Fahrenheit 451

by Ray D Bradbury

[clementine]

I feel like this book was so clearly written as a Warning to Society about the dangers of television and censorship, and as such it kind of lacks as a novel. I appreciate what Bradbury was trying to do, and indeed there was some great prose, but overall this book was flat and disappointing.

The society depicted in the book seems so interesting. There are many tidbits thrown to us that are incredibly tantalizing - the 48 hour wars, the very fast driving, the erasure of history - but none of it was expanded upon in such a way to really flesh out the society and paint a vivid image of it. A lot of it reminded me of the society in 1984, which was MUCH better described.

A lot of threads were left hanging. I suppose that's intentional, but it was jarring. Every character seems to be introduced out of the blue and then eliminated quickly, without really getting a picture of who they are other than a few dense paragraphs of expository dialogue meant to construct their characters.

I really liked the angle Bradbury took where the members of society are responsible for its downfall, and not the government. They have brought censorship and depersonalization of interactions upon themselves, without government intervention. The government merely makes laws that cater to its citizens' desires. That, to me, was the strongest aspect of this book, because it's something you just don't see in other dystopian novels.

I don't know, it's a cool idea and parts of the execution were done well, but I was disappointed.