Fahrenheit 451

Foxbat said:
The ignition point of paper is around 842 degrees fahrenheit. The remark about 451 being the temperature books burn was used as a selling point for the book. I don't know why Bradbury didn't just call it Fahrenheit 842.

Still, whatever the reason for the title, it is one of my all-time favourite novels. A joy to read...which makes the subject matter of the novel all the more ironic:)
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After I read your post I decided to look it up out of curiostiy and I keep finding site after site claiming it to be 451, with a small vairance depending on the chemicals and such in the paper. So may I ask were you got your information so I can determine which is correct?

Autoignition temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
So I'd heard of Rahrenheit 451 before, but after reading this topic I was out picking up a couple of books and I decided to get it also, and I just finished reading it, blew me away, definitely one I'm going to suggest to my friends.
 
451 is a great read and it inspired me to write my own version, Word Wars. In my story the Continental Security Agency bans the written word and forces the color bar language on the populace--they do this to hide a new technology that would have global implications. I had fun with this one and didn't really expect anyone to pick it up. Alas, it sold and is coming out in a few days. Who'd have thunk it. Thanks, Ray.

I like the way Bradbury uses a benign agency, like firemen, to serve a reverse function and terrorize the populace. I call it reverse plotting. What if the FCC and the postal commission were authorized to enter your home and seize written documents, instead of delivering them? Fun plots to work with.

Tri
 
Triceratops said:
What if the FCC and the postal commission were authorized to enter your home and seize written documents, instead of delivering them? Fun plots to work with.
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Certain elements in the Patriot Act actually have something perilously close to this, I'm afraid.:(
 
It's not my favorite book by Bradbury, but I liked Fahrenheit 451.
 
I've only read Farenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes recently and was impressed by both books, especially the prose. The cat is sending me another Bradbury book, so I'm looking forward to continuing my reading of this author's books!
 
I have yet to read anything by Bradbury that I didn't like. He's one of my favorite authors. Enjoy your reading Gollum. :)
 
The anthologies are also good. There is one particular story, collected in R is for Rocket, called "The Foghorn." I won't say anything about it (don't want to spoil it for anyone), but it always makes me cry.
 
After seeing the movie "Fahrenheit 451", I was haunted by that film. Then I read the book and still had the haunting feeling about it. Book burning. That's what got to me. Of course they're not just about book burnings, they're more than that. It's the same thing about "A Canticle For Leibowitz".

I've read other Bradbury stuff as well. If you actually looked closely though, you'll notice that most of Bradbury's future stories revolve around the time frame of Fahrenheit 451, sometimes before, sometimes after, and sometimes in between.
 
I absolutely adore this book - beautifully written, unlike a lot of sci-fi, with a hero who is really rounded and complex.

Only a pedant would point out that the famous quote "Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which book paper burns" is factually inaccurate. :p

If you've seen the film, that doesn't count at all - the book is a complete classic.
 
I have to agree with the above posters. I was stunned when I read the book years ago--it stayed with me all this time. So I thought I would write a version myself just to get it out of my hair. I made the FCC the all-powerful force in the Northern Hemisphere and banned the written word. Word Wars just got picked up and published last May. It is definitely my homage to Ray, for leaving such a lasting impression on me. In fact, I dedicated the book to him, but my publishers left the damn dedi page out!

Tri
 
Allegra said:
Shamefully I've never read Bradbury but I will have to since another thread specially about the author got me very interested. Any suggestions from which book to start?
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Farenheit 451 is really the best book to start with. I liked Dandelion Wine, too. The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Something Wicked This Way Comes are the most famous of his books - but I didn't like them as much as the above two - which are really very good.
 
Sorry for performing a bit of thread necromancy, but I had just recently saw the film. I found it to be a wonderful film, though I wasn't sure how to take all the undertones of the movie.

As to a comment earlier about the the temperature paper ignites, according to the author, he phoned up his local fire department to ask, and the answer he was given was 451; hence the book's title.

And now, after watching the film, I am in need to read the book.
 
I actually think its better Rae that you resurected a thread rather then just start a new one.

Great book and as others have said possibly even more relevant today then when it was first written 50 odd years ago. It's not just the book burnings that make this such a good read but the whole world Bradbury creates to place it in, the governing by distractions, the hoplessness that people feel but can't name... It may seem a bit like an extreme example at times but imagine telling someone from a couple of hundred years ago just how many people are killed and maimed on the roads now (which I think is over a million deaths a year)? Sure we try to do stuff about it but we can get acustomed to just about anything.

The version I read was a 50th aniversary reprint that had an interesting foreward from Bradbury not so much about the book itself but the proccess he went through in writing it.

And now, after reading the book, I am in need of watching the film :).
 
Quokka: I'm not at all sure it's more relevant than when it was first written; after all, that was at the height of the McCarthy era, coupled with the birth of the Comics Code Authority, encouraged by the trumpetings of Dr. Frederick Wertham. And that "governing by distractions" was very much in place at the time. The hopelessness? We were at the height of the Cold War, too, very much living under a mushroom cloud that few could understand... and the vast majority felt they could do nothing about; which resulted in both a fair amount of hopelessness and fear, or outright denial of the threat in some cases ("God will take care of us" sort of thinking). So I don't think it is any more so... but neither do I think it is any less....
 
Point Taken JD, that is going too far I suppose I was just thinking about the accuracy of some of his ideas regarding how technology could be used but then again those fears have always been there with TV and even before TV I'm sure there are examples of similar techniques being used ie control a polulation by controlling the information, a fear campaign and throw in a carnival or two for good measure.

The technology changes but so much of what lies beneath it really is the same or at least so similar and I'm not sure if that's comforting or disheartning.
 
Adding my voice to the Fahrenheitophiles. I've loved Bradbury since reading the Martian Chronicles as a young teen. Fahrenheit 451 was the second book I read by Bradbury and its an absolute classic. Should be on everyone's "must read" list. About the relevance, as far as feeling goes JD is absolutely right, but in terms of the technology/gadgetry we are certainly getting closer to Bradbury's vision of the future. I sometimes wonder if our reliance on technology for communication (and its immediacy) is going to lead to a serious degradation in our levels of literacy - there are hints of that already in upcoming generations.

Quokka I recommend the film, it was very well done.
 
I read it a long time ago, I think its one of the handful of SF novels to be excepted as 'literature' by the snobs ;) along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984 etc. Come to think of it, its about time I gave it a re-read.

Cheers, DeepThought
 
I read this last year, and I loved it. Mostly the way that everything was predicted...it Bradbury could have been a time-traveller.
I have been asking my English teachers to make the entire class read it, but apparently the school doesn't have bulk copies of it.
 
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