Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My Goodreads.com Review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
Own.
Eerily prescient for a book 60 years old. Multi-wall TVs with inane but frenetic programming and ear buds that keep constant noise so that real conversation is done by lip reading does not seem a stretch at all. Constant noise and violent/fast activity keeps the masses from deep thought and therefore keeps them “happy.” It is not that books are messianic, but they are one avenue of stimulating true thought and observation, which has become unpopular and then became illegal. Bradbury also saw that catering to minorities and trying to please as many factions as possible dilutes content until all content is eliminated and then illegal.
After I finished the book, Matt — who read it a month or so ago — proposed an interesting question: Was Bradbury truly prescient, or is postmodern man really not much different from modern man? I think Matt is correct that it’s more likely that our technology and progressivism has merely magnified and matured the habits of mind and heart Americans have long had.
View all my reviews.
This is one of my favorite books. And what is truly amazing is that after everything is lost and this utopia is destroyed, what is left with which to rebuild, with which to remake the world? The Bible… specifically the book of Ecclesiastes. Amazing, no?
Guys like Bradbury and Orwell who are no friend of Christianity always end up confirming the truth of the Bible despite themselves. That’s why distopia novels are my favorite genre. Fahrenheit 451 is a lot of fun to teach too. It’s on our Read-Aloud list for next school year.