Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

   So Fahrenheit 451 is actually the book we are reading in class right now but I had a few thoughts about it that I wanted to share. In case you don't know what it's about I provided a description from goodreads:

   Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

   Fahrenheit 451 was originally written in 1953, before tissues, color TV, and smart phones. This makes the futuristic sense of the book that much more appealing to me. I mean it's great hearing them talk about color TV and thinking, "Wow that actually happened!", but I find what they don't mention to make it more interesting than what they do. I think if the book was written today, with today's technology in mind, the whole premise of the book would be different. The whole plot line is books are bad because they went out of style and now people are dumb so we don't want anyone to be smarter than anyone else. As far as the author, Ray Bradbury, knew in 1953, that actually could've happened. It was unlikely, very unlikely, but still more possible than it is today.
  
   I feel as though today this future is near impossible. With all of our new inventions like smart phones and e-books, and even computers books have gone out of style some, but knowledge in general hasn't. People have become lazy when it comes to reading for information, but they are still getting that information. Google is the simplest reason why. Or even more so, Siri. Our society today is not giving up on reading for knowledge, we're getting around it.

 

  Throughout reading this book I've thought a lot about this. About how society is getting information, about how we strive for it, about how somewhere there are people in a lab everyday trying to advance our world. Reading may be going out some, and maybe someday it all will (I hope not), but we are not dumb like the characters in Fahrenheit 451. In fact, I think we're quite the opposite.