Ray Bradbury meant nothing to me as a name until I stumbled across a Youtube video of him talking about his writing. He is such an enthusiastic and cheerful character that I couldn’t help but like him and want to read his stories.
I’d heard of Fahrenehit 451 before but hadn’t realised he had written it. For those who haven’t read it, the story revolves around the premise of a world where books are burnt by firemen, where having them in your possession is illegal. The world is a futuristic one but doesn’t feel as far fetched as many totalitarian book worlds are – which makes it even more hard hitting. The protagonist Montag is himself a fireman until he can no longer handle the destruction of bound pages and their words…
Bradbury has a wonderful feel for words and lays them out on paper with real imagination and colour. Such a joyful author to read. There is no over complication or excessive writing. He just lets it flow and describes things with vibrant brilliance. The writing is fantastic, the story is really well written and paced to perfection. The very idea is horrendous but not unthinkable which adds an extra dimension to it. A classic book, instant favourite. Cannot recommend this enough especially if you like Orwellian, dystopian, futuristic books.
An interesting anecdote is that Hugh Hefner, launching his Playboy empire in the early 50’s paid $450 for The Fireman the early precedent to the full novel that became Fahrenheit 451.
I grew up reading a lot of Ray Bradbury Sci-fi. Great post!
Thanks! I’m just hugely glad to have finally read some of his works. Great craftsman. I’d like to get into some of his sci-fi stuff too. Any recommendations?
What I recall the most is “The Martian Chronicles.” It was a long time ago. He also wrote, “something Wicked This Way Comes,” I think.
This is one of the few books that I liked that my school forced me to read. Great post.
Merci. To Kill a Mockingbird was the only relevant material I ever read in the system. Far From the Madding Crowd was woeful a relic of the 19th century best burnt, I mean err, best left untouched.
I liked this post. Many madmen in charge do one thing in common. They burn the books. Keep the masses ignorant is a theme of the regime. Hitler did it and it was depicted in an Indiana Jones movie. One of the first things that a dictator does is kill the teachers for they implant in the minds of the young not to obey blindly. Bradbury is a great writer. Notice how the people become the books they read. They memorized entire works. It reminds me of the slaves who memorized sections of the Bible. The mind is truly amazing. Thanks for bring this piece up. I also appreciate you reading my material and hope you liked it. Thanks again, Barry
He highlights that, that historical figures have burned books. It’s never worked though, not really. The modern equivalent would be ‘burning’ the internet which many governments want to do to stop people seeing them for the shits they are. Thanks for sharing your opinion.