It's funny how I hate Ray Bradbury a whole lot more than I hate George Orwell and FAHRENHEIT 451 is probably one one of the most poorly-written books I've ever had to read but as a whole, it's been a lot less harmful to political discourse than 1984, a book I actually enjoyed
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Like what the fuck is 451 even about really? I don't know. I'm not even sure Bradbury knows. Supposedly it's about "book-burning" but like Bradbury has next to no actual literacy in groups whose voices typically get targeted by book-burning. He doesn't care about Helen Keller.
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Replying to @LorelaiMerri @Nymphomachy
That said, he refused to let them release his bibliography as ebooks *unless they offered the most generous possible terms for libraries* Because he was aware of the issue with libraries and ebook rights and he has always been a staunch pro-library guy
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Saying that he would have no education at all if not for public libraries given how poor his family was and how frequently they moved and disrupted his schooling, and he felt obligated to give back no matter how much it cost him financially So there's that, at least
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I have frequently defended people's bad takes like this on autobiographical grounds saying it's often about the feeling more than any defensible ideology And Bradbury was a kid for whom public libraries were his refuge and escape through his whole crappy childhood
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By contrast, TV wasn't really a thing until he was an adult (he was born in 1920), and the TV they had back then was mostly *terrible*, and it stayed terrible for a long time (Newton Minow's "vast wasteland" speech was in 1961, when Bradbury was 41)
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So I mean I get it Faber's speech in F451 about the only real difference that matters between books and screens -- that with books *the reader has the control* -- made way more sense back in his day, or, hell, even my day, compared to the Kids These Days
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Replying to @arthur_affect @LorelaiMerri
My own Fahrenheit 451 would have been about Duck Dynasty and Nineteen Kids And Counting
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Replying to @Nymphomachy
Lol now I'm thinking about how Faber has a tiny handheld screen that says is the only way he'll watch the news or whatever, as opposed to the "parlor walls" "Something I can cover with my hand or shove in a drawer if I choose, that has no power over me"
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Ray Bradbury somehow anticipated the Internet outcry over Martin Scorsese telling you he doesn't want you to watch his movies on a goddamn phone
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy
"You think you're going to burrow into my brain and control my mind, Martin? Good luck, I have you in a tiny window floating on top of like 59 random tabs I'm snarking about you on Twitter right now"
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