Horia Gazdovici, 9F
This is one of the few books that Ray Bradbury has ever written, as he much preferred writing science-fiction short stories, a genre of literature that he was a master of. Fahrenheit tells of a futuristic American society where books are abolished. It is illegal to read them and to own them, and if one is discovered to have read or to read, he will be getting a visit from the firemen, which resulted in the people’s books being burned with kerosene, and the people being injected with a paralysing serum by a mechanical hound. There is one chapter in the book when a woman decides to burn along with her books.
Bradbury’s firemen are not what we know them for anymore, as they occupy themselves with burning the biggest source of evil from society, literature. Also, the houses in this distant future are fire-proof, which is why there is no more need for them to be put out. Now, all that people do in their free time is watch shows on screens the size of walls. Montag starts hiding books, and soon, his whole perception of reality and the society turn against him.
It’s no secret that Ray Bradbury inspired himself from Nazi Germany, when the party burned all books that were against the regime or against the regime’s philosophy. The biggest one of their book-incinerating events was held on March 10th, where upwards of 20000 volumes were burned.
Fahrenheit has won the Pulitzer Prize, as it is not only a love letter to reading and books, but a warning too, warning about what happens in a society when nobody reads. It makes the odour of burning paper torture. It has been put on the silver screen two times, the first proving more fortuitous than the second, and it is considered by many to be one of the most important works of fiction ever written.