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In retrospect, a lot of Fahrenheit 451 seems like "cranky old man" territory, although Bradbury was only 33 when it was published. I recall a lengthy passage wh
by PhasmaFelis 9y ago
In retrospect, a lot of Fahrenheit 451 seems like "cranky old man" territory, although Bradbury was only 33 when it was published. I recall a lengthy passage where Clarisse talks about how highways have destroyed respect for nature because it's impossible to see flowers at freeway speeds. Literally impossible, this wasn't just a metaphor--she also mentions how freeway advertisements have to be extremely long because ordinary billboards would just be a blur, which implies that Bradbury had never actually ridden on a freeway before despising them.
- nyolfen 9y agoi think these two things probably imply that vehicles traveled much faster than on the freeways of the 1950s, extrapolating from trends he saw (car travel becoming faster) in the same way that he extrapolated the wall-sized televisions from early tv screens increasing in size, or people readings fewer books for that matter
- jacoblambda 9y agoHe wasn't completely off, even just a few years ago the speculation of wall size TVs becoming common place was a very real possibility.
- notahacker 9y agoBy far the most original and entertaining character in Fahrenheit 451 is Captain Beatty, with his sneering denunciations of the cultural value and psychological impact of books, not least because of the (probably unintentionally) ironic way they mirror better-informed versions of Bradbury's own contempt for the worth TV and radio