Fahrenheit 451

Depois do que pareceu uma eternidade para ler um livro tão curto, terminei. E... bom, vamos lá. Eu consigo entender o appeal e a importância de Fahrenheit 451, é claro que consigo. O que não entendo é como eu nunca tinha ouvido falar sobre o posicionamento do autor em relação a movimentos sociais e minorias, uma posição que ele deixa bem clara não apenas no decorrer do livro — quando praticamente culpa o “mimimi” desses movimentos pelo início das queimas de livros —, mas também, na edição que li, num texto chamado Coda, em que ele disserta sobre várias mensagens que recebeu, pedidos para que altere a situação de mulheres, negros e outras minorias em suas histórias. A conclusão de Ray Bradbury é a seguinte:

Mas a face dos meus livros ou dos meus contos ou poemas é onde seus direitos terminam e meus imperativos territoriais começam, correm e comandam. Se os mórmons não gostam das minhas pecas, que escrevam as deles. Se os irlandeses detestam meus contos em Dublin, que aluguem máquinas de escrever. Se os professores e os editores das escolas elementares acharem que minhas frases quebra-queixos partirão seus dentes-de-leite, eles que comam bolo rançoso embebido em chá diluído da sua própria maldita produção.

Can't believe it's taken me this long to read Fahrenheit 451. This book is a classic for a reason. It's a slim volume that is taut with action, yet it also offers a lot to think about – how far will a government go to maintain control, the role of observation in controlling behavior, the dissemination of information, and the devolution of society.

Better late than never getting to it. A masterpiece. I wish I had read it sooner.

“But even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn't use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead. We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us.”

How important is the information we keep?

Is it worth the disparity in our population?

Wouldn't we all be happier if nobody was smarter than anyone else?

Achei aborrecido e não sei o motivo, possivelmente foi a escrita. Tinha tudo para ser uma boa história. Dou 3 estrelas unicamente pela terceira parte que é a melhor.

știu că o să mă alergați cu torțe pentru notă și recenzie, dar trebuie să spun că, recitind-o acum, m-a plictisit de moarte și, pur și simplu, nu mi-a plăcut (acum am 37, la 16 m-a dat pe spate). A îmbătrânit prost: stilul e foarte vetust, prea artistic și încărcat, precum și superficial, mai degrabă piesă de teatru decât roman.
Pe de altă parte, a șocat prin profunzimea ideii și avertismentului, dar între timp realitatea stalinistă și maoistă a depășit distopia de mii de ori mai rău. Celor care au găsit ”Fahrenheit 451” înspăimântătoare le recomand ”Arhipelagul Gulag” de Soljenițân: față de ororile REALE de acolo, sefeul de aici e o panseluță...

Required reading

There is nothing I could add, I'm certain, to the reviews of F 451 that have already been written. I only hope my daughter, and all our children, read it alongside Orwell. It is a book with a message that should be indelibly tattooed on our consciousness. Its minor imperfections are trivial compared to its strengths.

“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.”

I can't believe in all the English classes I've taken over the course of my high school and college careers that I've never had to read this book. In a way, I'm almost glad that I didn't, because I feel like I wouldn't have appreciated this book enough in high school. But now that I've finally allowed myself to pursue a degree in English Literature and stop pretending science is all that matters, this book meant so much more to me than it ever would have before. Bradbury wonderfully illustrated the importance of books and reading in an extraordinarily unique way, and it worked really well. I think from now on when anyone questions why I would major in something like English Literature, I'll point them to this book. It really highlighted for me why it's okay to not be focusing on a career in science and medicine like the majority of my friends are doing; books are incredibly important too and should not be taken for granted.

Una de las obras cumbre de la Ciencia Ficción distópica, ganadora del Premio Hugo (Retro) de 1954. Muy bueno y altamente recomendado.

Thinking is no fun,
why bother when you could burn?
What pretty colors!

I don't know why it took me so long to read this. I should have grabbed this as a teenager and have revisited it a few times by now.

Honestly? This was rather extremely boring. There were some rather interesting parts, and insightful phrases in the novel so that is why I did not give it a lower rating but overall it was EXTREMELY underwhelming.

Saw the movie a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. How can anybody want to burn book? Great story, makes you realize how some things are precious and not to words are important.

This was my first time, willingly, reading a classic. It was recommended to me by Chelsea. I must say, it was fantastic. It was so interesting and so much reminded me of our modern world we live in. I enjoyed it so much. I feel like, if I read it again in the future, I'll get even more out of it. But wow.

Science Fiction with an impact at one of it's highest levels. The story follows a man a future society where he works as a fireman – only firemen don't put out fires. Instead, they burn books. This heavy handed symbolism for the issues of the 1950's surrounding communism and a general fear of new ideas. It's interesting to think what kind of an affect this book had on our society.

Well... this is a book that has not aged well.

Or maybe I've just outgrown its particular flavor of book-nerd wish fulfillment. TV rots the brain! Reading books is important for civilized society! People who read books are better than people who don't: they have richer interior lives, they question, they really see the world around them! Being plugged in all the time = bad! Kids these days, driving cars too fast and shooting each other!

On the whole it reads to me now like conservative pearl-clutching about how We Have Too Much Technology and We Should Return To A Simpler Time and stuff like that. Personally, my suspicion is that even before TV and the internet, there were plenty of people who were shallow and didn't lead rich interior lives and didn't engage critically with the world around them. And probably also plenty of people who saw this as the decline of civilization.

But even so, I do like some of the writing. No one can deny Bradbury wields a mean metaphor.



Addendum: I could do without Bradbury's ridiculous 1979 screed, included as an addendum with the Kindle edition, that more openly gets at something the novel more covertly hints at. He describes women who wonder why he has so few female characters as “idiots” and rails against over-sensitive politically-correct “minorities” trying to censor him and meddle with his aesthetics (basically book-burners themselves, he outright states).

I'm willing to forgive the original text for being a product of its time, but the 1979 doubling-down does my opinion of Bradbury no favors.

I really wish my high school had assigned this book rather than crap like Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

If you compare this book with 1984 by George Orwell you will be disappointed. But it's a great book.

“Number one, quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. Number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.”
Masterpiece, I think that the intellectual fight between Fabers and captain Beauty is a reflection of a world problem

I couldn't imagine life where there were no books. I love to read. I liked the concept of the book, yet I just felt like some events in the book were not explained enough. Once I finished the book, I was left with why and how questions. I didn't quite understand the importance of the girl or the wife. The wife was a very confusing person.

Maybe one day, I'll have to reread this book as a buddy read. I just might not have the same insight and understanding of this book as someone else might or as two people thinking together would.

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”

I understand why it's a classic. Its theme is nerve-wrecking and thought provoking.

However, the writing style it's not one of my absolute favorites. It was a bit too flowery for my taste and that prevented me from being 100% engrossed in the book.

Still, the only significant problem I had with it was the length. It was much to concise. I needed a more time with the characters in order to get a fell for them, especially with Guy. Everything happened so quickly that I'm afraid I couldn't get connect to him as much as I would've liked to. I couldn't help comparing this to Orwell's 1984 (which I found completely engrossing) and this one came out a little behind.

Nevertheless, still I'm so happy I finally read it.

Great book, how did it take me a lifetime to read this? Wonderful author's notes at the end of this version, too.

I liked the idea but there no depth to the characters or the world. I did not enjoy reading at all.

Thought provoking and chilling

Must read!