Rating: 4/5
Fahrenheit 451: the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns.
Set in a futuristic society where reading books is illegal and where people are constantly being “distracted” from the terrible changes the world has taken,
Fahrenheit 451 is a tale of unhappiness and despair. Thought-provoking and original, it illustrates a world in which ignorance is not only encouraged, but where knowledge is punishable by death.
Guy Montag is a fireman. But in this conformist civilisation of the future, his job is not to put out fires, but to start them. Any house discovered to be hiding a single book will be combusted by the Fire Department, where Montag and his ‘comrades’ work. Often the owners of the victim house become martyrs of the literary world, voluntarily being consumed by the flames that consume their books. God knows what will be in store for them if they do not choose a death alongside their factories of knowledge.
The state knows, as well, that they need to nip people in the bud in order to indoctrinate them with their cruel knowledge-free schemes. I noticed this excerpt from about half-way through the book:
Clarisse McClellan? We’ve a record on her family. We’ve watched them carefully. Heredity and environment are funny things. You can’t rid yourselves of all the odd ducks in just a few years. The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school. That’s why we’ve lowered the kindergarten age year after year until now we’re almost snatching them from the cradle.
Books are believed to be the source of all misery and despondency. Is it not only fair and safe that they should be banned—burned? This fascinating book explores the concepts that are the foundation blocks of society as we know it today.