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The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden.
Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do.
readafew: Both books are about keeping the people in control and ignorant.
BookshelfMonstrosity: A man's romance-inspired defiance of menacing, repressive governments in bleak futures are the themes of these compelling novels. Control of language and monitors that both broadcast to and spy on people are key motifs. Both are dramatic, haunting, and thought-provoking.… (more)
grizzly.anderson: A great study of how Bradbury came to write Fahrenheit 451 as a progress through his own short stories, letters and drafts. A similar collection of stories but without some of the other material is also available as "A Pleasure To Burn"
lquilter: "A Gift Upon the Shore" is a post-apocalyptic world; some people seek to preserve books and knowledge, but they are seen as a danger to others. Beautifully written.
The "warning dystopia" genre taken to another level. No matter how one chooses to understand the bunch of symbolism, metaphors and hidden messages included in this work, no one could be immune to the extreme and fierce irony depicted in a book about burning books. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a must read to those who understand the value of words and the power of being allowed to used it freely. ( )
Before reading, I assumed to find a sort of pseudo-intellectual story of angst in which there's the "woke" minority that battles an oppressive society full of the oblivious, blundering masses. However, I should have known not to ascribe the typical YA dystopian plot devices to a well-known and respected classic (No hate to YA dystopia novels, I enjoy them as well just in a different way!). The story is incredibly rich despite its succinctness. The plot follows the main character's self-liberation from a society that revolves around censorship and abolishing free thought in attempt to not rock the boat (i.e. questions of morality, existence, and complex, opposing thoughts/opinions). Keeping people constantly distracted, in perpetual motion, with incessant stimuli to leave no room for the inhabitants to question the invisible prison cell built around them. Those who do "break out" are not characterized as martyrs, gods, or wiser men, just simply people hoping for better which I find refreshing and realistic. The message rings true and the constant blurred repetition of life is all too familiar to myself as I assume it is to most readers. Sometimes, I wonder what life would be like if I didn't think. Having all these thoughts, feelings, and experiences tumbling around, fighting each other, walking hand in hand, or never crossing paths. I find it concerningly appealing to be rid of it. But, reading a book like Fahrenheit 451 makes you appreciate the struggles of learning, believing, and existing in shades other than black and white. Without it, life is pale. Yes, the colors sometimes clash, but I'd much prefer a room full of color over one devoid of it. And you might see a million rooms painted red time and time over, but you can still hope that one day someone will have the foresight (or afterthought) to paint one blue instead. ( )
Deservedly classic story, although not one of my favourites of Bradbury. I've always found his viewpoints individualistic and uncommon, so this moral tale of altered social norms seems less effective than his other works. ( )
Yes, there are definitely "better written" books and stories but somehow Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, hits me hard. You become immersed in a world that is attempting to eliminate books, ideas, from the world. At the core of the story is the question of how long can a person run on empty? Nothing but driving fast- really, really fast!, 24/7 noise and bright color- all provided by a government that wants to keep its populace busy but not thinking. In this story, Montag is a Fireman- he burns books. That's the purpose of Firemen, to burn things that distract people from distractions. Burn things that allow people to think, contemplate, have conversation... the allow people to sit quietly and just be. I love this book. I hat this book because this book shows what could happen. What in some ways is already happening. Censorship. The groups taking over. Each group being unhappy so everyone editing to make each group happy and then the material is just threadbare and boring and you have nothing to think about. At the end of the book, after the afterward, Bradbury writes. in CODA his feelings of censorship. I don't recall this part being what I read 50 years ago when I was in high school. But then, even though I know I read the book in high school, I did not recall the book as I read it now. CODA is wonderful. It also makes you dive deeper into the meaning of the book. Read this book, please. ( )
Warum nur haben ich mit dem Lesen so lange gewartet?? Was für ein tolles Buch! Ich sehe Parallelen zu aktuellen Bestrebungen, Bücher "umzuschreiben" um politisch nicht mehr korrekte Ausdrücke auszumerzen. So fängt das an, und ich frage mich wo das hinführt... Sehr beklemmend, aber unglaublich gut! Das Ende war ein bisschen... holprig?! Nimmt dem Buch aber nichts von seiner Klasse! ( )
"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." — Juan Ramón Jiménez
FAHRENHEIT 451: the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns
Dedication
This one, with gratitude, is for Don Congdon
First words
It was a pleasure to burn.
Quotations
Montag gazed beyond them to the wall with the typed lists of a million forbidden books.
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.
But that's the wonderful things about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing.
I'm afraid of children my own age. they kill each other. Did it always use to be that way? My uncle says no. Six of my firends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid. My uncle says his grandfather remembered when children didn't kill each other. But that was a long time ago when they had things different. They believed in responsibility, my uncle says. Do you know, I'm responsible. I was spanked when I needed it, years ago. And I do all the shopping and housecleaning by hand.
But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.
The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. Of course you couldn't know this, of course you still can't understand what I mean when I say all this.
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.
Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.
Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more "literary" you are. That's my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often.
Most of us can't rush around talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book.
"Stuff your eyes with wonder," he said, "live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal."
The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden.
Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met 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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"The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning... along with the houses in which they were hidden." Fahrenheit 451 is an enlightening story that is almost daunting. In a place where firemen build fires to burn books, this story is somewhat forboding because although it may seem extreme, it causes the reader to look at how much we take books and freedom for granted. Guy Montag goes outside the norm of a society where relationships are based on material things in order to try to discover how life would be if one were to actually think and live for themselves instead of being told what to do and how to behave.
AR level 5.2, 7 pts
Haiku summary
A fireman burns books But then he dares to read one And goes on the lam (DarrylLundy)
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