Some people may more readily recall Michael Moore's 2004 film "Fahrenheit 9/11" than the book from which the title was appropriated -- Ray Bradbury's classic 1953 novel "Fahrenheit 451."
The author and his work are in a league unquestionably all their own. Bradbury is considered one of the 20th century's most potent writers and critics, especially toward his own writing. In one disturbingly compelling quote, he said, "I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it." Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" truly encompasses the possibilities of those words.
The novel brings us a world in which books are torched and avid readers are shipped to asylums for the criminally insane. Television is "family," a mind-numbing sitcom of bland characters and repetition.
Guy Montag, a fireman of the modern age, burns the novels that might offend society. It is made very clear from the beginning that this destruction, naturally, involves all books. Though there is a subtle dilemma to Montag's world upon introduction, he appears to be a man unmoved and quite content with his work; a fulfilling profession accomplished by two past generations of his family.
Montag acts with little regard for any details in his daily existence -- until a chance encounter with a free-spirited teen named Clarisse provokes him to realize several unnerving flaws in his current life. Immediately following the encounter, Montag discovers his wife Mildred's attempted suicide -- a shocking act hinted to be common in the increasingly detached society -- and witnesses the disturbing death of a woman willing to burn books for her library. These encounters and experiences transform Montag's generally careless attitude toward the world and its abandonment of any semblance of intellect.
As the novel progresses, Montag's newfound cynicism borders on rage as he struggles to incorporate his thoughts and curiosities with an unfeeling world -- specifically, with his television-drugged wife. Unaware of any alteration in her husband, she reacts to his intellectual advances with irritation and fear, driving Montag to illegality in search of sympathy.
A novel of shocking depth and foresight, this tale of a man's struggle to find autonomy from a sunken society shadows Bradbury's own fears of what the future holds. He warns of the slippery slope of book-banning and the importance of free thought -- both issues that worry modern society.
Most disturbing of all is the revelation by the novel's villain that censorship is not truly a refuge of anxious oppressors, but merely the whim of a dispassionate people. Bradbury himself summarized the true theme of the novel in his heartfelt words: "There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."
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