quote:

Originally posted by Mello:
hate my iPhone!

Love mine!

Just came across this bit in IQ84 and thought it tied in nicely with libraries, people memorising chapters of the same book and slippery information:"Knowledge is a precious social asset...It is an asset that must be amassed in abundant stockpiles and utilised with the utmost care. It must be handed down to the next generations in fruitful forms." but the big question is does that next generation really learn from it?

Fahrenheit 451 has been a warning in my life as to the dangers of our weakness to the temptations of technology.

How relevant is F451 today?

A few years ago I wrote a song based on the book. When I sang the song in public for the first time it was in a pub in Edinburgh. We were doing a short guest spot to give the main act a break and a chance for a drink. I have a line: "video screens like prison walls..." As I sang that line I noticed for the first time all the video screens around the walls, radiating shiny moving pictures of a football match.

There's a version of my song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVu4KKf69hE

Thank you, Mr Bradbury, for helping me to maintain a sense of reality.

Very nice! I also like that you posted the lyrics for the portions that were a little harder to hear. Very well done. Thanks for creating it and sharing it.

Kind words, Mr Dark, much appreciated.

It is very nice. I especially like visual book metaphor near the middle of your song. Thank You! for posting this.

quote:

Originally posted by Noel:
Fahrenheit 451 has been a warning in my life as to the dangers of our weakness to the temptations of technology.

How relevant is F451 today?

Thank you, Mr Bradbury, for helping me to maintain a sense of reality.

And your last line, Noel:

quote:

The fireman paid a call today, he'd heard about my books...

I've read of firemen in the news quite recently. They are trying to stop kids from reading the Harry potter series "because it contains witchcraft".

Yep, F451 is relevant today.

Dragonfly,

You are correct: F451 is required reading, and I was pleased when it was made a set book at school for my daughter.

But it's not just the books. It's the danger of isolation that Bradbury warns us about. There was no Internet in the 50s, and here am I, in Edinburgh in Scotland, writing to you in where? California? Does this reduce the isolation, or increase it?

I wonder how Badbury would write F451 if he was writing it today.

That's a brilliant question....to me, he do accurately pinpointed the modern malaise that all our technological advancements bring....just what would he foresee now?