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Robert Tulip 
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 Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject: Re: makes you think
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| daisylily wrote: |
| I read this book a few months ago, and the one thing that struck my was the reasoning behind the book burning. It wasn't government, but society that dictated what should be censored. It started out so simple, and grew to where you couldn't write anything without offending somebody. A compelling book that makes you think about society today, and if it could ever go this far. |
Hi Daisy, welcome, I think Fahrenheit 451 would be a good book to discuss here. It is highly prophetic of our modern Matrix-style technological culture. Large scale movements in culture proceed in a sort of subterranean way, with slow changes to the public mood suddenly erupting with new ways of thought that have been hidden. For example, the anti-intellectualism inherent in popular television is subtly changing public discussion, and creating taboos and assumptions that we barely understand or see. |
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coffeeaddict
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:57 am Post subject:
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| I've had this book on my amazon wishlist for a year now. Your comments are making me want to whip out the credit card and buy it! I might have to refrain for a few weeks though--I'm on a strict budget! Looking forward to discussing it with you once I have read it though! |
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Chris OConnor
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:37 am Post subject:
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You'll notice that I put an image of this book in the forum description. Hopefully this draws even more attention to this discussion.  |
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Constance963
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:55 pm Post subject:
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| It drew my attention! Good idea Chris! |
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BabyBlues
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:52 am Post subject: Another Suggestion
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Meesh,
If you like novels about a dystopia, like Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World and 1984, you may also like Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale which depicts another future-gone-wrong and a free-thinker who questions it. |
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psyops
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject:
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Ray Bradbury declined to attend a Pulitzer ceremony last year and upset not just a few left-wing academics by announcing his magnum opus, Fahrenheit 451, had nothing to do with oppression of intellectuals and censorship against literature within some futuristic dictatorial dystopia, but rather was a polemic against the threat of television turning society into a bunch of non-reading brain-dead visceral saps (wasn't perpetually pajama-clad Julie Christie a lovely couch potato though?). 
In fact, Bradbury walked out of a UCLA lecture because students booed him after he announced the tome had nothing to do government censorship and everything to do with a predominantly left-wing institution (TV), mulching our polity's grey matter into a porridge of mush.
At any rate, I had the chance to chat with the maestro in Ventura, California in 2003 for the 50th anniversary of Fahrenheit 451 (only because I bought the special reissue hardback for $50). I asked him to sign the fly-leaf not only with his signature, but also with my favorite line from the book: "Beware the tyranny of minorities." How prescient that 55 year-old admonition came to be. |
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