Goodreads | Fahrenheit 451

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Bradbury's Predictions	1	06/01/2008 02:29PM

Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0345342968)

03/10/08

Read in March, 2008

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 ...more 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 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.

I think I'll give it a five, actually....less

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Arctic rated it:

(review of isbn 0307347974)

06/13/08

bookshelves: bookchallenge08, favorites, rgbc, sf, to-buy

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: intellectuals, literary types

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

some favorite parts:

"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 ...more some favorite parts:

"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."

"Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality[...]texture[...]pores[...]features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are. [...]The good writers touch life often."

"The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian gaurd, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou are mortal.' Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the ciites of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book."

"Montag said nothing but stood looking at the women's faces as he had once looked at the faces of saints in a strange church he had entered when he was a child. The faces of those enameled creatures meant nothing to him, though he talked to them and stood in that church for a long time, trying to be of that religion, trying to know what that religion was, trying to get enough of the raw incense and special dust of the place into his lungs and thus into his blood to feel touched and concerned by the meaning of the colorful men and women with the porcelain eyes and the blood-ruby lips. But there was nothing, nothing; it was a stroll through another store, and his currency strange and unusable there, and his passion cold, even when he touched the wood and plaster and clay."

"He took Montag quickly into the bedroom and lifted a picture frame aside revealing a television screen the size of a postal card. "I always wanted something very small, something I could walk to, something I could blot out with the palm of my hand, if necessary, nothing that could shout me down, nothing monstrous big. So, you see." He snapped it 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 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 just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."

"My grandfather showed me some V-2 rocket films once, fifty years ago. have you ever seen the atom bomb mushroom from two hundred miles up? It's a pinprick, it's nothing. With the wilderness all around it. My randfather ran off the V-2 rocket film a dozen times and then hoped that some day our cities would open up more and let the green and the land and the wilderness in more, to rimind people that we're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. We we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, some day it will come in and get us, for we have forgotten how terrible and real it can be."

"The most important single thing we had to pound into ourselves was that we were not important, we mustn't be pedants; we were not to feel superior to anyone else in the world."

"'I hate a Roman named Status Quo!' he said to me. 'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, '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 its life away. To hell with that,' he said, 'shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'"...less

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She-Who-Reads rated it:

(review of isbn 0345342968)

07/11/07

bookshelves: booksaboutbooks, sciencefiction, thoughtprovoking

Read in August, 2005

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 on...more 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 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, bizzare 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

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Lindsay rated it:

(review of isbn 0307347974)

10/14/07

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: fellow students

Lindsay 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, ...more

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George rated it:

(review of isbn 0345342968)

06/01/08

Read in May, 2008

Ah, Mr. Bradbury, how I wanted to like your book sooo much, but it just didn't work for me. This book is short, but I never really go into it. I feel like the writing kept me at a distance, but luckily it got better as it went on. However, I give a lot of credit for some good topics and themes. The idea of people being over indulged in TV and not reading enough feels like a played out topic/complaint today, but I think this book is where it may have started. The story reaches some mild le...more Ah, Mr. Bradbury, how I wanted to like your book sooo much, but it just didn't work for me. This book is short, but I never really go into it. I feel like the writing kept me at a distance, but luckily it got better as it went on. However, I give a lot of credit for some good topics and themes. The idea of people being over indulged in TV and not reading enough feels like a played out topic/complaint today, but I think this book is where it may have started. The story reaches some mild level of suspense, but my favorite part of the book is at the end.

So........I'll talk about it below, it contains some very mild spoilers, but I don't think it will ruin your reading of the book, your choice........................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................ ................................................................. ................................................................. .......................................................... ......................................................... ................................................................ ................................................................... ................................................................. ................................................................................................ ............................................................. ....................................................................... ............................................................................ ....................................................................... ............................................................................. .................................................................................... ................................................................................ ......................................................... ............................................................................... .................................................................................
So, of course there's a rebellion of a sort, but in this story it's fairly low key. People have taken to memorizing books. The way Bradbury describes how chapter one of a book may live in one town and chapter two may live in another person in another town was really romantic. These people don't consider themselves more important than other people, but just think of themselves as dusty old book jackets waiting to come together when they are not living under such oppression. I think that's the big point, knowledge and education belong to everyone, there shouldn't be different levels of access. As cliche as it is, knowledge is power.

...less

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Jaci rated it:

(review of isbn 0345342968)

03/30/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: people who want a quick read that is deeper than it seems

I somehow managed to major in Literature and Writing without having to read or even hear about this book. My boyfriend, who read the book in high school, decided that I should read it and bought me a copy. I'm glad that I read this novel, and was a little scared by how relevant it is to the world that we live in today, with it's censorship of topics that can be offensive to smaller groups and the frightening influence that the media has over us.

My understanding of how this novel is usually ...more I somehow managed to major in Literature and Writing without having to read or even hear about this book. My boyfriend, who read the book in high school, decided that I should read it and bought me a copy. I'm glad that I read this novel, and was a little scared by how relevant it is to the world that we live in today, with it's censorship of topics that can be offensive to smaller groups and the frightening influence that the media has over us.

My understanding of how this novel is usually interpreted is as a commentary on the evils of censorship. This makes sense to me, since the primary motif of the novel is the burning of books. However, this was not the main message that I came away with.

I believe that Bradbury is commenting not just on book censorship but also on the impact of mass media. When we allow mass media to influence how we interpret the world, we lose the opportunity to form views of our own. So many of the characters in the book were too busy paying attention to the televisions in their "parlours" and listening to their "families" on the screens than communicating with one another. Trusting the media to supply all of the necessary information leaves people in the dark about their true situation and unexperienced with asking questions to improve their situation. As true testament to this, the city was attacked in a nuclear war that the citizens did not know much about and were unprepared for. The city was leveled by the end of the book and it is unclear how many, if any, survivors there were from the attack. However Montag, the main character, did know about the war and had asked throughout the book why no one was talking about it or asking about it. The group of intellectuals that he ran into after swimming down the river were informed about the war and anticipated the nuclear attack because their lives were not overly influenced by the media.

It was also interesting that Bradbury not only painted the media as controlling but also manipulative. When the chase was on to find Montag and he was no where to be found, the media lied to the public. They cornered and killed an innocent citizen while claiming that it was Montag. They did this in order to give viewers a conclusion to the ordeal that showed them in a good light. They did not want the people to know that they did not have control of the situation. They also wanted to be able to get people back to their "regularly scheduled programming" and "live as usual" to continue their control of them.

I believe that the books were banned because the content in novels, generated by free-thinking individuals, is not something that the media can control. The more people who have access to books, or anything that promotes creativity and freedom of thought, the less able the media will be to control them. Interestingly, tabloids were still a legal form of communication, containing articles no longer than a page in length and, more than likely, content that was filtered and manipulated to conform with the overall agenda of the media....less

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Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0307347974)

01/25/08

bookshelves: january2008, randomfiction, readforschool

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: anyone who enjoys thinking

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 with my mom (a sci...more 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 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

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Christy rated it:

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06/28/08

bookshelves: readinglist2--sf, science-fiction-and-fantasy

I really do love this book. I love the value it places on intelligence, on books, on human connection, and on the natural world. I love its critique of war, of the media-saturated world in which we live (even more so now than when Bradbury wrote the novel), and of anti-intellectualism. Fahrenheit 451, in its creation of this dystopian world where books are outlawed and thinking is unheard of, shows us what we are in danger of becoming and points the way to an escape from this fate.
...more I really do love this book. I love the value it places on intelligence, on books, on human connection, and on the natural world. I love its critique of war, of the media-saturated world in which we live (even more so now than when Bradbury wrote the novel), and of anti-intellectualism. Fahrenheit 451, in its creation of this dystopian world where books are outlawed and thinking is unheard of, shows us what we are in danger of becoming and points the way to an escape from this fate.

The only way to change the course of history, to prevent us from becoming the mindless, violent people Bradbury portrays in the novel, is to instead, through really learning to see the world and through making it part of our selves (as Montag says, "while none of [the world] will be me when it goes in, after a while it'll all gather together inside and it'll be me" [162]), learn to change that world by acting upon it:

"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 into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime" (156-7).

We have to remember the past, the people who have been here, and our place in the world. One character says,

"My grandfather showed me some V-2 rocket films once, fifty years ago. Have you ever seen the atom-bomb mushroom from two hundred miles up? It's a pinprick, it's nothing. With the wilderness all around it.

"My grandfather ran off the V-2 rocket film a dozen times and then hoped that someday our cities would open up more and let the green and the land and the wilderness in more, to remind people that we're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, someday it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be" (157).

Bradbury's novel is a stirring reminder of those wildernesses of the soul that, "terrible and real," can destroy all that we as humans have built and that can separate us from each other and from ourselves....less

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Sithara rated it:

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12/22/07

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 ...more 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 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

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Anthony rated it:

(review of isbn 0307347974)

07/17/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: EVERYONE!!

Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is at times a disturbingly prophetic glimpse into our world. The future of Fahrenheit 451 is a shallow, hedonistic world where critical thought has been effectively eliminated through a number of means. To begin with, owning or reading books is illegal, and results in the perpetrator being condemned to a mental intuition at best, executed, often by burning, at worst. Perhaps equal or more significant, meaningful social interaction has been replaced by ubiquit...more Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is at times a disturbingly prophetic glimpse into our world. The future of Fahrenheit 451 is a shallow, hedonistic world where critical thought has been effectively eliminated through a number of means. To begin with, owning or reading books is illegal, and results in the perpetrator being condemned to a mental intuition at best, executed, often by burning, at worst. Perhaps equal or more significant, meaningful social interaction has been replaced by ubiquitous and incessant entertainment programming transmitted to every home, business, and public place on wall sized television monitors, with customized programming to appeal to every individual. In addition to the comedy ‘sitcom’ and ‘infomercial’ programming, ‘reality’ programs show live manhunts for ‘criminals’ who violate the prohibition on owning or reading books culminating in live executions performed by burning or by mechanical ‘hounds’ who track down and execute the ‘criminals’. These programs are ubiquitous in society, they are never turned off. They dominate every social gathering and every conversation.

Remember, in 1953 television was Black and White, monitors were ten to twelve inches, and less than 50% of U.S. households owned one.

Fast forward to today, 98.2% of U.S. households have televisions. The average household has three televisions, many are large screen monitors. Two-thirds of households have cable. The average time spent watching television in Americans age 12 and older is almost FIVE HOURS EACH DAY. The Federal Government has recently implemented a program to provide up to two digital signal converters “at no charge” to each American household. (U.S. Census Bureau report, CB08-FFSE.03, May 29, 2008)

How many times have you gone into a friend’s house, a family member’s, your own, and found one or more televisions blaring in the background with no one in particular watching? How often do your lunch break conversations consist of who’s winning on American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, or Survivor? Do you and your friends talk about what happened on Rock of Love, or Flavor of Love, or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Judge Judy, Cops, Oprah? When’s the last time you sat with friends and talked about ‘ideas’? You know what I’m talking about and that’s some scary stuff.

Fahrenheit 451 is filled with simile, allegory, and symbolism, and sometimes gets a little esoteric. It's not terribly long but is not a particularly easy read. However, it’s probably one everyone ought to read. We’re well on our way to the disturbing world of Fahrenheit 451.
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Holly rated it:

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06/23/08

bookshelves: gifted-class-reads

Read in January, 1994

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...more 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 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

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Brian Hodges rated it:

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07/14/08

bookshelves: classics

Read in July, 2008

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 thought t...more 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 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

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Samantha rated it:

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06/14/08

Read in June, 2008

This is one of those many classics of Canon that I missed in high school (our English teacher focused on grammar not literature), so I really knew nothing at all about this book. Oh, I had guesses and assumptions based on little quick-facts I'd overheard. I knew it was the "future". I guessed that 451 referred to the date, i.e. April 2051. I assumed the notion of Big Brother Is Watching was derived from this novel. I really knew nothing.

Fahrenheit 451 takes place sometime in the 21...more This is one of those many classics of Canon that I missed in high school (our English teacher focused on grammar not literature), so I really knew nothing at all about this book. Oh, I had guesses and assumptions based on little quick-facts I'd overheard. I knew it was the "future". I guessed that 451 referred to the date, i.e. April 2051. I assumed the notion of Big Brother Is Watching was derived from this novel. I really knew nothing.

Fahrenheit 451 takes place sometime in the 21st century when books and libraries are burned by the local firemen because it is a crime to own them. One such fireman (note, he's not a firefighter because in the future they set the fires) is Guy Montag, a 30 year old married man who is happy with the status quo. One day he meets a teenaged neighbor named Clarice who sticks out from society as an odd ball because she notices that dried leaves smell like cinnamon, and says there's a man in the moon. She's a free thinker when such notions are unheard of, and she makes Montag think, too.

A handful of events and interactions occur that wake Montag up and he begins to question -- his job, his lack of reasoning, why they call the "interactive picture wall" "family", etc. Questioning leads Montag back to the books -- why burn them? What could possibly be inside that is so dangerous?

Fahrenheit 451 is a book about trading censorship and oppression for discontent to any degree. Rather than allow individual thought, society has abolished all things that would make mankind unequal or feel threatened. Everything is for the entertainment of it -- the "picture walls" on all four sides, speeding cars, even children are only worth the immediate joy and are dismissed otherwise.

Bradbury's story was written in a Post-WWII era, the beginning of the Cold War, and the fear of the future destruction, whether by ourselves or our "enemies", is obviously a major factor. But even so, Bradbury is trying to tell us that we can cause ourselves the most harm by being complacent.

I chose this book because my niece has to read it for school. I actually had this dreadful anticipation throughout that something horrible would happen, that there could be no hope. I wonder now if my own desensitized nature greatly effected my enjoyment of the book.

One last thing ... title of the book. In the first part of the book we learn that Montag's badge number is 451. And it has been said that paper can spontaneously combust at 451 degrees Fahrenheit....less

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Dina rated it:

(review of isbn 0345342968)

06/22/08

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

So, I expected to really love this book after hearing it so often placed in the same class as Brave New World and 1984. After finishing, however, I would hardly put Fahrenheit 451 in the same class as these other dystopian books, mainly because the dystopia presented is completely unfounded. I feel like there's no real description anywhere in the book, aside from a lengthy paragraph from the Fire Chief, as to how things supposedly ended up where they are, with books being burned, thought and int...more So, I expected to really love this book after hearing it so often placed in the same class as Brave New World and 1984. After finishing, however, I would hardly put Fahrenheit 451 in the same class as these other dystopian books, mainly because the dystopia presented is completely unfounded. I feel like there's no real description anywhere in the book, aside from a lengthy paragraph from the Fire Chief, as to how things supposedly ended up where they are, with books being burned, thought and introspection condemned and happiness the only social concern. And even then, it seems to be simply that people didn't mind when things began to take that turn, which is mildly believable, I guess. Far too little time is spent getting to know Montag before he makes his 'drastic' transformation into a thinker and lover of books; 5 pages, in fact, and all we have to discern that he's happy with the state of things is some whistling and the fact that he's been burning books and enjoying it for 10 years. This makes his transformation somewhat unrealistic, which is something that, for me, lingered throughout the book. Montag goes on to take bold actions and risk his life, but these actions are sort of uninteresting as we never really see a change in the character; this is how he is presented more or less from the beginning. The 'war' that is constantly mentioned throughout the book seems unwarranted as well; we never know what the war is over, who is being fought, etc, etc. This bothered me up until the last third of the book, where I suppose the reader is to come to realize these questions don't matter, that it is the outcome of the war that is relevant. But it's not until this point that this is made clear.

All of these things aside, the book was really enjoyable to read and I was able to tear through it in about a week. The language used is really poetic and sets to mood incredibly well: dark and foreboding and uncertain. There is a paragraph at the end of the book as Montag is reflecting on his wife's reaction to the war that I found particularly great. Despite the war remaining rather ambiguous throughout the rest of the book, the final description of it reconciles the vagueness presented earlier. So all in all, I suppose I would recommend to any one who asked about it, but tell them be prepared to have some questions left hanging....less

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Zulay rated it:

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02/22/08

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: Anyone

Read it for the first time this year and was unbelieveably surprised to see how applicable to today's modern society this book, which was first published in 1953, is.

I was told it was about the terrible things censorhip does to a society but that's not what it was at all. Or rather, that was only a small part of it. In reality the book is about the evils that the combination of technological advances that reduces our ability to critically think (like television) and the ever elusive search...more Read it for the first time this year and was unbelieveably surprised to see how applicable to today's modern society this book, which was first published in 1953, is.

I was told it was about the terrible things censorhip does to a society but that's not what it was at all. Or rather, that was only a small part of it. In reality the book is about the evils that the combination of technological advances that reduces our ability to critically think (like television) and the ever elusive search for happines create. Books are being destroyed because society has reached the point where the contradictary views of books are distracting to the search for happiness and each new minority group is offended by every other line in every other book, so in an attempt to keep the peace the offending books (which is all of them) have been destroyed.

The protagonist's conflict is a result of living in a society where the <i>appearance<i> of happiness is more important than the <i>genuine<i> attainment of it and no one interacts or knows one another because everyone is too busy at home being bombarded with a constant barage of nonsensical images and too wrapped up in themselves to care about anyone else. (sound familiar?) Everyone has taken "the pursuit of happiness" to heart with a ferocity that boarders on insanity.

Among the most thought provoking lines to me: "If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the pople contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information then they'll feel their thinking...And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like pholosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That ways lies melancholy..."...less

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n* rated it:

(review of isbn 0307347974)

05/19/08

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: oh, I guess, middle schoolers.

I borrowed this from my buddy Lem, who really loves the book. He even has a Fahrenheit 451-themed hoodie. I am a fervent believer in the idea that some books are meant to be read at a certain age, that there are certain periods during which we are open and receptive to certain books. And, ok, if you don't read that book during that period, that book will neve

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