Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

13 reviews

angorarabbit's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

TLDR: Beautiful writing style, thought provoking ideas. 

 

Context: Teenager me tried to read a Bradbury short story collection but my mind was too jittery to appreciate well written prose and I was too impatient for short stories. That is a loss I will try to make up for. 

 

A good novel lives rent free in your mind long after it is placed back on the shelf or returned to the library. For a great novel you are happy to give it the room. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books. Rather than glow about Mr Bradbury’s work I’d like to leave my thoughts on two things. 

 

First; Beatty is explaining to Montag why books are not only not needed but harmful to their society. “Coloured people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White People don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it.” In an afterword Mr Bradbury also writes that minorities and women play a part in censoring and banning books. 

 

While women and minorities do add their voices to calls against books I do not think that they are the reason why books such as Little Black Sambo (LBS) are discarded. Rather, I would argue that it is the trend in books that changed. Even in the 60’s LBS was thought of as old fashioned, something your grandparents had laying around.  We had Dr Seuss, and Maurice Sendak for goodness sake. Why would we want to read and look at pictures as old hat as LBC? LBC was as square as Aesop’s fables. 

 

If women could rewrite books surely there would be a leading role for a few females in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for a start. Foundation doesn’t have a single female, minority, or lgbtqaa+ character as far as I recall, yet has it been rewritten? No because the majority see no need. 

 

Second: The wall to wall televisions block out the leaves and the Seashells block out the crickets in the night. Books can open your eyes or blind you to reality. They can enhance or block you thinking for yourself just as much if you let them. The trick is to read what will enhance and to live in the real world. If I had to memorise one book to save it from the book burners it would be Fahlrenheit 451 and not the bible. 

 

Again thank you to libraries and librarians who despite the gun bearing Redoubt continue to bring banned books to our eyes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Suicide, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Grief, and War

Minor: Infertility and Religious bigotry

Graphic book burning, possible suicide attempt.

nenah_elizabeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Blood, Medical content, and Grief

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

i read this once in 2020 (fell asleep in the last hour of the audiobook but i retained the whole story, woke up the next day, relistened to the parts i missed), and watched the truffaut movie in one of my last film classes, but i have the book version and i thought i might as well give it the honest try now that i’m officially integrated into reading.

welp, i gave it 3 stars back when i didnt have a rating system, and 3 stars was too generous. i get what he was going for but there are so many questions and plot holes. WHY do they know how to read if books are illegal is the biggest one! WHO taught them and HOW and WHY. and honestly with that question alone I don’t even need to get into my other issues. the story isn’t good but white people have a very low bar for what they have made into classics. basically anything that happened in real life to people of color they fictionalized and went “isn't that terrible? wouldn’t that be terrible if that happened to us civilized people? and isn’t the prose fantastic? let’s make this a classic.” like there are absolutely better dystopian and censorship based books. let me stop the man’s already six feet under.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Vomit, Medical content, and War

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Abortion

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

singalana's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Omia ajatuksia ja tuntemuksia oli hankalaa summata yhteen tämän kirjan lukemisen jälkeen. Luulen, että se pitääkö tästä kirjasta vai ei, riippuu paljon siitä mitä asioita kirjassa arvostaa.

Fahrenheit 451 on dystooppinen novelli tulevaisuudesta, missä kirjat on kielletty ja ihmiset pidetään tyytyväisenä viihteen avulla. Sodat ovat normaaleja ja ihmiset tekevät itsemurhia, mutta kukaan ei pysähdy miettimään ovatko he onnellisia. Päähenkilö Guy Montag kuuluu palomiehiin, joiden tehtävä on etsiä ja rankaista rikollisia: ihmisiä, joiden hallussa on kirjoja. Kirjat, sekä niitä hallussa pitäneen ihmisen talo poltetaan. Montag pitää työstään, kunnes eräänä päivänä nuori tyttö kysyy häneltä onko hän onnellinen. 

On suorastaan hämmästyttävää miten paljon kirjan yhteiskunta muistuttaa maapallon nykytilaa: aivoja turruttavaa viihdettä, mekaanisia robottikoiria valvomassa lainrikkojia, kirjojen kieltämistä. Kuitenkin on sanottava, että kirjan sanoma on vaikuttavampi kuin toteutus. Jos pidät syväluotaavista hahmojen ja maailman kuvauksesta, saatat pettyä tämmän kirjan proosaan. Täytyy kuitenkin miettiä, onko tämä tarkoituksella: onko esimerkiksi Montagin hahmon tarkoitus toimia kehyksinä, joihin voimme asettaa itsemme? Kirjassa esitetään myös muutamia hyviä havaintoja esimerkiksi siitä, mitä ihminen jättää jälkeensä kuollessaan. 

Valitettavasti olen itse sellainen lukija, että kaipaan hahmoilta hieman enemmän syvyyttä. Lisäksi olisin toivonut välillä hieman viipyilevämpää kerrontaa, etenkin kun esiteltiin tarinan kannalta tärkeitä konsepteja. Fahrenheit on kuitenkin nopealukuinen ja teemoiltaan tärkeä, joten suosittelen sitä kyllä lämpimästi kaikille.

Tämän painoksen kansi on graafisesti miellyttävä ja kuvaava, ja selkämyksen kuviointi on tehty muistuttamaan tulitikkulaatikon raapaisupintaa. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

sammy_nor's review against another edition

reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

read this for school, but it was kind of nice anyway (for once).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: War

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

johannarose's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Self harm, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

agatha_hopkins's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow! This book really surprised me. When I first read this book sometime in upper elementary or middle school, I didn't really understand it for what it was. I couldn't see through a lot of the flowery language and metaphors (a warning for those who struggle with this). However, now that I'm a bit older, I can appreciate it for all that it is.

It's ironic that this book about banning and burning books is a banned book itself, but I bet the reasons why are because of the use of profanity and the

ripping out of pages of the Bible by Montag

.

I would recommend this to pretty much anyone as long as they are mature.

Previous rating: 4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and War

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

chiaralzr's review

adventurous reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

The concepts explored in this book are definitely interesting, but i found the execution a bit lacking. I didn't particularly enjoy the writing style and found important dialogues (e.g. Beatty's explanation for book burning) to be a bit bland. This book has a great reputation, so I guess I expected a bit more. Not a bad read tho!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War