
Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel published in 1953 by Ray Bradbury, depicts a future where books are banned, burned, and entertainment is limited to mindless media consumption. The story follows Guy Montag, a fireman whose job is to burn books, but he begins to question the society's anti-intellectualism and conformity. Bradbury's writing style is described as lyrical, with a deeper meaning that critiques censorship, media manipulation, and the consequences of a society devoid of critical thinking.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of suicide, violence, and censorship, which may be distressing to some readers.
From The Publisher:
Nowadays firemen start fires. Fireman Guy Montag loves to rush to a fire and watch books burn up. The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden. Then he met a seventeen-year old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who told him of a future in which people could think, and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do!
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10 comment(s)
writing style
the idea is awesome, but the realisation is terrible, one of the worst i’ve seen. if this book was written by a good author i would have loved it.
finally read it! i can call myself...well read?
(probably not, until i read moby dick, which i recently heard was homoerotic whale porn, so looking forward to that)
i have to say, i always thought i knew what this book was about:
how it's bad to burn books because books make the world go 'round, pen is mightier than the sword, etc
but bradbury is far more subtle than that
books aren't good in and of themselves, they're good because they make people think for themselves
they're good because they uphold the first amendment: you must be educated, well-read, before you can know what you're speaking about
sometimes books make us do bad stuff too, but ultimately they allow for progress towards a world where we learn from our mistakes
obligatory modern feminist criticism of old school sci fi:
-every woman in this book is fridged
-possibly contains the first ever manic pixie dream girl
however, it does pass the bechdel test!
First Read :2016
First Rating :
***4.0****
Second Read:2020
Second Rating:
***4.5****
Set in a Dystopian world where Fireman sets fire rather than puts them off, our Protaonist Guy Montag is a fireman. He is happy to see things (especially books) turn in to ashes, he loves what he does. But he meets a 17 year old girl Clarisse, who opens up a new perspective about the world. And he questions the reality about his current beliefs.
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
He doesn't even care when his wife Mildred ( who watches TV shows with virtual relatives ) attempts suicide and that scares Montag. The absense of empathy towards his own wife rattles him. It dawns on him that he is not a happy man and he is living a very superficial life which rarely gives time to talk to oneself and each other.
“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
Motag decides to see what is in the books that has made the Firemen to burn them. And he takes a book from a house, which he himself went to set fire. But he has his own satck of books which is illegal to carry. As the days pass and circumstances change where he himself becomes the victim.
“But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.”
Ray Bradbury has written a book which is almost accurate prediction of the current world. A world where people are enslaved by the technology or gadgets and are least bothered about the world and life around them. A world where the power of quiet and self exploration has little place in it.
“Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.”
Happy Reading!!!
Interesting critique of anti-intellectualism, technology addiction, violence, hedonism, capitalism, and war, but felt a bit heavy handed and preachy at times! This is a classic dystopian novel, and the themes presented are still scarily relevant (if not even more so with reality television, smart phones, etc) today as when it was originally published! However, things move very quickly and I got the impression sometimes that Bradbury was being a little Old Man "Get off my lawn!" in his approach. I am glad I finally got around to reading this classic, though!
Absolutely adored the prose. Loved the way the story unfolded. Favorite antagonist of any book.
A dystopian world where books are banned which leads to a society controlled by the government. You can see parts of the book in reality nowadays. And at first I didn’t like Mildred, montags wife but my feelings changed. She would choose the “family” on tv over her own husband. It’s sad what society done to her.
Not much happens in this story. The protagonist's job is to burn books, but after a while he wonders if it's the right thing to do. The end
Read for the first time in the 5th grade, was in awe. Then re read for 8th grade still struck a chrord with me. Ray Bradbury o e of my favorite authors.
Brief, terse and prescient. One of my favorite novels to teach as it never becomes out-of-date and never fails to provoke engaged conversation.
About the Author:
Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction. Widely known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and his science fiction and horror story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and I Sing the Body Electric (1969), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American writers. While most of his best known work is in speculative fiction, he also wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine (1957) or the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). Recipient of numerous awards, including a 2007 Pulitzer Citation, Bradbury also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick[2] and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted to comic book, television and film formats. On his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream"
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