Excellent modern classic with huge aftermath.

It is that kind of a book that will make you sit back and reflect why you value books.

As I read this dystopian novel, I clung on my books a tad tighter, appreciated my freedom of thinking for myself as this is the only reliable road to real safety and my freedom to challenge situations by asking incisive questions.

As curiosity is the force in my DNA, it is the more important to continuously learn and think for myself by means of books.

Anyway, Montag has now inspired me to read poems out loud...

Happy reading

I am in 6th grade. My Language Arts teacher assigns us a book report; tells us we can choose the book but that our grade will be based on the maturity of the novel the report is based upon.

My mother and I are in K-mart. I've mentioned to her about this book report to be done, and so before we leave with a basket filled with clothes I know I will be embarrassed to wear, we stop by the rack of books. She selects a few pulp paperback titles, throws them into the cart.

A few days later she hands me Fahrenheit 451. "I've read those books I purchased," she says. "I think this is the best of the bunch. You should like it."

I am skeptical. When does a 12 year-old boy like anything that his mother does? I admit to myself that the cover looks really awesome - a black suited, menacing man shooting flames over something that looks like books. I give it a go.

Tearing through the pages, the chapters, the three sections, I finish it over a weekend and am in awe. A fireman that starts fires? Books are outlawed? I look at the small library that I've had since childhood; a shelf of about 30 books. They now look to my 12 year old eyes as books of a child. Fahrenheit 451 is the book that launched me from childhood, my first book dealing with the adult world.

I ask my mother to box up my old books and put them in the attic. I am proud to start a new library with this novel as my first edition. I carefully, lovingly, sign my name on the inside cover. Let the firemen come, I think, I am proud to be a book-reader.

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I continue to read this book again and again through the years. I enroll in a college course at Penn State my freshman year, simply because this book is on the course materials. I memorized the entire poem Dover Beach because it is the selection Bradbury chose to have Montag read aloud to his wife and her friends. As the years roll by, and I age through my 20s and 30s, I noticed that fewer and fewer of the people I know read any books. Even my avid reading friends from childhood moved on to their careers, their marriages, their children. In the late 1990s a friend invited me to his house to show off a proud new purchase - a television screen the size of one of his walls. I mention how frightening this was, that he was basically mainlining Bradbury's foreshadowing. He handed me a beer and fired up Star Wars; told me to relax. I watched the movie and felt like a traitor.

The last time I read F451 was about 10 years ago - I think I was afraid that if I were to pick it up again that it would diminish in its importance to me - much like Catch-22 and The Sun Also Rises. But on this first day in May I have a day-trip to Socal for business and I bring this book with me. And I love it, all over again, as if reading it for the first time. Until Beloved came along, this was my favorite book. I remember why.

I joined Goodreads in 2009 with low expectations; I am not a social media person. But there was something I found here that reminded me of Montag's joining the campfire of fellow readers. We may all be from different walks of life from places all around the world, but we come here often and with excitement - because we love books. They are some of the most important things to us and our lives would be ruined without them.

So to you, my fellow Goodreaders, tonight I raise a glass to each of you, and I want to say thank you thank you thank you for making my life better, for exposing me to authors I would never have known, and for reminding me that although I'll never get to all of the books I want to read in this life, I can stand on the shoulders of you giants and witness more wonders of the written word.

The strange thing about Fahrenheit 451 is that the bits I found most moving, and that I remember most clearly, are all quotations from other books. The passage where Montag is trying to memorize "Consider the lilies of the field" over the sound of the toothpaste ad is one of my favourites. I also love the scene where he reads out Dover Beach to his wife and her friends, and they become weepy and distraught without understanding why.

Given that it's all about how wonderful books are, that seems entirely right. He made the correct artistic choice in gracefully ceding the floor to his more distinguished colleagues at the critical moments, rather than trying to hog the limelight himself, and I greatly respect him for it. Applause, Mr. Bradbury!

An absolute anti-utopian classic of the 20th century. I did a speech about that book in class (in 1988 I guess) to convince the other pupils how important this books is. The temperature at which books burn. No slowdown, only highspeed on the streets, reality shows at home with you being part of it, a world dominated by a government given truth. What happens if someone dares to look behind the scenes? Dares to read a uncensored book? Who is this group trying to find the truth beyond the fact falsifying system of the government? This is a must read. Ray Bradbury had a look into our modern times when he wrote this groundbraking classic. One of the best books of the 20th century!

Creo que lo más impactante de este libro es que fue escrito en los años '50. Ray Bradbury fue realmente un visionario, que logró plasmar en su obra de una forma casi caricaturesca muchos de los problemas que nos afectan hoy en día: la falta de comunicación, las dificultades para socializar, las relaciones desechables, las minorías de todo tipo (muy bien caracterizadas en la explicación de Beatty), la industria de las comunicaciones que en muchos casos nos bombardea con basura disfrazada de diversión y que, a pesar de todo, sólo fomenta personas descontentas y depresivas, que no hayan satisfacción en las pequeñas maravillas de la vida.

Sin embargo y a pesar de que es un libro bastante corto, me costó terminarlo. El estilo narrativo, al menos en la primera mitad, lo sentí muy agobiante y confuso. Reconozco que hacia el final mi experiencia lectora mejoró bastante, pero me quedé con demasiadas interrogantes. Aún así, valoro las profundas reflexiones que provoca.

n  Reto #43 PopSugar 2018: Un libro que estaba siendo leído por un extraño en un lugar públicon

„Adevărata frumuseţe a focului constă în faptul că distruge răspunderea şi consecinţele”.

2 steluțe pentru povestea în sine. 4 pentru mesaj și intuiția stării de lucru actuale.

2 steluțe pentru stil. Nici o comparație nu e la locul ei. Toate sînt ori stridente, ori inadecvate: „Focul bolborosea şi spumega de parcă cineva ar fi turnat sare peste un şarpe negru şi monstruos...”.

4 pentru mesaj și intuiție. N-aș spune că locuim deja în lumea imaginată de Ray Bradbury, dar nici foarte departe nu sîntem: ne îndreptăm veseli spre stadiul zero al inteligenței. Ceva rău s-a petrecut cu (și în) mintea noastră. Statul distopic din roman încearcă prin toate mijloacele să-i împiedice pe cetățeni să gîndească. Le oferă senzații tari și distracții la TV cu nemiluita. La rîndul nostru, am înțeles că nu e bine să gîndim prea mult, fiindcă gînditul afectează grav celulele nervoase. O fac moderatorii în locul nostru, o fac influencerii. În plus, nu mai trebuie să memorăm intrigi, citate, argumente, opinii, cărți. Depunem cunoștințele într-un folder, le lăsăm să zacă acolo, uităm de ele și, astfel, am rezolvat definitiv problema. Devenim treptat amnezici, inculți și foarte ușor de amăgit.

Mulți se întreabă ce înseamnă cifra din titlu: 451. Chiar e nevoie de 451 de grade pentru a arde o carte? Nici vorbă. Se vede că n-au citit cu atenție romanul. Bradbury menționează cifra în două rînduri. Prima dată spune că numărul matricol al lui Montag e 451. A doua oară se referă la numărul unității de pompieri. Tot 451. Așadar, nu e vorba de grade.

Personaje: Clarisse McClellan, Mildred (soția lui Montag), căpitanul Beatty (șeful lui Montag, face apologia noii ordini, e un filosof în felul său), profesorul Faber din colegiul care s-a închis din lipsă de studenți și de fonduri (primul răzvrătit pe care-l cunoaște Montag), președintele Winston Noble (politician ales foarte democratic), Granger etc.

“Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?”
-tRay Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Who is one of my favorite authors? Neil Gaiman.

When I opened Fahrenheit 451, who should write the introduction but none other than Neil Gaiman. So how can I not like this book?

Just to give some historical context, Fahrenheit 451 is a fantasy book written in 1953. This was before cell phones, color television, and of course the internet. The story is premised on what if firemen started fires instead of putting them out. What if firemen burned books?

Fahrenheit 451 is about censorship, but it is much more than that. Bradbury was writing about the future which is now our present. It is almost eerie to see how closely he predicted the future. The book even mentions 2022!

There are also a lot of great quotes in Fahrenheit 451, and this book is especially chilling in the modern era of book banning.

“And if you look”—she nodded at the sky—“there’s a man in the moon.” He hadn’t looked for a long time.

When was the last time that you looked at the moon?

2025 Reading Schedule
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FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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Confession: my first thought upon hearing anything about Ray Bradbury is for the Hugo nominated song Fuck Me Ray Bradbury to immediately come screaming through the speakers of my mind and remain stuck there for days. Beloved author for sure, but shamefully I’d only read Fahrenheit 451 back as a little High School freshman and the only thing I remember was fire and how I always struggled to remember how to properly spell “Fahrenheit.” Oh and that the title is a reference to the temperature at which paper ignites and burns (though I am charmed by the first Dutch translation that retitled it Celcius 233, though Bradbury was not down with that and had them change it). Written in the era of McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and rapid technological advances, Fahrenheit 451 crafts a 1950s caricature into a future where books have been outlawed, firemen burn any books that are discovered, and television has become the proverbial opium for the masses. A commentary against censorship, though Bradbury would later specify in interviews it was an outcry against ‘political correctness’ which was ‘the real enemy these days, ’claiming ‘minorities’ were trying to force ‘thought control and freedom of speech control.’ A statement that is sure to raise a few eyebrows. On the whole, Fahrenheit 451 becomes a satire against mass media and television that Bradbury fears will be so devoid of intellectuality that it will cause social devolution. A classic work of sci-fi with some thorns, Fahrenheit 451 champions a love for literature that has been critiqued as “elitist” but it is alive with symbolism and pertinent themes.

‘It was a pleasure to burn.’

The world probably doesn’t need yet another commentary on Fahrenheit 451 and I don’t know if I have anything to offer but this book is sitting in my mind the way a rough meal can’t quite sit right in the stomach. It’s a touchstone classic for many and comes fully loaded with a lot of great themes, metaphors, and symbolism that makes it a fun one to dissect and teach I’m sure. The section titles practically list the symbols for you, with the salamander and ancient beliefs that it lives in fire unaffected by flames, the sand that is the truth Montag grapples for but also the sieve that is the human mind making any firm grip on the truth elusive. Its a book that employs paradoxes to great effect, where blood is representative of our primal instincts, and the religious imagery illuminates the pages. Particularly the purifying fire. In his essay on Bradbury, folklorist Jack Zipes discusses the fire as a larger statement on America:

‘[Fahrenheit 451 is] structured around fire and death as though it were necessary to conceive new rituals and customs from the ashes of an America bent on destroying itself and possibly the world.’

This destructive force is not unlike Montag’s firehose ‘this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world.’ For Bradbury, much of this destruction comes from television and mass media which, he argues, is leading to a dumbing down of the populace making them ripe for controlling and leading to brutality. Clarisse complains of the education system being gutted and all it becomes is ignorant teachers who ‘run answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us just sitting for four more hours of film-teacher’ (Montag’s encounters with the teenage Clarisse had a vibe that made me keep doing the side eyes meme in my head…). It’s a futuristic world, yet Bradbury brings the anxieties of the 50s to life in caricature to create a future as a warning.

‘Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.’

Through the book burnings, the symbolic helmets, salamander on the arm and phoenix disc on the chest of the uniforms, Bradbury invokes images of abusive power that call to mind the Nazis and their book burnings of the 1930s. Yet Bradbury’s America of the 1950s was rampant with the book bans, burnings, and celebrity blacklists of the McCarthy Era and these are just as integrated into the novel. 1948 had just seen internationally regarded psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham begin a campaign against comic books as immoral and bad for kids which led to several incidents of massive book burnings of comic books. In a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Juvenile Delinquency, Wertham stated ‘I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic-book industry,’ and in 1954, one year after Fahrenheit 451 was published, came the creation of the Comics Code Authority which was de facto book banning (fun fact: comic artists realized if you bound a book and gave it an ISBN it no longer fell under the jurisdiction of the CCA and Graphic Novels were born).
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1948 Binghamton, N.Y.: Students of St. Patrick’s parochial school collected 2,000 comic books & burned them in the school yard.

The aspects on book burning and censorship felt rather relevant to the current state of the United States where book bans are on the rise and specifically targeting queer or Black authors and narratives. According to the American Library Association, the 2023-24 academic year saw 1,247 demands to censor 4,240 unique book titles, nearly triple previous years. Book ban attempts have become a wedge issue for the right wing, a flashy and fiery way to chip away at faith in public institutions in order to privatize public goods and services in the name of profits. Bradbury would be pissed.
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2024: Missouri Secretary of State candidate uses flamethrower to burn queer books as a campaign ad

While, yes, this is more a book about television and vapid media replacing intellectual content than it is about censorship, I will get to that shortly because an aspect of this book I can’t stop thinking about is Bradbury’s explanation on how things got to be this way in the novel. This book isn’t really about big authoritarian governments, per say, only that we allow them to take over and we learn from Captain Beatty that the destruction of books ‘Didn’t come from the government down.’ No:

‘There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time.’
n

It was a grassroots operation and the people did it to themselves. But you’ll notice he uses ‘minority pressure’ here. One could think about it like the way that a study in The Washington Post that in the 2021-2022 academic year ‘just 11 people were responsible for filing 60 percent of book challenges’ and its small interest groups (often astroturfed by larger groups) that are taking it upon themselves to attempt censorship.

‘Now let’s take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don’t step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes…The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean…Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator.’

Sure, Beatty is certainly not a great person and this is all filtered through his mind, though a 1967 edition of the book removed all the curse words and Bradbury wrote a Coda to the novel expressing his disgust at the irony of this novel being censored. His words aren’t all that dissimilar:

‘There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-Day Adventist, Women’s Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse…Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever.’

In the Coda, Bradbury also says he is frequently criticized for his portrayal of women and Black people, to which he responds that he will do what he wants and people shouldn’t try to curb his speech. ‘For it is a mad world and it will get madder if we allow the minorities to interfere with aesthetics,’ he writes. In a 1994 interview for the Dayton Daily News, Bradbury stated this novel was all the more relevant in the modern day:

‘It works even better because we have political correctness now. Political correctness is the real enemy these days. The black groups want to control our thinking and you can't say certain things. The homosexual groups don't want you to criticize them. It's thought control and freedom of speech control.’

Maybe specifically saying the Black people and the gays are out to get you isn’t ideal. This book was also very of its own time and shouldn’t be conflated with the modern discourse either. He has received criticism over his segregationist approach in his short story Way in the Middle of the Air or his portrayal of Black people in The Other Foot, though Bradbury has often prided himself as being a progressive thinker for tackling these issues. But It’s a lot easier to think of a writer as “progressively ahead of their time” when those who would likely critique their thoughts on race or women were not given space or a voice to do so.

'It’s a totally lopsided ideological element of American culture, that the highest good is free speech, rather than that free speech is a side product of a just political system, but without any reference to what the content of the speech is.'
—Isabella Hammad, in interview for Tin House

Sure, Bradbury is arguing for freedom of speech, but its all in a very odd sort of way that feels like pearl-clutching “don’t tread on me” vibe. I don’t believe he is a “hate speech is cool” type and would certainly be yelling against MAGA and the modern bans, but I don’t think I’d want to know his thoughts on trigger warnings. In his book New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction, author Kingsley Amis criticized authors like Bradbury in their discussions on censorship:

‘[T]o call the generic political stance of science fiction “radical,” as I have done, is not quite precise: it is radical in attitude and temper, but strongly conservative in alignment.’

Amis was aiming at writers from before the New Wave of sci-fi where more women and people of color began writing, but these sorts of issues still linger in the community. You may recall the Sad Puppies, the unsuccessful right-wing anti-diversity campaign that tried to block women and people of color from receiving Hugo Awards claiming the popularity of these authors was due to ‘ political correctness’ with readers ‘favoring authors and artists who aren't straight, white and male,’ as their metric over “quality.” Not that this is Bradbury, to be clear. And this novel was written under its own political climate that doesn’t resemble today enough to draw clear lines either.

‘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. Let him forget there is such a thing as war…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 damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with.’

The world of the novel is one of disconnect. And television is to blame. Okay, actually its more a statement that the lack of literary value made media a bland, brainless entertainment and that spoiled the world. But its also a bit weird too. Bradbury has discussed that a big inspiration for the novel came from observing a couple walking their dog and the woman was listening to the radio. His words:

‘I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.’

We can clearly see the inspiration for Mildred’s Seashell ear-thimbles that detach her from the world. And that is what television is doing in the novel as well, something Margaret Atwood commented about saying Bradbury’s vision ‘predated Marshall McLuhan and his theories about how media shape people, not just the reverse’ making it all the more a timely classic. Though I often wonder if Bradbury considers that the radio could be used for intellectual activities too. Would he complain about people staring at their phones, what if he saw me reading his book or writing this review on the phone, would that be offensive and detaching from the world in a way reading the physical novel or writing this by pen and paper wouldn’t? Besides, Bradbury even had his own tv series: The Ray Bradbury Theater. But this is beside the point, we see how technology not only detaches people in his world, but is also very deadly. The atomic bomb most so.

‘There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.’

‘We are a democracy of readers,’ Bradbury stated in an interview for the NEA, ‘and we should keep it that way.’ Look, I love books, I value books, I work in defence of books and free access to books and I am writing this from my library desk covered in books and making sure people get books from other libraries delivered properly (RIP federal funding thought…), but Bradbury comes off a touch elitist. In his commentary on the novel, Jack Zipes writes ‘despite [Bradbury’s] humanistic intentions,’ he writes ‘from an elitist point of view’ where ‘the ethical and aesthetic ideals in Bradbury’s narrative are derived from an indiscriminate and eclectic praise of books per se.’ He continues:

‘To love a book or to be an intellectual is not, as Bradbury would have us believe, ideally ethical and humane…such an oversight short-circuits the utopian functions of his books and he remains blind to the intricacies of control in his own society.’

Ouch. Coming from a future world where part of the “issue” leading to book burning was that those who didn’t read books felt inferior and ashamed, it makes me think about the US political divide and how looking down at the opposition doesn’t make an effective social strategy. Especially when the perceived condescension only turns into doubling down on beliefs and bad takes. I found the ending particularly chilling. Bringing in the Biblical Revelations ‘and on either side of the river was there a tree of life…’ Montag joins up with an all white all men group of nomadic intellectuals and watch the city be bombed into a crater. The non-readers left behind are massacred and ‘the explosion rid itself of them in its own unreasonable way.’ Unreasonable indeed, though it does touch on the fear of technology and the bomb that was certainly on everyone's mind when he wrote it and remains there because, we still have ‘em! Not awesome.

‘But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.’

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a classic work of sci-fi and a staple of classrooms in the United States, yet I found it to be a bit lackluster on the reread. It’s a fun story, don’t get me wrong, and there is some fantastic imagery and creativity. It is anything but subtle though I do love the bold symbolism and motifs writ large in the tale. I don’t love, however, the aspects that feels a bit like those who snob and scoff on people’s reading choices. Yet it is also not without its merits and I enjoyed giving it a second look.

3/5

‘Stuff your eyes with wonder. Live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no securityl.’

This isn't my favourite classic dystopian, but Bradbury was onto something with his cautionary tale, despite being published in 1953.

Sure, global literacy rates are at an all-time high, and we can access information at lightning speed. It's easy to argue that Bradbury's fears of information censorship seem outdated.

Yet, for me, his message transcends literal book burning—it makes me think about what's emphasised or suppressed in our media-saturated world, no matter the medium. We're bombarded with information. So what gets promoted or buried? I guess it’s not so far-fetched to think we live in a world where media manipulation can hide atrocities while everyone’s fixated on who wore the best dress at the Met Gala. (Zendaya, duh.)

Love it or hate it, it's a thought-provoker.

Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a novel that transcends it's dystopian theme and delivers its cautionary message in a timeless fashion, what made this story compelling in 1953 remains provocative.

It is a strident call to arms, a warning siren of darkness always on the perimeter.

Critics have tried to make more of this, and certainly it is an archetypal work, but I think its simplicity is its great strength - it is fundamentally about book burning, literally and metaphorically. A powerful allegory that also works well as a prima facie argument against censorship and a good science fiction novel all by itself.

Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about censorship, but a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which leads to a perception of knowledge as being composed of factoids, partial information devoid of context - and I can see that (and in an age of Vine and Twitter this message is all too relevant), but for me the image of the ironic fireman burning books is the endearing story.

This is a book that everyone should read at least once.

**** 2021 reread -

This could be an annual reread, I was again captivated by Bradbury's language and vision.

Akin to Orwell's 1984 in its cautionary dystopia, this is more fantastic and serves best as allegory for complacency, conformism and the deterioration of critical thought. A reader of both classics may also draw a comparison between 1984's O'Brien and 451's Beatty. Both antagonists, like Milton's Satan, recognize the evil of their design but move forward regardless and with a recklessness born of misanthropy.

One symbol that was ubiquitous in the novel was that of hands. Montag blames his hands for beginning his treason by taking books and later it is his hands that commits the murders, and still later, by contrast, Guy thinks of hands as building and creating rather than burning and destroying.

*** 2023 reread -

Still an excellent book, timeless in its message, and as relevant as ever.

I noticed in my reread of Childhood's End and Foundation, all three books published within years of each other, and significantly only a few years removed from battling global fascism, that all three of these SF masterpieces address a dehumanizing effect of authority and technology.

This time I paid close attention to Montag's relationships with the other characters. From his wife, to Clarisse, to Beatty, and then to Faber and the disenfranchised hobos, Montag is our guide for the dystopia he lives through as well as the scenes of hope and for the final denouement.

Bradbury's prose is a treasure.

“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”

Ray Bradbury did it. He presented a world where the population is completely controlled. And it was such a simple decision. Burn!
The most frightening thing is that I could see glimpses of our society in Fahrenheit 451. And I thought about it. Are we slowly inching towards Bradbury's world?
I was left breathless by this little novel. Reaching always for another page. Feeling strange pain in my heart for those characters completely swallowed by the simple entertainment.
This novel is full of quotes I want to share and never to forget and for everyone to hear them.

“But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.”

“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?”

“Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you to know with which ear you'll listen.”


“And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands? He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.”

It is a classic of American literature anyway.
This fact allowed me to understand its success and anticipation. Fortunately, I knew the content because the face is very bizarre with its deaf dialogue between Montag and his wife; it seems to come from another planet as she is beside her pumps. The author is so correct in some reasoning that it freaks out our future, to us readers, as the effect of the "masses." How could the world become if books became people's enemies and happiness? Thus, the author created an extraordinary book with this simple question on so few pages (191p). The original story forces us to remain vigilant if we do not want literature worthy of the name to fall into oblivion.
As you will understand, this novel is an excellent discovery; even if I preferred the comic book version, putting the right images in this type of story is much more pleasant. If you still haven't read it, I recommend checking out this classic of American fantasy literature. Despite a particular kind of writing, it made me want to discover new novels by this author that are so full of accuracy in anticipating the world to come.