Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I picked up this book whilst on holiday in Cornwall a few years ago. It now has a home in my top five. It is a must read for anyone who has felt alienated in a world of phones and media. Bradbury’s prophetic novel on the future where happiness is found on screens is (not) surprisingly uncanny. I look around the staff room at work and see everyone glued to their phones. I will admit that my pinterest obsession may be slightly out of control but I am not buying a smart/android phone to perpetuate that behaviour. Montag isn’t an especially loveable character but you will be cheering him on mentally at the end, as he tries to remember his parts of the Book of Ecclesiastes and some of Revelation. The outsiders are those who live within the realms of an academic world, each fugitive having to remember parts of books in order to preserve them. There is no ‘sparknotes’ where Montag has escaped. In 2011 Keele University almost lost its philosophy department. The lecturers, research students, taught students and others stood their ground and launched a protest. Common sense won out and an entire academic department was saved. People have strong opinions about the arts and subjects such as philosophy. The people with the negative “Why study arts?” attitudes have come by that opinion by being (some what) educated. And education starts by reading. And how do we learn to read? I rest my case. Granger, Montag’s saviour admits to striking a fireman when he comes to burn his library. I think some similarities can be drawn between the cuts to Arts and Humanities Research Council Funding. Wish someone would slap Michael Gove and whoever is pulling the strings on university funding!
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