? (Pulp Fiction, anyone?)(less)
Nov 22, 2011 03:41pm
Renee@dan I must say though, "the most widely acclaimed films" don't always make it to my favorites list. Sure, they are the films on every perso...more@dan I must say though, "the most widely acclaimed films" don't always make it to my favorites list. Sure, they are the films on every person's bucket list but I much rather sit down and watch "Lance Armstrong!" be yelled out in A Good Year. To not digress, profanity may be so strong because it has become a language in itself. There are so many connotations by these words that can be used to show, for example, lack of knowledge, melancholy, etc. To not use it is to ignore the fact that humanity is... wild to say the least.(less)
Nov 22, 2011 08:56pm
Im very confused about the obligations of a fireman. It feels as though helping people is not my job anymore. The only thing this city seems to worry about is the situation dealing with books and literature. Our job know is to burn any type of writing found,and I do not believe in what we are...moreLindsay Jones
Ms.Kuhn
October 7,2007
Hour 6
Interview with Guy Montag
1. How do you feel about your job as a fireman?
Im very confused about the obligations of a fireman. It feels as though helping people is not my job anymore. The only thing this city seems to worry about is the situation dealing with books and literature. Our job know is to burn any type of writing found,and I do not believe in what we are doing.
2. According to the First Amendment, it states that citizens are entitled to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Do you feel that this gives the Government the right to be burning anything written?
Absolutly not, obviously no one has taken into account the meaning of this Amendment. In other words people can express themselves in anyway including reading and writing. The government has no right to be ordering fire men to be burning every book found.
3. I understand that your wife, Mildrerd, does not share your belief with this issue. Does your wifes lack of support bother you?
Unfortunatley, very much so. I love my wife dearly, but sometimes I become frustrated and overwelmed by her lack of support. I know feel very independent sence I have began trying to overthrow the status quo.
4. When you say overthrow the status quo, What do you mean by this?
I went to visit my old professor Faber who i believed could help me overcome this issue. He has helped me with my reading, and we have decided to read previous books and plant them in the homes of firemen. We hope that this will send a message saying that books are not a danger, only an opinion, and not to be fround upon.
5. How are you planning on reproducing any books?
Professor Faber and I have contacted a printer who has agreed to help us re-publish written books.
6. What reaction do you think society will take upon your actions?
I know the ratio of people for burning books to keeping books is much greater, but I feel that my actions will cause the people to think more on this issue. When they see firemen with the same books found in their house's as the ones they are burning, it will hopefully change their view on the situation.
7. What influenced you to go against society on this issue?
One night I responded to an alarm telling me to the firemen in my station about an old woman haveing a stash of hidden literature in her house. We were to proceed to her house and destroy any literature found. The woman shocked us by deciding to be burned alive with her literature rather than live with out it. Her pride enspired me to be a leader and not to jump on the bandwagon.
8. What were the other firemens thoughts towards her actions?
We were all suprized by her choice, although the other firemen thought differently than I. They were thinking about their jobs,families, and why anyone would die over a couple books. Very few stood up for what they beleived in, but this women was unique.
9. Exactly why are these books being burned?
Some opinions that were written in books were offending certain people. Writers then began trying to avoid offending anyone, and books began sounding alike. Society decided to burn books rather than allowing conflicting opinions.
10. What advice would you give to the world about the situation you are dealing with?
I would tell the world to have their own belief's, and not allow anyone to make themselves think differently. If we all can take a stand and fight for what is right than we expect a brighter future.(less)
Ray Bradbury has never sat comfortably in the world of literature, nor with me; considered a "genre writer" by some and meant as an insult, a "serious writer" by others and meant as a compliment, it seems that I am always going back and forth about his merits in my head too, especially the farther away we get from many of the books' original publication dates. That said, how can you not love Fahrenheit 451, a virtual blueprint for the Cautionary Science Fiction Tale with Mode...moreRay Bradbury has never sat comfortably in the world of literature, nor with me; considered a "genre writer" by some and meant as an insult, a "serious writer" by others and meant as a compliment, it seems that I am always going back and forth about his merits in my head too, especially the farther away we get from many of the books' original publication dates. That said, how can you not love Fahrenheit 451, a virtual blueprint for the Cautionary Science Fiction Tale with Modern Political Overtones? Boldly envisioning a future where the general populace is hooked on mindless television, Bradbury subverts our modern "fire department" to one now in charge of starting fires, in this case the various paperback books occasionally found in people's homes that are now illegal. It's clunky, yes, a little pat now as well; but it's a very important book from a historical standpoint, not to mention still a great little story (not to mention the inspiration for one of François Truffaut's best films).(less)
I'm always amazed when speculative fiction stands the test of time. In 1953, Bradbury created a world where:
-people are so obsessed with TV that socializing is getting together and watching your favorite show; it's all anyone talks about anymore (Bachelor parties anyone?)
-characters on shows are your family, more real to you than your own family (I think this mentality started with Friends)
-people watch reality shows and police chases like a drug
-kids are so desensitized ...moreI'm always amazed when speculative fiction stands the test of time. In 1953, Bradbury created a world where:
-people are so obsessed with TV that socializing is getting together and watching your favorite show; it's all anyone talks about anymore (Bachelor parties anyone?)
-characters on shows are your family, more real to you than your own family (I think this mentality started with Friends)
-people watch reality shows and police chases like a drug
-kids are so desensitized by what they see on TV that vehicular manslaughter is a popular past time (okay we haven't gone that far, but we are desensitized and drawn to crashes on the side of the road)
-everyone drives at alarming speeds without seeing the world around them or thinking of the consequences if they crashed or hit anyone
-in his go, go, go society, nobody can be bothered to stop and think, to stop and see the world, to interact with people
-houses aren't build with porches any longer because nobody sits around and talks anymore
-advertisement jingles are fed to people everywhere so much so that it prevents anyone from thinking beyond them
-people are too impatient and disinterested in real knowledge and need things dumbed down for them (the kind of information you could get from a quick twitter; look at the difference in literature from the classics that teens can't even get through these days and modern literature where short, choppy, fragmented sentences are a must)
-the voice of minorities is strongest: political correctness (though the term and its way as social thinking didn't come about until the 1990s) is what spears people to get rid of books with portrayals of history that offend them as a minority (read reviews for Gone With the Wind; that book would never be allowed to be published now because of its real portrayal of the South during the Civil War)
-his society is so high on instant gratification and a sense of well being that they can't be bothered with guilt, remorse, morality, other people, anything that disrupts their mind-numbing, thinkless state of happiness
-TV is a babysitter for parents too busy and self-absorbed to be bothered with their own children (started with Sesame Street)
-families aren't important anymore nor is having children; people are just too preoccupied to be bothered with something that disrupts their lives that are busy, busy, busy about nothing
Bradbury's book has a definite 1950s feel to it, but the intrinsic message/warning in his society is more relevant today that it has ever been. It's scary how much he got right.(less)
I heard that this was a great book, and I really wanted to like it. The title and the quips on the back cover caught my interest. Guy Montag is a fireman, but the job is flipped. Instead of putting out fires, he is creating them, and he likes it a lot. The first sentence, "It was a pleasure to burn", and the following description after, had me convinced that I would enjoy the book. Not only that, New York Times professes that the book is "frightening in its implications". Wit...moreI heard that this was a great book, and I really wanted to like it. The title and the quips on the back cover caught my interest. Guy Montag is a fireman, but the job is flipped. Instead of putting out fires, he is creating them, and he likes it a lot. The first sentence, "It was a pleasure to burn", and the following description after, had me convinced that I would enjoy the book. Not only that, New York Times professes that the book is "frightening in its implications". With all that buildup and such a dramatic summary on the back, I was hoping that the book would make me think. Perhaps it would be a dark book, morbid, even offensive. It didn't deliver any of that, but that's not the problem; I don't judge a book based on whether or not it follows my preconceptions. It could have been a perfectly good book without any of that.
Maybe the writing style just didn't suit me. I was hoping that the book would be vivid, and one would expect that a book with so many descriptions and metaphors would be vivid. Nope, not for me. Everything is blurry. The people feel one dimensional, with the exception of Montag himself. The intended message feels flat. So, book censorship is bad, tv is bad. What am I supposed to think about it?
My real problem is that I don't feel anything when I was reading Fahrenheit 451, except maybe frustration. Things like a woman burning with her books should make me feel something like horror or sadness. The book doesn't have any effect on me because the metaphors and flowery descriptions are so distracting. Half the time I feel that they don't contribute anything, and my mind automatically skips over them along with some potentially important material. Then I'll try to read it again, but nothing is retained except for bits of flowery fluff. The writing in the entire book is disjointed and strange, and that should have been fine, because such a style has potential for creating a disturbing, off feeling; that would fit a dystopian book. Instead, I feel uncomfortably distanced.
Is there something I am missing about the book? Is there some profound message mired in all the purple prose? Go ahead and try to enlighten me. Who knows, maybe I'll be convinced by someone's argument.(less)
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury has created a world that chillingly seems to reflect our present and near future. In this upside down dystopia, firemen burn books, women congregate with their fake wall (television) families, youth engage in high speed car chases, killing themselves and others, and products are promoted on 200 ft billboards, and hawked by Jesus Christ. In this world where supposedly everyone has everything one wants, no one is truly happy, no one loves anyone, and unhappy people ...moreIn Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury has created a world that chillingly seems to reflect our present and near future. In this upside down dystopia, firemen burn books, women congregate with their fake wall (television) families, youth engage in high speed car chases, killing themselves and others, and products are promoted on 200 ft billboards, and hawked by Jesus Christ. In this world where supposedly everyone has everything one wants, no one is truly happy, no one loves anyone, and unhappy people overdose on drugs. No one slows down to smell the flowers, taste the rain, sit by a fire, talk with friends, or just sit and think. No one cares that that the world seems to have been at war for as long as anyone can remember, with fighter jets streaking above their homes everyday. After all, no one has to sacrifice anything; its always someone else's spouse or child that dies.
Guy Montag was a faithful citizen of this world, satisfied with his job of burning books, until he has a chance encounter with his new neighbor, a strange, precocious 16 year old who is wise beyond her years. Clarisse McClellan changes his views of the world dramatically with her strange habits of tasting the rain, gazing at the moon, and asking pointed questions as to why he became a fireman, whether he loves anyone or whether he is happy. An awakened, transformed Montag, after failing to impress and change his shallow and depressed wife and others around him with his new-found wisdom, is discovered, hunted, and is forced to flee the city. He joins a vagabond group of outlaw-professors, who plan to restore the world by imparting the wisdom they have gained by memorizing books.
This is the best novel depicting our future world that I have read. Other books, like Brave New World present a frightening, realistic future, but have poor plot and characterization. On the other hand, books such as 1984 and Animal Farm are thrilling and well told, but really do not reflect our future very well. FAHRENHEIT 451 does both, and does so brilliantly. Apart from depicting a realistic and scary future, Bradbury writes a tight, exciting plot packed with suspense, including fires, chases, murder, suicides, and nuclear war. I could scarcely put the book down, wondering what Montag was going to do next. Although it is but a short story, the characters, including Montag, his shallow but deeply depressed wife Millie, the youthful but insightful Clarisse, the cowardly but wise Faber, and the disillusioned arrogant bully Beatty are engaging and fully realized.(less)
Guy Montag is a character I can relate to in a world where all my nightmares are realized. This is a powerful prophetic tale that can be easily read in one night. There is no reason not to pick this up and digest it. Some of the things in this novel don't seem so unnatural, but we must remember that when Bradbury wrote it wall-sized TV's and recklessly fast and careless teenagers weren't so commonplace. Maybe we haven't resorted to burning books, but perhaps that isn't how we lose them. Maybe we...moreGuy Montag is a character I can relate to in a world where all my nightmares are realized. This is a powerful prophetic tale that can be easily read in one night. There is no reason not to pick this up and digest it. Some of the things in this novel don't seem so unnatural, but we must remember that when Bradbury wrote it wall-sized TV's and recklessly fast and careless teenagers weren't so commonplace. Maybe we haven't resorted to burning books, but perhaps that isn't how we lose them. Maybe we just stop reading and writing them. I hate to think of a future so preoccupied with the quickest, easiest high that we lose ourselves.(less)
Dejé de leer porque leer me alejó de las personas que amo. Me deshice de todos mis libros porque ellos me robaron mucho tiempo al lado de las personas más valiosas. Dejé de leer, porque a medida que veía escenarios, personas, comportamientos, atmósferas, relaciones, etcétera; impresas en las páginas de los libros, comencé a tomarlas como alternativas de vida, como comportamientos que debieran ser socialmente aceptados o asimilados a la vida cotidiana, es decir: perdí la noción de diferenciar ent...moreDejé de leer porque leer me alejó de las personas que amo. Me deshice de todos mis libros porque ellos me robaron mucho tiempo al lado de las personas más valiosas. Dejé de leer, porque a medida que veía escenarios, personas, comportamientos, atmósferas, relaciones, etcétera; impresas en las páginas de los libros, comencé a tomarlas como alternativas de vida, como comportamientos que debieran ser socialmente aceptados o asimilados a la vida cotidiana, es decir: perdí la noción de diferenciar entre lo 'real' y lo 'imaginario'. Antes de dejar de leer comenzaba ya a blandir el argumento de que la ficción es tanto o más real y verdadera que la historia en sí. Que la ficción puede ser, más que un retrato fiel de la realidad, su profecía, su predicción. Aún lo pienso así.
Entiendo la memoria y el recuerdo como una construcción mental. Así que, poco a poco recordé que yo era una persona que leía y agarre un libro. Agarré un libro dentro de una lista de libros de una persona que leyó a mi lado por algunos años y que decidió leer otro libro donde yo no figuro como personaje.
Leí las primeras cinco o seis páginas a fuerza. Obligándome a interesarme por la trama para encontrar algo que me animara a seguir con la historia, y entonces, tal vez, volver a leer como sé hacerlo: buscando, indagando, cuestionando al texto página a página, para que me respondiera la pregunta de por qué debo seguir leyéndolo o para que me convenciera que quiero seguir leyendo.
Papá ha sido un asiduo lector de sci-fi, y nunca, hasta que me animé a leerla entendí porque puede ser necesaria. Bradbury es una apuesta segura, creo, porque es un autor dentro del canon de este género y que además, es reconocido por el canon oficial como un buen escritor.
Sabía, grosso modo, de que iba la novela, pero, nada me había preparado para comprender lo que entendí a través del personaje de Guy Montag. El libro es indispensable como respuesta a la comprensión de la historia del hombre sobre el mundo. Como este muere y renace, una y otra vez. Como no desiste en su andar, porque, andamos.
La lectura nos hace comprender... algo que no comprenderíamos de otra manera. A través de ella realizamos procesos mentales o vivimos experiencias únicas, en ocasiones tan intensas o profundas como la vida misma, pero, desconfíamos, dudamos del poder de la palabra, es más: nos asusta. Le tememos tanto a los libros y su poder porque los ignoramos. Estamos ante los libros como nuestros antepasados lo estuvieron frente al fuego. Un libro en las manos puede quemarnos. Una mala lectura nos puede hacer pendejos y otra buenísima nos puede hacer más pendejos: osados, presuntuosos, taimados, ridículos. Es más, todo este asunto de goodreads como concepto puede ser la perdición de la lectura: leemos para decir a los demás qué leemos y cómo lo leemos y, sobre todo: cuánto leemos.
Pareciéramos destinados como el uróboros a estar persiguiéndonos por toda la vida. Cazándonos. Destruyéndonos. Y volviendo a darnos vida después del incendio. ¿Qué hacer mientras tanto? Escribir un poco para que otros leamos y escribamos sobre lo que leemos y otros lo lean y escriban... y en los ratos de ocio, en los ratos donde la luz incandescente o halógena haya cansado nuestros miopes ojos, en esos momentos, entondes, dejar el libro de lado, y tomar la mano de la persona que hay a nuestro lado, ¿quién?, quien sea. Tengan por seguro que esa persona le tenderá la suya a la siguiente y así, sucesivamente, quizás, la lectura tenga un sentido humano. Quizás.(less)
Guy Montag is your typical modern fireman , burning books for a living.None of that old -fashioned putting out fires, he and a hose full of kerosene and just a little old match, does the trick. Sets books ablazing,it's more fun too!Besides no one reads anymore.Father was a fireman, so was his grandfather.Montag didn't really have a choice.Coming back from a good nights work, the firesetter discovers his wife took too many sleeping pills.An accident she later says.After getting her stomach pump...moreGuy Montag is your typical modern fireman , burning books for a living.None of that old -fashioned putting out fires, he and a hose full of kerosene and just a little old match, does the trick. Sets books ablazing,it's more fun too!Besides no one reads anymore.Father was a fireman, so was his grandfather.Montag didn't really have a choice.Coming back from a good nights work, the firesetter discovers his wife took too many sleeping pills.An accident she later says.After getting her stomach pumped, Mildred is as good as new, poor Guy.Mildred is addicted to wall to wall television(so are her friends).Happy shows of course.Doubts come when a nearly 17 year old next door neighbor, starts asking Guy, too many questions.Clarisse McClellan admits she's crazy.In the firehouse,Montag spends most of his time playing cards with the fellows, strangely in the future, no women are employed in that noble profession. But plenty of cigarette smoking.They are ,firemen .Captain Beatty starts getting suspicious of Montag,even the mechanical pet dog, who likes killing rats,the four legged kind I mean,doesn't like our hero.War is in the air .Jet bombers are flying around the skies.Atomic bombs threaten to rain down.Not to worry; get back to the TV walls,people. Clarisse disappears, one day she's here, the next gone.Finally temptation becomes too strong, and Montag arriving in a house full of illegal books, takes a sample.Big mistake.The owner, an old woman, refuses to leave her place and goes up in flames with her beloved "friends".Everyone says it was her own fault; no tears should be shed!When an incident occurs and Guy has to flee for his life, the mechanical dog is on the hunt.Montag jumps into the river and peacefully floats down the stream.Getting out a little later, he sees a fire with a group of "Hobos" near it. Is that a flash in the sky ? (less)
I was excited to read this book because it was a book about book burnings/banning and made the banned books list itself--irony right there. When I first started reading, I wasn't sure I would like it very much because Bradbury's writing style is harder to read (then again, this book was written in the 1950s) but he does have a very poetic way with metaphors and descriptions.
I found that the more I read, the more I was able to understand even if I didn't get it as I started reading. Wha...moreI was excited to read this book because it was a book about book burnings/banning and made the banned books list itself--irony right there. When I first started reading, I wasn't sure I would like it very much because Bradbury's writing style is harder to read (then again, this book was written in the 1950s) but he does have a very poetic way with metaphors and descriptions.
I found that the more I read, the more I was able to understand even if I didn't get it as I started reading. What Bradbury was trying to say became clear to me. This is a very scary society and sort of resembles society today with so much focus on TV, movies, the media, but luckily books are still very popular. It's a scary world though, through Bradbury's eyes.
In this book, the world has drastically changed. Firemen no longer put out fires (buildings have been fire-proofed) but now set fire to books because books are not allowed in this society because it doesn't always make people happy and it makes people think. Books are filled with dangerous ideas. People who have books are arrested or burnt along with their books.
The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman. He loves his job, loves the colors of the flames, but meeting his strange new neighbor, a seventeen-year-old named Clarisse, gets him to question his job, his life, the society as a whole. When the girl disappears, he finds himself wondering if he even wants this life for himself anymore. His wife is stuck in the television and radio shows that have replaced books and can't understand why her husband and his opinions on books are changing.
Fahrenheit 451is banned in some areas because it contains offensive language and content, which didn't bother me. Mostly "damns" and "hells" and maybe a "GD" or three. Nothing you don't hear on the street or on TV. It's not raging with language, just a word here and there. Other schools have banned it for it's "questionable themes", such as rebelling against society. I feel whoever felt this book needed to be banned missed the entire point. Rebelling isn't necessarily always bad--sometimes it's the right thing to do.
Some people were also upset that the Bible was one of the books that was burned/destroyed in the book and suggested the author advocated burning Bibles (which wasn't what the author was doing if the people had read the book and been able to connect the dots but sometimes people see what they want to see). It was also banned because of it's "advocacy of opposition" in earlier years like the 50s.
I can see some of the aspects of this book happening in society today, like the parents who want any book/movie/etc banned because they don't agree with it. Some people don't want to use their brains to think, some think it's wrong to question the world around them. Bradbury also speaks of the society of the book being immersed in television and radio so much that they have been dumbed down, and it seems that our society is fond of "dumbing down" today. You can see that much with the reading level of our students in the US.
I felt it was a very powerful book and am very glad I decided to read it. I am definitely one of those readers/writers who will give up my books when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers! This is definitely a classic and will be going on my favorites list. (less)
Michelle LipscombI loved this book.Great review you go into so much detail it is like I am reading it all over again and it has been a good 10 years since I read it.
Oct 18, 2011 12:56am
"You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? .... Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? .... Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it."
That is exactly the firemen's job in t...more"You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? .... Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? .... Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it."
That is exactly the firemen's job in this futuristic, sci-fi book--starting fires to burn books instead of putting out fires. In this society, reading and owning books is a crime. You could get arrested for simply being a pedestrian. Front porches and rocking chairs were removed so people wouldn't be able to sit and talk. But, spending time with your technological parlor wall "family" is encouraged. The people were ignorant of knowledge, creativity, world issues, nature, etc., and were wrapped up in their bubble of shallowness and blindness of the rest of the world. This is the vision in the frightening future that Bradbury portrays.
Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a firemen, and he loves his work, thinking that he is actually doing good to his society. His perspective completely changes as he meets new people, like the innocent 17-year-old girl Clarisse. She teaches Montag to slow down and observe, pay attention. To think.
"I sometimes think drivers don't know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly," she said. "If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he'd say, that's grass! A pink blur? That's a rose-garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn't that funny, and sad, too?"
"Have you seen the two-hundred-foot-long billboards in the country beyond town? Did you know that once billboards were only twenty feet long? But cars started rushing by so quickly they had to stretch the advertising out so it would last."
"Bet I know something else you don't. There's dew on the grass in the morning."
"And if you look"-she nodded at the sky-"there's a man in the moon."
"Are you happy?" she said.
And, all of a sudden, Montag realizes the wrongdoing of burning books, and his life becomes in danger.
Chilling. Disturbing. Amazing. This book makes you think about life today, and wonder if we may be closer than we think to that grim future in Fahrenheit 451. (less)
HayesBut, spending time with your technological parlor wall "family" is encouraged. The people were ignorant of knowledge, creativity, world issu...moreBut, spending time with your technological parlor wall "family" is encouraged. The people were ignorant of knowledge, creativity, world issues, nature, etc, and were wrapped up in their bubble of shallowness and blindness of the rest of the world. This is the vision in the frightening future that Bradbury portrays.
I agree with your last statement... the future is now. Heaven help us.
Great review. I'm going to bump this re-read up the pile a bit.(less)
May 07, 2010 11:04pm
Personally I have beef with Bradbury as a human being. In fact, I think he's a raging ass. But personal feelings aside, Fahrenheit 451 is a surprisingly relevant book. Although Bradbury's ascertation that the novel is not really about censorship is absurd particularly after one reads his "Coda" at the end of my 1991 Ballantine Books edition of the novel where he rails against those trying to "gut" his writing by making it more digestible for the masses. In it he writes:...morePersonally I have beef with Bradbury as a human being. In fact, I think he's a raging ass. But personal feelings aside, Fahrenheit 451 is a surprisingly relevant book. Although Bradbury's ascertation that the novel is not really about censorship is absurd particularly after one reads his "Coda" at the end of my 1991 Ballantine Books edition of the novel where he rails against those trying to "gut" his writing by making it more digestible for the masses. In it he writes:
'Shut the door, they're coming through the window,
shut the window, they're coming through the door,'
are words to an old song. They fit my lifestyle with
newly arriving butcher/censors every month. Only
six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years,
some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful
of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit,
censored some 75 separate sections from the novel.
Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals
with censorship and book-burning in the future,
wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony (177).
He wrote this “Coda” in 1979 and yet he told the LA Times, in May of 2007 (http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/ray-br... ) that Fahrenheit 451 is not, “a story about government censorship.” He goes on in a taped interview to say that “We’ve never had censorship in this country. . . there are temporary lapses like McCarthy wanted certain books taken off the shelves” and that his inspiration for writing Fahrenheit 451 was his fear that people were “being turned into morons by T.V.” (http://www.raybradbury.com/at_home_clips...)
Now I have no problem admitting that this book is as much about the fear of T.V./popular culture’s negative influence on the intellect as it is about censorship. The idea that T.V. helps anesthetize the masses to anything offensive, thought-provoking, or depressing by boiling down “the truth” into sixty second sound bites and then filling the space left over with meaningless drivel is certainly an idea worth looking at (even if it is a bit Luddite). Yet, the novel does not just deal with T.V. People in the story didn’t just prefer T.V. to books and that was that. People started objecting to anything they deemed offensive. And because America is such a diverse country, writers couldn’t hope not offend someone. Beatty reveals this to Montag when he explains “Our society is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset” (59). So the blame rests solely on the masses. The people, not the government, are to blame for the death of books. And it is on this premise that Bradbury convinces himself that his novel is not about censorship because he seems to define censorship as an official action committed by the government.
Yet it is the government that BURNS the books. People may have given up on books but the government is the one to make that decision permanent. It sees the advantage in keeping the people pacified. When the people are “happy” they are more easily manipulated and thus the book burning begins. It is the systematic removal of all people, objects, ideas, etc. that run contrary to this society’s current way of life. Leaving behind nothing but what that society deems fit for the people's entertainment. It is censorship because it leaves the people without means to turn back if they choose. It is censorship whether Bradbury likes it or not.
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I believe magic still exists in the world and it lives in the books. There is something special about being in a library or a bookstore, with so many stories around, waiting to be read, to be rescued from the shelves and taken home.
It strikes me how very like Zafon's "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" (a concept I’ve read about in two of his novels, Angel’s Game and The Shadow of The Wind) the whole process of choosing a book is. You go into a bookstore and all the books on the...moreI believe magic still exists in the world and it lives in the books. There is something special about being in a library or a bookstore, with so many stories around, waiting to be read, to be rescued from the shelves and taken home.
It strikes me how very like Zafon's "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" (a concept I’ve read about in two of his novels, Angel’s Game and The Shadow of The Wind) the whole process of choosing a book is. You go into a bookstore and all the books on the shelves are waiting patiently, waiting to be touched, opened, read. Waiting for you to choose. The air is heavy with the scent of anticipation and the joy of discovery. And every time I'm looking for that special book, the one that will tell me more than all the other books around, the one that will take my hand and never let go.
This time it was Fahrenheit 451 that caught my eye. I have heard of it, of course, but never knew what it was about and I opened it and read the first sentence. Need I say more? The book had cast its spell on me and I was lost, couldn't resist, didn't want to, so I sat down there near a shelf and began reading, feeding on the words, that first sentence revolving in my head over and over again: It was a pleasure to burn.
At almost 200 hundred pages (including the interview with Ray Bradbury at the back) the book is a quick read and the prose is wonderfully charged with emotion. The reader is introduced to a world where books are hunted down and burned like witches at the stake, where people are more or less machines going through motions, a life without meaning and individual thought, with lots of visual distractions and repressed anger. And Guy Montag, fireman, fits the pattern beautifully. That is, until one day he meets Clarisse, who is different, who likes to think and walk outside and look at people when she talks to them. Their encounter has the effect of a spark in Montag's soul, igniting his curiosity, making him wonder and question and search for answers. But it's not easy breaking away from the neat monotony of life, and this he finds out soon enough. With the help of Faber, an old English professor, Montag is determined to find out more about the long lost world of books and as memories come back to him and he starts feeling again, his actions have terrifying consequences, making him a fugitive, running to stay alive.
The more I read the more I thought of OrwelI's 1984, a novel describing a dystopian world where the communist regime controls everything and where everyone has its specific place. But whereas Orwell's novel dealt on a larger scale, Fahrenheit 451 is more concentrated, focusing on books, the consequences of their disappearance from the world in favor of the media. Visuals versus thought. Readily made ideas versus imagination.
The end is reminiscent of “The Book of Eli” (the movie), in which the main protagonist carries a book with him and then loses it, but it’s not really lost. I’m afraid saying more will give away too much so I’ll stop here and just add: it was a pleasure to read.
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Every science fiction fanatic, especially one as young as myself, has a list of classic science fiction books that he or she has yet to read. One's definition of classic can vary; it's not the content of the list that matters but its existence as a personal measure of our "SF street cred." I have read Dune and Starship Troopers, and plenty of Asimov pre-Goodreads. Until now, however, Fahrenheit 451 has eluded me. Today I remove it from my list.
Something about Ray Bradbury...moreEvery science fiction fanatic, especially one as young as myself, has a list of classic science fiction books that he or she has yet to read. One's definition of classic can vary; it's not the content of the list that matters but its existence as a personal measure of our "SF street cred." I have read Dune and Starship Troopers, and plenty of Asimov pre-Goodreads. Until now, however, Fahrenheit 451 has eluded me. Today I remove it from my list.
Something about Ray Bradbury's style gives me pause. I am having trouble determining what. The best I can do is compare him to Philip K. Dick. Montag reminds me of Deckard from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Both men are bounty hunters, of a kind, who have begun to question the ethics associated with their job. Both have wives whom they once loved but who are now distant and disconnected, more comfortable with artificial stimulation (the television-like "walls" and the Penfield mood organ, respectively) than their own husbands. And like Do Androids Dream, Fahrenheit 451 is a creative masterpiece but not a technical one.
Montag is a tragic hero who undergoes a Heel Face Turn. He has been having doubts about his job as a fireman for some time now, and an alarm that results in a woman burning to death causes the ultimate crisis of conscious. Back at home, he reveals to Mildred that he has sequestered some twenty books in the air ducts of their home. He has never read them—never more than a line or two—but he wonders. And as a result, he is losing his faith in the firemen and censorship for which they stand. Thanks to the secondary characters of Clarice and Faber, Montag soon realizes that he is no longer happy living as he does. He needs to take a stand, even if it means becoming a fugitive.
Montag is a great character, and he pretty much carries the book on his shoulders. The other characters exist only in a Jungian sense, playing the role of various archetypes that help shape Montag's emerging personality. Mildred simply wants to preserve the status quo. She is more interested in her televised "family" than in the real world. Chief Beatty is who Montag could be if he refuses the call. Beatty was exposed to book knowledge but has utterly rejected it; he is essentially a fireman zealot. Faber is the opposite of Montag, a man of intellect instead of action. Similarly, Clarisse is full of the vivacity and energy that Montag wants. Where Faber is analytical and cautious, Clarice is emotional and adventurous. Montag will need attributes from both to survive.
Interpreting Fahrenheit 451 only as an adventure story is a mistake. It's not that good an adventure story. However, interpreting it as the personal journey of Guy Montag is more fulfilling, because Bradbury allows the reader to rediscover the importance of reading through Montag's journey. And here is where Bradbury excels, for he communicates the power of books succinctly and eloquently: "who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?"
Because that is the key: opponents of book knowledge are afraid of the well-read person. Knowledge is power, because the well-read person is armed with the facts and rhetorical ability to refute arguments. Censorship is never about trying to protect a population or preserve innocence, despite what its advocates claim. It is always about fear, fear that if someone communicates an idea, other people might pick it up, carry it like a banner, and bring the revolution. Censorship is just another means of control.
Books are one means of defeating censorship, but they are not the only means. I'll be the first to admit that books are sexy. There's something so attractive about a well-bound book: its poise, its smell, the crispness of its pages . . . sorry. Anyway, Bradbury reminds us that a book is just a container for ideas:
It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the 'parlor families' today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them, at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.
This speech of Faber's to Montag is my favourite passage of the entire book. It expresses both the joy I find in reading and a truth that bibliophiles should always remember: in this case, the medium is not necessarily the message.
Classics, owing to their legendary status, can be difficult to review. After all, if they are classics, they are almost tautologically good, yes? Or, sometimes there is a subversive thrill that comes from tearing into a classic with as much criticism as it can bear. In the case of Fahrenheit 451 it is easy to see why it's a classic. And I won't try to judge whether it deserves such status. Instead, I shall just cross it off my list. I don't regret reading it. However, Fahrenheit 451 is, in my opinion, a good example of the distinction between classic and great work.
CecilyI think you're quite right to focus on the love of books. That is key to me. Books "stitched the patches of the universe together into one garmen...moreI think you're quite right to focus on the love of books. That is key to me. Books "stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us".(less)
Apr 11, 2011 01:05am
Ray Bradbury is amazing..such vision and imagination! This story could have easily have taken place in 2008 yet it was written in the 1950's. Desensitization to human realities (pleasure and thrill of any kind King), TV obsession, and such a decline in an interest to read, the masses don’t hardly blink an eye when books are not only banned, but burned (we aren’t there yet..but you can see some similarities). I love the chase with the mechanical hound that mimics a true “Bad Boy” reality TV cop’...moreRay Bradbury is amazing..such vision and imagination! This story could have easily have taken place in 2008 yet it was written in the 1950's. Desensitization to human realities (pleasure and thrill of any kind King), TV obsession, and such a decline in an interest to read, the masses don’t hardly blink an eye when books are not only banned, but burned (we aren’t there yet..but you can see some similarities). I love the chase with the mechanical hound that mimics a true “Bad Boy” reality TV cop’s chase. But what I love the most is how he wrote. One character who described his grandfather as a sculptor of thoughts and ideas: “ Grandfather has been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you’d find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me.” And when quoting his grandfather, “I hate a Roman named Status Quo! Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping life away. To hell with that..shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.”
This is great stuff! No wonder it’s considered a classic and required reading for many high school classes. I’m ashamed I haven’t read him sooner and my next read..another Bradbury book, Dandelion Wine.
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I don't usually review classics for obvious reasons, but I flipped through this again the other day & it's still one of the most chilling books I've ever read.
Conform & remember meaningless trivia to be happy. Don't bother with the thorny problems or think for yourself! Immerse yourself in the fantasy world of TV that covers entire walls, so you can be a part of the virtual, mindless world. The shows remind me strongly of the current 'reality TV' craze.
Originally pub...moreI don't usually review classics for obvious reasons, but I flipped through this again the other day & it's still one of the most chilling books I've ever read.
Conform & remember meaningless trivia to be happy. Don't bother with the thorny problems or think for yourself! Immerse yourself in the fantasy world of TV that covers entire walls, so you can be a part of the virtual, mindless world. The shows remind me strongly of the current 'reality TV' craze.
Originally published in 1953, it strikes as close to home today as it did when I first read it over 35 years ago, perhaps more so as TV's have gotten bigger, interaction with the shows is more commonplace & the virtual worlds of social networking sites have become as important to some people as their physical world. (No? What about the teenager who committed suicide because of MySpace harassment?)
The idea of running around with flame throwers to burn books (451 degrees F. is the heat at which a book combusts, according to the story) is a little weird, but shredders weren't around then (first manufactured in 1959) & it's a cool twist to have firemen who burn things. It also makes the point of the government's violent opposition to uncontrolled information - another current theme.
That's why this is a classic. It contains ideas that are still quite pertinent today, perhaps more so than when it was written.(less)
I first read this book (as most of us did) in high school. At the time, we were taught that it was a remarkable achievement and a literary masterpiece. Upon returning to Bradbury's novel, I must say that I am somewhat underwhelmed. The book isn't bad by any means, but it does not live up to the literary greatness that I remember from 12 years ago. Allow me to explain...
I have this theory that Fahrenheit 451 is one of the last books most people ever read. Along with 1984, Catcher in t...moreI first read this book (as most of us did) in high school. At the time, we were taught that it was a remarkable achievement and a literary masterpiece. Upon returning to Bradbury's novel, I must say that I am somewhat underwhelmed. The book isn't bad by any means, but it does not live up to the literary greatness that I remember from 12 years ago. Allow me to explain...
I have this theory that Fahrenheit 451 is one of the last books most people ever read. Along with 1984, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and a couple of works by Vonnegut, Fahrenheit is a stock novel for high-school English classes (I'm sure there are others, but I think everyone read at least one of the aforementioned). The book is political without being reactionary, written in a simple and direct prose, and it lacks the complex plot-points that characterize other notable works. In point of fact, Fahrenheit 451 is a great, great book for introducing adolescent readers to literature. But...
People graduate from high-school and (for the majority) go on to study science or business or to enter the work-force, never again to have anything but the most cursory of experiences with the great novels. In short, Fahrenheit 451 is one of the last great books that (most) people ever read. And if you doubt me, just try to find any book you read in high-school at the airport bookstore.
So, that being said, and the shrill accusations of literary elitism already ringing in my ears, I love Fahrenheit 451. For each and every one of Bradbury's overwrought and bloated metaphors, I love this book--if only because it reminds me that at one point in almost everyone's life, they get to read at least a few good books.
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Probably my earliest encounter with Bradbury and my only one for many years until I finally got to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes -- bless Bradbury for such fine reading experiences!
May 2008 re-read:
And now I understand why this one was the only one for so long. It is absolutely stunning. That power stayed with me a long time. It didn't invite further exploration of the author. It almost doesn't invite me to continue my reading addiction. It...moreProbably my earliest encounter with Bradbury and my only one for many years until I finally got to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes -- bless Bradbury for such fine reading experiences!
May 2008 re-read:
And now I understand why this one was the only one for so long. It is absolutely stunning. That power stayed with me a long time. It didn't invite further exploration of the author. It almost doesn't invite me to continue my reading addiction. It's more like ordering cultivation of one's mind by means of books and other life-enhancing experiences on a natural plane. It's more like ordering humanity to savor all of what they experience. Slow down (where do we hear that lately? many places relative to many things), be now, be here, see things, observe, feel. Take out the earbuds, folks, talk -- not small talk, real talk -- ABOUT things including the why and how of them, ideas, feelings. This book is disturbing. It was disturbing then and is more so now. Who needed 1984? Or many others? This one is enough. Deserved every single one of those five stars I gave it for its long ago and enduring power.(less)
Dottie Fahrenheit 451 is far above Something Wicked for my own thinking. If pushed I'd even have to drop my equally loved Dandelion Wine into second place b...moreFahrenheit 451 is far above Something Wicked for my own thinking. If pushed I'd even have to drop my equally loved Dandelion Wine into second place behind this one. There is a power in the messages in this one which raises it to a level all its own.(less)
Jul 10, 2009 07:10am
DorisThese are both on my list to reread eventually. I had forgotten a lot about both that these posts are reminders of.
Jul 10, 2009 06:13pm
This book is a dark horse candidate for me. I was first presented this book when I was fourteen. I hated it. It was old sci-fi, which to a fourteen year-old is unforgivable. I actually failed a marking period of High School for not reading this and a Tale of Two Cities (which I still hate).
However, once it was reintroduced to me later in my college years, it turned out to be a fantastic book about free-thinking, education, and how important it is to make sure that we never get too co...moreThis book is a dark horse candidate for me. I was first presented this book when I was fourteen. I hated it. It was old sci-fi, which to a fourteen year-old is unforgivable. I actually failed a marking period of High School for not reading this and a Tale of Two Cities (which I still hate).
However, once it was reintroduced to me later in my college years, it turned out to be a fantastic book about free-thinking, education, and how important it is to make sure that we never get too complacent as a society and start letting people do the thinking for us.
The story is about Guy Montag, a Fireman - which in the future is someone who intentionally sets fire to homes containing the most vile contraband known to society: books. However, when he meets a new neighbor, a child of a subversive family of literate, well-read individuals, he begins to question what it is he does and comes to realize that his life is meaningless and empty and his world a sham. He eventually begins hording books himself until he has become that which society reviles and he is forced to go on the run himself after the immolation of his own home by his comrades.
It's a must read... so long as you're old enough to appreciate it. I don't know why it gets given to freshmen in High School.
Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days a...moreRay Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.
His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.
Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.
Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.
Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."(less)
“Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you.”
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634 people liked it
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.”
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599 people liked it
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review of another edition
Apr 30, 2011 09:37pm
Jan 24, 2012 08:36am