Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451 back in 1953, but as the new graphic novel adapted by Tim Hamilton, shows, Fahrenheit 451 couldn't be farther away from being dated (sadly there are still factions that still advocate that we "need" censorship). For those who haven't read this great piece of literature, the premise of Fahrenheit 451 is a future in which firemen don't put out fires, they start them, specifically burning houses that have books in them. Reading books helps promote independent thinking, which is of course bad (well if you're trying to have a totalitarian society like North Korea) so they must be eradicated.

The central character of Fahrenheit 451 is named Montag, who is a fireman, who doesn't question his job to burn books until he encounters a young woman named Clarissa, who is full of life and does question why things are as they are. Montag, inspired by Clarissa's spirit, revolts against his life until then of just doing what he was trained for and seeks others who are passionate about books, thus freeing his mind of the dampeners his oppressive world in which he lives has ingrained upon him.

Fahrenheit 451 is an important book with its underlining message about censorship, but it's not one of those "important" books that is a chore to read. Fahrenheit 451 is a celebration of the printed word, the free mind, and Bradbury's prose and characters are top notch. This graphic novel version of Fahrenheit 451 sports beautiful art by Tim Hamilton (he's done a graphic novel adaptation of Treasure Island that I'm going to look up), an artist that definitely was up to the task of adapting this and Ray Bradbury (as he states in his introduction), gives his full approval.

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