Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451

1. Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451 Inspiration and ideas behind the book

2. The Life of Bradbury • Born August 22, 1920 in Illinois • As a young boy, he wrote short stories on butcher paper • Graduated from a LA high school in 1938 • Sold newspapers on street corners until 1942 • Spent his nights reading in the library and would write between news printings • After completing his first story in 1942, he pursued writing full-time • Met his wife in a bookstore where she worked, married in 1947 • Secured his reputation as a writer in 1950 with the publication of The Martian Chronicles • Published Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 • Began to worked in the film and radio industry, though he still wrote and published numerous plays, poems, and essays • Developed his own TV series, Ray Bradbury Series, which ran from 1986-1992 • Died June 5, 2012 in LA

3. Bradbury Interview We are going to watch about 4 minutes of an interview with Ray Bradbury. As we watch, listen for his inspirations behind Fahrenheit 451 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL_y6gtxLvQ Watch from 2:33 – 7:03

4. McCarthyism • Period of time in the early 1950's when Senator Joseph McCarthy attempted to expose suspected Communists • Blacklists • McCarthy warned that there were communist traitors in American government and society that were threatening to destroy the United States. • Being named as a Communist = Blacklisted • Often those who did not conform to McCarthy’s ideals (Actors, Writers, Politicians, etc.) • Created a mass culture of complacency and conformity • Bradbury and the Policeman

5. Book Burnings • WWII Germany (Hitler) • Wanted to bring German arts and culture in line with Nazi ideals • May 10, 1933: University students burned appr. 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture. • Soviet Union (Stalin) • The communists burned “objectionable” books, authors were often exiled or imprisoned • As part of efforts to stamp out Jewish culture in the Soviet Union, Stalin burned the Judaica collection in the library of Birobidzhan • USA, 1950s: Librarians were often charged with being communists if they bought certain books or allowed certain books to be checked out, some allowed some of their books to be burned in order to prove they weren't communists.

6. Technology (Television) • Mid-1930’s: Limited number of TV-sets in the hands of the public • WWII: Production of television sets stopped, nearly all television broadcasting worldwide • Post WWII: Families had accumulated savings during the war years & wanted to purchase luxuries denied them during the war. TV sales skyrocketed from 1948-1949. • 1950’s: 1950 was the year that television became a truly mass-culture phenomenon in the United States, color television and remote controls launched • Bradbury on television • “Today's audience knows more about what's on television than what's in life.” • “I'm always amazed that people will actually choose to sit in front of the television and just be savaged by stuff that belittles their intelligence.” • “The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.”

7. Your Thoughts on Television • We all know that television is quite popular in today’s society • Weigh the pros and cons…