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Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury

Start date: October 1, 2020

Finish date: October 31, 2020

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: Buddy Read September 2025

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Revisit the Shelf Reread, October 2020
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[close] Buddy Read September 2025

Previous Reads:
Revisit the Shelf Reread, October 2020
Revisit the Shelf Reread, October 2017
Contemporary Classic Group Read, April 2013

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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

Jul 17, 2019 Julie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi, fin-2019, 1950s-fiction

Well, that was painful. The longest 187 pages I've ever read. Confirms my dislike of distopian sci fi and "Arty" 1950's novels. On the plus side, I've read this classic and can now give my opinion about it. And my opinion is uuuuugggghhhh ...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Maggie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: british, fiction, science-fiction, guardian-1000, dystopia-utopia

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The messages of this book are good: the possibility of mass media dumbing us down, the danger of catering to everyone and thus bringing about censorship, and the ability of books to empower us to think. These were issues that were slowly turning into reality in the 1950s when this book was written, and are issues that are even more pertinent today. Why are books valuable? Do we give ourselves time to pause and think? What do we lose when we expose ourselves too much to mass media? This is the gr The messages of this book are good: the possibility of mass media dumbing us down, the danger of catering to everyone and thus bringing about censorship, and the ability of books to empower us to think. These were issues that were slowly turning into reality in the 1950s when this book was written, and are issues that are even more pertinent today. Why are books valuable? Do we give ourselves time to pause and think? What do we lose when we expose ourselves too much to mass media? This is the greatest strength of the book, that it forces us to examine our lives and the effect that entertainment has on society.

I like the characters. Montag, the hero, is far from perfect. He spends most of the book blindly accepting others' opinions, and when he finally makes a decision for himself, he commits murder to disastrous consequences. But he does mature throughout. Faber also matures from being fearful to taking positive action, and is a warning to us not to sit back and watch things happen. Clarisse is a symbol of untainted nature, and first implants the thought that things are not right in Montag's mind. The "Book People" symbolise wisdom, and show that the ideas encapsulated in books need never die so long as a few people hold on to them.

There are no real villains in the book, only victims. Montag's wife Mildred and her friends are the epitome of the dumb masses who accept all things, follow all rules and in the process lose their humanity. They watch wall-sized TVs and avoid reality, tricking themselves into thinking that they are happy. But it is difficult to hate them, because the message is that we too may turn into such people if we are not careful. Captain Beatty is the prime candidate for a villain, but he is too human to truly be one. He destroys books not blindly, but because he loved them once and knows that they cannot serve him. Yet he does not find happiness while destroying books, and he eventually lets Montag kill him.

I liked the ending too. The war, which starts and ends with a single bomb, is ironically optimistic, for it gives Montag and the Book People a chance to change things. In a society that has fallen so far, sometimes the best thing for it is to be destroyed.

But I had major problems with the book. Firstly, I couldn't figure out why the books were being burnt. I'll summarise the book's reasons into two:
1. Books are no longer a main form of entertainment, having been replaced with TV.
2. There is hostility towards books because they empower the intellectuals above the rest of society, and because all books contain messages that offend certain minority groups.

The first reason makes the assumption that books and TV cannot co-exist - an unlikely one, but possible. But the second reason? It is a huge leap from being merely jealous of smart people to actually burning books. Moreover, minority groups may want to burn books that offend them, but why would they let others burn books that praise them? The fight occurs both ways, for certain books to be censored and for certain books not to be censored, and it doesn't make sense that Bradbury only considers a fight in one direction.

Moreover, there is another great leap from the plot detail of books being burnt to the thematic message of thought being destroyed. Do books equate thought? It is possible to quote from books without thinking through the quotes at all. Books merely give the material for us to think about, but TV and all other forms of media can do the same. TV and books are merely different ways of communicating the same messages.

Also, how would the dumb society that Bradbury envisions ever materialise? How would the economy run if everyone is stupid? How would anyone get the brains to learn how to create the wall-sized TVs in the first place?

Finally, the author is a not a nice person. In the Coda, he rails against the concerns of minorities, and makes clear that he thinks his work cannot be improved and any criticism of it is a call for censorship. But even ignoring his flaws, the book itself had too many logical flaws for me to get into it. If you want a realistic dystopia, read Nineteen Eighty-Four. Not this. ...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Pam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-choice, classics, 5-star-favorites, 2012

I closed the back cover on Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Fabulous. It is one of those classics that I shake my head and think, "WHY haven't I read this before?" In a world where TV's keep getting larger, sports teams more "important", fun and vacations are deemed to be "needs" not "wants", where we eat in front of the television and text instead of talk, this book should be mandatory reading... AND followed by mandatory discussion, in every classroom. ...more

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