Has Fahrenheit 451 become our reality?

I recently picked up Fahrenheit 451 as I wanted to revisit this book and its themes as an adult. I remember reading it in school, but it feels that our current times are more Fahrenheit 451-like than they were then.

I enjoyed the opening to this book; “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” I love a good visual and this book opens with a vivid visual. I can almost smell the kerosene that Clarisse mentions when she sees…and smells Guy walking home from work.

In that same chapter, I appreciated the play on fireman and their jobs. Whatifs like these are one of the reasons I enjoy reading. Many times when I read, or when I finish a book, I think well, what if the characters were the opposite gender, or what if this book were placed in another timeline. The idea that firemen would start fires as opposed to putting them out is such an interesting concept.

The part that Clarisse brings up about drivers not knowing what grass or flowers are and that the billboards have to be extended so people can see them saddened me. It’s eerie how much this sounds like modern society in America. Everything has to be bigger, bolder, more vibrant to catch our attention as there are so many competing interests.

Apparently, my favorite parts of the book are when Clarisse is talking and making her comments and observations about society. The part when she metnions that people don’t talk about anything, I felt such a deep resonance to it. I try, as much as I can, to steer conversation in a more substantial way when people start speaking in banalities. “How’s the weather? What do you do? What do you like to do?” 😴

One of the things I wonder about in the book is if Mildred and Guy ever loved each other or if they just married since it was what people did. 🤔I like to think that they just glommed on to each other and decided to make it work. But to that point, how tragic would it be to know that someone you have shared your life with tried to kill themselves and didn’t believe it or address it? The existence that Mildred and her friends seemed to reflect the escapism and the desire of avoidance that Clarisse had been mentioning. They’ve suffered a lot and choose to bury it deep within themselves instead of having to confront the misery.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The focus on religious text was interesting, but to be expected from that time. I think the importance of books and physical data are being lost in our current society that is always interested in the bigger, better, faster, more tech-savvy way of doing things. There’s something to be said of the time spent with a book. Cozy in a corner, engrossed in a story. The sound of the pages flipping, the feel of the book pages under your hands, the smell of the old paper are all parts of the romance of it all. I hope that we all wake up and smell the roses before its too late and we don’t let the fireman but our collections of books.

Have you read Ray Bradubury’s Fahrenheit 451? What were your thoughts?