In recognition of the passing on June 5th of
legendary American writer Ray Bradbury, this month we include
Walt Branch librarian Becky's combined review of three different versions of one of
Bradbury's most indelible works -- Fahrenheit 451.
Fahrenheit
451
by Ray Bradbury
Within a
few months' time I happened, in this order, to: see the movie, read a graphic
novel version and, finally, read the original book itself of Ray Bradbury's
modern American classic
Fahrenheit 451. And this was just a couple of
years ago, about the time I turned 50. It had never been an assigned book in my
high school or college classes and, although I knew the subject matter and had
seen bits and pieces from the film, it was never on my "must read" or "must
watch" lists.
I actually found it useful and challenging to approach the variations in this
order, as I am primarily oriented to audio-visual depictions of stories. It was
interesting to see what had been emphasized and/or omitted in the movie and
comic book when I got back around to the novel. I would guess a lot of people
decry the movie in favor of the book, but I got something out of all three
editions of this seminal work. More than anything, though, I was fascinated by
the genesis (combining elements of various short stories he had already penned
and a real and strange encounter with a patrolling cop) and execution (serial
form first, changing titles, periodic recollections of its creation as
subsequent editions were published), and the credit Bradbury gives to LIBRARIES
for helping him become who he was
If you are not familiar at all with the story, it is about a time in the -
perhaps even more so now - not-too-distant future in which you can insert
yourself into your favorite TV shows from the comfort of your home, wars start
and end (sometimes very badly) in just a couple of days, and a fireman's job is
to ignite fires instead of put them out. The prevailing authority dictates that
books, especially works of fiction and philosophy, turn people into unhappy
malcontents who think and question too much. They don't fit society's norms and
are, therefore, dangerous to their own and others' "peace". Enter Montag the
"Fireman" who enjoys his book-burning job, Beatty, his "Captain" and nemesis,
Millie, his self-medicating wife, Clarisse, the young woman who challenges him
to reconsider why he does what he does and what makes him happy, and Faber, who
facilitates his awakening. And then there are those mechanical hounds who
relentlessly deliver sanitized, specific justice
Oskar
Werner and Cyril Cusack deliver solid performances as Montag and Beatty in the
1966 film, directed by legendary filmmaker François Truffaut, which has a
'happier' ending than the novel. Although the film score was composed by the
esteemed Bernard Herrmann and had some nice dramatic and quiet moments, I also
found it intrusive at times, a vague precursor to Philip Glass's minimalism
without hitting quite the right balance. Some would argue that Werner's
performance was dull or wooden, or his German accent distracting, but I actually
thought these were plausible characteristics for the persona of Montag, who
journeys from "before" to "after" in a very short time. And I found it
especially poignant that Truffaut chose to show
Mein Kampf as one of the
books being thrown into the pile for incineration, as pertains to the convoluted
human dynamics of freedom, tyranny, and violence. I was a bit thrown off by
Julie Christie portraying both Millie and Clarisse but came to see it more
favorably the more I thought about it, as an artistic interpretation of Montag's
ideal love divided into two halves - one who acknowledges and feeds her soul and
one who has lost hers
I am not
a big reader of comics or graphic novels, so I don't have much of an opinion
about the "authorized" comicbook version but it's certainly one way that the
book might appeal to a young adult, or a reading-challenged person.
If you've never read the novel, I suggest you give it a try - it's not all
that lengthy and it was fairly accurate at predicting techno-social advances. If
you've only seen the movie, or only read the book, read or watch the other
version and see if you agree with the choices made by writer and filmmaker.
I'll finish with a couple of quotes from the book: near the end, when Montag
falls in with men from the hobo camp outside The City, one of them describes
himself and the others who have committed entire books to their memory to
preserve them for the future as
"…bums on the outside, libraries on the
inside"; from Bradbury's 1982 Afterword, as he remembers roaming the UCLA
library where he rented a typing room to create his manuscript,
"There I
strolled, lost in love, …pulling volumes out, touching pages…"
Thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for being bold and imaginative and indefatigable,
and unashamed in your love of reading, writing, books, and libraries.
-- review by Becky W.C. - Walt Branch Library
[Also available in multiple
different print editions, book-on-cd
and Large
Print formats.]
[ Ray Bradbury entry on Wikipedia with numerous off-site links
] | [ official Ray
Bradbury web site ] | [ Internet Movie Database entry for the 1966 film Fahrenheit 451 ]
Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the
BookGuide
website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear
here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire
month.
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