Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Ridiculous Reviewers on Amazon: One Star Review for Fahrenheit 451

In the world of Fahrenheit 451, a totalitarian regime has decided books are too dangerous to be allowed, so they've banned them. The main character is Guy Montag, who is a "Fireman"... he confiscates and burns books, which is where we get the title... books burn at 451 Fahrenheit. The book is beautifully written and follows Guy as he experiments and eventually becomes a champion of reading books. It's a love letter to books and reading, and the power of free ideas to create freedom in society.



Which, of course, means that it's time for another Ridiculous One Star Review!








We start strong out of the gate with the ever popular A Customer, who has this to say:


BURN THIS BOOK!
This book makes no sense what so ever and i had to read it for school. I have no idesa just how in the world a book this horrible could have stayed around for 40 years!!! I have talked to everyone I know and they all read the first 5 pages and immeadiatly hated it. THey rented the movie and watched some of it so they won't have to read it, and it was verbatum, and guess what...it was even worse than the book! I do reccomend this book to all of you...well only if you want to find out how terrible books can get or you want to find out what type of flammable liquid burns better on books!


Wow. Did we miss the point of the book, or are we living proof of the point of the book? The irony is so overpowering it is making it hard for me to think. Hmmm. Interesting. Could it be that the author, Ray Bradbury was responding to attitudes and thoughts he ran across in the real world that caused him to pen this excellent novel? Let's see if this next review, also by someone called A Customer, sheds any light on the question:


This book started out weird and ended up wierd and boring! The author has a good idea. We should read instead of watching TV, but if this book is one of the choices you had better turn the TV back on. I mean who in his right mind would ever write a book with 4 wall TVs, robot dogs, and burning books. And the story never really had an ending. It just stopped, I guess to end the boredom.


In other words, the author of this review prefers the dystopian future to current reality. It's like someone reading 1984 and thinking, "I wish the government could spy on me through my mandatory television set." Ha ha ha. I also like how the book started out weird and ended up weird and boring. I'll use that again, I can feel it.


Here's one that would make Ray Bradbury and English teachers everywhere weep themselves to sleep:
ok at first i jumped at the idea when in the future they burn books since i am not a big book worm. then when i started reading it i frequently got lost! you cannot wonder or your like "what?" the plot is dumb i could have done whole lot better! in the description too. and then i came to a conclusion "its a book and it talks about banning abd burning books"...hmmm.... "how dumb!"
And lastly, because we have to end this somehow eventually (there are over ten pages of one star reviews for this book):


It makes no real attempt to make a statment on book burnings.


You're right. I wish someone would make a serious attempt to write a book about censorship. Once again, our one star reviewers show us how totalitarian dictatorships don't actually have to work all that hard to keep the people docile and satisfied. Then again... maybe the book would make more sense to people if it were about the internet?


You can see previous installments of Ridiculous One Star Reviews Here. UNLESS YOU'RE A FAN OF CENSORSHIP!



2 comments:

  1. I always ask "I Read Banned Books" button-wearers if they've read the Bible.

    Thanks for the post, Matt. I'll add Fahrenheit 451 to my "Books-I-might-read-(and/or burn)-after-the-kids-graduate-from-high-school" book list. I need more literacy! Bought John Bunyan's the Holy War yesterday, 2nd-hand, but--jeesh--it's gonna take a LOAD of concentration (and a King James English dictionary!) to get through! LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:48 PM

    Oh. This hurts my heart. I LOVED this book when I read it in High School. Now, I do agree that it was a slow read and you really had to focus to understand it. But it was truely a good book! His take on Censorship is just phenomenal and points out faults in society today that are slowly affecting the generations. And, yes, I have a feeling that we're moving to burning books because some people can't just appreciate the facts that someone threw out their ideas and predictions (shell=earphones)that can still teach us lessons today in not only censorship but how to find a way to love literature for what it is and it's hidden message that the author wants us to find.

    Love your forums! I can't stop reading them!

    ReplyDelete