When word broke last week that Ray Bradbury had passed away, I decided to take a second look (I think) at his seminal work, Fahrenheit 451.  Judging by the release date on my copy of the 70th printing, I’m guessing I was supposed to have read this in junior high.  If I did get through it back then, very little of it stayed with me, as I went into this reading knowing nothing beyond the broad strokes probably known by society in general.

Bradbury takes a strong stance against television and the role it is playing in dumbing down society.  Remember, this was first published in 1953.  There had yet to be a Fear Factor, or The Bachelor, or even a Keeping Up with the Kardashians.  In this dystopian future, Bradbury’s protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman, a profession that no longer puts out fires, but now starts them in order to destroy the ideas contained in the written word.  When he is called to burn not just a woman’s library, but the woman herself, he begins to question his role in this destruction and sets out on a path to try and change the world.

If I did (or had) read this in the 7th or 8th grade, I don’t know if I got (or would have gotten) as much out of it as I did reading it now.  Maybe even delaying it a few years into high school would have given me more perspective to pick up on the themes underlying Bradbury’s desolate future.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Bradbury.  Your work will continue on for years to come.