Fahrenheit 451 - April 2019 Book Group discussion thread
11 watchers
Apr 2019
5:19pm, 27 Apr 2019
36,220 posts
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Diogenes
Toast should be an even golden brown and smothered with butter when hot so the butter melts nicely into it.
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Apr 2019
5:21pm, 27 Apr 2019
22,271 posts
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Wriggling Snake
I always let my books get cold after toasting then butter them.
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Apr 2019
5:25pm, 27 Apr 2019
36,223 posts
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Diogenes
I like to toast books I really like. “Here’s to you” I say, raising a glass.
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Apr 2019
11:47pm, 27 Apr 2019
32,703 posts
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Night-owl
My kind of toast Dio
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May 2019
10:47am, 6 May 2019
17,898 posts
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Columba
I know I've read it before, probably in the 60s, but couldn't remember anything about it, nor even recognise any of the scenes, except the basic plot, that books were condemned by the "government" and had to be burned en masse, and that they were eventually preserved in people's memories. The style irked me a bit. Very florid. Open almost anywhere at random: "The flutter of cards, motion of hands, .... The tick of the playing-cards on the greasy table-top, all the sounds came to Montag ... He could feel the firehouse full of glitter and shine and silence, of brass colours, the colours of coins, of gold, of silver" "A book alighted, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering. In the dim, wavering light a page hung open and it was like a snowy feather, the words delicately painted thereon.... Montag had only a moment to read a line, but it blazed in hs mind for the next minute as if stamped there with fiery steel". This may have been typical of SF/fantasy of the time. I note it was first published in Britain in '54. I also note that all the books quoted from are what might be called Classics. Did people read "pulp fiction" before '54? There was probably less of it about. There were comics, of course, but comics were permitted in F451. Interesting to see how much of it has "come true" and how much hasn't. Bradbury certainly didn't anticipate Social Media (but did anybody?). He seems to think that society would go the way of ancient Rome in keeping its population quiet with "bread and circuses"; but it hasn't really gone that way.. Or has it? Right, I'll "submit" this and see what everyone else has had to say about it. |
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May 2019
10:52am, 6 May 2019
36,441 posts
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Diogenes
I agree about the writing style, trying much too hard. But I’m certain there was plenty of pulp fiction about before the Fifties, think of the detective novels that remain popular today, not to mention the romances and westerns and the “penny-dreadfuls” as they were known in Britain.
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May 2019
11:10am, 6 May 2019
17,899 posts
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Columba
Ah, that's true. I don't think I read romances nor westerns. "Penny dreadfuls" were 19th century, weren't they? The lack of sympathetic female characters did grate on me (no need to submit self for re-education). There was only the old woman who went up in the conflagration with her books. Clarisse I simply couldn't believe in. Mildred and her friends were just irredeemably horrible. And yes, why are no female authors quoted? Where are Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes, Virginia Woolf? I too suspected that the Chief has a book collection. And with regard to toast: should be buttered immediately while still hot, and eaten immediately thereafter, while the butter is in process of melting into the toast but not quite got there. I'm pretty sure I was given bread-and-dripping as a Very Small Child, and don't think I had any objection to it (though in general I was a very picky eater... Been making up for that since age about 14). *wonders about the spelling of irredeemably and decides not to bother checking* |
May 2019
12:30pm, 8 May 2019
9,366 posts
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Little Nemo
This book was easy to read and had some beautifully written sections but I'm not sure that I enjoyed it overall. I found the dialogue quite stilted at times and the portrayal of nearly all the women annoyed me. I know it's of its time but it just seems so old fashioned to have women only as housewives. My favourite part was once he'd left the city, the writing here was fantastic but it was too little too late. I thought the most relevant part was the TV walls and the ineffectiveness of the programmes that had been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. It feels like we're not that far away! Bit of a curate's egg, I gave it a 6. |
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May 2019
12:31pm, 8 May 2019
9,367 posts
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Little Nemo
This book was easy to read and had some beautifully written sections but I'm not sure that I enjoyed it overall. I found the dialogue quite stilted at times and the portrayal of nearly all the women annoyed me. I know it's of its time but it just seems so old fashioned to have women only as housewives. My favourite part was once he'd left the city, the writing here was fantastic but it was too little too late. I thought the most relevant part was the TV walls and the interactiveness of the programmes that had been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. It feels like we're not that far away! Bit of a curate's egg, I gave it a 6. |
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May 2019
12:47pm, 8 May 2019
9,368 posts
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Little Nemo
Sorry for the double post, at least the 2nd one has the right word!
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