Hi! This site is GREAT!It is interesting that there is a possibility to discuss Bradbury's works and to get in touch with other fans. I already asked some days ago, but unfortunately I have still not found an answer to my question (I know it is a difficult one, but perhaps someone knows a possible answer, so I thought I could try it once again): Does someone know what Bradbury meant in Fahrenheit 451 with TRANSCRIPTION HISTORY? (Clarisse tells Montag that they have transcription history at school.)
I'm really not sure, but perhaps it is not a 'history of transcription' class, but 'transcription' (whatever that might mean in this context) is HOW they study history (ie. as opposed to reading - no books, remember!). I know this doesn't exactly answer your question, but it's a different angle to consider. Maybe someone can help with the meaning of "transcription" in the context of 'F.451'.
Posts: 79 | Location: Tomerong, NSW, Australia | Registered: 16 February 2002
Just had another thought, Butterfly. Perhaps "transcription" refers to the 'interpretation' (ie. distortion) of history that would no doubt occur in the world of F451. Instead of really leanring the truth about history, they see/hear 'transcriptions' of past events. Does that make sense?
Posts: 79 | Location: Tomerong, NSW, Australia | Registered: 16 February 2002
Hey I know I'm about 17 years late on this but maybe, the history was somehow copied into the brain? Transcription in biology is a copy. Clarisse refers to how school "...just runs the answers at you..." Just a thought about it. Reading the book for school, so had to try and find out what the heck transcription history is.
'history of transcription' class, but 'transcription' (whatever that might mean in this context) is HOW they study history (ie. as opposed to reading - no books, remember!). I know this doesn't exactly answer your question, but it's a different angle to consider. Maybe someone can help with the meaning of "transcription" in the context of 'F.451'.
I can imagine it being in video game form, much like the brainwashing scenes from the Manchurian Candidate remake with Denzel...
I must have missed that, in my early readings, ah, 40-plus years ago.
I liked the idea of the sea shells and I was soooooo disappointed when tiny radios (postage stamp size) didn't catch on in the 1960's/early 1970's... subsequently I'm thrilled to be able to have an MP3 player that fits in my pocket and runs on a single "AAA" power cell.
Sorry to wax a bit off-topic but I was trying to think of a prediction or suggested technical development in F451 that was of interest.
It is always interesting to see how SF and surreal fantasy writers try to label things.
In "Brave New World" I was never able to figure out what a "Malthusian Drill" was.
I loved how American writer Marge Piercey came up with the "kenner" which was a sort of precursor to the Blackberry and/or smartphones, in her novel Woman On The Edge Of Time. And in the more recent "He, She And It" she really nailed it with the idea of the "multis".
This is great! As I say, my nephew is reading the book for school and when asked what was happening, "They're burning Whitman and Faulkner." When my sister asked, "And what do you think of that?" he said, "I can name a few others they can throw in." I hit the floor laughing! I HATED Whitman in college, and a professor of mine railed against Faulkner!
Posts: 7327 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001
Well, that's kind of a wooden comment (mine, above) . . . a thread-killer . . . but we've veered way off-topic anyway, and nobody knows where it's going . . . so let me throw something out there, books burned and unburned, known and unknown . . . fun narratives from the 19th century, not 'literature', not taught in most colleges (not in General Lit courses, anyway) . . . in America I think we have three types: 1/ the crossing-the-prairie narrative (composed of diary notations and after-the-fact reminisces); the escaped-slave narratives; and the I-lived-among-the-Indians narratives. All these seem dreadfully outdated now, but if you're willing to step into the WayBac machine with Sherman and Mr. Peabody, they can be fun. Read any?
Mike, I read a bunch of those and might still be interested except they and anything remotely sympathetic to anyone connected to the Southern "cause" in the Civil War are considered terribly racist and politically incorrect. Another way to burn books, by erasing history. This has been going on since at least 1969 but has become extreme in the last few decades. Another reason I am very upset about my writing prospects--since Ray and others had already done better so much of what I might want to do, I thought I could at least write history, but nowadays you have to leave out and distort so much there's no point. Sometime I'll relate a little school parking lot conversation from thirty years ago. If anyone knows of a "politically incorrect publishing house," do let me know and I will look into it.
Posts: 7327 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001
I should add that I am sensitive to this sort of thing following a 1970's experience where a old, venerable New York art book by Walter Guptill suddenly became available in my major centre under a "new imprint". The cheek!!! They had stolen every page to make a large paperback! Previously when I had gone to the local reference library to review this tome I would get a hardwood box filled with tattered, loose and yellowed pages.
Worse the same company did it again recently, releasing all of Ian Fleming's novels here locally, printed in China with a disclaimer that this is legal hereabouts. Every cover JET BLACK with no illustrations.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Roman_K2,
