Fahrenheit 451 in Classics for Beginners

Jul 04, 2010 Miss Amelia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memorable-characters, classics, required-reading, dystopian, american-lit, american-lit_best-of

Nobody (and I mean nobody) does dystopian literature like Ray Bradbury.

I'm writing this review about 5 years after I read this in high school, but it's still one of my favorite classics.

The reason I loved this book, and what made it so eerily realistic, is that I could seriously imagine this society existing. It wasn't too far-fetched, and (unlike several of today's authors) Bradbury really didn't hit you over the head with the themes too much. They're pretty obvious anyway. Also, Fahrenheit is Nobody (and I mean nobody) does dystopian literature like Ray Bradbury.

I'm writing this review about 5 years after I read this in high school, but it's still one of my favorite classics.

The reason I loved this book, and what made it so eerily realistic, is that I could seriously imagine this society existing. It wasn't too far-fetched, and (unlike several of today's authors) Bradbury really didn't hit you over the head with the themes too much. They're pretty obvious anyway. Also, Fahrenheit is one of those few books that can be enjoyed by literally everyone: it's one of those books that draws everybody in. One of the reasons Bradbury holds my respect (and why I like this book so much) is because he doesn't take the easy way out and point the finger at one particular group; rather, he acknowledges (bluntly and truthfully) that 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….Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by the minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the library closed forever.
I'm so glad I read this in high school - the discussions our class had are just as memorable as the book. One of the days we were reading this in class, my teacher commented that when most people read this book, they miss the mark on its message. I remember him saying that this is the ALA & the ACLU's poster book on anti-intellectualism and anti-censorship, but ironically, they're not above censoring religious material. Everyone has the potential to be culpable, so what do you do? How do you create and maintain a society where every book is protected?
Ahh, don't you love books that make you think? Yes, Fahrenheit is one of the few dystopians I've read (besides Brave New World, which I liked, but was a little "out there"), but I'm sure glad I read it. And thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for giving us an engrossing cautionary tale, and of course, for "tellin it like it is." No one can call you a sellout :P
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Oct 28, 2012 Livinginthecastle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1950-s-fiction

This is a bleak little book, and depressingly accurate about the human race's increasing reliance on technology to isolate themselves. I thought the homogenous ear seashells and 'parlour' families were telling predictions of the iPod, twitter and Facebook age. However books were considered at one stage to be too intrusive and isolating, with boys discouraged from reading because it was unmanly, but I suppose the ending suggests that all knowledge needs to be shared, argued over and remembered ...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, this-years-books

This has been a classic from the day it was printed 60 years have passed and it is a relevant now as then. It is not the importance of books but the spirit of what they give us the freedom of independent thought. Yeah this has become a favorite and a re read. =)

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Feb 16, 2013 Staciel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classic-lit, dystopian-p-a

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do ... 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 han ...more

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