I have this book on my bookshelf… but I am ashamed to admit I have yet to read it due to the intensity of it. (Yes, it was required school reading but I was sick when they read it) I will pick it up someday, but unsure when.
What are you thought’s on this book? I know it’s iconic as hell for obvious reasons, and the irony of banning it is honestly quite funny.
Per Wikipedia:
In the years since its publication, Fahrenheit 451 has occasionally been banned, censored, or redacted in some schools at the behest of parents or teaching staff either unaware of or indifferent to the inherent irony in such censorship. Notable incidents include:
- In Apartheid South Africa the book was burned along with thousands of banned publications between the 1950s and 1970s.[77]
- In 1987, Fahrenheit 451 was given “third tier” status by the Bay County School Board in Panama City, Florida, under then-superintendent Leonard Hall’s new three-tier classification system. Third tier was meant for books to be removed from the classroom for “a lot of vulgarity”. After a resident class-action lawsuit, a media stir, and student protests, the school board abandoned their tier-based censorship system and approved all the currently used books.[78]
- In 1992, Venado Middle School in Irvine, California, gave copies of Fahrenheit 451 to students with all “obscene” words blacked out.[79] Parents contacted the local media and succeeded in reinstalling the uncensored copies.[79]
- In 2006, parents of a 10th-grade high school student in Montgomery County, Texas, demanded the book be banned from their daughter’s English class reading list.[80] Their daughter was assigned the book during Banned Books Week, but stopped reading several pages in due to what she considered the offensive language and description of the burning of the Bible. In addition, the parents protested the violence, portrayal of Christians, and depictions of firemen in the novel.[80]
It’s a fairly easy, quick read, and one worth every page. What’s even more impressive is when it was written and how so much of what we see today is highlighted, it’s wild.
Honestly of the 4 major dystopias, I gotta say this one might be my least favorite. The themes are a little too on the nose, and kinda simplistic (the book is basically 200 pages of convincing the reader that TV bad, books good).
Also, it seems like everyone really misses the point of this book. This book is not about censorship. This book is about anti-intellectualism. The important part isn’t that the books are being burnt, it’s about why they’re being burnt, and who is doing the burning. The censorship is just a plot device to show the values society is trying to impart on itself. 1984 is a better example of a dystopia about true censorship.
Nonetheless, I still think it’s an important book, and an incredibly easy read. It can be knocked out in an afternoon by a middle schooler no problem.
Oh, you’ll dig it and absolutely read it in one sitting.
Just read it. It won’t take very long.
I read it in middle school, a long time ago. That would not be possible in a lot of places now, which is tragic.
Possibly my favorite book ever; I’ve reread it quite a few times.
As others have commented, it’s a great book. Oddly, it has a very different theme than most of Bradbury’s other works, that are more dreamy and fantastic.
Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t only talk about censorship, but also about self-doubt. The main character is far from being perfect and feels deeply his own inadequacy.
