Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
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Book Reviews of Fahrenheit 451
Book Review: Classical Sci Fi
Summary: 5 Stars
Ray Bradbury's books are insightful and thought-provoking because he writes fictional short stories and novels about the future, with a common theme on how society uses technology. In particular, Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451, discusses relevant concerns about applying technology to teaching. In the back of the 50th Anniversary Edition published by Del Rey Books, there is a recent interview with Bradbury where he discusses his concerns about using radio and television in the classroom as a replacement for sound traditional teaching methodologies. When Bradbury wrote the book in the 1950's, he imagines a society where reading is no longer taught. In his recent book interview, Bradbury expresses that he is still concerned about the quality of education today and believes that there is a current problem in the educational system, with less emphasis placed on quality in comparison to when he attended school back in 1926.
Many readers feel that the book is about censorship but it actually focuses more specifically upon the idea of freedom. Bradbury says in the interview that he does not regard censorship as a problem within the United States and feels that there are many diverse groups who provide voices for various interests; yet, he considers television, including local news, as a culprit towards ignorance. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury attributes intelligence to free thinking and expresses that books are merely an agent towards learning and not a magical device to create intelligence. In a subtle way, Bradbury points out that wisdom comes from trial-and-error types of experiences and intellectual growth comes from making real-life decisions, albeit not always correct choices, but nonetheless, independent thinking is an important part of the learning process. In a democratic society, both freedom and independent choices are vital for keeping its structure sound.
The story goes something like this: there exists a dysfunctional, sick society where "thinking" is no longer valued and education is censored. Through the advent of radio and television, information is absorbed but there is no longer reflection or judgment over the validity of the source. Book burning becomes fashionable because "truth" is too disturbing. Firemen are used to keep social order and to maintain majority group satisfaction. In this time frame, religion exits but only serves to function as a media tool used for commercialism. The main character, Montag, is a fireman who sets fires to the homes where books are stored illegally. Over time, Montag is plagued by many questions, such as, why people are willing to die for books and why are the qualities of independent thinking not valued in his society? At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, he meets a teenage girl who asks him numerous questions about how the society is structured and what would happen if things were to change. He is particularly bothered with her question as to whether he is happy. This specific question brings an important issue to light; what constitutes freedom. What would happen if academic freedom became outlawed? As Montag grows sympathetic with the rebellious cause over intellectual freedom, he discovers the history behind why his culture became dysfunctional and what future scenario has to happen in order to change it. Reading is more than an action of digesting words but requires reflection and a foundation set towards higher thinking.
Overall Fahrenheit 451 provides intriguing concepts and a very interesting story line, although Bradbury finishes with a very weak ending. There is more than one way to change society, and not necessarily through the 1950's notion that an atomic bomb has to rip through social fabric in order to create new thinking. Yet perhaps, atomic war can serve as a powerful symbolic weapon to the destruction ignorance does to society and its people. His final advice to teachers is also useful: assess the quality of what is taught and encourage students to become independent thinkers.
In Bradbury's interview, he expresses that his concern with radio and television is over its application to learning. Even though he doesn't show how radio and television can be used in education or explains the definition of quality media, Bradbury does not dismiss the idea that electronic transmissions can be used effectively. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag is told directly by Professor Faber that books do not create learning but that they are merely vehicles to describe thoughts. Montag, however, is still bothered about the role of books and education because he recognizes that men spend their entire lives to record thoughts and experiences, and Montag believes that society can learn from this type of wisdom. In fact, at the moment when Montag begins to question his social structure, it leads him into independent thought and freedom. Furthermore, because Montag is able to discern between authors who contribute greatly to social thinking and writers who produce work for entertainment purposes, he is willing eventually to put his own life at risk for knowledge.
Yet, whether radio, television, or books are used for teaching, the point is clear, it is the way that they are used and the values which are placed upon the medium that makes a difference in learning. A page from a book can be just as meaningless as a television commercial that is tuned out by the listener. How teachers reach students is a very critical issue in Bradbury's Farenheit 451. Montag becomes the next teacher and leader in his dysfunctional society, and as observers, we too can learn from Montag about our future roles in determining social values. This book is small enough to read within a few evenings but has enough material to "think" about for a long time.
Book Review: Censorship in an alternate society
Summary: 5 Stars
The story, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is about an alternate society set in the future where cars travel 100 miles per hour, TV walls interact with people and books are banned. Guy Montag is an enthusiastic fireman, who enjoys pouring kerosene over books and burning them and the entire house. In this society, firemen do not put out fires. They start them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. This book was action-packed and involved a lot of good writing. For example there were many metaphors in this book. They helped to connect Montag's society to ours, and show the frightening similarities between the two.
Mildred Montag is Guy Montag's wife. She is an example of the people the government wants to create. Mildred is shallow and cares more about her possessions than about herself or her husband. Also, Mildred never shows interest in what Montag has to say. She regards him as an annoying younger brother rather than her husband. Mildred is the stereotypical housewife of this time period. She values all the things her society does. She seems to not think for herself, and only knows what the society wants her to know.
In the beginning of this book, Montag seems perfectly content with his life and his job. He says it is a pleasure when he burns people's houses. He loves the smell of kerosene that comes from his job, and `wears it like a perfume'. Then one day Montag meets a girl named Clarrise McClean, and his life changes forever.
Clarrise is a peculiar girl for the time period. She thinks. She enjoys smelling the leaves in fall, staying up late at night talking and watching the stars. Clarrise seems like a girl that came from our time period and was placed in Montag's. The norm for teenagers in this book is to play video games, play sports, and kill each other. There are many gangs in this society and often innocent teenagers are shot. Also, teenagers like to drive their cars hundreds of miles per hour to see how many people they can run off the road. If a pedestrian were to be crossing the street in this society, they would most definitely be killed. However, no one walks anywhere. Rather, they take the subway or they drive to wherever they need to go. Pedestrians are seen as weird and are often watched by the police to make sure they don't do anything illegal.
When Montag meets Clarrise and talks to her, he immediately wants to know more about her. She is unusual to him, and he likes that. Montag loves the way Clarrise doesn't care about what anyone else thinks of her. Clarrise teaches Montag to question society when the society seems wrong.
The day after Montag met Clarrise, the firemen were called to a site where there were books in need of burning. Montag seemed detached from the routine that usually captured his every waking hour. The firemen were at the house of a woman who had hidden books in her attic. When the other firemen were pouring kerosene over the books, getting ready to burn them Montag stole one. He put the offensive book under his jacket and in doing so saved it from being burnt.
When Montag got home he revealed to Mildred the stolen book. He opened up the air vent in his room and exposed 20 more books! Mildred was horrified, and gathered the books so she could burn them in her incinerator. Montag ordered Mildred to stop and said he wanted to read the books. He reasoned the authors must have spent their whole lives writing a book and therefore the books must be worth reading. Some people were willing to die for the ideas and opinions in these books, and Montag wanted to figure out why.
Mildred, like most of the society, took no interest in Montag's books. She knew that if she did, she could be sent to jail. Mildred did not want to risk ruining her reputation, or loosing her house and TV walls. After Montag realized that Mildred would be of no help to him, he decided to talk to someone. Montag needed someone who would be aware of what he was going through, and could help him understand the books. Montag recalled an elderly man, by the name of Faber, he met in the park years ago. Faber told Montag that he was once a literary professor and he loved books. Montag went to Faber's house to visit him there. He brought with him one of his stolen books; the Bible.
Faber eventually helped Montag in his quest to change the society. He told him that this couldn't be done quickly, but rather after a long period of time. Montag and Faber then began to discuss a plan to change society's views. They decided to place copies of books in firemen's homes. Then they would have the homes burnt. This would cause unease within the system and hopefully cause its demise.
This book is about a society similar to ours. They have censored everything possibly offesive, thus only keeping the facts. The society is terrified of stepping on the toes of minorities for fear that they will rebel. They believe the bigger your market, the less you have to handle controversy. The public doesn't want to read anything that might offend someone. This aspect of Montag's society sounds frighteningly like ours. People watch what they say in public so as not to offend anyone. Montag's society grew to hate books because they might cause an uprising. What their society wanted above all, was for everyone to be happy. The story of Fahrenheit 451 is of the coming of age of Guy Montag. It is about his heroic efforts to restore civilization to it's thinking. This was an astounding book, and it is great for people who like action, controversy, and to think about life.
Book Review: Analyzing Farenheit 451
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is, from an analytical standpoint, about the meaning of life, values and the reactions of people. The book begins with the main character, Montag, as you will realize he lives the life of the classical fireman. He burns books because it is what he is paid to do, he goes home to his wife that, since they have no children, sits around and watches T.V. all day, and is completely brainwashed by the society. Montag then encounters a girl, named Clarise, who thinks about the world and he wonders. Not too much later he goes to see a professor who helps him to think, himself, and in so doing puts Montag against the society that he was the idealist for not so long ago. This book can be analyzed as an insight to the meaning of life for the different characters have such contrasted views as to what the true meaning of life is. First of all there is Montag the protagonist of the story, he changes his meaning of life from, work at my job, that isn't too bad, so I can support my wife and she can be happy. Then contrastingly to what I considered as my view on life before is flawed, because my wife isn't really happy; for two reasons, first she almost kills herself, without thinking much of it, and, second she doesn't understand how to think so she really can't be that happy anyway. This leads him to think that his purpose in life is to try and enlighten some part of the society to induce thought and maybe make people really happy instead of the temporary solutions they use all day long. The second character that is the general view you get on the people in society is Mildred, who is basically every average housewife. Mildred is a living zombie of absolute brainwashed stupidity, she really isn't capable of her own thought and she thinks she is happy, since she can't really think for herself and their isn't much material around about the meaning of life, she really doesn't have a view, but her character, or moreover what she represents matters to the story and how life is viewed by general people. The third person that shows the meaning of life that is generally accepted is that if you please your superiors you have done your job in life, this character is captain Beatty. Beatty is an interesting character he knows what Montag knows that books let people think, he has also read many but he utterly supports the government without objection or dispute. He knows what the government wants; yet he agrees and he tries to convince Montag that he is right and the government is right and he is doing what must be done. These three characters show contrasted views of three beliefs on the meaning of life, or what is good.
Values are shown vividly in the book, there are different values shown, such as knowledge, material, and thought. The first example is the night call to the house where the woman burns with her books; this exemplifies value in knowledge. This is shown in what the books represent to her, she has such value in the knowledge, which the books contain, and value in the importance of this she doesn't feel she can live after they have been burned. The second instance where value is shown is in Mildred, and her value of material, in this case her parlor. The scene where this is most relevant is when Montag comes to burn the house, she complains more about her parlor as she goes away than she does about her husband who will be sent to jail. The third time value is shown though this is in no order is in Clarise. The value she represents is thought, she values thought without even having to try, she values it because her family values thought and she is fed on thought and conversation; throughout her life by her uncle and parents she is thought the value and meaning of thought, and so she expresses this value.
The reactions of people are also in the theme of this book, for many times this is shown. The different reactions I will discuss are: first, the society's reaction to banning books, second the reaction Captain Beatty has to books, and third Montag's reaction to Clarise. First, I will discuss society's reaction to the banning of books. Society in this world is not so much different from ours, yet a ban against books wouldn't make sense to people, but it seems logical to people in this world. I am for the opinion that this is because the government structures the world around fast pleasure instead of the pleasure of knowledge, so it can be easy to ban books and make people into what Mildred and her friends represent. I believe given time this would easily follow through in our fast paced world, not because people wouldn't fight but because of people that wouldn't really care. The second reaction I would like to discuss is the reaction of Captain Beatty to his reading of books. This is intriguing, because even after reading many books Beatty still hates them, this is odd since the general reaction to something you hate is not to do it, yet Beatty knows his enemy like a friend an intelligent, hateful method of enforcing your opinion. The third, is Montag's reaction to Clarise, she doesn't have to do much to catalyze his thought, this is most likely due to the fact that he thinks a lot but not about the right things.
To conclude this book has many an Interesting aspect to it, and is worth a good read, make sure to remember not to be a person that doesn't care.
Book Review: 24th Century version of RIF: "Reading is Flammable"
Summary: 5 Stars
Ray Bradbury's 1953 phantasmagoric blockbuster "Fahrenheit 451", written at the height of the fabulist's authorial powers, is a tale of a world gone mad, a topsy-turvy America in which black leather-clad firemen race laughing on their steely Salamanders on midnight alarms, not to quench fires but to start them.
The firemen of the nightmare world of "Fahrenheit 451", of which the novel's hero Guy Montag is a dedicated one, comprise an army turned against an enemy far more insidious than Flame: they mobilize against ideas, and turn their napalm hoses on the feeble paper on which those subversive ideas are printed, and on the vulnerable binding in which the paper is housed.
When I first read "Fahrenheit 451" nearly two decades ago, I felt beaten down, nauseated and fatigued. I believed then, and believe now, that it was the most scarily bleak and mercilessly depressing book I had ever read. Even then, I felt the cushion between Bradbury's 24th century nightmare and what we call modern reality was thin and worn.
Bradbury gave us until the 24th century to submerge ourselves in the dark, sedated, media-slaked night of "Fahrenheit 451." Looking around me, I have come to the conclusion that Bradbury was a pretty optimstic guy.
Like Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" is a dystopian vision, a glimpse into a future America that is frighteningly familiar and yet horribly wrong. It is a technologically advanced, subtle, sophisticated world, full of high-definition television screens that take up an entire wall and beam 24 hour programming to a vacant and eager television audience, 24-hour Reality programming that serves up a TV "Family" more engaging, more lifelike, more agreeable, than their own.
This is a world where bored, vacuous housewives exchange barbs on the latest presidential contenders laced with observations on which candidate is the most handsome, and which has the most noticeable (to the Television Audience, naturally) facial bunion or boil. It is a world of 'seashells', tiny earphones designed to nest in the inner ear and breathe a sussurus of music into the mind of a medicated listener.
Like his English counterparts Huxley and Orwell, Bradbury has served up a soft tyrannical state manned, not by the zealous, but by zombies. It is a world ruled by the media-addicted, the apathetic, the listless, the medicated, the overdosed, the sleeping. Books have been banned, and consigned to the Flame, not because of a despotic regime, but by the common, courteous consensus of a modern democracy desperately eager not to give offense to anyone.
Sound familiar?
Much like "1984", "Fahrenheit 451" works because it drills down on an unlikely protagonist. Guy Montag, at least when we meet him, sincerely loves his job. His fellow firemen are not zealots or fascists, but simply pragmatic working men who enjoy what they do. There are unpleasant aspects to the work, naturally---among them the incineration of an old eccentric woman who prefer to die with her beloved books---but like most of "Fahrenheit 451"'s society, Montag prefers not to think about it. Take a pill, or better still take two---and don't call me in the morning. For Montag, truly, it is a 'pleasure to burn'.
Like most revolutionaries, though, Guy Montag is simmering from within; dissatisifed with his wife, whose stomach must be pumped on the very evening he returns from the euphoria of the Burn; dissatisifed with the apathetic society in which he lives; dissatisfied with a job which fails to give expression to the rebel soul that burns within, that impels him to challenge his wife's brazen, flippant friends.
There are three catalysts that propel Montag to rebellion: the girl Clarisse, whom he befriends; the immolation of the old woman at the Fire; and his own clandestine book collection.
"Fahrenheit 451" succeeds as both jeremiad and prophecy, true, but it also engages because Bradbury is a literary master: his spare, mechanical narrative of Montag's wife having her stomach pumped by two callous, dirty, jocular technicians practically breathes pure horror, and is one of the most soul-deadening passages I have ever read.
But "451" also succeeds because it is a mirror of our own increasingly apathetic, violent, media-saturated world: is it so hard to see ourselves in Montag's trackless, cookie-cutter suburban landscape where bookish teenage girls are run down beneath the wheels of speeding pranksters, themselves bored and looking for the cheap thrill of ultra-violence? Is it so hard to see ourselves in the avidity of the Television Audience, watching the panicked, doomed, frantic rictus face of the condemned man stalked by the mechanical Hound, the images of his death broadcast back by the electronic antennaes on the monster's back? Isn't that merely COPS or "Survivor" with a bite?
I've seen the Future, and it works. Because it is our world I see, our world upon us---for that reason, "Fahrenheit 451" is the most terrifying book I have ever read.
JSG
Book Review: The importance of silence
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine living in a world in which you are so disconnected from other people that you spend your waking hours in your parlor surrounded on all sides by your TV "family". You sleep at night with ear buds whispering sweet nothings in your ear. There's a war going on and world-wide economic problems, but you don't notice. In fact, you don't want to notice because that would upset you. You don't read books because that might upset you too. You don't talk to people or even think because that too might upset you. So you spend your time amidst the flashing lights in your parlor or speeding 100 miles an hour down the road - anything that distracts you from anything upsetting.
This is the world Guy Montag lives in, is part of and actively enforces. He is a "fireman" - one who starts fires rather than putting them out. When the alarm goes off, he races to the scene and glories in the smell of kerosene and the power of his igniter. He is merely protecting people from danger - the danger of books. He feels triumphant as he watches them flutter like dying birds amidst the flames. Life is good. He is happy.
Or is he? The first clue is that Montag seems to be the only one who doesn't like the Mechanical Hound so much. But his "happiness" really starts to unravel when he meets Clarisse McClellan, a girl who's "seventeen and crazy". She does really odd things like take walks, look at the stars, talk to people. She asks Montag if it's true that firemen used to put out fires? Nah, couldn't be.
Montag is irritated and infuriated by her, but still drawn to her, awakened by her. Then one day she's gone and Montag's world is never the same. He's haunted by a fire in which a woman was burned - chose to burn herself - along with her books. He secretly steals a book from the fire. Actually, his hands have been doing that all along, but he's never let his mind know it. Montag becomes drawn to - obsessed by - books. He tries to share them with his wife, Mildred, but the more he reaches out, the more she retreats to the parlor "family" to soothe her distress. He's going to ruin her happiness. Montag secretly turns to the one person left who might help him - or at least hear him. A old professor he met once, actually talked to.
Of course, nothing that Montag does is actually secret. His Fire Chief, Beatty, knows the anguish Montag is going through. He tries to explain it all to Montag. How books cause insecurity and conflict. How they conflict with each other and are, ultimately, empty. How people are better off - happier - without them. How the people themselves wanted the books banned and burned. Beatty tries to teach Montag a lesson and then give him the opportunity to return to the fold. But the fabric is already rent, and things unravel as they inevitably must.
This book is remarkably prescient for having been written in 1953. Not only does Bradbury accurately predict the invention of large-screen TVs that can be hung on a wall and personalized entertainment systems that can be plugged directly into one's ears, but he predicted much of the dystopian society we now live in. Wars, famine and economic crises are erupting all over the world, but we're more concerned about our "family" - Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, the Palins, among others. People are going hungry, but all is right with the world so long as we can have our SUVs and iPhones.
"Fahrenheit 451" isn't so much about government censorship. Sure, the Firemen operate under the auspices of the government, but it's a democratic government. The government operates on behalf of the people. It is the people who have demanded the suppression of knowledge because it is messy, unsettling and "unhappy". The people don't want to be roused from their pleasurable bubble of overstimulation. True thought and relatedness - and the pauses and silences necessary for them - are far more threatening than being "comforted" (controlled) by a benign authoritarian government.
Nevertheless, "Fahrenheit 451" optimistically predicts a world in which, if enough people can hold on to enough shreds of the knowledge contained in books and passed down generation to generation, eventually the cycle of destroying knowledge as threatening will cease. Wisdom will eventually permeate enough of the world to be able to withstand the destructive forces of fear and ignorance. I'd like to share Bradbury's optimism, but I'm not sure I can. Within my lifetime I've seen education devalued and ignorance celebrated. Wisdom may win out in the end, but I fear our civilization will face the same end as Montag's before that happens.
But aw, heck, let's talk about something important. When does the next "Dancing with the Stars" begin?