Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury


Rating: **** (4 stars)
Book length: 227 pages
Genre: Science Fiction

Is there still any value in books? We can access information just by speaking into a phone. We can turn on a television set and know that is happening anywhere in the world.

Is there still any value in education? Why learn when you can utilize technology to do anything you need it to do? Is there any value for going to school to study art, English, or any other humanities?

In Bradbury's world books were no longer seen to be of value. They were corrupting the minds. Schools were no longer interesting. There were more important things to pursue.

At nights boys drove their cars around hitting people on purpose, and firefighters found hidden books and burnt them. Both are possible outcomes when education is longer valued and individuals are expected to conform to a set mind and be lulled into complacency by drugs and worthless entertainment.

Except not everyone can stop thinking for themselves. Once you get a thought you cannot un-think it. Once you learn to think for yourself you can no longer go back to the masses.

That is the brilliant plot for Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Ray Bradbury is an amazing writer. The way he puts together words is poetic. The ideas and concepts behind those words are thought provoking. Yet, the actual execution tends to fall short.

I absolutely hated the ending in this book. It ends with a belief that what is right will eventually even out. It believes society will work like the law of averages. You can only be ignorant for so long before intelligence will again start being valued. Since it will happen eventually we should just wander around doing absolutely nothing waiting for generations to pass so that eventually their will be change. For good measure we should also blow up the entire city leaving only the main character alive. Although, until that point I actually thought the war was all an elaborate lie.

I love Bradbury. I love his ideas and concepts. I love the way he puts words together. I can sit and listen to someone read one of his stories and be entranced. Yet, there is always something that doesn't make any sense. If Bradbury doesn't think that people would fight back, then I question his understanding of human nature.

Still you should read anything and everything by Bradbury. Any book that evokes this much passion must be read!

Originally published on The Book Recluse Review

The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Book Length: 128 pages
Genre: Science Fiction, Classic

H.G. Wells is a classic science fiction writer. His works are well known and have been transcribed into any sort of framework imaginable. Yet, nothing compares to the original work.

Wells' works are short and to the point. In The Time Machine we meet a man who builds a time machine and goes into the future where there are two versions of humans.

On one hand there is the meek and pampered Eloi who are fair and childlike. Below ground there is the ugly and aggressive Morlocks who's use the Eloi as substance.

The writing is a short and interesting story. However, beyond the tale it is a story exploring the upper class and labor class. The Eloi are the upper class who depend on the Morlocks for their basic necessities. They forget to how to take care of themselves yet they maintain some semblance of culture. They congregate together and have a simple language. The Morlocks are the labors. The language of the Morlocks has been reduced to grunts and screeching. Yet they have kept some of the intellect by maintaining the machinery and continuing to provide for the needs of the Eloi.

It is an interesting tale of classism. I wonder what Wells was truly trying to say. In the end neither class ruled the other. Both were dependent on each other for their existence. This codependency resulted in the downfall of both aspects of society.

As reviewed on The Book Recluse Review

The title and authorship of this book would lead the reader to think that it is written by, and about, an adolescent with autism. The reality is that this book is a melodramatic memoir which includes a main topic of having a daughter with autism. It also includes many trips down memory lanes by the main author of the book Virginia (Elizabeth's mother). Many of these ventures are quite interesting. She graduated from Harvard, seems to travel extensively, and can pick up and fly across the country for healing prayers. On a trip to Tibet she happened to meet someone who worked for PBS creating documentaries. This is not a typical middle or lower class family. None of this takes away from the book in itself.

My main issue with the book is that it is marketed as being written from the perspective of Elizabeth - a nonverbal adolescent with autism. In reality Elizabeth's poems are extensively included followed by small segments of explanation of the poetry. The rest is her mother's story. Her mother is a melodramatic mess. I would love to read the follow up, actually written by Elizabeth, when she is a few years older. She seems like a remarkable young women.

There should be several warnings before you decided to pick up this novel. The mother comes from a business profession, and this is evident in the writing. She uses analogies from business to attempt some sort of structure of her life in an attempt to make blanket statements. This would be useful if this were a self help book rather then a memoir, and if she had the endorsement, or even more universal experience, to back these ideas up.

The book has a mystical Christian theme to it - the author even described herself as such. Throughout the book you will find a lot of references to God and scriptures. She then seems to mix this around by talking about Tibet a bit.

There are a lot of references to controversial biomedical procedures. If you agree with this approach to autism treatment then I think you will be frustrated by the way she seems to vaguely mention most of them and not really reference their progress or effect, if any. She only partly does this with one treatment - and the response was more an example of an emotion journey on the part of the mother. If you do not agree with this approach then you may be a bit outraged by the fact that this mother seems willing to try anything.

It seems to me that so much emphases is put on the negative aspects. Elizabeth cannot speak - but she can communicate - and in this day and age there are great compact devices that can be used to give her a voice. Hence, one reason why the iPad is so popular with autistic families. I also wish that more attention was given to the journey of the family as a whole. I would have loved to hear about Elizabeth's brother who is also diagnosed with autism. It is not even until the middle of the book that we are told there is an older sister. The dad is given a brief mention - which makes no sense if he is in fact home with them and as such their primary caregiver.

I would have a lot less criticism if the book was marketed as a mother's perspective, although even then I think that would have only earned it an extra 1/2 star.

As published on The Book Recluse Review