I Didn't Know This About "Fahrenheit 451"

What I didn't know...

I watched the 1966 movie “ Fahrenheit 451” the other night. Brilliant in some aspects and cheesy in others, it was thought provoking film. Little did I know at the time just how thought provoking.

The story was about one particular fireman, who's job it was to not put out fires, but to start them when outlawed books needed to be destroyed.

I researched the history of Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel and found a treasure trove of interesting tidbits and a few truly amazing facts.

The story started off as a 1947 short story called “Bright Phoenix”. It was later expanded and re-named “The Fireman”.It was then extended out once more, and “Fahrenheit 451” was double the length of the previous version.

“Fahrenheit 451” was serialized and published by Playboy magazine in four installments. Which was marvelous, because you could truly be in possession of a Playboy magazine for the articles.

The one bit of information that grabbed me was that the story was written on a typewriter in the basement of the UCLA Powell library, that was rented for ten cents per half hour. I thought that this was very cute and kind of retro, until I considered that it's just not that much different from writing a magazine article while using a computer at the Vancouver Public Library. So in many ways, not much has changed...but wait...it gets better!

In the story, the fire-chief explains that books were banned originally because all interest in reading fell out of favour ( except for trade papers, comics and pornographic literature ) because of minorities protesting about controversial content, The government felt compelled to ban all books to keep the population happy. ( very close to today's world )

Ray Bradbury himself said that the book was not about censorship, but instead about how television was replacing the desire to read. That mass media was shaping the minds of the population .....completely free of any resistance. 

 

In the early 1950's, Mr. Bradbury wrote this piece, which foreshadowed the future and the days we live in now.

“In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451 I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction."

Perhaps in out time we will not burn books, but simply ignore them to death.

P.S. I'm not really a big fan of Ray Bradbury's writing, but  give him his due respect. I watched the movie on my laptop...streamed in from Netflix..I've never read the book.
Movie trailer for the 1966 film