When the Slow Readers’ Book Club chose Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for August’s book club pick, I was so excited. 

I wanted to love Fahrenheit 451. I’d heard so many oh-so intellectual reviews of Bradbury’s novel discussing the nuances of technology in the modern world and I’d envisioned being able to seamlessly slot into this discourse. 

Alas, my thoughts only formed a semblance of intellect after I’d had a few weeks to digest the ugly vision of modern society that Fahrenheit 451 brings its readers face-to-face with:

Seashell earpieces that bear a startling resemblance to Airpods, mile-long billboards on motorways, TVs that cover entire walls, books condensed into pamphlets… The list goes on. 

Note: this discussion of Fahrenheit 451 contains spoilers! If you have not read the book please don’t spoil it for yourself!

First published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 was intended to be a cautionary tale for future generations, ‘describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades’.² Bradbury’s narrator, Guy Montag, begins the narrative unaware of his isolation. He goes to work, takes ‘pleasure’ in burning books, goes home to his wife, who is more devoted to her ‘family’ on her wall-to-wall television screen than to her husband. Guy goes to his twin bed, untouched, wakes up, and repeats the same cycle. 

It is not until a chance encounter awakens him to the lack of connection he feels with the world. His wife’s detachment. The fact that “people don’t talk about anything”, and that he is “not in love with anyone”.³

The dystopia portrayed in the text was closer to Bradbury’s reality (and ours) than even he had anticipated. In Kingsley Amis’ New Maps to Hell (1960) Bradbury notes:

‘… only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.’ ⁴

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury demonstrates the chilling consequences of technology interrupting human connection through social and parasocial relationships in the text, and particularly in the state of the relationship between Guy and Mildred.

The ‘wall between [Guy] and Mildred’  exemplifies the novel’s wider themes of the breakdown of social relationships and the traditional family unit. In Guy’s reflection, the parlour walls not only come between his relationship, but replace Mildred’s need for connection, as the parlour becomes her “family”. 

Mildred’s detachment echoes that of the Beverly Hills woman of Bradbury’s anecdote, ‘oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries’ on her parlour walls incessantly. Guy laments that ‘the walls were always talking to Mildred’⁶, making moments of real, human connection difficult in the white noise of the parlour. Perhaps even impossible.

This image seems horrific, until you realise that we’ve all done it – then it becomes alarming. Being on our phones when around family or friends, unable to focus due to the constant pull of your social media feed. Asking people to repeat themselves because your attention was more focused on a screen than a person. Hey – I’m not judging, I’m guilty of it too.

Bradbury takes these lapses in human connection in favour of technology, and weaves into the fabric of his dystopia. Yes, in his day, it was the ‘cigarette-package-sized radio’ and in ours it’s a pocket-sized computer designed to hold your attention, but the constant presence of technology in Fahrenheit 451 disrupts and prevents human connection between the characters. 

Now you may say that Bradbury’s tale is just a dystopia – designed as an imagination of a worst-case scenario of the downfall of American society. But as Bradbury himself noted in 1960, the chilling, real-life echoes of Fahrenheit 451’s society in his day-to-day ‘was not fiction’.

‘[The] women fidgeted and looked nervously at the empty mud-coloured walls… Their faces grew haunted with silence… 

“Let’s talk”The women jerked and stared.’⁷

You only need to look in any restaurant and see a couple staring at their phones whilst at dinner, or a group of friends scrolling on social media rather than conversing, or a house where families spend their time in different rooms with various attention-grabbing screens, to see Bradbury’s dystopia in real time. 

A Harvard Graduate School of Education survey of American adults, found that 29% of 30-44 year olds report that they are “frequently” or “always” lonely, and 73% of all respondents quote technology as a contributor to loneliness in society.

So while it’s easier (and more comfortable) to dismiss the ugly mirror that Bradbury holds up to society in Fahrenheit 451 as a doomsday-esque eventuality, we must recognise aspects of our own social habits in the warnings Bradbury envisions. 

The significance of this recognition is that it allows us to take stock of our relationships with others, to technology, to information, and to our own critical thought – once this has been recognised, we can strive to do better. 

If this book made you feel uncomfortable – that was the entire point.

“Whirl a man’s head around so fast under the pumping hands of publishers, exploiters, broadcasters, that the centrifuge flings off all unnecessary, time-wasting thought”⁸

I’ll be honest, this review took me a long time. I struggled to organise my thoughts. Analysing this book felt like looking directly at the sun – like I had to turn away and shade my eyes – and I think that’s exactly what Bradbury intended. The narrative – particularly in our modern world – feels too close to home. Writing this was uncomfortable – but I’m so glad this book club has pushed me to look past that discomfort and interrogate my knee-jerk reaction to this text.

Our next book club will discuss Alison Espach’s The Wedding People – a fun, easy going read that explores how you can pick yourself up after hitting rock bottom.

Here are just some of the comments on our Dubai book club from our lovely Instagram community:

“I’m genuinely glad the introvert in me didn’t take over and cancel last minute … I freakin’ loved it” (@thiscitythatbook)

“Slow reader here! … I’d love to join!” – (@erikavsbooks)

Here’s more on The Wedding People:

When Phoebe Stone arrives alone at a luxurious Newport inn, she finds she is the only person not there for the celebration.

At rock bottom yet determined to give herself one last decadent escape, Phoebe finds her weekend colliding with the meticulous bride’s plans in unexpected ways. What follows is both absurdly funny and tender, as unlikely connections force Phoebe to reconsider where she’s been and where she might go next.

The Wedding People is a wise, resonant novel about chance encounters, self-discovery, and the surprising turns that reshape our lives.

1.  Bradbury, Ray (2008). Fahrenheit 451, (London: HarperVoyager, Harper Collins) 50th anniversary edition. p.65. ↩︎
2.  Amis, Kingsley (1975) New Maps of Hell: a survey of Science Fiction, (New York: Arno Press). p.112. ↩︎
3.  Bradbury, Ray (2008). Fahrenheit 451, p.43, p.61. ↩︎
4.  Amis, Kingsley (1975) New Maps of Hell, p.112. ↩︎
5.  Bradbury, Ray (2008). Fahrenheit 451, p.59. ↩︎
6.  Bradbury, Ray (2008). Fahrenheit 451, p.60. ↩︎
7. Bradbury, Ray (2008). Fahrenheit 451, pp.122-124.. ↩︎
8. Bradbury, Ray (2008). Fahrenheit 451, p.73. ↩︎