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Contents
Epigraph
Introduction by Neil Gaiman
one The Hearth and the Salamander
two The Sieve and the Sand
three Burning Bright
History, Context, and Criticism
PART ONE: THE STORY OF
F
AHRENHEIT
451
“The Story of
Fahrenheit 451
” by Jonathan R. Eller
From “The Day After Tomorrow: Why Science Fiction?” (1953) by Ray Bradbury
Listening Library Audio Introduction (1976) by Ray Bradbury
“Investing Dimes:
Fahrenheit 451
” (1982, 1989) by Ray Bradbury
“Coda” (1979) by Ray Bradbury
PART TWO: OTHER VOICES
The Novel:
From a Letter to Stanley Kauffmann by Nelson Algren
“Books of the Times” by Orville Prescott
From “New Wine, Old Bottles” by Gilbert Highet
“New Novels” by Idris Parry
“New Fiction” by Sir John Betjeman
“1984 and All That” by Adrian Mitchell
From
New Maps of Hell
by Sir Kingsley Amis
Introduction to
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
by Harold Bloom
“Fahrenheit 451” by Margaret Atwood
The Motion Picture:
“Shades of Orwell” by Arthur Knight
From “The Journal of
Fahrenheit 451
” by François Truffaut
About Ray Bradbury
This one, with gratitude,
is for Don Congdon
Introduction
Sometimes writers write about a world that does not yet exist. We do it for a
hundred reasons. (Because it’s good to look forward, not back. Because we need
to illuminate a path we hope or we fear humanity will take. Because the world of
the future seems more enticing or more interesting than the world of today.
Because we need to warn you. To encourage. To examine. To imagine.) The
reasons for writing about the day after tomorrow, and all the tomorrows that
follow it, are as many and as varied as the people writing.
This is a book of warning. It is a reminder that what we have is valuable, and
that sometimes we take what we value for granted.
There are three phrases that make possible the world of writing about the
world of not-yet (you can call it science fiction or speculative fiction; you can call
it anything you wish) and they are simple phrases:
What if . . . ?
If only . . .
If this goes on . . .
“What if . . . ?” gives us change, a departure from our lives.
(What if aliens
landed tomorrow and gave us everything we wanted, but at a price?)
“If only . . .” lets us explore the glories and dangers of tomorrow.
(If only dogs
could talk. If only I were invisible.)
“If this goes on . . .” is the most predictive of the three, although it doesn’t try
to predict an actual future with all its messy confusion. Instead, “If this goes
on . . .” fiction takes an element of life today, something clear and obvious and
normally something troubling, and asks what would happen if that thing, that one
thing, became bigger, became all-pervasive, changed the way we thought and
behaved.
(If this goes on, all communication everywhere will be through text
messages or computers, and direct speech between two people, without a machine,
will be outlawed.)
It’s a cautionary question, and it lets us explore cautionary worlds.
