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Did anyone else think this book was INCREDIBLY weird? It's not bad, but it's too strange to be a book I like.

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8 years ago
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Brian McGoldrick This is one of the greatest scifi novels ever written. I never found Fahrenheit 451 to be weird. Disturbing yes, but never weird. Today more than ever I wonder if it is more prophetic than anything. The works of older authors are being censored to remove "objectionable" and "politically incorrect" content, before they can be read in schools and universities. Little babies who are theoretically supposed to university students are screaming and crying because books and ideas offend them and hurt their feelings. They want "safe zones" and "trigger warnings" to protect their fragile little egos. How long before the cry goes up to start burning the objectionable books? Oh, never mind, that cry is already going up from some of those precious snowflakes. With the way we are going, a society like Fahrenheit 451 may be entirely too possible.

Mike Marsbergen That's because it's brilliant.

Nimrah Ahmed Me me! Apart from weird, I also find it incredibly haphazard. Reading it right now and longing to finish it so I can move on to narrative that makes sense again.

Andrew This book is brilliant. It goes along with 1984 and Brave New World. Please do not get lost in writing style or how "weird" you think it might be. The point is this is what we are becoming as a society. In 1984 they talk about the shrinking of the vocabulary available to society. I never thought I would see this happen, but then we went from formal letters when email first became available, to messages, informal texting, and now emojis. They no longer teach cursive writing people. I kindly ask everyone to wake up.

Charity Limerance I found it odd the level of censorship that the government in that book decided on compared to say the government in "1984". It seemed pretty relaxed as far as being monitored and controlled, yet very strict in their punishment. Also, I had a difficult time liking the characters in general.

Désirée It's scifi, it tends to be weird in our frame of reference. But if you dig in a little deeper and the author described the favorite occupation of the wife: she's chatting it up on the Internet! Pretty marvelous prediction seen it was written in an era where there were no household computers.

Yelp! Dear Raevyn, your question and subsequent comment intrigue me and I'd like to comment on them. Saying that something is "too strange" is much like (or possible the same as) saying its "very unfamiliar" or something we are not accustomed to. My first encounter with the story of Fahrenheit 451 was at age 15 through the 1966 motion picture (which I highly recommend), and I only read the book years later. When I first saw the movie, it did indeed seem "too strange", but I couldn't get it out of my head for days. It was "too strange" to be a film I'd like, but its impact on me was both immediate and lasting - now I believe it was "too strange" NOT to be a film I'd like!

Now, I believe this change in my opinion occurred as I started noticing instances and details from Fahrenheit's plot in my own reality. Not all of them, and not always (or necessarily) disturbing, but there nonetheless.

Ultimately, the story is about an awakening (of Montag), and is meant to have an awakening impact on the reader. In lieu of that, perhaps we might say that if it was anything but "incredibly weird", it would be useless, or worse, boring.

So in a sense, I agree with you, it is incredibly weird.

Please tell me, now that it's been a year since posting your question, has your opinion changed in any way?

Bookworm54 Definitely very weird, but it's a brilliant novel with an incredibly unique writing style, but I am weird and have weird tastes, so not many people enjoy the same things I do. I think it's worth reading for anyone, some very good points are made, and I am having difficulty articulating what i mean to say, but yes, it was very weird, but also fantastic.

Jenna Aren't all great classics?

Amy I found the writing style to be hard to get into. I'd tried it twice and could not get into it. Finally, I listened to the audiobook by Blackstone Audio and it was fantastic. The actor reads it in such a way that it feels natural. So, try that if you have to get through this book. The themes like censorship and critical thinking are well worth it! The writing reminded me of William Carlos Willams' poetry, like The Great Figure:

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

Right? Can you see it?

Linda Bergen Supposed to be strange. Fairly easy to manipulate people.

Julie To think about how long ago this was written and the parallels of today is pretty cool. It wasn't my favorite book and I listened to the audio version. I didn't care for the narration.

Dana I love it. Some of the language is dated, but then again it was written in the 50's. It's a good story about freedom of thought and being your own person

Taylor Hunt I'm reading this for the first time right now and I don't know if weird is what I would say. I would land somewhere around frustrating. I don't care for the writing style at all. The concept is good, but I fear that Bradbury's style is just not to my taste. Do I get kicked off the bibliophile island for this?

Darik M. I agree that this book was very weird. However, it was not too weird to read for me and I actually enjoyed reading it. The book had many plot twists and suspenseful moments in it. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Angela I know this is an older question but having just finished the book, I hope you don't mind me sharing my perspective. At first I found it "weird", but when you look at the context and the world they are living in, it makes more sense. With the books gone, the government and powers that be did everything to keep people's focus on pleasure/being happy. As result, everything moved fast--even some of the dialog was fast. This could make the writing seem confusing and choppy at times. Still, I found the basic story to be well written and a good warning to all.

Salem I found it incredibly relatable in a weird way :) If you dig a little deeper you may find that many elements in the story actually depict parts of our society.

Nick Pichette I do not find this book wierd at all, if anything I found it very interesting and everything about the book made sense. Maybe there was a couple plotholes but overall the book is fantastic and maybe one of the best sci-fi books of all time

Joseph Yes. I didn't enjoy reading it really, but I do recognise that the writing style perhaps intentionally creates this atmosphere in me, the reader. I particularly was disappointed in the lack of realness of the surrounding world and didn't feel like there was much evidence of a believable reality in there. In hindsight I see that this is all part of the atmosphere of a world where human contact is minimal against a background of a permanantly dark, sparsely populated, barren urban landscape, but it didn't draw me in to the story and made it feel flat and two dimensional to me.

Kailey Clemes I definitely agree! It's so strange, but it's very interesting at the same time... The authors attitude is quite different from any other book that I have read, it keeps me entertained and thinking.

Wanda Keith The only thing I find weird is that this book was written over 60 years ago and it is detailing what appears to be happening in today's reality. Bradbury was a brilliant writer and this book, which is a classic, is proof of that.

Alex Shrugged It is different. I recall reading that someone called him a poet rather than a science fiction writer. That probably explains it. The author is different.

Phil J It's perfectly weird, and that's why I love it.

Kendra G. ツ ~There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for~ I don't think "weird" is the right word, but..maybe it is. I know my favorite word for describing this book is CONFUSING.

Damian What did you find incredibly weird about it? I just finished reading it.

Ana Totally agree...

Ashley Myers I agree! The book is weird but that brings out some characteristics that most books don't have. When I read it I take in account of the weirdness and it helps me get threw reading this book because I find it reading a struggle. the weirdness makes it less of a pain even though its still killing me on the inside.

Catherine De Groot-Hedlin I thought the writing was incredibly weak - all the characters aside from the protagonist were flat, only serving to further the narrative. They were written as being rather stupid; with their repetitive questions they allowed the protagonist to explain his point of view over and over. I suspected that Bradbury considered the reader to be a bit dim because his point of view had to be drummed in so hard and that suspicion was confirmed after reading interviews with the author. I can't respect an author that does not respect the intellect of the reader.

Marco Antonio Totally agree. The greatness of this book lies in its content, that is, the ideas exposed but the narrative I think the same. is rare

Caroline Oh no, not weird at all. It's fabulous.
I didn't read the book until after watching the original film.
There could be such possibilities of Ray's written words.
Watch the film (1966), then read the book again.
For those that couldn't get into the characters in the book, once you watch the film and re-read the book with those characters in mind, you may have a different view altogether :)

Xenophon_the_younger Yeah me too. Felt like a 1984 wanna-be of sorts, not sure how to put it.

Marlow Yes. The book has a great intent, but a lot of the figurative language is excessive and strange. The author also leaves a ton of things unexplained.

Junio No. I think this book show up all of the mess inside our reality.

Michael Chapman Not weird. Too important to be considered weird.

Tobias Halpern Yes definitely.

Josip Jagić actually yes, I didn't tought that I wouldn't like this kind of classic

Laura Allow yourself to be "bothered".

Elena I did not enjoy this. Bradbury has written better books.

TaylorT I thought it was strange as well but had some pretty great guesses on the future.

Dalilla Matsumoto Šegota It is start weird and confused, specially something abouth dog (I can't understand is that dog robot or something animal becose he can small fear and killing people). This dog still confused me, but book have greate message.

Alison Yes, too weird for me. I actually gave up halfway through. Pretty impressive to predict that reliance on screens though.

Alex Liakhovitch I think when he wrote this he was making a good reference to speculative which is a very important in sci-fi I thin Ray Bradbury's what if question was what if technology took over the world it also shows what society can become

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by Ray Bradbury

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