★★☆☆☆ Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
This was such a disappointment to high-school me
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
This was such a disappointment to high-school me
I read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 a very long time ago, when I was still a high-school student. I read it for one reason only -- I was a HUGE science fiction fan, and the buzz was that Bradbury was one of the best SF authors. It is interesting to read what Bradbury himself had to say about that
First of all, I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's Fahrenheit 451, based on reality.
I didn't find out until much later that Bradbury himself had issued that Peter-like denial. So I read his most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 and also The Martian Chronicles. I hated the first and found the second tedious. I came to much the same conclusion as Bradbury: "This is NOT science fiction!", except that unlike Bradbury himself, I denied Fahrenheit 451 as well.
So that was one reason -- a bad reason -- for hating Fahrenheit 451. Since then I have become less Puritanical about my SF -- I would not longer condemn a supposed SF novel for not conforming to my definition of the genre.
I would, however, condemn Fahrenheit 451 for being unimaginative and entirely lacking in subtlety. Yes, Mr Bradbury. Books are wonderful, censorship is bad, books should not be burned or banned, and this is a very real problem. Good, we are entirely in agreement. Are you finished bludgeoning me with the obvious? Do you have anything more interesting to say? An interesting and relatable story to tell, perhaps? Something more like 1984 or Brave New World, which, in addition to warning of ideological dangers, are also good novels? Novels that contain, in addition to the obvious, some ideas I would not have had on my own? That are not entirely divorced from plausibility?
No? Then we're done here.