Week 10: The Fiction of Ideas

This week I read Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. I know it was on the watching list, and not the reading list, but I've heard so many good things about the book, so I decided to read it instead.

I thought the book was absolutely brilliant. I thought a world without books would be absurd, but Bradbury manages to make the world seem like reality with his writing. I found several things in the book interesting.

Two of the most interesting characters in the novel are Captain Beatty and Faber. They seem to be central to the novel, but at the same time play no active role. Beatty provides the history and background to the decline of books in society and role of firemen burning in them. Faber on the other hand guides our main character, Guy Montag through his mundane existence using an ear-piece after witnessing his attempt to tear pages from the Bible. The two characters help the reader understand the theme, the damage some forms of media will have on literature.

Montag meets a girl Clarisse, who basically changes his life forever. I think Bradbury is trying to show that relationships can change a persons outlook on life very drastically. After meeting her, Montag starts noticing aspects of life he never noticed before and begins to do simple but spontaneous actions like tasting the rain and laughing. Bradbury also shows the contrast between two entirely different worlds, Montag's and Clarisse's.