Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451, New York : Simon & Schuster 1993, c1953.Bradbury's cold-war tour-de-force tells the story Montag, whose job as a fireman in this futuristic dystopia requires that he extinguish all vestiges of history, critical thought and meanigful artistic contemplation: by burning books. Upon meeting the whimsical and unique Clarisse, Montag starts to question the values of his job, wife and society-at-large. Counterposed to his wife's indulgence in mundane appliances and psychotropic drugs, which forestall any nuanced interaction with the world around her, Montag is increasingly attracted to the refined intellectuality embodied by Clarisse, and retired English professor, Faber. Moreover, his attraction becomes subversive as he crosses the line from enforcing conformity to struggling against it, by illicitly collecting books.
Will Montag survive to merge his intellectual curiosity with his intense desire for a civilisation based on rational reflection and discussion? And what path will this struggle take him on? The vividly depicted landscapes and characters he comes across on his voyage will draw the reader in from the start - and Bradbury's accurate predictions on the course and effect of technology on the human spirit reinforce his mastery of the sci-fi genre.
