Featured at North Idaho Reads
Bradbury: 'Fahrenheit 451' is often
misinterpreted
Ask most people familiar with the title what "Fahrenheit 451" is about and they will likely respond that it depicts government censorship.
The author, the late Ray Bradbury, said that isn't the case.
Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Ill. He began his literary life selling newspapers on Los Angeles street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter.
He became a full-time writer in 1943 and went on to write of hundreds of short stories and nearly 50 books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays and screenplays.
His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of "The Martian Chronicles" in 1950. "F451" was published in 1953 and from the beginning has been the subject of academic and popular debate.
The book is often cited as an example of government repression, but Bradbury often said that doesn't tell the whole story.
In an interview with Amy E. Boyle Johnson for the May 30, 2007, LA Weekly, he said firmly that it is not a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands. This, despite the fact that reviews, critiques and essays over the decades say that is precisely what it is all about.
Bradbury, a man living in the creative and industrial center of reality TV and one-hour dramas, says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.
"Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was," Bradbury said, summarizing TV's content with a single word that he spits out as an epithet: "factoids."
He noted that "F451" the government did not begin destroying books until society had stopped reading them.
Bradbury died this year on June 5. He was 91.
Scientist, Author David Brin
will do virtual program for NIR
David Brin is a scientist, speaker, technical consultant and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Brin is scheduled to present a key program in the North Idaho Reads project on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. His presentation will be virtual - completely online - and several regional libraries will be linked to the presentation in their meeting rooms and participants will be able to present questions to him in writing. People will also be able to link up through home computers. Visit northidahoreads.org for instructions.
Brin's recently released novel "Existence," has received stellar reviews, including the Los Angeles Times, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal and SSWorld.com. Peter Swire, Concurring Opinions, writes, "So, if you like thinking about Big Ideas in novel form, buy 'Existence.' And, if you would like to retain the Fair Information Principles in a near future of surveillance in public, consider Brin more carefully when you imagine how life will and should be in the coming decades."
His 1989 ecological thriller, "Earth," foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web. A 1998 movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on "The Postman."
Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. His non-fiction book - "The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy?" - deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association.
For more information about the author visit davidbrin.com.