It a long time since i've read it, but wasn't reading banned because it made people unhappy, unlike TV and sport? Maybe the best books to preserve in such cases would be those that cause the most unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
It a long time since i've read it, but wasn't reading banned because it made people unhappy, unlike TV and sport? Maybe the best books to preserve in such cases would be those that cause the most unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
I'm sorry but no force on Earth would force me to memorize a Michael Crichton book, no matter how easy!Originally Posted by Yobmod
I think that's kind of on the order of what the government told people.That's the cheap seat sell. Specifically, I think I think the line was that books have conflicting ideas in them that make you sad.It a long time since i've read it, but wasn't reading banned because it made people unhappy?
BTW, it's not merely fiction that's burned in the novel,it's all books.
As far as I'm concerned, people here could pick nonfiction for their Farenheit 451 book.
Last edited by ArthurFrayn; February 21st, 2006 at 12:59 PM.
I know that the books that most current-day post-apocalypse SF geeks claim that they'll want is The Way Things Work by David Macauley. Practical and useful, but not what you'd need in the Farenheit 451 universe where they haven't suffered and technological degradation (yet).
I'd say 1984, but it would probably be too ironic if the only book I memorized warned about the perils of a nightmare society when we'd be living in a nightmare society!
I've been thinking on this question for the last few weeks and I'm no closer to coming up with an easy answer - it just emphasises what we'd lose if Bradbury's nightmare came true. Think memorising Farenheit 451 would just rub salt into the wound.
I guess I'd probably memorise some Shakespeare - his plays were ment to be told verbally anyway IMHO.
Well Ghandi was trained as a lawermaybe Ghandi read more fiction than Hitler
Last edited by fluffy bunny; March 3rd, 2006 at 05:08 AM.
I'd agree with the OP Catch 22.
the other ones in my top 5 would be
catcher in the rye
1984
fahrenheit 451
lord of the flies
Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Modern?
The complete libraries of Brian Jacques, Neil Gaiman, and Terry Prachett...
Gaiman if I could only do one.
Catch 22 was not my kind of book.. I read it (voluntarily) in college and kept waiting for it to end. Major Major and all the other joke character names were a turn off, and I found it too long for what it was trying to do. It turned into a shaggy dog story for me after the first two hundred pages.
And there are so many short books out there that are so.... satisfying.
I'd have to go with Cat's Cradle. I dig Kurt, it has philosophy, fun made up words, it's fairly short and memorable to me. I did like Slapstick and Deadeye Dick and Hocus Pocus, but Cat's Cradle has to be the one since there's no guarantee that others will pick the rest of the Kurt cannon up. Plus, I feel Cat's Cradle would be better company in a Farenheit 451 world. Slaughterhouse Five is a little downbeat. Cat's Cradle is like a pig rolling around in the mud of the apocalypse.
As sentimental also rans, The Penultimate Truth (Dick) and Russian Spring (Spinrad).
--Brian.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks