Let’s take a moment to ponder the place that books have within our society; their impact is infinite. From wanting to understand just how to do your own taxes to having a desire to travel throughout as many worlds and timelines as you could possibly imagine, it’s books that allow you to do just exactly these things. But what if you didn’t have books at your disposal to provide you with the deep and rich adventures across all genres? What if your only source of entertainment was shallow and bland television in a world where you’re actually meant to keep up with the Kardashians? This is the world within Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451; a world where books have been outlawed and are destroyed if they are discovered, leaving its inhabitants with nothing to keep them satisfied except for the superficial television programs that rival the TLC network.
In this story, published in 1953, the narrative follows Guy Montag, a fireman in this post-literate society, but only by name. Firemen in this Bradbury’s world are not the same as the ones in ours – in fact, they are polar opposites. While the firemen that you and I are familiar with are in charge of putting out fires and doing general good deeds around the community, the Guy Montags of Fahrenheit 451 are in charge of destruction with fire. The destruction of books, that is, as the government in this dystopia are fearful of the knowledge that can be collected from them; exactly why the citizens of this land are given mind-numbing television instead.
Unfortunately for Montag, he is stuck in the middle of this world simply doing his job, until he meets a girl by the name of Clarisse McClellan, a strange girl that Montag runs into that teases him with the wonderful “evils” within their society. The main dynamic within this book is that Montag finds himself in the middle of two women: Clarisse and his wife. These two women represent the two different groups within their society; while Clarisse is interesting and dangerous, Mildred (Montag’s wife) is rarely seen doing anything but lazing around and watching television. It’s a dynamic that is easy to see and easy to interpret, but is all too interesting at the same time.
The book itself is very short in terms of what you normally find in this genre, which makes it an easy one to simply pick up and find yourself having read through it all in one sitting. It’s just that entertaining of a story. It’s fitting that this story begins with one of the greatest opening lines in the history of books, “It was a pleasure to burn,” because this work by Rad Bradbury sure is a pleasure to read.
The Blue Room 