Edit:
ITT me just over-scrutinizing a fictional work of art
That’s why I don’t post on reddit often I do get way to much into discussing and exchanging ideas so I get carried away and write way to much instead of actually doing some work smh
I do want to make clear that I do not want to antagonize any person here. I may disagree with some argument but I do appreciate the different conclusions people take from this book.
Hey there so a bit of a preamble here.
I just got around to reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury after seeing it on so many must-read lists and it being referenced many times as a good book.
And I don’t like it that much, in fact in my opinion it is even worse than Catcher in the Rye.
To clarify, I didn’t read it in English. I try to read books (if I know the language good enough) in their mother tongue.
But I found it in a street library and was thrilled to see it since I’ve heard good things about it.
So I read a translated version which might make a few of my points moot.
So here we go with the biggest problems I have with the book and I just need to get it of my chest since noone in my circle has read it yet and I don’t want to spoil it for them…
Certain books have been banned for at least one generation and still Guy Montag and especially Mrs. Phelps have high enough reading comprehension (or listening comprehension in Clara’s case) to understand and analize the themes of a poem which is not easy to analize (according to Stefan Collini/Wikipedia)
And Guy also reads a few lines of the books and immediately understands their meaning without any context, which is sometimes needed, after reading it once.
Apparently Beatty was once an avid reader so it’s not that bad in his case, but damn. He can still remember writings and their authors after a presumably long time since he stopped reading.
Secondly, in the future all houses are made fire-proof is the reason given that the firemen are now making fire instead of extinguishing it. But then it seems like Guy and the firemen burn at least two houses down to smouldering ashes. The one where the woman wants to burn with her books and also Montags House.
Thirdly, Ray Bradbury writes in the book that the bible is the highest form of literature.
Okay the Bible has some parts which are lyrically of a high quality but some other parts….give me a break. But yeah whatever.
Then yes book censorship and book burning is a pertinent problem in society. But all books? Really?
Also Ray Bradbury was afraid about the change of attitude towards reading.
That no one will want to read for pleasure anymore because of the growing “mass media”
This reads to me like the age-old moaning of the older generation that the “young people nowadays are the worst” when apparently Millennials do read the most in the last few generations.
And also, of course people flock to new forms of media that’s just the natural progression.
When books were “invented” came to the mainstream people complained that the younger generation are always sticking 5heir noses in books instead of enjoying and contemplating life. After that they complained that books were replaced by magazines and so on
Another point that broke my suspension of disbelief: (but not really important)
The technology. And yes I know that this book was released in 1953 so he couldn’t have known about the progression of technology but man at least be subtle about it like Orwell.
His TVs still had Vacuum tubes, they still stored data on microfilm.
So what do you think. I’m open to have my mind changed but in my opinion Fahrenheit 451 is a mediocre book that just got as big because of the political climate of that time.
It does not make sense to me that it has a rating of 4.5/5 on Amazon and 4/5 on goodreads.
Maybe you can convince me otherwise and if I read it in English it’s better but I’m not sure about that.
Rant over
by Emiwritesstuff