Fahrenheit 451

While I didn't respect this book back when I was in high school, now that I am older I have reread and more fully understand this novel. Books like this are always terrible to write a report or critique on but are a fun read when there is no pressure. I ended up picking up a copy and reading it in less than a week. I will plan to read more Bradbury in the future.

I am a few years out of college and most people are shocked to find out that I have never read "Fahrenheit 451." Given how much of an avid reader I am, it is rather shocking that I had never read this. I was never assigned this in High School, though in retrospect I would have rather read this than the books I read in High School, such as John Steinbeck novels, my arch nemesis. I was also shocked to see that as I'm writing this 79 people gave this book a rating of one star. Clearly these people do not know what is out there; this book is not that bad. Granted I have some misgivings about the book, but it brings up some excellent concepts and I can't help but feel these people lack the education level to go beyond what the book is about. Maybe I am simply thinking on this level because I am older and can no longer truly identify with the High School mentality, but I don't think I ever did. There is this factor and the fact that their reviews were quite poorly written for the most part, so they clearly lacked literary prowess and their reviews do not hold much weight.

Either way you look at it this book is now considered quite the classic. It is usually lumped together with Orwell's "1984" and I do agree with others that "1984" was the better story. Orwell created a much more vibrant and tangible world, Bradbury on the other hand did not succeed nearly as well. I can't help but think that Bradbury likely had read "1984" and thought of a slightly different worldview and thus did not feel the need to flesh his ideas out nearly as much. Whatever was the motivation for this, it was not a great move. This book starts off fairly slowly and ends on a rather sour note making the reader want to know what happened after.

Essentially the reader is thrust into a futuristic world where it is illegal to read or own books. Thus most of the population is borderline mentally challenged and gets most of its information through news blips on their television screens or these radio earbud things. (Strangely we have earbud headphones now that are quite popular.) During this technological advancement they also made houses fireproof and thus no longer needed firemen, but they eventually developed a new job for them... burning books. Guy Montag, a fireman, is our protagonist throughout the story and after meeting a young girl that sends his mind reeling he ends up unconsciously working against this perverted society. He starts to slowly figure out that his wife is essentially a zombie to this society and she doesn't have any substance to her person. The book focuses more on his emotional responses to learning all of these things, and thus in heightened emotional states he doesn't make very great decisions. Although, his Fire Chief, Beatty, is the main antagonist and pursues Montag after he figures out what is really going on with his employee. Beatty was probably one of my favorite characters because he was so eloquently spoken. Unfortunately Montag was no real match for such a man's intellect and there was never a real battle of wits between them. Eventually Montag's disgust for society grows to paramount levels and he naturally becomes the outlaw of the land. Naturally, I couldn't help but see the parallel to 1984's characters. A great fugitive chase takes place and his chased by a robot dog, which is pretty much the only major weak part of this futuristic world, mostly due to the fact it's a goofy idea. Anyway, Montag covers his scent, though I can't help but think this is unrealistic even for this novel knowing what I do about genetics, pheromones and computer systems. Technically a robot dog primarily used for its olfactory sense should be able to detect him no matter what, because on a molecular level you still emit your scent.

I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say the book eventually abruptly ends. I felt like it was rather lacking at this point because I wanted to know what happened afterwards. I can't really give away the ending of the book because there really wasn't an ending. Of which, I left a ton of stuff out here and never even explained what actually happened in full, so don't feel cheated out of the adventure of the book. Once you get into this book the middle section is great and moves along quite briskly, but it trails off eventually.

The book is important from a literary perspective because it really shows some of the major dangers in censorship. It even outlines things that are done now. How about the part of this book that points out that it all started off catering to the minorities... how often is that done today. We need to accommodate the small groups so that everyone is happy, it doesn't matter if it's wrong? This is happening more and more in the world today, like if a child has problems learning then it's not the parents fault, it's the schools fault, or it's some obscure genetic related fault, thus it is no the child's responsibility to learn anything anymore. How about making books abridged today to bolster a High Schoolers interest in getting to read a classic? Snip off a few words here, a few words there. Obviously they wouldn't find these books interesting so we have to dumb them down to their intellectual level. Naturally this will help progress society?

That's how it all starts, and then people start to wonder why they need the full text at all, why not a paragraph summary? Why not a single sentence? Bradbury spells it out plainly for us in this book that that is exactly what happened in his imagined future. How long before simplicity replaces completeness in our society? Now we learn today that blurbs mean everything and people get a major amount of information from quick blurbs to feed our fast paced society, so they just write clever headlines and people think they have the news. It's progressively happening more and more. People don't want to take the time to read, so they get Cliff Notes. They don't desire to comprehend on their own half the time, so they watch a movie about it where there is less internal struggle to see from the characters. People who think that the problems this novel portrays aren't happening today aren't living in the same world the rest of the intellectual community is living. Those people are living in Orwell's world, in Bradbury's world. And pretty soon they will be the ones making decisions for everyone else in this world when they are the ones who eventually come into power because they are the best at writing clever headlines for two bit readers.

A very elegantly written book with a strong message about technology, censorship, and control/freedom. Bradbury writes in a beautifully poetic way that is not only layered with meaning, but also gripping from beginning to end. I could not stop reading this book until finishing the last page. A great social commentary and story, and perhaps even more relevant today than when it was written. Highly, highly recommended!

Bradbury is without a doubt one of the strongest writers of our time and this book is arguably his best work. All the usual elements of vintage Bradbury are here--captivating prose, rich characters and a plot that never drags. Guy Montag, the main character, is a memorable figure and his adventures and personal development will stay with you. Bradbury weaves a wonderful, thought-provoking tale here that is sure to please. Highly recommended reading for anyone and a great place to begin reading Bradbury.

Farenheit 451 deals with the anti-intellectual society that is America. How everyone distracts themselved with materialistic values and doesn't take ahold of education as well as they should. This book was released ahead of it's time and is beautifully written. The way Bradbury describes each situation helps to place you right there with Montsg (the main character). It's a must have for any personal library.