Ray Bradbury's Dystopia "Fahrenheit 451," 50 years later.

Opinion Journal ^ | 5/14/03 | JOHN J. MILLER

[Valin]

That's what Ray Bradbury thinks of cloning. One of America's great science-fiction writers doesn't believe it will ever catch on.

He also doesn't care to be called a science-fiction writer, even though it's a tag he's worn for most of his life. "I write fantasy," says the 82-year-old author of "The Martian Chronicles." "Science fiction is the art of the possible. I imagine the impossible."

[OpusatFR]

" but it wasn't until Mr. Bradbury learned of the problem a dozen years later and complained that his publisher saw the irony of censoring a powerful anticensorship novel. "I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book," he wrote of the incident."

The publisher saw it as a book about censorship?

I always thought the book pointed to the fact that it was the people themselves that created this world by allowing it to happen. They become more interested in some fictional sanitized universe and permitted real life to extinguish. It was not the authorities who created censorship, but the people themselves. It is appropriate to call it ~censorship~ if the people themselves through laziness and carelessness allow it happen?

Shades of reality television...shudder....

[PeterPrinciple]

"There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them," he says. "The education system in this country is just terrible, and we're not doing anything about it."

Can't argue with this.

[ArcLight]

I never was the biggest Bradbury fan. He's a marvelous writer--always has been. But his stuff just wasn't my cup of tea. Still, I was reading one of his short stories with a daughter the other day, and it was good enough to make me rethink my earlier opinion. I may have to dig out my volume of his collected short stories, and start over.


By the by, my lukewarm feelings never extended to Fahrenheit 451, a book I loved from the first. It's a simply wonderful novel--in literary terms, a much better book than Orwell's 1984. There's no excuse for not reading 451.

[Arkie2]

A better book maybe, but not as important. 1984 dealt with the totalitarian state as viewed by Orwell, specifically the Soviet state. Many misinterpret as a warning about the future. It was in reality a condemnation of the "present" when it was written.

[hot august night]

His short stories are fantastic, and the imagery in his writing is beautiful. I also do not care much for his novels. The Sci Fi Channel had a show on a few years ago, "The Ray Bradbury Theater," which was an excellent showcase of his short story work. I hope they bring it back.

[truthkeeper]

Excellent post, thank you. I enjoyed reading it.

[Portnoy]

451 is a fantastic book. One of my favorite quotes comes from the prologue to the later editions (by Bradbury)

"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches." Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse.

...and its so much more true today.

[wideminded]

Once when I was a kid I was playing around with a chemical that made "invisible ink". The ink was supposed to become visible when it was heated. I wrote something on a piece of paper and put it in the oven. Having recently read Fahrenheit 451, I figured it would be OK to set the oven at about 400. That way the paper would not burst into flame.

The paper didn't burst into flame but it did turn dark brown and filled the house with a strong odor. This alerted the powers that be that I was "playing with the oven".

[TheWillardHotel]

Hello:

I am not aware of any of the groups you mentioned burning books.

The only sustained book banning among large populations occurred in Fascist Germany, Communist Russia, China and their satellites.

Yes, all societies, including ours, have banned books, but it is very uncommon and rarely sustained.

[Portnoy]

The quote is not actually about "Book Burning".

Read it again...

Seems like every week we hear of some "small group or minority" that is trying to eliminate an object or idea that offends them.

[philman_36]

I've seen your screen name a couple of times and have wondered at it.
Wouldn't "TheMouthofMonica" suffice as well as TheWillardHotel? /wit/humor

[skeeter]

I used to love his stuff. Illustrated Man is one of the best collection of short stories ever penned.

[hot august night]

Agreed. I was able to purchase an autographed hard-cover collection of Ray's short stories a few years back. I will always treasure it.

The other writer whose short stories absolutely floor me is Richard Matheson, who wrote many of the original Twilight Zone episodes. ("Little Girl Lost", about the little girl who fell through her bedroom wall into another dimension, frightened me so much it ruined my childhood!!) I love his novels, too, my favorite being "I Am Legend." I can re-read his work over and over again, and never tire of it.

[skeeter]

("Little Girl Lost", about the little girl who fell through her bedroom wall into another dimension, frightened me so much it ruined my childhood!!)

That episode had alot in common with Bradbury's short "The Veldt".

[hot august night]

That was a good one. Other favorites: "The Dwarf" (clever!), "The Emissary" (Ray admitted he wrote that one to get over a guilty beating he had given his dog when he was 12-years-old), "The Lake" and "The Small Assassin." Plus a hundred others...I loved Jeff Goldblum in the Ray Bradbury Sci-Fi episode of "The Town Where No One Got Off". Excellent and eerie.