Fahrenheit 451 (original 1953; edition 1996)

"Reading is at the center of our lives. The library is our brain. Without the library, you have no civilization"
- Ray Bradbury (taken from an interview with the author at the end of the book) ( )

2.5 stars ( )

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I really wish that it was longer; Bradbury's brevity is as satisfying as it is frustrating. ( )

Read this again this afternoon in honour of Ray Bradbury's passing last night. There are parts that feel even more shockingly relevant than the first times I read it. The man is a master for a reason. ( )

The 'Snowpocalypse' outside or whatever they're calling it now on the news has put me in the mood for some dystopian science-fiction (possibly followed by some post-apocalyptic? Why not!). Actually, the news programmes on TV relate to what seems most striking this time I've reread Fahrenheit 451 - the inanity and inconsequentiality of what's left of society. What is more representative in real life of the fictional pointless nonsense that Mildred watches on the wall-screens than entire news broadcasts that only tell us what we would know if we just looked out of the window? Specifically: it's snowing!

Of course there is the obvious issue of censorship with the book-burning firemen, but what is interesting is the society that has produced them. As Beatty tells Montag, it wasn't the government that forced the firemen on the people, rather it was the people that wanted them. What may have begun as a minority-empowering idea quickly progressed to 'political correctness gone mad' as our real-life media would put it: anything that potentially could offend anyone must be destroyed, thus all books are burned and the media talk about nothing important.

While it is easy to draw parallels between the society depicted in Fahrenheit 451 and our own, there is one important difference: it has never been easier to share information, or stories, thoughts and opinions. Even if a country started burning all its books, at least the majority of their content could be sent via the internet and safely preserved on the other side of the world. Meanwhile, more-or-less instant communication means that people can get together more easily to protest against and hopefully stop harmful initiatives such as the book burning. This doesn't mean, though, that sitting in front of a computer is the answer to everything: instead of just reading about or watching things, we should all sometimes take out our "Seashell"-like earphones and, like Clarisse McClellan, go out and experience our world first-hand. ( )