Fahrenheit 451: Pre and Post Thoughts

I’ve read many books over the years. Some of them include Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time Series, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, and some others. Additionally, I took a science fiction class last spring where we read multiple dystopian short stories. However, compared to the other genres, I have read relatively few science fiction books, not by choice, but because that’s just how it has turned out. Since August, I was working on getting through St. Augustine’s The City of God. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to read the last bit of it in a single sitting, I finally finished it earlier this month.

The next book on the classic list I’m going through is Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, which is a very similar style of book. To put it bluntly, I found The City of God rather boring. There were moments of I really liked, but for the most part there were very few golden needles in this haystack. Therefore, before I trudge on to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, I want to read more science fiction. There are several classics of science fiction that I haven’t read yet, including 1984, Brave New World, and just about any Stephen King novels. But I’ve decided on Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Also since thanksgiving is coming up, I am going to take a break for a week. Therefore, there will be no post on November 24th. Instead I will update this post with my thoughts about Fahrenheit 451 once I’ve finished the book.

What I thought before…

So, what have I heard about Fahrenheit 451? Well I can barely even remember what I have heard about it, because it is often talked about in conjunction with 1984, which, as I mention earlier, I also haven’t read yet. I think this one is dystopian. They’re actually both dystopian, I think. 1984 actually probably is the book where people are separated into four-ish distinct categories. I have no clue what they might be, but I remember there were several groups that were undesirable and looked down upon. The government is watching you and controlling what you think so you have very little freedom.

But aside from that, which might all be about 1984, what I do know is that book snobs are often horrified that I haven’t read one of them let alone either of them. There is also a lot of hype around this book so I hope I won’t be disappointed. That probably sounds pretentious, but it can easily happen and I want to enjoy this book with my own opinion of it and not be influenced by other people saying it’s great. Because a good number of the dystopian short stories I read in class last spring let me with an unsettling feeling, I’m worried Fahrenheit 451 will disturb me. While it could be argued that to be disturbed to the point where it makes you think, be wary, and want to do something is the point, there is a difference between making you think and making you feel disturbed. Oryx and Crake definitely goes on the disturbed side in my opinion. Not my favorite. Definitley, not my favorite. Other than that I can’t think of anything else that I’ve heard about or thought Fahrenheit 451, except that farenheight, fareniet, fareneiht, Fahrenheit is very difficult to spell.

What I think after…

*Yeah...it definitely wasn't the one where people are divided into four-ish groups. However, the government is watching you in Fahrenheit 451. Now it makes sense why there is an edition of Fahrenheit 451 that has a spine of match igniting paper and one that was bound in asbestos so it can't catch on fire. In my opinion, Fahrenheit 451 deserves to be in my home library because it accomplishes two things at once: it makes you think, and the prose is gorgeous. The famous first line of the book, "It was a pleasure to burn," makes you wonder, and marvel in a short 6 words. While Ray Bradbury could have easily written this book without gorgeous prose, he took the time to make people think with enthralling language. On the first page are the words, "eaten," "blackened," "changed," and the phrases, "great python spitting its venomous kerosene," "that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black." Can you tell why I fell in love with this book from the start? I expected this book to make me think, but I didn’t expect to be wowed while I did.

Clearly though, this book isn’t just pretty words. In between, before, after, and during the vivid imagery, Ray Bradbury challenged my assumption that books by themselves are great. Once I started reading and realized that the firemen burn books and that Montag, the fireman protagonist, was sneaking them, I automatically assumed that the moral of the story was ‘value books’. Although that sentiment is true and needs to be said, Bradbury’s aim is more meaningful than that. It isn’t just the books, but the critical thinking after the books, the discussion, the ‘why?’s that make them meaningful, valuable, and dangerous.

Faber, Montag’s mentor, gives a wake-up call about education, “Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.” Memorization is difficult, but it doesn’t produce good citizens. Actually, it produces excellent citizens according to tyrants. Citizens whose knowledge boils down to memorization don’t question, or if they do they ask the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘when,’ ‘how,’ but never the implicating ‘why.’ That’s why Beatty, the disillusioned book reader turned fireman, could spout quote after quote and still never get it. He just treated books like they were another fact to memorize and so he never questioned.

Notes:

* Here be spoilers

Sources:

Image Credit: Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 című könyvének borítója, magyar kiadás

by Agavekonyvek Wikimedia Commons