The Fairy Book Club discussion
OCT 17 - Fahrenheit 451
>
OCT 2017 - Fahrenheit 451 - Discussion!
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Cordelia
(new)
Oct 06, 2017 09:44AM
Mod
reply
|
flag
Mod
I'm about 50 pages from finishing the book, and I have to say I'm currently left in want of a better understanding of the societal structure. It focuses so much on the burning books aspect that the rest of the society is only glimpsed as we trudge through Montag's search for understanding his own fall from comfort within the society.
Hi I am new to this group.May i know when would you be discussing about the book?
Just starting this one, looking forward to discussing it.
Mod
Sentí al leer cuanta similitud con lo que conozco hoy en día y me hizo pensar mucho
I’m about 20 pages from finishing now and I must say, I’m quite impressed with Bradbury’s dystopian view of society in the 50s. The writing is a bit different than I’m accustomed to reading so it took me a bit to catch on to his writing style, but having finally gotten the hang of it I can better follow the story. When I really think about the almost alternate universe displayed in this novel I find that I can see where the burning of the books could stem from, at least through the eyes of those who view books as unnecessary (firemen, people absorbed by the large screens in the parlour, etc.), that being they provide a glimpse of fiction or of a universe that only exists in that book and that at an applicable level, there’s be no use for it. At the time of Bradbury writing F451 the world is beginning to see the use of TVs and has seen the use of radio, with more and more families being drawn into these new devices maybe some are straying from books because, now, these stories are appearing on the screen before them instead of being only pictured in their imagination. However, at the same time books (both in the novel and in the real world), provide a reader with vast knowledge, an escape from the physical world we live in, and can induce a sense of imagination, and better yet (in my opinion) remind us of what once was or something that has come and gone but grants us to experience it once more through visualising the scenes. F451 really makes me think of the purpose behind the work and try to picture our world under these rules. All in all, I think F451 is a brilliant piece of work, hard to read at times, yes, but brilliant none-the-less!
Mod
I read it a few days ago and like to digest a bit before completely knowing how it has affected me. Have to say that each day when I glance through the morning headlines and see the evening news, I am amazed and slightly horrified by the many predictions come to life in 2017 USA. Bradbury clearly recognized the dangerous draw of tv to the masses and the dumbing-down of Americans. I actually despised Beatty and the way he spewed his “knowledge “, so much that my thoughts came to hope for the same end that Montag gave him. I loved the frantic pace of Montag’s thoughts and actions as the novel crescendoed. Then I admired the calm, steady attitudes of the hobos in contrast, while the picture in my brain is left of them as a group is with our fireman leading the way. This one will be tickling my thoughts for quite a while.
Just finished. Thought provoking and timeless. I thoroughly enjoyed every page.
It took me a few pages to get into Bradbury's world, it was almost too quick-paced at times - I wanted to know more! But it was a gripping read. I'm left thinking about it days later. I can't believe it was written over 50 years ago. It could have been an episode of Black Mirror!
Between headphones and tv screens, we really are living in a world full of distractions and white noise. Bradbury was on the button!
Grace, you make a fair point, it really does seem like an episode of Black Mirror!
I finally was able to pick up a used copy of Fahrenheit 451 and got to read it this week. This book is...amazing! I normally dislike dystopian books...too depressing and sometimes horribly violent. Here I was caught up in it and could hardly put it down. I know people who only want to talk about the latest TV shows they watched last night, who don't read, who think that libraries are unnecessary in modern times. I'm still digesting some of the book. But the concept itself is just brilliant. Maybe it was just the right book at the right time...I might not have reacted so well at times in my life when I was surrounded by highly literate people who loved to talk about books. I would have said it was "unrealistic." I know better now. There is a large portion of our population that does not read for pleasure, or for self-improvement, or for any reason outside of a classroom (and with Cliff Notes and online synopses, not even that anymore). You don't have to burn books when people just stop reading them. Groups like this strengthen my heart. Thanks for getting me to read this book!
Mod
Oh Stella it's great that you enjoyed it! I quite like dystopian, which surprises me every time, and this is great because it feels like an early version of the genre, where other ideas have originated from. It feels very real the idea that people want to control the masses by what they are shown and offered, and how amazing that they cannot really do that through books - there is a lot more choice. People choose which books they open and which they don't, and there is so much choice out there. The only marketing you get in books is adverts for similar books - bonus! It shook me up the idea that banning them could be possible - and it just drives me to choose more and more diverse books so that we can fight the chance of it happening! :)
Stella wrote: "I finally was able to pick up a used copy of Fahrenheit 451 and got to read it this week. This book is...amazing! I normally dislike dystopian books...too depressing and sometimes horribly violent...."I am with you on all of your observations. I usually never choose dystopian novels, as the future of the world looks terrible enough without reading how bad it could be. But after reading both Fahrenheit 451 and Station 11, I think I have to give more dystopian novels a chance. (Have you read station 11 too? Otherwise, do it, when you get the chance)
The topic is so important, and when I read Fahrenheit 451, I just couldn't understand it is so old?! How on point he was, and I fear this is the way our world is going. Maybe not burning books, but I fear my young sons generation will look at books like we do at vinyl records these days. Few people say it is the best way to listen to music, but most of us don't care...
I first read Fahrenheit 451 a few years ago. By that time, the idea of book burning was not all that shocking; my grandmother took me to a church once that was burning books and music; I never went back. Censorship and the desire to control the collective conscientiousness through a unified media conglomerate or “single lens” was also not a revelation (all these years later, anyway); though, both are a fearful warning of what might be. Even though the book wasn’t as groundbreaking for me as it likely was to many when it was written, it is still one of my most favorite books.I’ve been a fan of dystopia worlds long before reading Fahrenheit 451. I experienced them through Mad Max, Aeon Flux (the animation), A Clockwork Orange, and many other films (and comics and probably a few books). It was Guy Montag, however, that made Fahrenheit eclipse them all. I related to him. I understood him, or perhaps he understood me in ways that many of the other dystopian tales do not. It was not the bleakness of that future or shock of burning books that interested me but his sense of being lost and alone in a world that was perfectly okay with how things where: the normality. So often the world around me seems so bass ackwards that I feel alien and alone and that always makes me think of Guy. Sometimes, I even think of Clarisse and her youth, exuberance, and curiosity, and how Guy was attracted to it, not a romantic way but a longing to be her, or, at the very least, to see life as she saw it. In that way too, I am connected.
Beyond the connections, which admittedly skew my opinion, I also love the book because I love Bradbury’s style. There is something elegant about how he is able to describe the world in such simple ways that it pulls you in without being distracting. I don’t have a copy handy, so I can’t be more specific. I can say, when I know I need to write an inspiring scene about everyday things, I often re-read The April Witch and The Great Wide World Over There from Golden Apples in the Sun; the latter conjures cool, green meadows and wide open fields in the space of a single paragraph.
As to what others have said:
Spencer: ”…and [books] can induce a sense of imagination, and better yet (in my opinion) remind us of what once was or something that has come and gone but grants us to experience it once more through visualising the scenes.
Exactly. I also enjoy how when I’m feeling exceeding clever or bright that I can grab a philosophy book or piece of literature and learn that I’m neither very clever or bright and that someone hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago has already thought it better.
Anne: ”…I am amazed and slightly horrified by the many predictions come to life in 2017 USA.”
I feel this way a lot too, especially if I’m watching an old Twilight Zone marathon. Of course, then I remember: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Which in this case is to say, the perils of “technology” and the distraction of the populous through entertainment have likely long be enumerated (I’m sure Galileo would agree), but seem almost prophetic from science fiction authors when applied to cutting edge technology.
Brynn: ”The ability to read and process information--even if it's offensive and/or dangerous--from a critical viewpoint is what creates progress.”
Do you ever read the forewords and afterwords by the authors? I think you would love some of them written by Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut, as they express that sentiment exactly, and sometimes in great detail.
Stella: ”This book is...amazing! I normally dislike dystopian books...too depressing and sometimes horribly violent.”
&
Annemette: ”I usually never choose dystopian novels, as the future of the world looks terrible enough without reading how bad it could be.”
I love dystopian stories as a distraction from reality. I find it a reminder that things could be far worse. It’s like optimism through pessimism! :)
”I know people who only want to talk about the latest TV shows they watched last night, who don't read, who think that libraries are unnecessary in modern times.”
I know them too. It is sad…that is all there is to say.
Cordelia: ”I quite like dystopian…”
In addition to Fahrenheit, I quite liked Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (if for nothing else it introduced me to TANSTAAFL). If you like film, then Equilibrium is an overlooked movie that is very much influenced by Fahrenheit, albeit more action packed that exceedingly though provoking. (It is also a movie that inspired me to pick up a book of poetry by W.B. Yeats)
Right, well, let me apologize for the length, it wasn’t my intention. Also, let me apologize for any typos, it is late and I should be asleep. Finally, thanks for the opportunity, as other have said, most people I know only want to talk TV (or sports…on TV).
—R
Mod
Rowan! I only just saw this post - wow thank you so much. You took so so much time to write it I'm sure and it's great :)
I JUST discovered that HBO is releasing an adaptation of this book in May. And the teaser trailer just sent that same weird shiver down my spine - just like when I was reading this book!
But too bad for me, I don't have HBO! :( (lol)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhsF...
