Fahrenheit 451 is, of course, the temperature at which paper burns.
But the book of the same name — I read it, I think, in Grade 12 or something — is an anti-utopian tale that warns against state control of thought and the dangers of state censorship. And when I saw the movie version, I was sure of that point.
That book is one of the core books of my life. I take Northrop Frye's message that the point of the artist in modern society is to imagine the future and help us move toward it. Ray Bradbury, it seemed to me, imagined a future we ought to want to avoid. And I was moved by Bradbury's vision, in part, to do what I've been doing since I was 16 — to be a journalist that is not afraid to “speak truth to power“, to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”, and mostly to press for as much public transparency as possible when it comes to the machinery of the state.
Well, now comes along the guy who wrote the bloody book (left) and says it has nothing to do with all that! (Click on “Bradbury on Censorship/Television). And, not only that, he says what I'm doing for a living nowadays is “moronic”!
“Fahrenheit's not about censorship. It's about the moronic influence of popular culture through local TV news, the proliferation of giant screens, and the bombardment of factoids.”
Sheesh …. 🙂
Damn…I've got some old high school book reports that need re-writing….
“Bradbury wrote that “Radio has contributed to our ‘growing lack of attention.’… This sort of hopscotching existence makes it almost impossible for people, myself included, to sit down and get into a novel again. We have become a short story reading people, or, worse than that, a QUICK reading people.””
Kind of a weird quote from a man who's writing career is largely based on short stories. Even his novels are pretty short…which is likely why I did so many high school book reports on Ray Bradbury stories. 🙂
I think Bradbury's entitled to an opinion about what his book's about, and it should be given some weight, but it's not the only one. Your view is equally as valid, David.
And just to brag: I write this at my office at the end of the day, looking at a small yellow piece of paper. The note has a sort of post-apocalyptic woodcut scene and a typed message from … Ray Bradbury. It is the product of the one and only fan letter I ever wrote, in 1982, when I was a teenager. He wrote:
“Dear Bob LeDrew: Thanks for your warm kind letter of November 21st, which finally reached me now, on January 17th! I hasten to respond and to hope for you a grand 1983 and great years on beyond down or up toward 1999! All of this comes from Montag's F. 451 friend, not long ago from Mars! named: Ray Bradbury, 1/17,83. ” Sigh. I still love it dearly.