A few hours ago I finished reading Fahrenheit 451, it was hard for me because I rarely read books, but it was worth it, and oh, I felt like I read about our time, people in this novel are like people are now. People watch TV shows, movies, anime created by people and at least think a little, but it happens that people do not think at all and also watch only created by AI and their consumer soul is happy? or even better communicate with AI as a friend and not only, they are, in my opinion, similar to the wife of the main character of the novel; Maybe they will even face a similar fate?
I would say many more things, but I would be glad if you say.
I know it’s not a good idea to compare fiction with reality, but it’s hard not to compare this book with reality, don’t those who have read it agree?
Honestly, I didn’t expect this book to look like it was going to describe the future very accurately, I thought it was just about people refusing to think. I even recognized myself a little in this book.
Yeah it’s a great book, A brave new world is another good classic dystopian book you might like. Similarish to 1984 but maybe slightly less known
I can’t recommend trying to read 1984 to you enough. It’s not always an easy read, but if you enjoyed 451 I think you’ll like 1984.
A brave new world and clockwork orange are in the same vein as well.
Hot
I didn’t expect this book to look like it was going to describe the future very accurately
Read more Bradbury short stories (try The Illustrated Man collection to start), and more sci-fi in general if you want to see reflections of humanity and (often disturbing) true things being predicted from well in the past.
I read it around 20 years ago or so, I found it very visionary and very much more akin to our reality than 1984. Scary.
I read it 25 years ago in high school. I remember being horrified by the author’s depiction of what is now modern-day streaming. It basically sucked the soul out of the protagonist’s wife. Seems that was a bit overblown, looking back
A lot of people focus on the censorship and you could definitely argue that being the central theme, but bradbury himself said he was trying to highlight the dangers of mass media.
Seems that was a bit overblown, looking back
I have witnessed it firsthand. I assure you, it was not.
I liked it, didn’t love it.
The whole central image of it, setting fire to books, and the way they go about it, just felt too direct to me. Still, it weaves a good story and the ideas resonate well enough.
AI companies are buying up rare and out of print books, scanning them to feed into the data centers, then literally shredding and burning the books, so those companies become the only source of the text of those books.
It’s not exactly the same thing but it is our reality’s parallel.
Valid, I was definitely thinking of that parallel when reading the recent AI headlines.
Destructive scanning is not altogether bad, but it’s a huge shame to see it happening from companies that give nothing worthwhile back to the public commons.
It does make me reconsider my ‘burning books is too clearly evil to suspend disbelief’ a little. Still, they’re somewhat different circumstances.
Your wording implies that they buy the last copies of books.
In many cases they are deliberately buying the only existing copies of rare books, yes.
I know it’s not a good idea to compare fiction with reality, but it’s hard not to compare this book with reality, don’t those who have read it agree?
Some books are written with the intent of comparing them to reality, and the author hopes you will do so, and come to important conclusions.
I read Fahrenheit 451 quite a while ago but I found it pretty good. Though, I compared it to much to 1984 and found 1984 better.
Agreed though, it feels similarly to today’s age and the future. People nowadays rather be easily entertained (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok etc) than to make an effort and read for enjoyment and education. The government also seems to continuously try to make people avoid reading.
If I remember well there’s this quote in the book to F451:
We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking
Which is happening today.
We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking
Yes, but I liked the passage where the villain says something like: don’t give people time to think, fill their minds with all sorts of nonsense, so they don’t even have a free second to think.
Well, now it’s the reality: war, war, death, people died again, and here’s the perfect life on Reddit, see what a cute AI-generated cat, but it doesn’t matter to you, right? so consume and be happy.
And I also find that 1984 is better. The finale is especially realistic, where the main character, like an obedient kid, in a sense falls in love with the party.
I have been a huge Bradbury fan since childhood. I have read and watched everything he has touched. However now that I’m older I see elitism in Fahrenheit from Bradbury’s prejudice against all media except books.
People can dissociate from the world into books just like any other media.
It’s one of my favorites, athough it’s been a while since I read it.
Earler today I found out about short story Bradbury wrote called ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ that hits close to home as well. A musician I follow released a recording of it that is really good, although you can read it for yourself it you want to as well.
I haven’t read that book since high school (well over 20 years ago) but I just want to give you your props. You recognized a limitation in yourself and you addressed it. Great job!
From what I remember Fahrenheit 451 was a very important book about the dangers of blind obedience and not thinking for oneself. Great first choice.
I like the idea, and might get back into it (restarting), but previous time I started it I was thrown off by the overuse of metaphors. Maybe it’s just an introduction-thing, but I found it very cumbersome to always have to read “The thing was X, like and Y that had undergone Z” instead of just “the thing was worn and green”.
Yes, I know that writers should show rather than tell, but when the reader has to spend most of the reading time parsing metaphors that could’ve instead just been a factual statement, it becomes a very cumbersome read.
But I will give it another go. I like the sci-fi classics, and I suspect I’d like this one too
It’s been too long for me to remember specifics but I remember not liking it very much.
But I really enjoyed his Martian Chronicles. It’s a collection of short stories about Mars and its colonisation. Some stories have similar themes as Fahrenheit 451.
It was the only school-assigned book that i ever enjoyed
