Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Jan 2, 2007 16:34:16 GMT -5
Let's start with the first half of Part 1 - Kristie has identified the following breaks for our analysis:
In the first part, my edition has a natural break in the story on p.32 (The first sentence after the break is: "The flutter of cards, motion of hands, of eyelids, the drone...") which is about halfway til the end of the first part. So I thought we could stop there since it's a natural break in the story. Then in the second part I found a natural break at the bottom of p. 91 ("You could feel the war getting ready in the sky that night.") about halfway thru. In the third part, p. 145 another natural break ("Half an hour later, cold, and moving carefully on the tracks..."
|
|
Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Jan 2, 2007 16:37:02 GMT -5
Posted by Kristie on Today at 3:20pm Moved by Jefie on Today at 4:38pm
I'm going to post on the first 32 pages.
So far, I am really enjoying this book. In the first section we’re talking about, I see a world that Bradbury probably though would’ve come by 2006. And while he’s right in his thinking of a futuristic world, we’re not quite there yet. I admit, many people are finding more and more ways to have things done for them, rather than do them themselves. I see there’s a fast-paced life so far in the novel, and it’s a good thing Montag found/met Clarisse because he needed someone to basically tell him to “Stop and smell the roses.” I find it very interesting that when Clarisse talks about what her uncle said, those things I can see diminishing. The fighting is becoming more violent and more and more technology is helping people get around actually performing tasks. Clarisse said she likes to clean the house by hand, where now people are beginning to hire people or buy those little round robotic vacuum cleaners because they can’t take the time or energy to push a 10 pound vacuum cleaner themselves.
I think it’s very interesting that in the novel, firemen are men who start fires. I don’t quite understand how one can make everything fireproof so there’s no need for them to be there to put out fires. I also wonder, is this supposed to be in the US? I assume it is, but I keep having visions of Germany and the Nazis burning Bibles. Perhaps that’s because of Montag’s name (being German for Monday) and at the beginning during the fire, it “burned the evening sky red and yellow and black.” (p.1) which are the three colors on the German flag. Anyways, if this is in the US, what happened to the freedom of press law? I mean, as far as censorship goes, the US is pretty lenient in many cases. Why these three authors? I mean, Millay was bisexual and Whitman was homosexual and I don’t really know what could be considered wrong with Faulkner because I don’t know much about him, but I can think of other authors now who could be “controversial.” Just wondered if there was any particular reason those three may have been targeted…
By the way, I really like Clarisse and how she tries to keep the moral and feeling human alive.
|
|
czarval
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
Posts: 607
|
Post by czarval on Jan 3, 2007 0:54:15 GMT -5
Along with this book, I found a book that had a bunch of essays about Bradbury's works. I haven't started it yet, but I think it will be very interesting to read them both at once.
|
|
|
Post by Dominique on Jan 3, 2007 2:32:34 GMT -5
I think I will send a mass email to the club informing them that discussion on this book has started. Maybe that way some of the many dormant members that have joined might join in lol. So yeah you guys that obviously already know ignore the email.
|
|
Justie
First poem written for Mother’s Day
Posts: 16
|
Post by Justie on Jan 3, 2007 4:13:32 GMT -5
whoo hoo! I'm gonna read the begining again tomarrow.
|
|
Bina
First novel published
Posts: 2,472
|
Post by Bina on Jan 3, 2007 4:28:35 GMT -5
Oops, I missed the start of this discussion and I still have to get and read the book
|
|
|
Post by Charmed on Jan 3, 2007 9:36:30 GMT -5
Hi - I'm kinda a newbie but I have been waiting for the new book discussion to start. I'll be picking up the book today to catch up with you guys. Charmed PS: Are you guys reading up to the breaks each day (i.e. pg 32, then 91 then 145)? Just so I know. If so, we should to be up to 91 by the end of today, right? Thanks
|
|
Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Jan 3, 2007 9:46:22 GMT -5
There's a lot to take in in that first part of the book! We are aware that the story is set in the future, but it is suprising to see how everything that is dubbed abnormal in the book (talking, walking) are things that are entirely normal today. Basically, it seems like everything that would give people time to think and reflect is banned. You can't even think when you go to bed at night - instead, you swallow a sleeping lozenge.
I agree with you Kristie: a lot of the things that are "futuristic" in the novel are starting to appear in our society. It reminds me of when I was reading Brave New World and realized that the drug Soma was basically our modern-day Prozac. And yes, the action of the book is set in the US, but Bradbury wrote it in the aftermath of WWII, so I think the links you made with Nazi Germany are not too farfetched. At the same time, Bradbury was probably influenced by the 1950s McCarthyism in the US, a time when freedom of speech and freedom of press didn't exist anymore.
As for why he chose Faulkner, I have no idea other than it was a nice figure of speech (Monday-Millay, Wednesday-Whitman, Friday-Faulkner). Bradbury seems to enjoy playing with language, but perhaps there is another, more clever explanation?
|
|
Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Jan 3, 2007 9:48:45 GMT -5
Hi - I'm kinda a newbie but I have been waiting for the new book discussion to start. I'll be picking up the book today to catch up with you guys. Charmed PS: Are you guys reading up to the breaks each day (i.e. pg 32, then 91 then 145)? Just so I know. If so, we should to be up to 91 by the end of today, right? Thanks Hi, glad you want to join us on this discussion! We'll do it in sections so right now we're doing p. 1-32, and we'll just wait until everyone has had a chance to post before moving on to the next section, so no hurry!
|
|
Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
|
Post by Kristie on Jan 3, 2007 14:52:25 GMT -5
As for why he chose Faulkner, I have no idea other than it was a nice figure of speech ( Monday- Millay, Wednesday- Whitman, Friday- Faulkner). Bradbury seems to enjoy playing with language, but perhaps there is another, more clever explanation? I had caught on to that too. I was actually wondering if Millay had something more special to do with the story because Millay is Monday and Monday is Montag (in German). But I didn't really look into that thought, perhaps it was just a coincidence.
|
|
|
Post by belle on Jan 3, 2007 15:08:47 GMT -5
Oh no no no no no no no!!!!! You have already started? I still have to buy the book and read it! I can't believe I missed it. I was so looking forward to start.
|
|
Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
|
Post by Kristie on Jan 3, 2007 15:14:06 GMT -5
We can probably hold off for a bit. It seems a few people missed the beginning of the discussion.
|
|
|
Post by belle on Jan 3, 2007 15:26:23 GMT -5
That would be so nice. But don't worry I'll get the book as soon as I can!
|
|
Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Jan 3, 2007 17:41:56 GMT -5
And it didn't take me long to read those first few pages, so we'll wait for you, no prob!
|
|
Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Jan 4, 2007 8:59:32 GMT -5
I just realized I forgot to write about Mildred and she's such an interesting character! I think Mildred stands for all the people who have been "swallowed" by this new world. She's clearly unhappy - the first time she appears in the book she's attempted suicide and when the "mechanics" come to pump a stomach, we find out that there are so many suicide attempts out there that pumping stomachs is bascially just a routine job. The only way Mildred can survive is by shutting herself out of this world by using seashells and those three walls - it's sort of the next best thing to dying since she's not really living either. At the time Bradbury was writing the novel, the television had just been invented and it's as though he could foresee the influence it would have on our lives - families eating dinner in front of the TV, not speaking to each other anymore - and that's what he's trying to represent with the walls. Mildred is begging Montag for a 4th wall but somehow we get the impression that if she gets it, she will stop living in this world entirely.
|
|