Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title as "'the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
The novel has been the subject of interpretations focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas for change. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. …
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title as "'the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
The novel has been the subject of interpretations focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas for change. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature.
In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal. It later won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984 and a "Retro" Hugo Award, one of a limited number of Best Novel Retro Hugos ever given, in 2004. Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.
This is a masterfully written book about the future and how people in the future will be 'trained' to use their mind. Or perhaps not. The story tells about the adventures of fireman Guy Montag who, at a certain moment in his life, starts thinking about his life, the life of the people around him, and about what he does for a living. Once he gets a grasp on that, everything around him changes.
It's an old book (published in 1953), and it is shocking to see how many things in this book are happening now, be it not to the extent that Mr. Bradbury described in his novel. If you are interested in the ways of how censorship is applied and also like a good book, I can recommend this book.
Review of 'Fahrenheit 451 de Ray Bradbury' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I didn't read this in school as so many people did. I read it first in 2008 (brief "review" preserved below), and I wanted to read it again because he died last week and I thought perhaps I should give it another shake, since it's the book everyone knows him for. However, coming back to it a second time I still have the feeling that either 1) people haven't really read it, so their praise is in ignorance, or 2) I am somehow unable to understand it.
There are obvious parallels that can be made between F. 451 and today's world with it's "social media" that requires people to focus on little electronic screens to communicate with each other. That said, I think Bradbury does what all grumpy old men do and rushes to the extreme. Yes, Facebook and Twitter and website forums (not to mention BBS and #irc and …
I didn't read this in school as so many people did. I read it first in 2008 (brief "review" preserved below), and I wanted to read it again because he died last week and I thought perhaps I should give it another shake, since it's the book everyone knows him for. However, coming back to it a second time I still have the feeling that either 1) people haven't really read it, so their praise is in ignorance, or 2) I am somehow unable to understand it.
There are obvious parallels that can be made between F. 451 and today's world with it's "social media" that requires people to focus on little electronic screens to communicate with each other. That said, I think Bradbury does what all grumpy old men do and rushes to the extreme. Yes, Facebook and Twitter and website forums (not to mention BBS and #irc and USENET before them...) have created postmodern vices, but they haven't annihilated "society" in any way. Bradbury's fears about greater amounts of time being spent in virtuo, so to speak, have been realized, but the results are vastly different than he claimed — as evidenced by my friends who have posted pics on Facebook and elsewhere from marathons, Tough Mudders and mountain biking sessions in the last month. I don't mean to imply that Bradbury was predicting anything, but his conclusion that society can only be saved by a bunch of academics (with perhaps a recently converted blue collar worker) after the rest of the world destroys itself is an elitistly myopic view.
But more than the ideas, I simply don't believe the book. Montag is a hysterical character, in all that adjective's senses. He goes from maniacally spraying people's homes with kerosene to memorizing passages of the Bible in almost no time. He simply makes no sense as a character. And how exactly does one learn to read in a society that has been burning books for generations, and chastising them for even longer? I don't think an author has to completely describe a society to explore it, and often I think authors err too much the other way by over-explaining how things work, but the society should at least make some sort of internal sense.
Like I said, may I'm just unable to understand it. -- 2008: Not as good as everyone seems to claim. While some of the ideas presented by Mr. Bradbury are certainly interesting, this book has not aged very well.
"Fahrenheit 451," first penned by Ray Bradbury in 1953, is another fatalistic look at a futuristic dystopia where "firemen" no longer put out fires--they start them. Written ingeniously and built upon the beautiful characterization of Guy Montag, this tiny novel has the power to invoke a call to arms in even the most stalwart of book haters. In the age of the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook, "Fahrenheit 451" is a apocalyptic warning to the dangers of losing physical books--and the dangers of walking down such a treacherous path.
“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is an immensely powerful, well-written dystopia that gets in one's mind through its deceptively simple narrative and heartfelt earnestness. A book about the dangers of censorship and modern-mass culture, it is just as reason...ant today as it was nearly sixty years ago. One notices immediately the vividness of the characters, drawn deeply and delicately. One feels for these characters, even if we do not know much about them – which is a testament to Bradbury's power as a writer and how much he cares about his work. One feels the tension and confusion of Guy, the enchantment of Clarisse, compelled by Beatty's defense of the system, pity for Millie's blindness, and even fear of the Mechanical Hound. What makes the book powerful in my opinion is not its relevance but its simplicity. Unlike books like “1984” and “Brave New World,” the changes in this future society are quite subtle and the story itself is on the surface quite simple. Furthermore, Montag's journey from fireman to rebel is intensely personal and his awakening is has a very visceral feeling - my favorite moment in the book is in part three when Guy is walking through the wilderness and he is beginning to feel nature, to feel the world around him in a new way. The numbness he felt in the city has begun to melt away in a world of new sensations. So much has been said about this particular book but as Bradbury attempts to get across, the books are not important but it is what books do to people which is important. People are the carriers of the ideas within books. Bradbury, an admitted bibliophile, calls not so much for books but for thinking, questioning people informed by the wisdom of books, their worlds expanded and made complex by their ideas.
First of all, Bradbury is a much better writer than I remember him being. His action writing lacks clarity at times, but the major passages in the novel (Beatty explaining the history of the Fireman and needling Montag with literary allusions, Montag yelling at his wife and her friends, Granger explaining the phoenix and the importance of remembering) are all amazingly well-written. Second, I think F451 is more relevant now than it has ever been before. The world of the novel is strikingly similar to today: constant war, obsession with television (including mindless game shows), a willful cultural and historical illiteracy, even the part where the man on the TV says Mildred's name is similar to the recent Old Spice promotion where Old Spice Man would say Hello, {insert Twitter Name} instead of Hello, Ladies. It's scary how accurate Bradbury is in his vision of the near future, excepting of …
First of all, Bradbury is a much better writer than I remember him being. His action writing lacks clarity at times, but the major passages in the novel (Beatty explaining the history of the Fireman and needling Montag with literary allusions, Montag yelling at his wife and her friends, Granger explaining the phoenix and the importance of remembering) are all amazingly well-written. Second, I think F451 is more relevant now than it has ever been before. The world of the novel is strikingly similar to today: constant war, obsession with television (including mindless game shows), a willful cultural and historical illiteracy, even the part where the man on the TV says Mildred's name is similar to the recent Old Spice promotion where Old Spice Man would say Hello, {insert Twitter Name} instead of Hello, Ladies. It's scary how accurate Bradbury is in his vision of the near future, excepting of course for the lack of giant robot spider-dogs in today's society.
Beautifully written and absolutely haunting. A chilling portrait of a dystopian-utopian future made all the more terrifying due to how much of this society is visible in our own. Hopefully, it starts to become more outlandish as time passes instead of becoming more and more plausible as it has been.
It's much scarier now than it was when I first read it about ten years ago.
But then again I was 15 then, so I might have missed some nuance.
Review of 'Fahrenheit 451 de Ray Bradbury' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Absolutely fantastic! Instantly one of the best books I have ever read. I cannot believe that Bradbury can turn out that horrible [book:The Martian Chronicles] and then write something as amazing as 451. I have to watch the movie again now.
I know this is a "summer reading" school selection, but I highly recommend this for EVERYONE.
