'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury
FAHRENHEIT 451
the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermid, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
The classic novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.
Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a classic of twentieth-century literature which over fifty years from first publication still has the power to dazzle and shock.
Book burning is historical. From the Bonfire of the Vanities to Hitler's Nazis, book burning has become symbolic of suppressing dissension. The burning of books has become known as the work of tyrants, fearful of what would happen if individuals were capable of independent thought, thought that differed to the propaganda and agenda of the leaders. Book burning reduces books not merely to ashes, but also to objects; all of their power is gone in a great whoosh of flame. Book burning is the work of a totalitarian regime, and a sign not of power on behalf of the tyrants, but a sign that society has gone horribly wrong. People lack individuality and conform into one huge mass. Books are replaced by technology and media, by screens. But what are screens but walls? Walls that trap and imprison. Screens hide people away from the world and the world away from people. Media offers absent-minded distraction. You are not asked to think whilst watching TV. You merely watch and are diverted (away from thinking) by what you see on the screen. Similarly, earphones rob a person from listening to the world around; the individual lacks awareness. All thinking and questioning stop in the face of cheap, shallow, meaningless entertainment. Critical thinking is in peril in the bombardment of digital sensations.
So, there is more than one way to burn a book, as Bradbury's work shows. Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is eerily prophetic and, in my opinion, highly relevant in today's culture. The censorship prevalent throughout indicates that this dystopian/speculative America is disconnected from reality. In mid-twentieth-century America, in the wake of World War II, people lived under a cloud of fear created by McCarthyism - political repression, and censorship of literature and art. Yet, it is not without hope. At first, Montag revels in his public pyromania:
This book got me quite impassioned, mainly because I have always been an avid reader, but also because I am myself susceptible to media (I love my TV shows and films). I will strongly defend the relevance of books amidst the increasing presence and influence of technology and media. The burning scenes got me quite upset; from a young age, I was taught to respect books (I no longer dog-ear pages, but instead use a bookmark). Unlike phones, which require confusing things like data and WiFi passwords and tariffs, books are not baffling. Books influence, educate, encourage, and endure. Thus, I think that Fahrenheit 451 contains a message of hope. The flames do not destroy because they are not flames of destruction. This is a spark of hope, of resistance, that ignites a fire. A symbol of something beginning. Bradbury feared the survival of books in the face of progressing technology, but his novel ensures that physical books will still be sold in bookshops, lent out from libraries, taught in schools and universities. Books will live on.
the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burnsGuy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermid, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
The classic novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.
Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a classic of twentieth-century literature which over fifty years from first publication still has the power to dazzle and shock.
Book burning is historical. From the Bonfire of the Vanities to Hitler's Nazis, book burning has become symbolic of suppressing dissension. The burning of books has become known as the work of tyrants, fearful of what would happen if individuals were capable of independent thought, thought that differed to the propaganda and agenda of the leaders. Book burning reduces books not merely to ashes, but also to objects; all of their power is gone in a great whoosh of flame. Book burning is the work of a totalitarian regime, and a sign not of power on behalf of the tyrants, but a sign that society has gone horribly wrong. People lack individuality and conform into one huge mass. Books are replaced by technology and media, by screens. But what are screens but walls? Walls that trap and imprison. Screens hide people away from the world and the world away from people. Media offers absent-minded distraction. You are not asked to think whilst watching TV. You merely watch and are diverted (away from thinking) by what you see on the screen. Similarly, earphones rob a person from listening to the world around; the individual lacks awareness. All thinking and questioning stop in the face of cheap, shallow, meaningless entertainment. Critical thinking is in peril in the bombardment of digital sensations.
So, there is more than one way to burn a book, as Bradbury's work shows. Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is eerily prophetic and, in my opinion, highly relevant in today's culture. The censorship prevalent throughout indicates that this dystopian/speculative America is disconnected from reality. In mid-twentieth-century America, in the wake of World War II, people lived under a cloud of fear created by McCarthyism - political repression, and censorship of literature and art. Yet, it is not without hope. At first, Montag revels in his public pyromania:
"With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history"As a symbol of the established regime, this fireman seems unstoppable, as shown through the imagery of the predatory python, and fascinating to watch. Yet, his power leaves him the minute he encounters Clarisse McClellan, the Woman in White to his Walter Hartright. She appears out of nowhere, as insubstantial as a ghost:
"The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward...Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity"Clarisse may seem like some fairy-tale figure, but Bradbury's description suggests that she is at one with nature because her curiosity about the world is natural. She is what an idea individual ought to be: constantly questioning the world around her. As the book progresses, Guy himself learns more and more about nature - not just the natural world, but about human nature. It is human nature to question, to remember, to quote, to think. Guy learns to doubt his actions and to rebel against the establishment.
This book got me quite impassioned, mainly because I have always been an avid reader, but also because I am myself susceptible to media (I love my TV shows and films). I will strongly defend the relevance of books amidst the increasing presence and influence of technology and media. The burning scenes got me quite upset; from a young age, I was taught to respect books (I no longer dog-ear pages, but instead use a bookmark). Unlike phones, which require confusing things like data and WiFi passwords and tariffs, books are not baffling. Books influence, educate, encourage, and endure. Thus, I think that Fahrenheit 451 contains a message of hope. The flames do not destroy because they are not flames of destruction. This is a spark of hope, of resistance, that ignites a fire. A symbol of something beginning. Bradbury feared the survival of books in the face of progressing technology, but his novel ensures that physical books will still be sold in bookshops, lent out from libraries, taught in schools and universities. Books will live on.
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