"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s classic envisages a dystopian future in which the job of firemen is to seek out books and burn them. 

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is widely know as a cult classic, it’s mentioned with great affection in the dystopian world and also science fiction realms; the book I would suggest transcends cult classic and becomes a must read book for anyone who loves literature. A book that I would highly recommend to all you bibliophiles out there to pick up and read, it’s themes and prose are magnificently constructed and executed. There is so much great writing in this book that it has quite literally taken me aback at how fabulous it really is and what a brilliant writer and visionary Ray Bradbury was.

Bradbury first wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 and I would have loved to have known how it was received in the 50’s, twenty years after the Nazi book burning, a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (DSt) burning books which they viewed as subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. The themes that Bradbury weaves into his story are both uncomfortable and bold at the same time, one can’t help but read his words and be stirred into action.

Bradbury with his assumptions on what the future would be like, perfectly guesses some of the technologies that we are now embracing, such as the (Apple) ear pods, huge televisions that take over whole walls and also being able to commune with digital people from the safety of your own house (Alexa or Siri anyone?) a master visionary at work – do you think Apple are paying him any royalties?

Bradbury’s voyeurism is also fundamental to the story, his observations on those characters within Fahrenheit 451 who Montag speaks with and interacts with are second to none and cause the reader to become fully immersed in the storytelling, society and the themes within this masterpiece.

The book centres around the fireman Montag. Firemen in Fahrenheit 451 are charged with setting fires instead of putting them out; instead of hosing buildings down with water they pump out kerosene, with their main aim to censor and eradicate the evil of books, the power of books and the trans-formative power of the written word.

We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won’t stomach them for a minute.

Fahrenheit 451 delves deep into the psyche of what it is to be charged with a job, and then discovering that the job you have dedicated yourself to diligently and wholeheartedly might be the very job that is destroying the society you are trying hard to maintain. It’s the glue that binds the novel together, Bradbury delves into Montag’s inner turmoil; blinded by the censorship handed out by the government, his mind being attacked day-after-day, believing that he was fighting the good fight, when in fact he had been manipulated into policing a nightmare of epic proportions, but is there time to rectify this atrocity or not? Who can he trust, where can he turn, what can he do?

The social and cultural issues that Bradbury discusses and directs in Fahrenheit 451 are also as if he glimpsed into the future and is writing about the time we are currently living in. It was shocking to read and also caused me to muse about how much we still have left to learn about life, and when we will make a conscious effort to change it – only a few weeks ago I was watching the television and reading the newspapers about the latest school shootings in America. Bradbury speaks about these issues here in the 50’s, using a young girl to talk about her fears of growing up in their censored and scarred world…can we honestly say that anything has changed?

Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books, that once read, is a game changer. I’d heard about its brilliance long before reading it, I just never got around to reading it; now I have I can’t believe that I left it so long. Its impact is so very great, it’s also changed how and what I will write in the future. It’s a remarkable book that I believe everyone should read, although it could be classed as Dystopian or Science Fiction it’s appeal is huge and far reaching and shouldn’t be restricted and classified by these two genres; I firmly believe it has something for everyone.  (Storgy.com)