@zephoria I always treated this as proof that writers - including me - have no idea what we're doing, something I tell high-school kids who have the clever idea of answering their teacher's assigned question, "What did Doctorow intend in this passage" by emailing me and asking for my answer.
"Don't ask me - I'm not nearly as smart as Bradbury was, and he was an idiot on this stuff. What hope do I have?"
Thank you so much for your excellent reflections. This made me reread and re-appreciate the book myself.
Since you were intrigued by the screens and the role of children in F451 -> do make sure to get a copy of Bradbury's collection The Illustrated Man and read the story The Veldt. Here's a quote: 'Would I have to tie my own shoes instead of letting the shoe tier do it? [...] I don't want to do anything but look and listen and smell; what else is there to do?'
@zephoria Fascinating review… and makes me want to re-read the book again to think about the screen aspect. Thank you for writing this!
I first read F451 when I was in my teens in the 1970s and at the time I was a volunteer firefighter in my town, so I was captivated by the fact that the term “firefighter” was inverted to be someone *burning* things, versus preventing them from being burned.
(I was also learning German, and found it curious that the lead character’s last name is “Monday”.)
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