Fahrenheit 451

That's right! Finally another book! Today's book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

This dystopian sci-fi classic didn't really seem like something I'd read when I first looked at it. I have really enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale in the past, but this seemed more like 1984. Still, the concept of firemen burning houses instead of putting out the fires was intriguing.

I'm going to try to summarize without soiling everything because I want people to know what the book is about without feeling like they've read it. There is so much more to the book than just the summarized plot. (And hopefully I can do this for all other books afterward as well).

Montag is a fireman who meets the strange young girl next door, Clarisse, and begins to wonder why she is so different. In a world where people never just walk or have conversations, where televisions fill a whole room and books are banned, Clarisse essentially introduces him to how things used to be. Montag wonders if maybe there is something special about books that has caused them to be such a danger that men like him are hired to burn them. His view of the world is suddenly altered and he becomes frustrated with the way that his life is.

Bradbury highlights the importance if books and storytelling. While many of the dystopian stories tend to show the danger of reading and widespread information, Bradbury uses Montag to question this danger and look at the usefulness and importance of books instead. He also uses amazing imagery to give life to the books, as though a part of the author is transferred into all the material. I actually had to write an essay about it where I looked the power of storytelling in taking on the life forms of the storyteller.

Another intriguing thing that Ray Bradbury does with the imagery is to make the machines very animalistic while he makes the human emotionless and robotic.

I won't tell you more, but to sun it up: it is not glamorous, but it feels like a sci-fi Fairytale with its deep messages and metaphorical imagery. If you read it, read it for the content and the sub content. Mull it over, maybe even read it twice.