Fahrenheit 451: Did Bradburys Dystopia Come True?

The nature of science fiction has always been thus: no matter how far ahead authors try to think, they are always trapped in their own times. Elements of their books will invariably look dated from the moment they are published.

Ray Bradbury, who died in Los Angeles Wednesday at the grand old age of 91, was as susceptible to this as any other grand master of the genre. Read his 1953 classic of future firemen who burn books, Fahrenheit 451, and you'll run into plenty of quaint details. Firemen smoking tobacco pipes, lit with "chemical matches." Cheesy ads for "Denham's Dentrifice." 1950s lingo such as "swell".

But brush those quirks aside, and what you're left with is one of the m… Continue reading...