by Ray Bradbury
In a sterile, regimented future, the state's power is monstrous, people rely on projected images for emotional sustenance, and books are considered so subversive that "firemen" burn them. If Bradbury's vision seems a little unsurprising now, it's perhaps because so much of it has come true. Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a devastating critique of Cold War paranoia, conformism, and anti-intellectualism. It tells the story of one fireman who comes to question the accepted social reality and his own part in it. As he does, he discovers a hidden network of dissenters, dedicated to preserving the treasures of literature that society is bent on destroying.
In a sterile, regimented future, the state's power is monstrous, people rely on projected images for emotional sustenance, and books are considered so subversive that "firemen" burn them. If Bradbury's vision seems a little unsurprising now, it's perhaps because so much of it has come true. Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a devastating critique of Cold War paranoia, conformism, and anti-intellectualism. It tells the story of one fireman who comes to question the accepted social reality and his own part in it. As he does, he discovers a hidden network of dissenters, dedicated to preserving the treasures of literature that society is bent on destroying.
--Tom
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