Fahrenheit 451

[Stephen]

I will add to the list my novel,Rocketbar Amicus, released 8-4-12. It is not dystopian in the negative sense. There is a buzz-word being used to describe work that deals more with society than the hard science: "soft science fiction." I prefer the term "speculative fiction."

[Stefan]

A very good book indeed, shocking in forebearence if you postulate some of Ray Bradbury visions of a future in the present now, very accurate indeed. This novel schould be must-read and warning for everyone; It may hinder that society glides over the brink of overly enjoying light entertainment like "Big brother" for exemple and forgets to think for themselves and be thereby easiely controlled and manipulated, another great novel "1984" by George Orwell comes to my mind.

[Stephen]

For some reason, an ending as in "Lord of The Flies" is hard to work out when projecting into a future. This may take a story out of the dystopia-type mainstream. I would like to find other novels which have done this -especially sci-fi.

[Mike]

I hope America is not on our way to a F451 society.

[Sheila]

Ghastly book. Little plot and an author that seemed to want to boast about his literary prowess constantly!

[Feliks]

Mike wrote: "I hope America is not on our way to a F451 society."

Too late!
:0

[L.A.]

Fahrenheit 451 is prescient with its "screen walls"--like giant screens or even your own reality show.

If anyone from Dallas is reading this thread--Fahrenheit 451 is the city's Big Read book this year and the events launch April 1 and continue the entire month.

[Nathan]

L.A. wrote: "Fahrenheit 451 is prescient with its "screen walls"--like giant screens or even your own reality show.

If anyone from Dallas is reading this thread--Fahrenheit 451 is the city's Big Read book this..."

I live in Dallas... this is one of my all time favorite books!!! I will have to look into this... If you have any info you can pass on I would be most thankful!

[Erin]

Sheila wrote: "Ghastly book. Little plot and an author that seemed to want to boast about his literary prowess constantly!"

Well, it IS a book specifically about the importance of literature to society. I wouldn't call it bragging as much as illustrating.

[Nathan]

Well Said Erin!!!

[Niamh225]

Sheila wrote: "Ghastly book. Little plot and an author that seemed to want to boast about his literary prowess constantly!"

Did we read the same book? I have read and taught this book to 15-16 y.o. who live with at least one iPod bud in their ear all the time, and want me to give them the answers to any question posed because "It hurts. Thinking is too hard Miss".

I love what this book has to say about what can happen in a society that devalues literature and thinking. I love the symbolism in this book and think it is highly relevant to 21st Century life with things like Twitter (140 character limit)and life being a series of soundbites but lacking substance.

A book doesn't need lots of action to have a plot. It's one of my all time favourite books.

[Feliks]

Hear hear. What can you say about a society that abandons literature for..an mp3 playlist with 5,000 songs.

[J. Dallas]

I heartily agree with both Niamh225 and Feliks. And Bradbury wasn't "Boasting about his literary prowess". He was conveying information important to the story line.

[Kirk]

I thought the most interesting part of the book was the Fire Marshall Batey. Other parts have not aged so well, or seem a bit old fashioned to me. But Batey was absolutely fascinating.

Bradbury said in later editions Batey was the only part he expanded, adding lines and backstory. He was a response to political correctness in the 1950's and Bradbury's discomfort with it. Having his own work criticized like 'The Martian Chronicles' for featuring a "bunch of Uncle Toms" as he put it seemed to make him freak out a bit.

It's something Bradbury clearly struggled with and giving his age and era, it's understandable. Batey later admits in the theater version of the book that he wanted to burn the books because they stopped saying anything, they were trying to appease everyone and meaning nothing.

Batey, as the only well-educated fireman, becomes obsessed with just stopping all those voices and opinions. Batey isn't interested in running a fear state, he's just obsessed with making the world simple again. "Fire is bright, Fire is clean," is all he cares about, to the point of suicide.

[Kirstyn]

I was a student that English teachers hated. When they would assign a book to read, I would watch the movie or skim over the cliff notes just so I completely fail the test. Until freshman year when my teacher assigned Fahrenheit 451. I don't know exactly how I ended up reading it since I never read anything... But after I read this book I became a reading addict, not out of fear, but motivation. So I love this book!! Literally changed my life :)

[E.D.]

I paraphrase Edward R. Murrow: "Television can be the means to bring knowledge to the masses, or it can become a box full of wires and blinking lights."

All Hail Honey Boo Boo!

[Gaenolee]

Kirstyn wrote: "I was a student that English teachers hated. When they would assign a book to read, I would watch the movie or skim over the cliff notes just so I completely fail the test. Until freshman year when..."

Brava to you, Kirstyn. Although it was not this book that motivated me to reading, it was a traumatic event in my life: moving from safe, serene Des Moines, Iowa to the Canary Islands when I was 13 (this well over 40 years ago). I found this book at 14 in the only bookstore on the island that included English language books (at that time; nowadays there are so many British tourists that most bookstores have an English section and a German section).

I just reread this book for the first time in over 20 years. Dated? Only the ending seemed dated to me; the 'family' walls are what so many watch each and every day: reality shows, game shows, political commentaries that only show their own point of view... We are dangerously close to this society. My son hates reading almost everything. He was caught by Harry Potter, and now the "Game of Thrones" saga. But it takes him months to read a book (and he is an extremely intelligent man). How do we, as a society, escape our video/computer mentality and return to the book, whether in paper or Kindle?

[Sheila]

Please don't get me wrong. I like to read, born of a mother who loves to read, but pretty much unable to pass that along to my kids. My husband's not really a reader either.

Talking about that once to my mother in law, she commented that her own mom loved to read too, to the point of perhaps neglecting her own children somewhat... Consequently, my mother in law's perceptions of reading and books are ambivalent, viewing it perhaps as another form of "wall" no different than television or music in its isolating, escapism qualities.

Although I think Bradbury is a genius, I can't deny her point of view and that is a problem for me with this book. Reading, for most, is a solitary activity... It has the same capacity as other forms of entertainment to keep people separate rather than bring them together.

[Blake]

This is one of my new favorite books. I really find the concept interesting in a world that doesn't allow literature. I am also a fan of post-nuclear war type stuff so the ending was a good addition to the book and it allowed my mind to wonder and think of myself in that situation.So all in all it was a fun book to read.

[mkfs]

Sheila wrote: "Consequently, my mother in law's perceptions of reading and books are ambivalent, viewing it perhaps as another form of "wall" no different than television or music in its isolating, escapism qualities"

That is a very good observation. I certainly have my moments when I will put off an obligation, or stay up irresponsibly late, in order to finish a particularly compelling book. I'd hazard a guess that many goodreads users have the same experience.

Bradbury does address this (to an extent) in the novel through the character of Faber. He points out that the books themselves are not the threat: it is the human contact, the willingness to slow down and think or reflect that is the ultimate threat to governments and corporations.

This was superbly demonstrated towards the end of the novel when the police gun down an innocent man who is known for taken a morning stroll, using him as a scapegoat when they are unable to catch their true quarry.

[Michael]

Mike wrote: "I hope America is not on our way to a F451 society."

If we are, I hope they don't expect me to memorize an entire book.

[Robin]

Sheila wrote: "Reading, for most, is a solitary activity... It has the same capacity as other forms of entertainment to keep people separate rather than bring them together."

I disagree. While reading CAN BE a solitary activity, people who love the written word will always find a way to come together... After all... isn't that a huge part of what GoodReads is all about?

And there's nothing wrong with a solitude. To quote Ben Franklin. "I acknowledge solitude to be an agreeable refreshment to a busy mind."

[Robin]

I'd like to add one of my favorite moments in Fehrenheit 451... it's where Montag is outside his house (I don't remember why), but he looks up and sees the dark houses in his sterile neighborhood because it's so late at night, when usually there's a blue glow from the 'parlor walls/screen wall' from the windows, then he looks at Claisse's home... it's all lit up with bright light, and he can hear them inside, talking, (thinking) and discussing... and he has this overwhelming urge to go up and scratch on the door, begging them in a whispered tone to "Please let me in. I won't bother anyone, I just want to listen." He just wants to listen to people actually talking to each other, exchanging ideas and be a part of it.

It just breaks my heart!

And when Clarisse encourages Montag to 'taste the raindrops.'

Also, the ending is so good. Even though The Book People in the camp had been pursecuted and run out of the city, when the city was finally distroyed from the bombs of the enemies planes... they go back without question, saying "They'll be needing us.

[Andrew]

Stephen wrote: "...out of the dystopia-type mainstream. I would like to find other novels which have done this -especially sci-fi."

Try the grand-daddy of them all - We - by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921). Before Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World - it will blow your mind!

[Sheila]

I disagree. While reading CAN BE a solitary activity, people who love the written word will always find a way to come together... After all... isn't that a huge part of what GoodReads is all about?

And there's nothing wrong with a solitude. To quote Ben Franklin. "I acknowledge solitude to be an agreeable refreshment to a busy mind." "

Every solitary form of entertainment (reading or watching TV or listening to music) is one that can be shared through discussion, or used to isolate and separate us from each other. I perceived Bradbury's criticism of media (TV or music) as something that keeps his characters from interacting with each other. I was pointing out that reading can do the very same thing.

It's not a virtue in itself to read. It's a virtue to learn from what you are reading, and use the knowledge you've gained and share it with others.

[Mellilla]

This is probably a good gateway book for speculative fiction. I liked it, but remember that having to analyze it for school was a drag. That knocked one star off the review score right off the bat. Generally speaking, I like Bradbury as a sci-fi author, but I think his short stories are miles better than the novels I've read.

[Jacob]

INTERESTING FACT THE BOOK IS CALL FAHRENHEIT 451 BECAUSE THAT IS THE TEMPERATURE PAPER BURNS AT

[N.P.]

I read this book for the first time very recently. It was scary how close some of it was to today's society. The idea of a non-literate, instant gratification populace who did nothing but watch TV whilst having inane conversations and a feral youth who joyride and kill people just because they can must have seemed an impossible nightmare to the readers of 1953.

Looking at the society we have today there are some startling similarities, not least of which are the large flat televisions and reality TV shows which clog up our screens. I'm guessing Ray Bradbury probably had a wry smile on his face when he saw the advent of those.

One other example of Bradbury's foresight happened in 2011 during the riots in London. A group of a couple of hundred people rampaged down a hight street in west London, breaking into and looting every store on that street with the exception of one. Any guesses as to what store that was? Yep, you've guessed it, the local book store.

It's interesting to see Bradbury's take on this and compare it to Brave New World, where Aldous Huxley has a society where people are bred into submission rather than the way Bradbury does it by using news and education as a way in which to subjugate the populace. Looking at the two visions, I think Bradbury is the one with the most relevance today. Huxley's vision was a little more artistic as opposed to Bradbury's dour and nihilistic approach.

[[deleted user]]

I read this on holiday in about 2 days, it had been on my list for so long! It was everything I had hoped. You can see my review here.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...