Ray Bradbury Hompage    Ray Bradbury Forums    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Imported Forums  Hop To Forums  Ray's Legacy    Bradbury says Fahrenheit 451 not about censorship?!
Page 1 2 3 

Moderators: dandelion, philnic
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Bradbury says Fahrenheit 451 not about censorship?!
 Login/Join
 
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by jkt:
...I expected to see Ray’s smiling countenance on the front cover, not “buried” on page 34. Smiler

It's unfortunate that he doesn't get the literary respect he deserves, Pulitzer notwithstanding.


"Live Forever!"
 
Posts: 6909 | Location: 11 South Saint James Street, Green Town, Illinois | Registered: 02 October 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
An amazing number of bloggers and web commentators have picked up on the "Bradbury says we're all wrong about F451" non-story. (I have a daily Google Alert for all new Bradbury references on the web.)

Finally comes a blog which makes something INTERESTING of the story. I wouldn't say this guy has the final word on the matter, but he offers far more insight than most of the others I've seen this week: http://robertkblechman.blogspot.com/2007/06/ray-bradbury-on-ray-bradbury.html


- Phil

Deputy Moderator | Visit my Bradbury website: www.bradburymedia.co.uk | Visit the Center for RB Studies: www.tinyurl.com/RBCenter
 
Posts: 5029 | Location: UK | Registered: 07 April 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Phil! Good article! I agree with you that he offers more insight than most.
I also enjoyed the "A Model Media Ecologist" video, but then, I'm a sucker for anything Gilbert-and-Sullivan-esque!
 
Posts: 3167 | Location: Box in Braling I's cellar | Registered: 02 July 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Even if its not specificallyabout censorship, it doesn't mean we can't learn about censorship from it. Censorship happens when a population grows apathetic, a byproduct, which is exactly what happens in this book.

If he thought the radio reduced people's attention spans, no wonder he is suspicious of the internet. It's like the tv remote, only worse. All that instant information at a click, and suddenly one can't focus anymore. It shortens the attention span and reduces one's patience.
I confess, I am a perfect example of this: I can hardly digest one piece of information before craving the next one. Even as we speak, I'm supposed to doing something else. Such things as a complicated novel, which requires sitting still and concentrating on stationary information, grows more difficult and many people just don't bother.
 
Posts: 17 | Registered: 12 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Dylag:
Even if its not specificallyabout censorship, it doesn't mean we can't learn about censorship from it.


Correct!

And as to philnic's post, I would be wary of any blogger, they're written usually by egotistical and self-loving people. Smiler


Email: ordinis@gmail.com
 
Posts: 344 | Location: Redmond, Washington USA | Registered: 18 April 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Nico:
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Dylag:
Even if its not specificallyabout censorship, it doesn't mean we can't learn about censorship from it.


Correct!

And as to philnic's post, I would be wary of any blog, they're written usually by egotistical and self-loving people. Smiler


Email: ordinis@gmail.com
 
Posts: 344 | Location: Redmond, Washington USA | Registered: 18 April 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
I wonder what Ray Bradbury thinks about censorship in books.

The other Ray Bradburys, that is!!

I have found at least 3 other Ray Bradburys. One is an uncle of friends of mine, Bill and David Bradbury who actually live in the Los Angeles area. Their uncle is Ray Bradbury. There is a Ray Bradbury in Australia, and one in the United Kingdom.
Ray Bradbury in United Kingdom is a project manager in Civil Engineering. Does this Ray Bradbury read or burn books?

And then there is that Ray Bradbury in Australia, who is immersed in computer software. Ah, perhaps he never reads a book, just reads off the computer screen!

Whatta you think? Dozens of Ray Bradburys in the world? Possibly. If there is, post the fellows!
 
Posts: 3954 | Location: South Orange County, CA USA | Registered: 28 June 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Hello. I was reading Fahreheit 451 in depth and I came across the V-2 rockets. I could not think of the symbolic reason behind this and why it was included. Any information to help me please?
quote:
Originally posted by fjp451:
That is a great article, Molly. I have made a copy for my files and will refer to it in an Honors 10 program scheduled for next school year, during which Fahrenheit 451 will be a centerpiece for the students' literature studies (along with Diary of Anne Frank, Night-by Eilie Weisel, Lord of the Flies-Wm. Golding, Animal Farm-Orwell, Good Earth-Pearl Buck, Being There-J Kozinski, Truman Show, Julius Caesar-WS, Walden-HD Thoreau, and related shorter works of RB, W. Irving, J. Swift, Plato, and others.) Recognize some themes?

My emphasis is READING in depth and critical thinking. Ie, I have a major lesson based completely on the allusions found within F451. Mr. Bradbury talks of running up and down the stairs at the UCLA library while writing the novel. I have the students reasearch and find out about the Phoenix, Ben Franklin, the Tower of Babel, Book of Job, Vesuvius, V-2 rockets, "status quo," Keystone Comedy, Dover Beach, praetorian guard, and...far more. "The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting!"

Fahrenheit 451 has never been more timely. "Hurrah" for Mr. Ray Bradbury! Only 9 days left this school year, but I anticipate already handing out http://routeduvin.typepad.com/...ookcovers/img025.jpg when the time is most appropriate within the course of our literature studies.

"Denham's Dentrice. Denham's Dentrifice..." Indeed!
 
Posts: 2 | Registered: 07 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
V-2 Rocket
"The first long-range liquid fueled missile carrying one ton of explosives, used first by the Germans in WWII."

My take: F451 was released shortly after WWII (1953). The fear of such terrorizing techniques was still close to home for most adults. In the novel it adds to the images of things being destroyed randomly and with all of the population hearing it coming and then seeing the results, sometimes close-up and at other times from far away.

IE: Vesuvius; the city being turned upside down by the atomic bomb; the books being destroyed ("It was a pleasure to burn!"); and the V-2 rockets coming in to light up the sky, suddenly screaming down on the innocence below and finally setting fire to whatever they rained down upon.

It is pure Bradbury in that his allusions were gleaned from the books he gathered in the UCLA library during his writing of Fahrenheit (in the college's basement typing-room.)
 
Posts: 2803 | Location: Basement of a NNY Library | Registered: 07 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by jkt:
One of my favorite quotes from the master:
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
-- Ray Bradbury


...and...
quote:
Originally posted by fjp451:
Fahrenheit 451 has never been more timely.


...and...

My most recent choice of signature on modern censorship, by some of same the self-righteous self-interest groups that Ray Bradbury named as bringing about the conditions in F451:

quote:
"Save your freedom. If anyone tells you you may not read Harry Potter because of 'witchcraft', run! Shun him. He's a Fireman."


Adds up to:
Emphatic Agreement
 
Posts: 152 | Location: Formerly SacraDemento, California | Registered: 23 February 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by fjp451:
V-2 Rocket
"The first long-range liquid fueled missile carrying one ton of explosives, used first by the Germans in WWII."...


Maybe drifting off-topic a bit, but we should also remember that the V2 was masterminded by Werner von Braun, and when he was brought to the US after WWII the V2 and its derivatives WERE the American rocket/ballistic missile programme. If you look at the standard SF imagery of the sleek moon rocket in the 40s and 50s, you will be hard pushed to see a difference between moon rocket and V2.

V2:



SF rocket for DESTINATION MOON (1950), designed by Chesley Bonestell:



- Phil

Deputy Moderator | Visit my Bradbury website: www.bradburymedia.co.uk | Visit the Center for RB Studies: www.tinyurl.com/RBCenter
 
Posts: 5029 | Location: UK | Registered: 07 April 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
The interesting thing in the book, and what I think makes it quite a timeless work and VERY relevant today is "the culprit in Fahrenheit 451 is not the state — it is the people." We, with our iphones, ipods, tvs and obsessions with celebrity are the ones destroying our attention spans (I was constantly tuning out to check email on the iphone, until I made a conscious effort to stop). If we, the people are responsible, then only we, the people can remedy it. (as opposed to a big bad govt, which can be dismissed if doesn't actually exist in our time). That said, I do think the media takes advantage of this, and shame on us for letting them get away with it. No one ever seems to question a one sided story in the paper anymore, no matter how nonsensical it is...
 
Posts: 9 | Registered: 14 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Whole networks are dedicated to one-sided stories. I won't say their names but their initials are FOX.
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Mello:
The interesting thing in the book, and what I think makes it quite a timeless work and VERY relevant today is "the culprit in Fahrenheit 451 is not the state — it is the people." ...


Interesting observation, especially when you consider the McCarthyite context - witchhunts that thrived on tattletales - in which the books was written and first published.

Interesting in this regard, also, to contrast it with Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, where it is most definitely the state rather than the people who is/are to blame.


- Phil

Deputy Moderator | Visit my Bradbury website: www.bradburymedia.co.uk | Visit the Center for RB Studies: www.tinyurl.com/RBCenter
 
Posts: 5029 | Location: UK | Registered: 07 April 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
msnbc451
 
Posts: 2803 | Location: Basement of a NNY Library | Registered: 07 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2 3  
 

Ray Bradbury Hompage    Ray Bradbury Forums    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Imported Forums  Hop To Forums  Ray's Legacy    Bradbury says Fahrenheit 451 not about censorship?!