Let's talk: Fahrenheit 451
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- Adurna101
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Let's talk: Fahrenheit 451
For those that don't know what the book is about, it is essentially a book that is set in the future, where firemen no longer put out fires, they start them. The firemen's sole job is to go around, and burn any books that they find, or are alerted of. The book is really about a particular fireman, Guy Montag, who has a crisis of 'faith' (in what the firemen do). I tried to give there a little description, without any spoilers, so I do apologise for it's poor quality.
As a side question, for those that have read the book (only because they'll understand what I mean), if you could hide and protect one book (in a similar situation as Fahrenheit 451 is set), what book would it be?
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If I could save one book, I'd probably save East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It's one of the few books to make me cry, and it helped get me through a crisis of faith. I think I owe it.
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If I had to save one book, it would be the original novel of Phantom of the Opera. I couldn't give up my favorite book, ever!
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- millieanne
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I enjoyed reading Fahrenheit 451, but I do generally find dystopian novels pretty simplistic? I think having the focus on a really negative possible future, and in this case, focussing solely on one really negative element of this possible future, would be better suited to a long-form essay than a literary work. I feel pretty similarly about George Orwell's books - if you're trying to argue a specific point, just argue it ...
I'd be interested to hear if other people can think of examples of dystopian works that are a bit more complex and interesting (and perhaps more plot/character focussed rather than argument focussed)?
If I had to save one book, it would be Diana Wynne Jones' 'Charmed Life'. I would have said 'Harry Potter', but I think, like the characters at the end of Fahrenheit 451, I've actually got that one memorised - I could just rewrite it sneakily myself.
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As to the question which book I would save, this seems so obvious to me, without even a hint of forethought, it would be Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. That book moulded me into the person I am today and is my all time favorite novel.
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LivreAmour217 wrote:I really, really enjoyed this book. I personally believe that it's all about censorship run amok and the intellectual numbness of technology. Although books are not yet illegal, I see many parallels between modern American culture and Bradbury's futuristic dystopian one. We live in a time when access to books is easier than ever, but it seems that many Americans would rather watch television, play videogames, or have shallow conversations in social media than absorb the contents of a good book. But perhaps I am being too negative--the existence of this online community is proof that we may avoid such a bleak future. As long as there are enough people who value knowledge and creativity, books will always be around.
This is exactly my take. There are so many parallels between the world in F451 and the world we live in. I remember when I read this book, the scene with the car going 90 miles an hour and the 200 foot advertisement along the road really hit me. When this was written, that wasn't really in existence. Some authors have a brilliant knack for predicting the future. To me, this novel is an exact metaphor for the loss of reading that exists today. Social media and television has essentially made it unimportant to read. Even for school assignments you can just Google the book and have an entire synopsis and summary and you never have to crack the pages. It is truly heart breaking. I did feel extremely anticlimactic at the ending though. (SPOILER!) I get the bombing and the attack ,but then he just walks along a train track and that's it? Where did his spirit and fight go? What happens next? I felt as though the author just, got tired and said "you know what? I'm done."
Languages never spoken.
Colors that should not be.
Lives never opened.
Eyes that never see.
And then the page is turned, a universe created.
We are gods.
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- Himmelslicht
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Fahrenheit 451 is the kind of work that happens once in a lifetime and it exists, to always remind us what really matters in our existence.
What would be of a world that was empty of books and culture for so long that people lived as hollow shells, living an empty life?
Ray Bradbury projected the idea for the book and rented a typewriter in the local public library, writing a plot so engaging and mentally stimulating that would become History.
Fahrenheit 451 deals with a world somewhere in the future (imagine the 50's projected in an analog television of 15 inches in the 80's) where some inventions that we have today were mere dreams at Bradbury's time. The headphones were called Seashells (and I like that name better) and remote controlled drones designed for criminal chases are called Hounds. Fortunately the destruction of culture did not come true, at least thus far.
Firefighters, to a certain extent known to fight fires at home and save people from burning alive, came only to have a single function: burning books. To not allow the proliferation of culture spread, prevent human beings make use of their brains for anything that was not socialize or superfluously absorb television programs as sponges. Bradbury was not mistaken in the latter: today we increasingly see the effects of inept and useless TV programs on the brain of the masses, leading fewer and fewer people to read books.
Guy Montag, the main character, is one of those firemen who later realizes that if someone is able to die in a room full of books, it must be because books certainly have a type of magic worth enjoying. Montag starts stealing books with the help of a friend and falls in love with them, and it is from this point on that he realizes that his life will never be the same again, as possessing books is a crime against society.
In a way, Bradbury already predicted something that has gradually been happening: while more and more people have access to information, this massive quantity of information loses its power. There are more books than ever before because more and more people have access to the media, but unfortunately, some of the most important and exclusive information is lost in the excess of inclusion attempts in a very small range that our attention is able to retain.
The book constantly bombards us with powerful sentences that stay in the mind and are impossible to forget. The narrative follows a straight, firm and determined step and each page is draws us in for what will happen next. The events follow one another in tandem and Bradbury does not keep us hanging in the mess or hassle for even a second: it is easy to read, interesting and intuitively very well written and structured. I do not have a single flaw to point out.
- Gustave Flaubert