Fahrenheit 451

There were many parts of this book that I found problematic (the absurdly flat, semi-misogynistically-written female characters; the incoherent critique of television) but could have chalked up to interesting ambiguities until I read the Afterword and Coda by the author, who turns out to have written this polemic/parable as an ill-considered response to criticism (you know, censorship by women's-libbers and homosexuals) and new media.

Otherwise, Bradbury is clearly a virtuosic writer in a showoffy way, but the story pacing and structure is pretty strained. Although Captain Beatty is a pretty terrifically villainous bad guy.

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.

I loved the concept behind this story, but sadly the delivered story fell fairly flat for me.

Firemen: those who burnt books. The story does go into why this profession even exists and it's even more intriguing.

But I really struggled with the book. It's a little over 100 pages and I felt like I was slogging the book after the first 1/4 of the story. I think the writing style also distracted me from the story too. I felt line nearly every sentence was laiden with a turn of phrase or clever simile - but the book is thick with this and it became very noticeable to the point of distraction.

The pace really threw me off too, it starts building up characters and before I know it, Montag is murdering his fire chief, battling murderous robot dogs, planting fake evidence against another fireman (and from what I could tell, a character we hadn't met) and then wondering off in the woods to meet the people who keep books in their heads.

It felt like there was a great story of a dystopia where happiness is swallowed up in a pill, potentially like Brave New World, but Fahrenheit 451, for me, falls way short of achieving that.

A shame. I really wanted to enjoy this story more.

It was an eye opening read. Great concept but I sometimes found it hard to follow. Got lost while reading. Not really a favourite style of writing I guess. But the last part was mind blowing and I actually like reading what the author had to say about the book. I usually skip those parts but somehow I didn't for this book and I'm glad I took the time to read the afterword.

The idea of the book is very simple yet brilliant. Dumb people feel inferior to smart people, therefore, intelligence leads to unhappiness. Books make people smart. So, lets burn all the books and everyone will be content. Except that although the minority, there still are some people that just cannot be happy with an empty life, of superficial dialogs and hollow TV Shows. But eventually these anomalies will die down.

The war aspect wasn't much explorated though.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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 took me this long to get around to reading this classic novel by one of my favorite authors! It was unbelievable how Montag's thoughts about the noisy-ness of the world and life in general STILL is relevant and applies perfectly to our lives NOW. I think that is what floored me about this book. The TV wall-screens in the book that everybody is sucked into is the Internet of today!
I guess it's a downer to read this now and realize that everything the book (written in 1953) worries about for the future is happening now (or already has) or is in the process of happening.
Won't forget this book ever.

So... How to start a review about a classic which I know a lot of people like. I was really intrigued by the idea behind Fahrenheit 451 and I enjoyed the first couple of chapters, but then it took a turn. Short story: I didn't like the way the plot was going. It was just decent. I started to lose interest in reading this book, which made me sad, since this has been on my TBR for years. (ever since I've heard what it's about). Even though I don't particularly like the book I'm still glad that I read the book. It definitely shows the heaviness of the air in a world where the government controls the input of knowledge (and its tight grip on society). It had an unsettling feeling which I really appreciated in this story.

Conclusion: it was a decent story. I would recommend it even though I didn't like it as much. This novel was very ahead of its time and people should appreciate that (and the bloody wonderful writing).