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A review by mkmoore00
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2.0
I know, I know, I'm an English teacher giving two stars to the most famous novel about the need for books. I have three actual critical reasons for this rating (along with the fact that I just didn't really like it).
Reason One: Lack of Substance
Unlike the two other famous dystopian novels about the need for free thinking from this period ("1984" and "Brave New World"), I found that "Fahrenheit 451" lacked any real substance. If we were just operating on the premise that books have been banned for some reason and we're following Guy's journey, I would have found that believable. Instead, we're given a pretty flimsy reason for the reality of the world: people stopped reading because they like TV better and then the government found that the public was easier to control and rewrote history to demonize books. This just doesn't feel very believable. It's almost like Bradbury was trying to emulate the nonsense monotony of "1984" but couldn't think of a good enough reason for that world to be reality.
Reason Two: Unclear Lesson
After finishing this novel, I'm not convinced that the lesson is actually that we need books in order to thrive or that censorship is dangerous. If anything, Bradbury seems to be criticizing technology and people who don't think critically. Faber even says, “Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” So is it the books that matter or the thinking they encourage? I'm not sure it matters perse, but I don't think it's great that such a famously cited book isn't clear on what it wants.
Reason Three: Sexism
Pretty self-explanatory. The only people who like books and actually think are men. Just about every author referenced is a man. The women are vapid and selfish. Clarisse is this magical free-thinking teenage girl that inspires the adult male protagonist before dying tragically. Not a fan.
This wasn't a bad book necessarily, but for being so famous I expected more. There are some great lines and ideas, but it's not the most cohesive or well-thought out book.
Reason One: Lack of Substance
Unlike the two other famous dystopian novels about the need for free thinking from this period ("1984" and "Brave New World"), I found that "Fahrenheit 451" lacked any real substance. If we were just operating on the premise that books have been banned for some reason and we're following Guy's journey, I would have found that believable. Instead, we're given a pretty flimsy reason for the reality of the world: people stopped reading because they like TV better and then the government found that the public was easier to control and rewrote history to demonize books. This just doesn't feel very believable. It's almost like Bradbury was trying to emulate the nonsense monotony of "1984" but couldn't think of a good enough reason for that world to be reality.
Reason Two: Unclear Lesson
After finishing this novel, I'm not convinced that the lesson is actually that we need books in order to thrive or that censorship is dangerous. If anything, Bradbury seems to be criticizing technology and people who don't think critically. Faber even says, “Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” So is it the books that matter or the thinking they encourage? I'm not sure it matters perse, but I don't think it's great that such a famously cited book isn't clear on what it wants.
Reason Three: Sexism
Pretty self-explanatory. The only people who like books and actually think are men. Just about every author referenced is a man. The women are vapid and selfish. Clarisse is this magical free-thinking teenage girl that inspires the adult male protagonist before dying tragically. Not a fan.
This wasn't a bad book necessarily, but for being so famous I expected more. There are some great lines and ideas, but it's not the most cohesive or well-thought out book.