With the sad passing of Ray Bradbury in June, I decided that I would reread Fahrenheit 451. My first reading of this book was when I was about twenty five, and since then I’ve heard a lot of deep and meaningful conversations about its prophetic contents – which I did not remember.
As a keen writer of dystopian fiction I consider Ray Bradbury’s work as a kind of mentoring process, yet I had little insight into Bradbury’s writing life or techniques until now. I read Fahrenheit 451 in two sittings. Parts of the book that I had previously considered to be ‘just part of the story’ now deeply resonate with me, particularly Captain Beatty’s comment on the media and the specter and reality of war. I knew nothing of either back in my twenties, but now I realise that this, and other books, helped me to develop knowledge of the world, to act as a mirror for my own thoughts.
The most interesting part of the book for me was the updated introduction for the 50th Anniversary edition of the book from 2003. Ray Bradbury describes how he was so passionate about his writing and the story that burned inside him that he rented a typewriter in the basement of a university to complete it. Above him was the university library where he had access to all the books he wanted – my idea of real heaven. He asserts that the characters in the book, and particularly the main character, Montag, told their own story to him – that he told Montag to run and create his own story, and he would follow.
The passion Bradbury describes is familiar. The collection of ideas and stories that meld into one. The waking at dawn with a head full of another world; the push to write, write, write, to bring that world to life, and meeting the characters who will remain friends forever. It’s something that I miss when I’m not writing for whatever reason, then, when the words begin to flow again, I’m reinvigorated. Bradbury describes this process so well that I was almost cheering him on.
Fahrenheit 451 is classed as science fiction, but I expect today it would and does fall into the speculative fiction genre. I’m a great fan of books that are based in a world very similar to today’s, but whirl off at a tangent into an alternative past or future that, if we squint our eyes, is entirely possible. Like Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s novel contains a future that has, in many ways, materialized as he predicted. When I was 25 I could never have guessed that we would now have the internet or the huge TV screens in our lounges. Or Skype. As for the political aspects, I’ll leave that to your own analysis.
One thing is clear – now just as then, we still have our own minds and imaginations to explore this world and others we might imagine, and the second reading of Fahrenheit 451 made me value the opportunity to create my own worlds on the page without censorship.