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Fahrenheit 451 Paperback – January 10, 2012
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Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
- Print length249 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Lexile measure890L
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateJanuary 10, 2012
- ISBN-109781451673319
- ISBN-13978-1451673319
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From the Publisher



Editorial Reviews
Review
“A masterpiece . . . A glorious American classic everyone should read: It’s life-changing if you read it as a teen, and still stunning when you reread it as an adult.” —Alice Hoffman, The Boston Globe
“The sheer lift and power of a truly original imagination exhilarates . . . His is a very great and unusual talent.” —Christopher Isherwood, Tomorrow
“One of this country’s most beloved writers . . . A great storyteller, sometimes even a mythmaker, a true American classic.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
by
Ray Bradbury
March 12, 2003
What is there new to be said about Fahrenheit 451? I have written three or four introductions in the past thirty years trying to explain where the novel came from and how it finally arrived.
The first thing to be said is that I feel very fortunate to have survived long enough to join with people who have been paying attention to the novel in this past year.
The novel was a surprise then and is still a surprise to me.
I've always written at the top of my lungs and from some secret motives within. I have followed the advice of my good friend Federico Fellini who, when asked about his work, said, "Don't tell me what I'm doing, I don't want to know."
The grand thing is to plunge ahead and see what your passion can reveal.
During the last fifty years I have written a short 25,000-word early version of the novel titledThe Fireman, which appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, and several years later added another 25,000 words for its publication by Ballantine Books.
Occupying a house with a new baby daughter, we had to consider my trying to find somewhere that was a bit quieter to do my work. I had no money at that time to rent an office, but wandering around U.C.L.A. one day I heard typing in the basement of the library and went down to see what was going on. I found that there was a room with twelve typewriters that could be rented for ten cents per half hour. Excited at the prospect, I brought a bag of dimes with me and moved into the typing room.
I didn't know what the various students were writing at their typewriters and they hardly knew, nor did I know, what I was writing.
If there is any excitement to the novel at all, I think it can best be explained by the fact that every two hours or so during the next week and a half I ran up- and downstairs and in and out of the stacks, grabbing books off the shelf, trying to find proper quotes to put in the book. I am not a researcher and my memory is not all that accurate for things that I've read in the past, so the quotes that you find in the book were those wonderful accidents where pulling a book off the shelf and opening it just anywhere at all I found an amazing sentence or paragraph that could occupy a position in the novel.
This early version took exactly nine days and I spent $9.80 on it, not realizing that the book had some sort of long life ahead.
In the years since its first publication I have written a full two-act play and spent two summers in Connecticut writing an opera based on its text. The book seems to have a life that goes on re-creating itself.
If I try to find its genesis in the years prior to 1950 I would imagine one would turn to certain stories like "Burning Bright" and a few other tales that appeared in my early books.
The main thing to call attention to is the fact that I've been a library person all of my life. I sold newspapers until I was twenty-two and had no money to attend college, but I spent three or four nights a week at the local library and fed on books over a long period of time.
Some of my early stories tell of librarians and book burners and people in small towns finding ways to memorize the books so that if they were burned they had some sort of immortality.
The main surprise for the book occurred when I wrote the short story "The Pedestrian" in 1949.
I had been accosted by the police one night while I walked on a Los Angeles street with a friend. The police wanted to know what we were doing, when walking was our aim and talking occupied us.
I was so irritated by being stopped and asked about walking that I went home and wrote the story, "The Pedestrian," concerning a future where pedestrians were arrested for using the sidewalks.
Sometime later, I took the Pedestrian for a walk and when he turned a corner he encountered a young girl named Clarisse McClellan who took a deep breath and said, "I know who you are from the smell of kerosene. You're the man who burns books."
Nine days later the novel was finished.
What a wonderful experience it was to be in the library basement to dash up and down the stairs reinvigorating myself with the touch and the smell of books that I knew and books that I did not know until that moment.
When the first version of the novel was finished, I hardly knew what I had done. I knew that it was crammed with metaphors, but the word metaphor had not occurred to me at that time in my life. It was only later in time when I got to know the word and realized that my capacity for collecting metaphors was so complete.
In the years of writing my two-act play and the opera that followed, I let my characters tell me things about their lives that were not in the book.
I have been tempted to go back and insert these truths in the old text, but this is a dangerous practice which writers must refuse. These truths, while important, could ruin a work done years before.
In writing the play my Fire Chief, Beatty, told me why he had become a burner of books.
He had once been a wanderer of libraries and a lover of the finest literature in history. But when real life diminished him, when friends died, when a love failed, when there were too many deaths and accidents surrounding him, he discovered that his faith in books had failed because they could not help him when he needed the help.
Turning on them, he lit a match.
So that is one of the fine things that came out of the play and the opera. I'm glad to be able to speak of it now and tell you what Beatty had in his background.
After the book was published, in the following years I've had hundreds of letters from readers asking me what became of Clarisse McClellan. They were so intrigued with this fascinating, strange, and quixotic girl that they wanted to believe that somewhere out in the wilderness with the book people she had somehow survived.
I resisted the temptation to bring her back to life in future editions of my novel.
I left it to François Truffaut in his film version of Fahrenheit 451 in 1966 to give Clarisse a return to life, even though he had changed her name and given her extra years of maturity, which at the time I thought was a great mistake. But she did survive to the end of the film and at that time I decided that Truffaut was correct.
When I wrote the first version of the play I allowed Clarisse to survive among the book people in the wilderness. The same practice occurred when I wrote the opera.
She was too wonderful a character to be allowed to die and I realize now that I should have allowed her to appear at the end of my book.
That being said, the book is complete and untouched. I will not go back and revise anything. I have a great respect for the young man that I was when I sat down in that basement room with a bag of dimes and plunged into the passionate activity that resulted in the final work.
So here, after fifty years, is Fahrenheit 451. I didn't know what I was doing, but I'm glad that it was done.
Introduction for this edition copyright © 2003 by Ray Bradbury
Product details
- ASIN : 1451673310
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster
- Publication date : January 10, 2012
- Edition : Reissue
- Language : English
- Print length : 249 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781451673319
- ISBN-13 : 978-1451673319
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Reading age : 15+ years, from customers
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
- Lexile measure : 890L
- Best Sellers Rank: #97 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Classic American Literature
- #2 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #28 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury, who died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91, inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. He was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.
Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, "Live forever!" Bradbury later said, "I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped."
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Customers find this dystopian novel thought-provoking, making them reflect on today's society, and appreciate its quick pacing and educational value. Moreover, they consider it a great piece of literature that's well worth the price, with one customer noting how it saves money and trees. However, the plot receives mixed reactions, with some finding it suspenseful while others say it's not good. Additionally, several customers express boredom with the book.
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Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a great piece of literature that's enjoyable to read over and over, with one customer noting it's particularly important to read in these troubled times.
"...He is intrigued by the sense of wonder, emotion, and timelessness that books have to offer compared to the mind numbing talking heads that rule the..." Read more
"...But Fahrenheit 451 IS a classic novel and after having read it I can see why...." Read more
"...It is considered one of his best works...." Read more
"Good book" Read more
Customers find the book thought-provoking, particularly noting how it makes them reflect on today's society and remains highly relevant to modern readers.
"...Not only was it tremendous back in its heyday; it has stood the test of time, proving to be of use to us nearly 70 years later...." Read more
"...Fahrenheit 451 taught me a valuable life lesson and to me that shows why this book deserves to be considered a classic." Read more
"...This book contains an unprecedented collection of timely wisdom from noted experts from the world of words just in time to bolster my efforts to..." Read more
"...It does not feel dated at all, but very relevant." Read more
Customers find the book educational, with lessons that are telling and insightful, making it great for students.
"...This, all while being so well versed in the knowledge and insights contained within them...." Read more
"...I think it really goes to show the differing wisdoms of individual people...." Read more
"...event occurs right off the bat when Montag meets Clarisse, a young insightful girl who opens Montag’s eyes to the past when books were legal and..." Read more
"...This book is definitely a demonstration of the power of libraries...." Read more
Customers praise this dystopian novel as brilliant and prophetic, with one customer describing it as a prophetic moment of literary genius.
"...After all, the Bible is full of advice, and provides direction for moral and ethical enrichment...." Read more
"...Fahrenheit 451 was more than I expected it to be. The messaging behind this book was strong and is still relevant in our current world...." Read more
"...I believe that anyone looking for a fiction, dystopian novel, would take pleasure in reading this book as I did." Read more
"A must-read modern dystopian classic!..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's pacing, describing it as a fast read with a plot that moves quickly, though some find it slow.
"...personal connection, the dangers of technology, and instant gratification...." Read more
"...Technology is advancing quickly and everyone needs to have the latest; entire walls made of one television screen...." Read more
"...Everyone should read and own a copy, up there with 1984. Easy, fast, and a timely message for modern times." Read more
"...The story develops rather quickly, and there are repeating themes that help the characters themselves and the overall story develop and move forward...." Read more
Customers find the book offers good value for money, appreciating that it saves both time and trees.
"...Cheaper than elsewhere, arrived quickly, and in perfect condition." Read more
"As described and great value. Paperback books with beautiful cover and detailed designs...." Read more
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"...nicest copy of Fahrenheit 451 that exists on the market for an accessible price...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the plot of the book, with some praising its suspenseful and unpredictable ending, while others find it unsatisfactory.
"...This is interesting to me because Fahrenheit 451 deals with the dangers of technology or rather the dangers of over reliance of technology...." Read more
"...Television displays gruesome, desensitizing violence for viewers’ entertainment. Pedestrians regularly get trampled by speeding vehicles...." Read more
"...This story gives you a sense of uncertainty, and has many plot twists...." Read more
"...not only is it a very interesting story, but it also cautions us about the future. I give it 4 stars out of 5...." Read more
Customers find the book boring and depressing, with several noting they quickly lost interest.
"...The main theme: the majority of people are so defective, stupid, callous, incurious, gullible, envious, etc that democracy (rule buy the people) can..." Read more
"...It could be said that the book is depressing, especially with the death of Clarisse, but her fate is left in question after an unknown visitor comes..." Read more
"...nice for visualization and breaking the action, where very easy to get caught up in, which sometimes made it difficult to understand what was..." Read more
"...out of the English language in favor of meandering, violent, pointless garbage...." Read more
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Great dystopian novel!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2021Fahrenheit 451 is one of my all time favorites. It's written in the third person, placing you into the shoes of an objective narrator who has special access to the thoughts and world view of the characters within the book, especially that of the protagonist. The protagonist (Guy Montag) actually begins the story as a sort of villain really. His profession is that of a future based fireman, who don’t really put out fires like they used to. In fact, they professionally start fires. What a clever twist on Bradbury’s part.
These firemen are sanctioned by what one can only conclude to be a dystopian government to burn books, as well as the houses they are contained within. In this future world, the government has deemed books as dangerous, containing ideas that run counter to the narrative they wish to form and broadcast via televisions that cover entire walls within people’s homes. And the people want this, as they feel more comfortable with their government fed information. How dystopian indeed.
Reminds one of the behavior of the Roman Catholic Church during the Dark Ages. The two have book burning in common, as well as burning Bibles (in the case of the RCC, Bibles that didn’t subscribe to their criteria – even though they came from source material originating from the same authors). No offense to Catholics – some Protestant sects weren’t much better (like the early Anglicans who destroyed much of the Church’s property, including relics, as did Orthodox Christians during the Iconoclast Era).
Montag takes quite apparent joy in his job, causing a smile to overcome his face every time he gets to burn those devilish books. That is, until he becomes intrigued by a young neighbor girl named Clarisse. Clarisse is a female character that many feminists sadly overlook as to her importance in the overall arc of the story. Good on Bradbury for taking this approach, as you know what they say – “behind every great man, there’s an even greater woman”. This doesn’t always have to imply a spouse, mind you, and Bradbury exploited this fact while using Montag’s lame wife as a great contrast.
Clarisse is somehow able to tap into Montag’s emotional capacity to better understand what exactly his job is harming, and how his otherwise dull life (including dull wife who serves as a great example of the brainwashed zombie like people of his society) could become so much more enriched by. This confrontation with not only Clarisse – but himself – causes a sort of psychosis for our villainous protagonist. And thus begins his character development that makes the book really begin to take off and hook the reader into the protagonist’s story arc and growth.
At first, Montag struggles with his newfound understanding of the profound beauty of books. He is intrigued by the sense of wonder, emotion, and timelessness that books have to offer compared to the mind numbing talking heads that rule the day (sounds similar to our times with all the political talking heads telling how people should think, unlike books that allow people to draw their own conclusions). Yet he is still skeptical, resisting this newfound understanding as he continues in his line of work.
He challenges the notion of books being a net positive for society along the way, including challenging protectors of books along the way. All of this amidst some unknown war going on in the background of the story that is never really described in much detail. I assume that Bradbury himself had assumed (living in the days of the Cold War between the US and the USSR) that some kind of war of that magnitude coming to fruition was sadly somewhat inevitable.
As his change of heart is occurring, he struggles with his chief named Beatty (the antagonist of the story). Beatty is a walking contradiction, as he is full of knowledge pertaining to the books they burn. He is so well versed in their content by heart, yet seeks to eliminate books from existence on behalf of the government.
Unlike Montag who simply found pleasure in his destructive line of work, Beatty knows full well every reason and intention as to why they do and takes pleasure in doing so. This, all while being so well versed in the knowledge and insights contained within them. He overall sees them as dangerous, yet behaves as if the type of knowledge contained within books should be reserved for elites rather than the average citizen. This antagonist displays the kind of pretentious attitude that perfectly captures what it means to convey the notion of a dystopian society within a book of this genre.
After trials and tribulations in his struggle, Montag reaches a point where he is so moved by the message of a particular book, that he even steals it so that he can preserve it himself. As a Christian myself, I personally loved that this book just so happened to be a Bible. Why does Montag take such a personal infatuation with the Bible?
It may be that Montag’s society is so lost that when bombs begin to fall toward the end, whatever Montag had read might help him and others rebuild society for the better. After all, the Bible is full of advice, and provides direction for moral and ethical enrichment. Certainly a new society would need guidelines to rebuild and improve over mistakes made in the past.
Montag refers to the book of Job at one point in the story, as well as references made about Caanan. At the end, Montag even tries to recall parts of the books of Ecclesiastes and Revelation. The book of Revelation itself (arguably my favorite book of the Bible – I’m a fan of the dystopian genre after all) deals with the end of times. Although, perhaps Montag failed to recall this as quickly as he might because they are preparing to start a new life when the world appears to be ending.
The novel ends with Montag escaping the city in the midst of this new war. He escapes deep into the countryside, meeting a band of roving intellectuals who have elected to preserve significant works of literature in their memory. Reminds me of the Vaudois, the Waldenses and the Albigenses who preserved the original books of scripture in spite of the persecution they suffered from the RCC.
Not long after these roving intellectuals welcome Montag into their community, an atomic bomb falls on the city and reduces it to rubble. The next morning Montag leads the men on foot back toward the city with rebuilding in mind. The novel’s conclusion functions to bring the prevalent violence to its logical conclusion, which is that violence infiltrates nearly every aspect of the world our protagonist finds himself in.
The firemen violently destroy people’s property and lives. Television displays gruesome, desensitizing violence for viewers’ entertainment. Pedestrians regularly get trampled by speeding vehicles. Finally, war takes these forms of violence to a new extreme, destroying society and its infrastructure altogether. The novel’s ending depicts the inevitable self-destruction of such an oppressive society in such an effective, and rather melancholy fashion.
As stated in the beginning of the Fahrenheit 451 book review, this book is one of my all time favorites. It’s no wonder as to why I give it a 5/5 rating. Bradbury’s use of language is lyrical, yet not overly forceful. He paints a picture of a world in which we as a society should wish to avoid – in a multifaceted way.
When it comes to dystopian books, this is truly a classic – and for good reason. Not only was it tremendous back in its heyday; it has stood the test of time, proving to be of use to us nearly 70 years later. I absolutely love Fahrenheit 451, and I believe you would too if you love dystopian fiction and have happened to somehow not have read it yet (it happens – later is better than never though!).
- Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2025Came in great condition and I had the entire family read it - they all enjoyed it.
I'm very particular about books not being bent, folded, crinkled, etc. so it's the biggest gamble w/ ordering them online... but this paid off! Cheaper than elsewhere, arrived quickly, and in perfect condition.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014Fahrenheit 451 is set in a world where books have been outlawed. The tale revolves around Guy Montag, a fireman, who in this world are tasked with burning books and starting fires in place of putting them out. After meeting a fascinating teenager called Clarisse he is introduced to a new way of thinking, one that changes his entire view of the world.
I am embarrassed to admit that until recently I had never heard of Fahrenheit 451, although I had heard of the author Ray Bradbury before. How I discovered this novel was after reading and thoroughly enjoying Reader of Acheron by Walter Rhein. I noticed in several of the reviews for the Reader of Acheron how favorably Walter Rhein’s novel was being compared to Fahrenheit 451. The main reason why I bring this up is because if it hadn’t been for the Internet or Amazon, where I could read such reviews at a moment’s whim I never would have discovered this book. In other words I discovered Fahrenheit 451 because of the advancements in technology we enjoy today.
This is interesting to me because Fahrenheit 451 deals with the dangers of technology or rather the dangers of over reliance of technology. It is amazing to me how some of the points made in a book written over 50 years ago are still relevant today. I remember reading the part where a seashell radio is introduced and in my head it looked exactly like a blue tooth earpiece. Another part where Guy is talking to his wife about putting in a 4th TV wall instantly conjured up images of the How I Met Your Mother episode, where Lily discovers that one of Barney’s walls is actually a television.
But this also lead me to thinking about the cast of characters in How I Met Your Mother and I realized, all the characters were well read. Marshall was a lawyer and so by default had to spend years with his head in a book in order to pass the bar. Ted was an architect and often showed affection for classic novels and poems. Lily was a schoolteacher, you have to be well read by default for that occupation, the same goes for the journalist Robin. Barney clearly enjoyed reading, he wrote the Bro Code and the Playbook. I mean sure they may not have been great literary works, but clearly he valued the power of books.
Okay so why have I spent a paragraph talking about How I Met Your Mother on a review for this book? Because this book came out decades before I was born, I didn’t grow up in the 50’s or the 60’s and therefore have never really experienced what the world was like back then. I only have the modern day to compare “the future” that this book represents. Haven’t we all watched a sci-fi movie born out of the 70’s and 80’s, ones that represent those decades’ vision of what the 2000’s were going to be like? Haven’t we at times shook our heads at some of the claims that were made now decades ago?
Well I didn’t shake my head at most of the predications that Ray Bradbury made and to me that was a little startling. I mean yes you can nit pick the small pieces that show it is a product of its time, such as the fact there were no employed women or that wages were criminally low (by today’s standard). But just the notion that this decades’ old story still has specific relevance today is quite impressive.
But what really made this story for me was a certain revelation that occurred three-fifths into the book. Basically Guy Montag is talking to a former professor about why books are considered so dangerous in this world and why they were burned. The reason is more than simply the information that the books hold, it also has to do with the necessity of books. Sad to say in the most practical of terms a person can live without a book, it can be done with the wonders of technology. But how many people in this day and age can live without their mobile phone? Their tablet? The Internet?
While of course Bradbury had no way of knowing about these specific advances his point is made clear. You can turn off a television, a computer, a radio, a phone, but you can’t turn off a book. Once you have sat down and read it, there’s no way of turning it off, even if you close the book the information is in your mind, those once written words have become thought. That is why books were banned, because they couldn’t be controlled with a flick of a switch and therefore were considered dangerous, because there was no guarantee that all those thoughts would be happy or pleasant ones. The consequences for Fahrenheit 451’s world are that it may be a world of safety, of practicality but of rare beauty. With no reason to think for one’s self, to question why things are the way they are, to explore those shades of gray, there is nothing to dream about.
I cannot think of a more beautiful way to describe the greatness of books, I had never in my whole life thought about it like that. When I had read that part of the story all of my argumentative notions about technology being solely responsible for people not reading were wiped away. Look, I don’t know if that was the author’s intent, to catch the reader off guard like that, but frankly I don’t care, because to me the way that point was made and built towards was absolutely brilliant.
Yes it still deals with being weary about the wonders of technology and yes that is a theme that all classic sci-fi deals with. But Fahrenheit 451 IS a classic novel and after having read it I can see why. I know now why this is still read in schools, I know now why it is still considered relevant. It got me thinking, it made me want to discuss the implications it made. But most importantly it made me aware of the power of choice.
Technology was never the sole culprit, as I said in the first paragraph of this review, I discovered this book because of technology, heck I am reading it on an e-reader! The problem was that people willingly closed themselves off to different ways of thinking, all in the name of severe “safety” and it showed me the dangers of doing that. But the most important part of all of this for me was that I CHOSE to read it, I forgot about my prior connotations regarding this book and because of that I have a way of looking at things that frankly I didn’t before. Fahrenheit 451 taught me a valuable life lesson and to me that shows why this book deserves to be considered a classic.
Top reviews from other countries
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Özay ŞenReviewed in Turkey on September 3, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Distopya Şaheseri
Ray Bradbury'nin yakın gelecekteki korkulara ilişkin kaleme aldığı baş yapıtı.
- Lady FancifullReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars The prescient view of Science Fiction writers
I have been re-reading some earlier SF classics, - most recently, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
Bradbury may not be writing such well crafted complex characters as some heavyweight literary SF writers like John Wyndham or H.G.Wells, and the plot of this itself may even be a bit sparse or creaky, but my goodness, I am shocked and chilled and awed by how much of today's culture Bradbury was predicting 60 years ago
Reality TV where we all become content not only to watch others living, rather than living ourselves, but, no doubt, the next step arriving very soon where our TV becomes interactive and we ourselves yet inserted as bit players in the soaps we watch, or software that inserts our names into live TV, so that the TV talks directly to us, with announcers addressing us directly. Then we can live even less.
He seems to have mainlined into the fact that we have dumbed culture down, his description of the way people talk to each other so that actually they are not talking about anything at all seems unnervingly like the and then he said, he was like, it was, you know, like, it was, yeah, no, know what I mean? You hear these conversations all around, more and more being said without any meaning:
`People don't talk about anything'...'They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else'
He predicts also the worst excesses of PC speak, and puts his finger neatly on the button of our expectation of happiness as a right, our inability to come to terms with the fact that pain and suffering are a real part of embodiment, of living in a world of matter. The best, the justest, the fairest society will not be able to end our personal suffering
`Ask yourself, what do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these'
I was shaking my head in amazement at the accurate identification of our can't be still, can't reflect society which settles for circuses (never mind the bread) and drinks, drugs, medicates, and buys its way out of having to acknowledge that pain is an unavoidable part of life itself - we will grow old (if we are that lucky) we will have to manage the loss, at some point, of those we love, and we too will die.
There is more - a society which cannot deal with complexity, with the fact there may not always be an obvious right and an obvious wrong, and this too, we cannot bear. One of the great challenges are situations where whatever action is taken, it will not be without some great cost, and yet we have to take some action. How do we live without the comfortable and childish security of a world which is black OR white, but confusingly, and therefore far more challengingly, ever more subtle complexities of both:
`If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none'.
And, seeing ahead to the vapid game show, where factual knowledge gives us the illusion we have intelligence and wisdom
`Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so full of facts they feel stuffed, but absolutely brilliant with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving"
He talks also about our inability to bear silence - everyone cushioned from the world by their own blare of noise wall to wall music piped into our heads, children plonked in front of the pabulum TV, learning early to be passive not interactive, - even the fashion for elective caesarians on non-medical grounds.
What makes this book so powerful still is the fact that so much of its dystopian vision is the way our lives actually are; not in fact so much `science fiction' after all, rather a sociological analysis
I had forgotten how good this was - much more than the shocking concept of burning of books by an authoritarian society, bent on infantilising its peoples, targeting literature as an enemy because literature (unless purely escapist) encourages thought, and presents us with complexity, debate and challenge.
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Amazon KundeReviewed in Germany on November 13, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Leseempfehlung!
Bereits während meiner Schulzeit sprach mein Englisch-Lehrer davon, wie aktuell immer noch Bücher wie "Brave New World", "1984" und "Fahrenheit 451" seien. Die ersteren gehörten bei uns zum Literaturkanon für den Leistungskurs, doch Fahrenheit 451 ist mir erst jetzt, 6 Jahre später, endlich in die Hände gefallen.
Zeitweise ein wenig noch durch die vorangehenden Dystopien gedanklich beeinflusst, ahnte ich zunächst, es handelte sich um eine Variante von "1984", nur mit Feuerwehrleuten. Nun, nach dem Lesen, kann ich jedoch sagen, dass es zwar durchaus Parallelen vom Aufbau her gibt, doch die Welt an sich ist eine gänzlich andere. Man erfährt bspw. nie, in welchem Land der Protagonist lebt und auch über den Staat an sich erfährt man kaum etwas, abgesehen davon, dass er Denunziantentum fördert und die Menschen sich sehr von der telemedialen Reizüberflutung lenken lassen. Interessant finde ich, dass gewisse Dinge, die heute bereits wie selbstverständlich zum Alltag gehören, für Ray Bradbury bereits 1951 denkbar waren. Insofern kann man ihn durchaus als Visionär seiner Zeit betrachten.
Die Geschichte selbst verlief dann nicht ganz so wie erwartet, doch gerade die unerwarteten Wendungen haben ihren besonderen Reiz. Es ging mir an vielen Stellen so, dass ich mir dachte "gleich ist es aus mit dem Protagonisten", doch dann kam es ganz anders. In Bezug auf die heutige Zeit ist neben der alltäglichen Nutzung der digitalen Medien auch die Form der Kriegsführung interessant, die in Bezug auf die Berichterstattung sicher auch den einen oder anderen Verschwörungstheoretiker an unsere Welt erinnern dürfe: die gewöhnlichen Menschen bleiben vom Kriegsgeschehen gänzlich unbehelligt und leben - ähnlich wie in "Brave New World", nur dass es hier nicht ganz so offensichtlich wird, bis auf ein oder zwei Andeutungen - ein Leben unter Drogeneinfluss.
Im Mittelpunkt steht der Spaß des Einzelnen, eigenständiges Denken wird nicht gewünscht. Daraus ergibt sich dann auch der Beruf des Protagonisten.
Im Großen und Ganzen bin ich sehr zufrieden, mich auf dieses Buch eingelassen zu haben, wenngleich ich anfangs aufgrund der geringen Seitenzahl von 158 Seiten skeptisch war. Dieses Buch kann ich nur jedem wärmstens empfehlen, der seinen (nicht nur literarischen) Horizont erweitern und Denkimpulse erhalten möchte. Es steckt mehr Zukunftsvision in diesem Buch als es Bradbury seinerzeit bekannt gewesen sein dürfte.
- GerardReviewed in the Netherlands on May 4, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect product
Quick delivery, well packed, products as displayed, very pleased!😁
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DagiReviewed in Poland on March 15, 2024
3.0 out of 5 stars ok
książka klejona, dość szybko złamał mi się grzbiet; sama treść nie zachwyca, ale nie jest też tragiczna