Fahrenheit 451... hm.

[tzikeh]

We've been using Fahrenheit 451 as our "prop" book in my Teaching Literature to Adolescents class. I'm assuming most of you know the basic story--it's The Future, a fireman's job is now to burn books, not put out fires, the written word had been eradicated from society years and years before (sometime after the nuclear wars in the 1990s. *g*). Everything is communicated now through the spoken word, or through pictures (e.g., a salamander and a phoenix mark the uniforms for firemen). Montag (a fireman) has been slowly stealing books during fire-settings, and hiding them in his home. Later in the book, he chooses to read them, which is a serious crime, which leads to the rest of the story.

So--

How does Montag know how to read?

Is this going to be one of those "Nobody heard Kane say 'Rosebud'" things that fucks up the work forever?

Comments

[zulu]

I didn't think that the written word itself had been eradicated completely, but that it was used for, like, factual correspondence or something, just not fiction/poetry/history. But that may well have been an assumption! It's been a long time since I read the story.

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

I have exactly the same memory.

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

I just read it a few months ago and that was my impression, too.