We watch the books burn as we read Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 – the blurb
The hauntingly prophetic classic novel set in a not-too-distant future where books are burned by a special task force of firemen. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. The classic novel of a post-literate future, ‘Fahrenheit 451’ stands alongside Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.
The trilogy
It’s no mistake that the blurb refers to Fahrenheit 451 in the same breath as Brave New World and 1984. I’ve read all three recently and can see the similarities. All involve World War 2 in some vague way, all offer a grim alternative future. Fahrenheit was first published in 1954, with the other two published in 1932 and 1949 respectively. It’s very telling that they were all written around the same era (ish) and one wonders what the trio would come up with today in a world where Brexit, Corona and Trump are headline makers.
Let em burn
The beginning of Fahrenheit enthralled me. The first page alone filled with words such as ‘burn, blackened, blazing, charcoal, flame, gorging and furnace’ is so evocative. This is a Fireman, he is burning books, and he enjoys it. The Montag we meet at the beginning of the book is very different to the one we leave at the end. He is unlikable, cocky. He burns books for a living for Gods sake. Yet his transformation is every bit as total as the books to which he sets fire to.
He’s a Playboy
I particularly loved the Hound, a mechanical creature fitted with a lethal injection capable of hunting you down by smell alone. I would have loved this section to have been more drawn out and the tension reeled up a notch. The book itself is quite brief (227 pages with Foreward and Afterward). It actually started out at a mere 25,ooo words until editing expanded it to more novel like proportions. Did you know it was first published by Hugh Hefner in Playboy? Nice bit of dinner party trivia for you there.
There were times when I wasn’t sure what was going on, mostly when Montag was with his wife. At these times the language, so provocative in the first few pages, got in the way of reader understanding which was frustrating. I kept up with the general gist and some of Bradbury’s ideas were inspired – the all consuming TV walls! It was quite fitting that a bomb (fire) changed the landscape totally given the overall theme of fire and transformation. What is Montag left with? A brave new world. Let’s hope it is less Huxley and more……?
