Dan's Shorts

Fahrenheit 451

I finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury yesterday, and given the fact that the book was printed in 1953, I have to wonder if Ray Bradbury really could see the future. His vision of the homogenzation of society was even scarier given the fact that he wrote about it more than half a century ago. The idea of every group (and he mentions them as minorities) getting offended by one thing or another, and removing that item/word/idea that's offenstive, until we eventually have nothing but a plain vanilla world, devoid of any real meaning or independent thought. Just gave me the chills :D

It was also great to have such a poignant book done in less than a day, considering the story itself was only 170 pages. But one of the best parts of the book is a rant at the end of the book written by Bradbury. Now my publishers might not want to hear this, but Bradbury's rant was about editors, and the editing process, and how a wonderful idea can be put through the publishing machinery and come out as something completely different on the other side. Was just great to hear the same frustrations from someone of Bradbury's stature...

Anyway, I'm off to Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I've read Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, as well as In the Beginning...was the Command Line (thanks Danilo), and Quicksilver is a complete departure, being based in the 1700s. However, I'm not even through the first 200 pages and he's already dealing with the beinnings of computer language through the Royal Society. Should be a fun journey :).

Back to your regularly scheduled program.