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Fahrenheit 451, a la Shmoop. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury predicted
a dark future, one lit only by the flames of burning books. And who exactly is burning
those books? Firemen. "Wait," you say. Firemen BURNED books?
"Firemen are heroes!" you say. "They put out fires. They're the ones who save little old
ladies from s'more bonfires that get out of hand."
Well, not in Bradbury's future world. In Bradbury's society, books were banned -- and
burned if found. Get caught reading, and your house is a hibachi gone wild.
But books weren't just banned. Perhaps even worse, they were essentially forgotten. Deemed
irrelevant and unimportant. So is Bradbury's nightmarish prediction coming
true? Are books, newspapers and magazines slowly disappearing from our society?
From one perspective, absolutely. Bradbury's society bears eerie similarities to our own.
After all, who has time to read -- or wants to -- when we have to watch "Jersey Shore"
guidos and guidettes focus on their gym, tans, and laundry?
Come on! We don't have time to read! We've already gone ahead and replaced Shakespeare
with status updates, poetry with Pandora, and Twain with Twitter.
Yet, despite books being outlawed, Bradbury tells us, "Remember, the firemen are rarely
necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord."
In other words, Bradbury's characters simply lost interest in books...JUST. LIKE. US.
"But WAIT!" you cry. What about the success of novels like The Hunger Games? Harry Potter?
And Twilight? If we're not reading, then who is buying all of these...books?
The Hunger Games sold 25 million copies. And Harry Potter sold 400 million copies in
67 languages. Twilight? Nearly 120 million copies in our
homes today. Proof, you say, that Bradbury's ideas are
hooey. We're not reading less. It's only the delivery
method that's changed. Why kill trees when we've got Kindles, Nooks
and iPads? And BONUS! They connect to the Internet. Let's
see your grandma's print copy of Wuthering Heights do THAT!
So maybe it's not that we're reading less. Maybe it's just that we're reading a little
differently. Novels? Maybe. Blogs? Sure. Facebook updates?
Most definitely. Twitter feeds? Yep. Maybe 140 characters or less are all our overworked,
distracted minds can handle. So is our society headed down the dimly lit
path of less enlightenment? Or is modern technology helping us forge a
new path to knowledge nirvana? Shmoop amongst yourselves.