Classics Without All the Class discussion

Done already? Nice job! Tell us what you think!

Bookshelf - LOVED IT!
Library Bag - It was okay...
Donation Box - It was terrible!

This is a metaphorical post. We're not actually throwing books out (or burning them in this case). It's just our way of doing a ratings system.

Tell us your thoughts.

Bookshelf (where it has been for many many years)

Donation. OK yes the overall theme is good but I have read this twice or maybe thrice and I just hate the way its written.

Bookshelf for sure! While I liked this book, I had some trouble with Bradbury's sentence structure/wording. I have found I am not the only one, which made me feel better, tbh. Anyway aside from those random occurrences, the story is just brilliant. Bradbury paints a vivid picture of a world without books and its chilling, haunting, and so real. From an avid reader, like myself, there is nothing more frightening than this world.

I found it interesting that for a book written in the 50s that played, on their fears at that time, they are fears we still have today. Are we so attached to the technological advancements in world that we could fail to appreciate the things in front of us? Are we so far removed from each other due to a flashing screen (tv or phone) that we forget how to communicate face to face? These are questions I found myself, constantly, asking. I like it when a writer makes it that real even decades later.

Bookshelf.
Ray Bradbury puts so much emotion into his books.
My only gripe is that there is some vague symbolism going on, which is responsible for why many people think this book is about censorship.
4/5

Bookshelf - and a trip to the bookshop to buy copies for a few other people.

What I love about this book is that it is a paean to the power of the written word: that people will live and die for it, and will wither without the transformative power of fictional worlds and the insights of others.

Did you know, this was first serialised in... Playboy!

http://io9.com/5668053/15-classic-sci... (this link is not to Playboy, but to an article about 15 sci-fi classics that were rejected by publishers, with details of why)

That page has a link to this interview with Bradbury about writing the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4kFyk...

Somewhere between Bookshelf and Library Bag. I liked the world Bradbury depicted, particularly since he wrote the novel in the early 50s. His portrayal of an anesthetized society in which human contact is superseded by inane images and blaring sounds, is not only poignant but extremely similar to our own social reality.
Nevertheless, the social problems he deals with have already been expounded by other, greater dystopian novels, and not only that, but in this novel it sounds repetitive, instead of bringing a fresh point of view into things.
One thing that, to my point of view, diminishes the quality of the novel is an overkill of metaphors; it looks like an overstrained effort to sound poetical, which never quite does.
That being said, I enjoyed reading it, but it didn´t make my nights sleepless.

Bookshelf out of loyalty to Bradbury. but on its own merits, somewhere between Library Bag and Donation Box.

It has a good message, but I think Bradbury's style is better for short fiction rather than novels. Most of this book is just re-treading the same ground he's already covered in multiple short stories.

Bookshelf! It sucked me in immediately and I couldn't put it down. His style and use of metaphor only makes the book more beautiful for me, instead of taking away from the power of it.

Library Bag. I liked it but I didn't love it.

Bookshelf. I thought it was a great book, made me think and question the world we live in. What more could you want?

Library Bag. Ditto with previous comments on the writing style. Not to my taste but nice story. Great moments here or there.

Library Bag. I enjoyed it and it made me think about society and values, but it's not something I would want to read over and over again.

Bookshelf. I love the whole ideia of the book. In fact I have the e-book version, but after reading it I´ll buy the real book just to have it on my shelf and read again.

Definitely, bookshelf! I read this when I was a kid (a long time ago!), but I think it is more impactful now.

Library Bag - It was okay..
I don't know if it because I had read it earlier but it really didn't impress me much now. I think he has written much more exciting books and somehow this idea, even if very interesting, didn't felt extraoridany. This reminds me actually Brave new world, kind of.

Donation - loaned it to my son-in-law

Library bag. As I wrote in my review, I wish I had read this in middle school/high school because my younger self would've been crazy about it, but my older self just thought it was so-so. I love the idea of the book but it moved too quickly for me and I felt like it left something to be desired.

Library Bag, maybe it's because I read it right around the same time I read 1984 but I didn't feel like this book made the impact on my I had thought it would after hearing about it from friends. It's a good story that made me question my ideas about humanity but I didn't care for the writing style and I finished feeling less than satisfied. Overall it was an okay book for me but not one that I'm planning on re-reading in the near future.

Library Bag. This is one of those books that I enjoyed while reading it, but didn't really think about afterward, unless someone mentioned it. It is good, but it didn't really stick with me.

Bookshelf, for me. I think I must have read this book at exactly the right time, because everything about it jived with me. How this author managed to predict everything from obsessively-watched "reality TV" to the condensed language of texting and Twitter is beyond me, but it's what I've been preaching about to anyone who would listen for the past few years. I found it scarily believable (except for the part where there were no longer any fires for firemen to extinguish, although, who knows, maybe someday), and I absolutely loved it for that.

Somewhere in my edition - I'm not sure if it was in the introduction or in some of the material included after the novel - they talked about the typical television programming in the 40's/early 50's.

It said back then, programming was mostly variety shows, short skits, and adaptations of existing works. Not a ton of real content or stories being told. Sitcoms were just getting started when Bradbury published this book.

Bradbury is consistently anti-technology. He published a short story shortly before this novel called "The Murderer" where the main character rebelled against being constantly bothered by his wife calling him on what was basically a cell-phone and was committed to an asylum after destroying all the technology he could get his hands on. That story seemed rather prescient too.

Melanti wrote: "Somewhere in my edition - I'm not sure if it was in the introduction or in some of the material included after the novel - they talked about the typical television programming in the 40's/early 50'..."

It was just weird to me that he could foresee the whole "people yelling at each other without ever saying anything" thing that today's reality shows are famous for. Everything back then on TV was so happy-and-perfect, so probably most people wouldn't have dreamed that our home entertainment would turn out the way it has.

Melanti also said: "Bradbury is consistently anti-technology. He published a short story shortly before this novel called "The Murderer" where the main character rebelled against being constantly bothered by his wife calling him on what was basically a cell-phone and was committed to an asylum after destroying all the technology he could get his hands on. That story seemed rather prescient too."

That sounds good, haha. And cell phones, yes... he also seemed to predict the iPhone and the way people get so absorbed in them that they don't even notice the world around them. Creepy foresight...

Faye wrote: "he also seemed to predict the iPhone and the way people get so absorbed in them that they don't even notice the world around them. Creepy foresight... "

I think this is part of why Bradbury didn't like television. He's nostalgic for that era when people sat around on their porches at night and talked to their neighbors or took long walks instead of shutting themselves in their air conditioned living rooms and staring at a box all night.

To him, that sort of face to face interaction is real, whereas television programs, phone conversations, and internet forums are not.

Faye wrote: "It was just weird to me that he could foresee the whole "people yelling at each other without ever saying anything" thing that today's reality shows are famous for. ... "

IMO, he's not as much predicting reality TV as he is saying that because of the lack of face-to face interaction, people's social skills are going to become so deficient that they'll loose the knack of conversing. (Well, that, and he's saying their brains are going to rot and that sort of drivel will be all they can comprehend.)

Melanti wrote: "Bookshelf out of loyalty to Bradbury. but on its own merits, somewhere between Library Bag and Donation Box.

It has a good message, but I think Bradbury's style is better for short fiction rather ..."

This is more or less how I feel. I like what he does, and he manages to do so in a shortened novel, not taking 700+ pages to tell something fairly obvious like so many other authors feel the need to do. I think it's very prevalent today, though a big shallow in some sense. Good starter book for a lot of issues, but with a lot of more hidden metaphor, which I appreciate.

Does this classify as sci-fi? Or maybe it did in it's day but just doesn't really feel that way now, because a huge portion of the technology either already exists or is very nearly attainable?

Alana wrote: "Does this classify as sci-fi? Or maybe it did in it's day but just doesn't really feel that way now, because a huge portion of the technology either already exists or is very nearly attainable?"

I don't think you stop classifying something as sci-fi just because technology has caught up. Where would it end and what would such books become, such as one written in the 1950s but set on a space station not unlike the ISS?

I'm happy to keep this as sci-fi, and also as dystopian.

Bookshelf - LOVED IT!

I'm a big fan of Ray Bradbury, and I enjoyed his take on the dystopian novel. When I see so many people completely obsessed with television programs (and not reading), it always makes me think of this book.