I came to know about
this book (Fahrenheit 451) from an article in
another book ‘The View from the
Cheap Seats’ by Neil Gaiman. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
is about a time when books are outlawed and firemen are engaged to burn books. It was
written ,not long after Nazis burned books , and eventually human
beings. McCarthyism brought political repression in America. This
brought censorship of literature and
art. These anxieties permeate the novel.
Bradbury called the Los Angeles
fire department and asked them at what
temperature paper burned. Fahrenheit 451
, somebody told him from the Fire
department. This gave Bradbury the title
for his book. It did not matter if it was true or not. It is a book about how we as humans begin by burning books and end by burning people.
Its first film version by Francois Truffaut came in 1966. The second film version
by Ramin Bahrani came in 2018.
Guy Montag , a fireman whose job is to burn books
and people who keep and read
books ( in stead of preventing things from fire)
is the protagonist of the book. There
are powerful , kerosene –spitting flamethrowers
which are used to torch books.
But
after spending some time in burning books , Montag begins to question his
job and beliefs and turns against his mentor and boss
, Captain Betty . He starts keeping and
reading books. In a turn of events which bring fire men to his house , Montag
kills his boss Beatty, two firemen and also the robotic hound. The rest is the
story of Montag’s running and escaping
from the
government , its helicopters , its media and its hounds.
Censorship, Internet , television , technology and social media are the real challenges to books and to serious thought. Do people still care
about physical books? In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury was warning us about the threat of mass media to reading , about the flooding of digital sensations that could
substitute for critical thinking.
This book seems frighteningly relevant even today ,
about 67 years after its publication. The
mechanical Hound of the fire department , armed with a lethal hypodermic ,
escorted by helicopters , is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. It is a prophetic account of civilization’s enslavement by the media , drugs and conformity. It gives
an uncanny insight into the potential of
technology. The questions Bradbury raises remain as valid and important today
as they were when the book was written.
This book
is a classic taught in high schools
across America , though it appears more a book for grown ups. This book was a winner of the 2007
Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. I recommend you to read this book.
