Fahrenheit 451
Ratings2,392
Average rating3.9
In Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel of the future, Fahrenheit 451, books have been forbidden. The Fire Department is tasked with uncovering the hordes of books around the city and setting fire to them (and the house, and sometimes the residents as well). Guy Montag is one such fireman. He doesn't question the orders he's given, nor does he wonder why books are forbidden. He doesn't have any friends and is in a loveless marriage with his wife, Mildred. Mildred prefers to spend her time with her real "family" that lives within the projection walls of the couple's living room, than spend time with her husband. Then, Guy meets Clarisse, a teenage girl whose family has moved in next door. Clarisse and her family are not like any people Guy knows. They talk to each other. They appear to even enjoy being in each other's company. And Clarisse asks awkward questions of Guy, like "Are you happy?" This friendship, however brief it is, leads Guy to ask his own questions. Like what is so dangerous about books?
Fahrenheit 451 is a fast paced account of a society that has taken censorship to the extreme in the efforts to eliminate offence. Books are banned because someone might object to what is written. Entertainment is sanitised and atomised. People are in their own little bubbles (courtesy of ear transmitters) and bombarded with nonsensical, meaningless programmes to ensure that they are kept ignorant of the events in the world around them. There's a war going on, after all, but if people notice the bomber planes flying overhead, it's just background noise to the show. And any one who dares to ask themselves if they are happy, like Guy and Clarisse, or who stand out from the masses, paint a huge red target on their backs. This is a timeless story, it seems. As relevant to today as when it was written. It is more than just about book burning, it is about controlling a population through entertainment lest they discover what is really going on.
Lots of parallels to problems today. Having a better view of what the time 451 was written in like could clarify stereotypical characters.
Can't believe I hadn't read this until now. It has the desperation, majesty, and hope of a Brahms symphony.
This was just as good, with just as great a depth to the writing and turn of phrase as the writer's other works. Layer in an interesting premise, with a heaping amount of social commentary (from the 50's!) and you get a great blend of dystopia, speculative future, and much more sci fi or magical realism than expected. It is intriguing to see how dynamics are going to unravel and where the conflict is going to arise, but it also ends a bit abruptly - maybe at its peak - as if you are waiting for the next segment/stage of the book.
Truyện hơi rối, đọc xong không có nhiều ấn tượng lắm. Nội dung cũng không đặc sắc, nhưng mà truyện tương đối ngắn nên Manh sẽ thử đọc lại.
8/10
Libro che parte fortissimo, per poi calare lentamente ma costantemente, in una storia prevedibile, quasi banale.
Il punto del libro non è, però, la storia di Montag, ma il mondo in cui vive: segnato dalla censura e dall'intrattenimento senza pause.
Quest'ultima caratteristica lo rende molto molto (ma molto) attuale, siamo da poco entrati nell'era dell'intrattenimento breve, la cosa che crea più dipendenza in assoluto.
Infatti quello che mi ha colpito del libro è il rendersi conto di questo problema (che nel libro è rappresentato dalle “pareti” a cui le moglie è dipendente) ed affrontarlo, creandosi dei momenti di riflessione:
“La cerniera lampo sostituisce i bottoni e all'umanità viene sottratto anche quel po' di tempo che serve a vestirsi la mattina: tempo per pensare, un'ora filosofica e quindi un'ora malinconica”.
Prophetic and thought provoking. Loved the originality. Pumped it out in 2 nights.
Final Rating: 4.5
Summary: Guy Montag is a fireman in a 24th century world where people don’t think for themselves or have meaningful conversations but are only concerned with being entertained. Guy’s job as a fireman is to burn any books that are found, as substantive literature has been made illegal.
I can see why this is required reading for school. It's perfect for that: short, has good discussion topics, exciting. But, reading it as fiction, it left some to be desired. There was really only one character. I think I would have liked it better if I had read more classics, then I would understand the references.
Age range: 14+
Drug overdose and some violence, but written in 1950's language so it's chill.
3,5⭐️
El relato de “Y la roca gritó” es el que más me ha gustado, más que la novela en sí
Important stuff here. Every time I read a book like this I get frustrated that it was never something they had us read in school. I probably wouldn't have lost my passion for reading if I was reading books as good as this.
A stunning piece of literature.
Despite being a well-read lover of science fiction, I never got around to reading Bradbury before. I think because this was commonly known as a high school book, often compared to Orwell, and because I understood and read dystopian books inspired by F451, I figured I'd sufficiently absorbed the story through cultural osmosis, and didn't actually need to read the book.
I now realize that I have done myself a grave disservice for not reading this earlier. While I did indeed know what the jist of it would be, this book really proves that how a story is told can be just as important as the story itself. Bradbury elicits such powerful feelings around the steady changing of the protagonist's mind, that as a reader I felt like I could fully empathize with the whirlwind of emotions he was experiencing. And that ultimately makes all the difference.
One can always just say “yes, books are important, no we shouldn't let government or corporate interests tell us how to think or feel, and yes art and culture has value,” but these values that so many of us hold (Hello Goodreads audience) can sometimes be hard to articulate, because after all wouldn't it be easier to not worry about what's going on in our world, to not have to understand different perspectives. If we had nothing to disagree about, wouldn't that be lovely in a way?
Bradbury really confronts that dissonance, and not with reason so much as with emotion, and that's really what stunned me. Yes, culture is messy, learning is almost always unfairly distributed, and understanding others and disagreeing can all be hard, but what are we without this. Can one feel fulfilled? Or will we lose the very ability to articulate whether or not we're happy or why we feel what we feel?
I fear this book will never lose its relevance, but at least that means there's always a good excuse to read some truly top notch writing.
PS. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Tim Robbins, and he was absolutely spectacular! It was 5.5hrs and finished it in 4 days, so there's another plus: it's short, and good in paper or audio.
Can you be disappointed by something you ultimately admire?
I think this story itself is quite meaningful, as well as surprisingly prophetic in some ways, given when it was written. And it could've been really interesting, except that it was ruined by one of its most admirable features (this sounds nonsensical, I know) - the writing style.
This whole story is written like a fever dream and though it follows a linear storyline, it often doesn't feel that way.
We have characters whose behavior is so erratic, that it feels illogical at times, which made me struggle to follow and understand their motivations.
The scenes were unfolding chaotically and the book as a whole had a very awkward pacing.
And I get it, this style is meant to represent the confusing neutered state in which humans have been trained to live in the new society. It was very impressive how precisely the author has managed to illustrate the general fuzzy reality and our main character's struggle to think through it. I get the intricacies and complexity this style carries and I am dully impressed.
But... I didn't like it still. Reading a full novel written in this abstract style is frankly uncomfortable and to me it was unpleasant. Trying to follow a storyline through the muddled half-thoughts and neurotic existential monologues of semi-lucid people was draining, and kind of made the story itself secondary. And as such, it killed both stakes and suspense.
I think had the book been written a bit more “conventionally” it would have made the story way more accessible and impactful. At least to me.
This book was hard to read at the beginning, it felt slow and over descriptive, very beautifully written but without much movement. I forced myself to keep reading because it is a classic, and I am glad I did.
Very thoughtful and unpredictable. As the storyline kept going, I was sure it would be similar to 1984, it was not. I very much enjoyed the book and the writing. I dont think I fully understood it completely as the author packs so much in each sentence.
I hope in a few years I can read it again and understand it more. Also, I could not for the life of me memorize a book, much less a single quote.
Se presenta una versión de la sociedad que hace reflexionar sobre la importancia que le damos a las cosas y el valor de nuestro tiempo.
I didn't particularly enjoy this book, but I can see why others would have. I loved Mr. Bradbury's descriptive style of writing, though it began to feel like a bit too much halfway through.
A dark look at a future where humanity burried the truth by manipulating people through broadcasts and burning books. However, the important message is to continue to think for one's self and make your own decisions as even books can lie to you and just because you read doesn't mean you have the best of intentions.
bradbury makes use of internal and external dialogue to voice the philosophical arguments for and against reading and more specifically, for and against critical thought. essentially the story is about how unhappy and dissatisfied the capacity for higher thinking has made us and discusses whether we would be better off as mindless blobs
written in the afterword of my copy was the origins of fahrenheit 451 as several short stories - each of their plots and characters seem very compelling tbh. unsure whether i would've enjoyed the short stories even more than the novel they make up. might give a few of them a read like the pedestrian, bright phoenix and the fireman.
thank you bradbury and montag for breaking my reading slump and what an appropriate story as well to fuel the habit forever :,)
I was thinking about this book for months after reading it in class but I haven't thought of it much since