Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

I wonder whether, when he wrote this, Bradbury had actually predicted how little the world would have come to care about books by the start of the 21^st century. This dystopian novel was written at a time when the market wasn’t yet saturated with dystopian novels, and the idea of re-thinking the role of the firemen is undeniably a stroke of genius.

Having seen Truffaut’s movie before reading the book, I would have expected it to have a much more rigid structure and style. I also expected it to be dated, but I was wrong. Lastly, I also wasn’t expecting the book to scare me, but the mechanical dog is one of the most frightening creations I’ve ever come across.

Fahrenheit 451 remains a seminal book in the literature of the 20^th century. I am just afraid that in the near future we won’t need firemen to dispose of our books, we’ll happily throw them away ourselves.