Name: Danny White's review of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Item: Fahrenheit 451
Rating: 5
Author: Danny White

Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

Fahrenheit 451

里森

And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Yes, thought Montag, that’s the one I’ll save for noon. For noon … When we reach the city.

“I hate a Roman named Status Quo!” he said to me. “Stuff your eyes with wonder,” he said, “live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,” he said, “shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.”’

he was a thing of horn and blood that would smell like autumn if you bled it out on the ground.

A deer. He smelled the heavy musk-like perfume mingled with blood and the gummed exhalation of the animal’s breath, all cardamon and moss and ragweed odour in this huge night where the trees ran at him, pulled away, ran, pulled away, to the pulse of the heart behind his eyes.

they say there’s lots of old Harvard degrees on the tracks between here and Los Angeles.

But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.

“The folly of mistaking a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself as an oracle, is inborn in us, Mr Valéry once said.”’

“The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.

‘Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy.

He ran on the white tiles up through the tunnels, ignoring the escalators, because he wanted to feel his feet move, arms swing, lungs clench, unclench, feel his throat go raw with air.

if you read fast and read all, maybe some of the sand will stay in the sieve. But he read and the words fell through,

Melting wax dolls also also appear in The Satanic Verses (a book that was burnt like those in Fahrenheit 451).

She was beginning to shriek now, sitting there like a wax doll melting in its own heat.

A special spot-wavex-scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.

Cram them full of non-combustible 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.

The girl? She was a time bomb. The family had been feeding her subconscious, I’m sure, from what I saw of her school record.

‘Coloured people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag.

Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.

We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered?

‘I’ll turn it down.’ She went out of the room and did nothing to the parlour and came back. ‘Is that better?’ ‘Thanks.’

Mild variations of this hardly seem absurd today.

Wasn’t there an old joke about the wife who talked so much on the telephone that her desperate husband ran out to the nearest store and telephoned her to ask what was for dinner?

We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out,”’ said Beatty. Stoneman glanced over at the Captain, as did Montag, startled. Beatty rubbed his chin. ‘A man named Latimer said that to a man named Nicholas Ridley, as they were being burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy, on October 16, 1555.’

‘Let’s talk about something else. Have you ever smelled old leaves? Don’t they smell like cinnamon? Here. Smell.’

‘Yes, I am!’ ‘It doesn’t show.’ ‘I am very much in love!’ He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face. ‘I am!’

Danny White

A science fiction book that narrates the story of a futuristic society where all books are banished and firefighters are assigned the job of burning the books and the house or building that contains the books rather than putting out fires.

Benedict Neo

Although the premise of the story was about book-burning, the main ideas of the book are prophetic and presents events that we experience today. The most evident one being censorship and the second being technology. Where the extremely distracting and attention-grabbing parlor walls in the book, is social media and Netflix we have today, and the book-burning censorship is what we see on the internet today

Aside from the themes of the book, there were quotes that I really enjoyed and will treasure.

First was about friendship:

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.” 

And the second was about living your life:

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”

All in all it was a fun read, and I particularly reading dystopian literature they are stories that are fictional, yet surreal, because we are already living in those stories today, or if not, soon to be.

The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the source of all discord and unhappiness, the printed book.

Lara Engle

I'm a certified Ray Bradbury nerd. Even so, this holds up. Reading to teach is different from just reading. This book gives us so much to look at in terms of theme, symbolism, imagery, motif, and story. It's compact, lovely, and powerful.

Yazılmış en iyi bilimkurgu romanı. İlk okuduğumda, yarattığı dünyayla kâbuslar görmeme sebep olmuştu. -Margaret Atwood
Öyle bir eser ki, hakkında ne söylesem eksik kalır. -Neil Gaiman
Hugo En İyi Roman Ödülü
Prometheus Şeref Kürsüsü Ödülü
Ray Bradbury sadece bilimkurgunun değil fantastik edebiyatın ve korkunun da yirminci yüzyıldaki ustalarından biri. Bilimkurgunun iyi edebiyat da olabileceğini kanıtlayan belki de ilk yazar. Yayımlandığı anda klasikleşen, distopya edebiyatının dört temel kitabından biri olan Fahrenheit 451 ise bir yirminci yüzyıl başyapıtı.
Guy Montag bir itfaiyeciydi. Televizyonun hüküm sürdüğü bu dünyada kitaplar ise yok olmak üzereydi zira itfaiyeciler yangın söndürmek yerine ortalığı ateşe veriyordu. Montag'ın işi ise yasadışı olanların en tehlikelisini yakmaktı: Kitapları.
Montag yaptığı işi tek bir gün dahi sorgulamamıştı ve tüm gününü televizyonla kaplı odalarda geçiren eşi Mildred'la beraber yaşıyordu. Ancak yeni komşusu Clarisse'le tanışmasıyla tüm hayatı değişti. Kitapların değerini kavramaya başlayan Montag artık tüm bildiklerini sorgulayacaktı.
İnsanların uğruna canlarını feda etmeyi göze aldığı bu kitapların içinde ne vardı? Gerçeklerin farkına vardıktan sonra bu karanlık toplumda artık yaşanabilir miydi?
Fahrenheit 451, yeryüzünde tek bir kitap kalacak olsa, o kitap olmaya aday.
Mutlu olmamız için gerekli her şeye sahibiz, ama mutlu değiliz. Bir şey eksik. Etrafa bakındım. Ortadan kaybolduğunu kesinlikle bildiğim tek şey, on-on iki yıldır yaktığım kitaplardı.

belki de içinde bulunduğumuz devri anlattığı için beni çok heyecanlandırmadığı gibi yazarın takip etmesi zor ve bayağı anlatımına bir de İthaki'nın fevkalade çevirisi eklenince pek de tesir bırakan bir kitap olamamış ne yazık ki. kitabın büyük bir kısmı çıkarılıp 70-80 sayfada anlatılsa yazarın neye parmak basmaya çalıştığı kesinkes anlaşılabilirdi. kitabın bir film/video olduğu senaryoda 3x hızda izlerdim ve bir şey kaçırmazdım elbet.

Onur Ege

Farenheit 451

Abby

A classic dystopian lol I read this for class but it was still pretty fun to read and it was kinda weird hiw it matched our society but it was TOO mysterious and bad at explaining things like I was just in a WTF is going on headspace for so long in this book 

Anushree Taparia

Wilde

Didn't like the writing style but I appreciated what he was trying to do. The story was great- very dark but with tinges of hope.

Bilge Ince

This book is a story of a fireman but not the type of you know. This fire departmant only burns books. That’s right books... Therefore, this dystopian novel was my exact hell definition. Books are not allowed; reading, thinking and discussing are not allowed as well.

 It's fine work. Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That's our official slogan.'

Our main character is Montag Guy who is the fireman I mentioned above. However, Montag realize that this world is nothing but a hell after he met with Clarisse. He started to questioned ever single thing in his life and can not handle to live like that. And here is the story began...
.
I loved Clarisse especially. The way she sees the world and herself especially when she said: 
“ Well,' she said, I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane Isn't this a nice time of night to walk? I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise. They walked on again in silence and finally she said, thoughtfully, 'You know, I'm not afraid of you at all.”
It is a heartwarming and twisted story seems like consist of many small stories. But especially it’s a story of people who don’t belong and don’t want to be a part of to the today’s society. After I read this book, I realized that it seems like politics create our today’s world by looking this dystopian novels. We are the society who knows celebrities’ lives more than Einstein’s ideas, Shakespeare’s masterpieces...
.
How rarely did other peoples faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own inner most trembling thoughts 
 
In below quote I realize that how I feel about the beloved people who passed away.

 When I was a boy my grandfather died, 
I wasn't crying for him at all, but for the things he did. He was part of us and then he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did.

I’ve read it for school like 3 separate times, still slays.

Delaney LaFalce

Mid, really like the philosophy in the book, but it's too on the nose and just can't get over the writing style. None of the characters are likable and while it has its good moments that I really like it also has a lot of repetitiveness. 

Derek Graf

I've read it for uni, it allowed me to analyse it and uncover some hidden thoughts but also made me in many ways reluctant to pick it up

Alina

Bri Billaney

I read this as part of my mission to read all the 'banned books' in my library's display. This was the one I started with, and I think it was probably the only one I actually read. Bradbury is an excellent story teller, and I really appreciated the way the characters felt human rather than like book characters.

Colleen

5 Stars

There are some books that everyone should read at least once regardless of their reading preferences. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those. 


  “The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”

I’ll keep this review short, because it’s better to experience it for yourself. The writing is beautiful and haunting yet full of bleak portents – some of which have come to pass. It’s tragic how true parts of Bradbury’s portrayal of society is: honestly, there are no lack of mindless sheep who have imaginary intimacies with celebrities. But it’s a poignant portrayal. 


  “ “Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.” 

It’s a short book with a fast paced plot but does not sacrifice the writing. The story is not a firm prediction; rather, it is a thought-provoking exploration of societal motivations and breakdowns. My own interpretation is less about the anti-technology message (though that was clearly an intent of the story) but a focus on societal suffocation of originality and non-conformity. But regardless of your interpretation, it is a stimulating story.


  “ “Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” 

I also enjoyed this 60th anniversary edition which had a lovely forward by Neil Gaiman.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 5 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 5 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 5 Stars

I don’t think this book is good. It was difficult for me to understand what was happening. I wasn’t entertained and the plot was random and not cohesive. 

Robin Collura

Kind of weird and short. I don’t really know what the point of the book was 😂

Elizabeth Clark 

Brittany Levely-Connolly

I first read this book in middle school and didn't fully appreciate it at the time (because lets be honest who really appreciates any of our assigned readings for school), but I always remembered enjoying the book and the poetic way in which Ray Bradbury writes. As someone who loves to read the story stuck with me long enough to want to re-visit it as an adult. This is one of my all-time favourite books, and with all the current concerns about censorship and freedom of speech this book is as relevant today as when it was first written. A world where firemen don't put out fires, but rather start them and to think on your own or even a book is dangerous, Ray reminds us that the status quo and the government do not always have our best interests at hard and to continue to question what goes on around us and fight for what we believe in.

Vilandra

It’s interesting to see that the same issues existed over 70 years ago. The parallels to today are striking and thought-provoking. It’s interesting to see how fast the main character goes from conforming to thinking as an individual.

Wataru N.

Ioana Kardos

Jacqueline Englund

Just the idea of burning books gave me major anxiety....however I really enjoyed this and it definitely deserves to be called a classic!

Prashanth Srivatsa

Bradbury's imagination is terrific. He wholly succeeds in making us disturbed and frightened of how evolving technology and a lessening attention span is causing us to not only move away but also discard the learnings of literature as irrelevant. This kind of presience and human understanding is rare.

Nast Marrero

Twin brother of The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury crafts a thrilling distopia that becomes closer by the day.

Jordan Peet

Fahrenheit 451 was a good book. It builds up the action after each part. In my opinion, the first part was the worst. It was confusing and you really had to pay attention to understand what was going on. The second part was better. It had more action and it just appealed to me more. The third part, in my opinion, was the best. You can understand what was going on and you could feel what Montag felt.

'Fahrenheit 451' ist die Temperatur, bei der "Bücherpapier Feuer fängt und verbrennt". In Ray Bradburys Zukunftsvision ist die Feuerwehr nicht mehr mit Wasserspritzen ausgerüstet, sondern mit Flammenwerfern, die genau diesen Hitzegrad erzeugen, um die letzten Zeugnisse individualistischen Denkens - die Bücher - zu vernichten. Da -beginnt der Feuerwehrmann Guy Montag, sich Fragen zu stellen... Die beängstigende Geschichte von einer Welt, in der das Bücherlesen mit Gefängnis und Tod bestraft wird, ist ein zeitloses Plädoyer für das freie Denken.

Ali 🐝

Nicolás Niño 

Ray Bradbury consigue hacernos ver como la sociedad necesita de la literatura y la cultura. Sin ella, nos quedamos sin nuestra identidad propia, la identidad propia de los seres humanos. 

El mejor ejemplo de lo que Bradbury ilustra en su novela lo podemos observar hoy en día: la novela sobrevive al paso del tiempo y, a cada año que pasa, se vuelve más vital su lectura. "Fahrenheit 451" parece cada día más un espejo en el que mirarnos y menos una obra de ciencia ficción. 

El final es simple pero efectivo: ¿Hay alguna esperanza en el ser humano en la sociedad de "Fahrenheit 451"? Cada lector asimilará el final de una manera distinta. Una obra para releer y estudiar.

film → television → YouTube → TikTok

Nineteenth-century man with his horses, dogs, carts, slow motion. Then, in the twentieth century, speed up your camera. Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests, Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending.

He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.

Danny White &
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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