10 – Fahrenheit 451 #3 w/ Nova

We’re finishing Fahrenheit 451 and discussing the movie today! Honestly, they changed a lot for the movie, but it felt like it modernized it a bit. Plus, it added some actual character development that was truly lacking in the book itself. Up next, we will be reading Little Women, so be sure to read that before next week!

Want to follow me on all the socials? Go here: barelybookish.com/connect

Find Nova at all these great places:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novasaurusrexx/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NovasaurusRexx

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpAJApXIp8SR0AxZI1oSH8A

She also has a gaming channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpgB1gMDmRgJdaRfX9VdaTQ

Also, she just started her Etsy and she sells pet portraits! So check those out here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtasaurusRexx?ref=l2-about-shopname 

Sources

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20171201/parent-wants-book-about-book-bans-banned

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Censorship/banning_incidents

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-fahrenheit-451/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/its-time-to-revisit-fahrenheit-451

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/21/fahrenheit-451-reading-the-1950s

Transcript

Rachel: Hey. Hi. Hello there my friends. It’s the beginning of December. It’s cooler weather. If you are somewhere other than Florida, I mean today which is yesterday for anyone that’s listening to this when it comes out, it was actually pretty cold. So that was fun. I busted out a sweater. I felt like very winter-esque. I don’t know. We don’t get much weather here in Florida, so like it was really 60 degrees like kind of like in the middle of the day. Got down to like 50 at some points but it was nice. And I just enjoyed that and I just feel like I need to mention it because it’s cooler weather and it’s more weather for me. There’s that, but yeah, so grab yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate and enjoy this podcast. So today we are covering the overall book and the some of the research I did around this book. And we’re also going to be talking about the 2018 HBO movie for Fahrenheit 451, so if you haven’t watched that movie and you don’t want to get any spoilers, don’t listen to the second half of the podcast. There’s a little break where I come in in the middle, so you can just make sure you listen for that so that you know when that’s happening or you can pause right now, watch the movie and come back to this episode and enjoy it. One thing I do want to say is I recorded this back in March when I first started making episodes for this, so I have learned a lot since then, which you will probably realize. But I accidentally, used the wrong microphone and use my computer’s microphone instead of this wonderful microphone that I paid some good money for. And I recorded this whole thing with my computer’s microphone, so therefore the sound quality is not as great as I would have wished, but it does-it’s still like hearable and all that. And I didn’t want to eliminate it, so this was going to be two episodes, which is why it’s kind of long. but I just decided since I made that error I will release the whole thing is one and hopefully you all still enjoy it and still enjoy the content. And I promise I will not make that mistake again. I do double check every time and now I’m saying that something bad is going to happen so I’m just going to knock on wood, hope for the best that that doesn’t happen again. And yeah, so I hope you all enjoyed this episode. Fahrenheit 451.

(Intro Music)

Rachel: Hello everybody, I’m joined today with Nova again.

Nova: Hello.

Rachel: So today we’re going to be discussing sort of the background of Fahrenheit 451 and why it’s so popular today and all those good things. So I did a little bit of Googling and just an interesting part of the background is he kind of got the-Ray Bradbury kind of got the idea for this book because of the book burnings in Nazi Germany. Because the time that he was writing this is just post World War Two and so, like that’s kind of the world, if you imagine, that’s kind of the world he was in and like, I think he-I think I read that it took place in when he was fifteen and then he wrote this book fully when he was thirty. So like that’s the kind of-like now you kinda understand more why the whole bombs and all that kind of stuff happened, you know? Like in the book, I think that it’s kind of interesting to look at what his perspective on the world was when he was writing, and he really thought that this might be the way the world turns out, because it’s kind of like the introduction of the TV and all that kind of stuff is starting to take over. Also, just like an interesting little background point. The other reason he got the idea to write the book for The Pedestrian, which is what he wrote before this, he was walking with a friend when a cop pulled up and asked him what he was doing and he like very snugly said putting one foot in front of the other and the cop literally said and told him to not do it again.

Nova: Oh my God.

Rachel: Yeah, and that’s how he wrote The Pedestrian.

Nova: The sass.

Rachel: I know. And that I guess this is happening in LA, which is not a very like pedestrian friendly city already, but like, whoa.

Nova: Yeah, really.

Rachel: I was like oh and then oh, you figured out, because we talked a little bit last time about how Guy did not seem to be making that much money.

Nova: Oh yup.

Rachel: And, yeah, and then you talked about the inflation rate. It was like 970% so he made 64 grand a year and the hospital visit was $534.

Nova: Yeah, I remember that I like had written it all down of what it was, yeah. It was insane.

Rachel: Yeah, I put it right at the top of my notes, I was like, oh. Talk about it.

Nova: I was shocked to see it went that far.

Rachel: Yeah, for sure.

Nova: Like from 1950 to today, that big of a jump. I was like, oh my gosh. I was not expecting 970% increase.

Rachel: Yeah, so I-I was sure that it was gonna be more but like he’s making decent money as a firefighter.

Nova: Yeah, that’s pretty good.

Rachel: Yeah, so it’s like I thought they were going to be like poor, but what did you remember that you calculated out the TV ’cause I didn’t write it down? Do you know? It’s okay if you don’t.

Nova: I-yeah I had done it and I completely forgot to write that part down. It was like the TV was like 2000, right?

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Okay, let me see if I can find that. It would be $21,467.

Rachel: Oh my gosh, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

Nova: That’s.

Rachel: Like truly.

Nova: Oh my gosh, I thought like a couple hundred was expensive for a TV. Heh, 21,000. Oh my Lord.

Rachel: Oh. I know the way they did the TV in the movie was really interesting too.

Nova: I feel like that gave me a better almost understanding of what they had meant by like it being the wall.

Rachel: Yeah, for sure is it really was the wall. It wasn’t like a TV on the wall. It was the wall.

Nova: It was, yeah, it was the whole wall. I was like okay, that kind of makes sense now seeing that.

Rachel: Yeah for sure. Oh, and just a fun little like movie trivia part. All of the books are actually protected by copy, like the covers are protected by copyright, so the art team literally had to make a bunch of covers so that they could burn them.

Nova: Oh my God, that’s insane.

Rachel: Yeah, all these authors were like donating books to be burned because they felt like it was such an honor.

Nova: That’s kind of cool. I like that, like.

Rachel: Yeah. Yeah, cause there is, basically they said, they were, the directors like a super book nerd and he said that he wanted includes on his favorite like Crime and Punishment. There’s a couple other he listed, but he also knew you needed like the good books of the bad books. And like I think I saw that there was like the memoir of like Adolf Hitler was in there too, but it’s like you can’t just have that-your specific books that you like and he realized that so he chose like a wide range of books. Like in all sorts of different languages to be showcased and burned in the movie.

Nova: Yeah, I did see that. I remember there was one like in, like in-like Chinese or Japanese or something, I’m not really sure which one it was, but I remember seeing like the writing. And I was like, oh, that’s cool.

Rachel: Yeah, and then we can’t talk about a classic without talking about banned books. So in Santa Rosa County, which is in Florida, a lady tried to get it banned because she said it had profanity, it uses God’s name in vain, and she also is salty about the fact that they talk about sex, drugs, suicide, murder, and abortion.

Nova: Oh my gosh.

Rachel: Yeah, and eighth graders were reading it in 2017. And all I have to say about that, is if you think that your kids are not being exposed to that movies.

Nova: Really though.

Rachel: You gotta have a talk, you know?

Nova: Yeah, really, though like it’s everywhere.

Rachel: Yeah, and there’s a funny article I read after I read that, and the lady suggested reading a safer book by this guy and he wrote an article. He goes, my book was suggested as safer than Fahrenheit 451, and it was a book about like similar topics, but like in from an Irish person’s perspective. And I’d have to look up what the book was actually called. But he’s like there’s, there’s murder in my book. It’s a thing that happens. I was like, oh jeez. So it was kind of funny just because you like you have to be exposed and discuss these topics. You know? You can’t just like live in a world that’s constantly safe and PG and I feel like eighth graders are at that point where they can handle these kinds of topics.

Nova: Yeah, they that’s kind of like the like stepping point of, you know you’re getting to be like a young adult at this point you’re starting to go into high school like you need to start knowing these harder things that is going on.

Rachel: Yeah, the world isn’t just like rainbows and unicorns.

Nova: Exactly, I thought it was kind of ironic how this is like a whole book about burning books because they’re bad and this book is getting banned everywhere.

Rachel: Yeah, that’s what I was kinda thinking too.

Nova: I was like how more perfect can you get with that that like this whole book about it is the one getting banned and essentially like burned in a way I was I was like, yep, that’s almost too perfect.

Rachel: Truly. And then according to Wikipedia, which is not the most reliable source, but I had a hard time finding other sources for it. A school and I just kind of want this to be true, so I’m gonna mention it anyways, a school once gave copies to students with all the obscene words blacked out.

Nova: That. Honestly, I could see a school doing that, so like.

Rachel: I do too.

Nova: I-I feel like there would be places that would be like, well, we want you to read this, but we needed to censor it so, this is what you’re getting out of this.

Rachel: You know that I’m kind of imagining, I’m imagining a school where the kids are reading it, but every time a bad word just comes out, the teacher blows an air horn. And then they skip over it and go to the next word.

Nova: Oh my God.

Rachel: And I don’t know why that’s what I’m imagining is, it’s like when you read it, but for me when a word is blocked out my book, I just imagine that it’s like those confidential reports, you know? That they always show when you’re watching a movie and it’s like Area 51.

Nova: Oh yeah, and like pieces of information are like black out but they’re like here’s the rest of it.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Kinda thing? Yeah.

Rachel: I just kinda like, I try and fill in the blanks. So it’s like I’m gonna make this a lot more offensive than it was when it started, so.

Nova: Really, it’s gonna be something like small and you’re gonna be like, oh my God, worst word ever is inserting right now.

Rachel: Yes. Then another school had a parent trying to ban it because they burned the Bible in the book.

Nova: Oh, I saw something about that. I was just like, oh boy.

Rachel: Yeah, I’m like, oh do you think that like they’re gonna say the Bible is safe when like the whole purpose of burning books is the fact that they’re trying to make everyone the same. So obviously if you’re trying to make everyone the same you can’t have religion.

Nova: Exactly.

Rachel: You know, so I just sometimes I look at these like did you even read the book?

Nova: Really, though, like. The whole thing is about like that. Like being equal, you can’t have religion, you can’t have like any of that. It’s just like people, like pick out the topics that they want to see and they’re like well, they’re burning this, it has to like, we can’t. We can’t look at it, it’s like it’s a whole warning, like read it and understand that it’s like a warning against this not, oh my God, they burned the Bible. It’s terrible.

Rachel: Yeah. And then so when I bought this book, I was told in the actual library that this book was the entire reason we have separate censorship laws, and I found absolutely nothing to support this at all. Not a single thing, except that according to Barnes and Noble, that the error code or who do you want on your computer, it means that it’s been censored by the government, so I-I have no idea if that’s true or anything.

Nova: Yeah, that’s kind of odd. You think there’d be more about it if it was.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Something.

Rachel: So, I’m guessing it’s one of those like theories, you know?

Nova: Yeah, like someone like oh this is why like they come up with their own and try and like pass it off to everybody kind of thing is that what you mean like?

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: That’s what I kinda think. And then fun fact Faber, Fabir, you know the word I don’t know how to pronounce.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: The professor is apparent-that name is the world’s oldest pencil manufacturer and Montag is a paper company. But Ray Bradbury admitted that he had no idea and it’s complete coincidence. He didn’t know until after.

Nova: That’s honestly kind of amazing. That he didn’t know that.

Rachel: Yeah, I thought it was really cool.

Nova: That is like, you wouldn’t think that that could even happen.

Rachel: Yeah, it’s like such a stroke of luck.

Nova: Really though, you think like, if it was like these apparently big companies that he would have at least heard of it, maybe he just heard the name and was like, oh, I like that name?

Rachel: Yeah, it’s one of those, what is that called, when your subconscious?

Nova: Oh, I can’t think of it, I know what you mean but like.

Rachel: Yeah. I know we’re gonna have everyone in like the Twitter comments and like it’s this and I’m like, oh, Whoops.

Nova: That’s usually how it goes. You can’t think of something and everyone’s like how did you not know it’s this? It’s like, yup, I should’ve known that.

Rachel: I know like sorry  my 3 braincells couldn’t figure it out. So then I want to talk about like do you think that this book lives up to modern day?

Nova: I-I don’t know like.

Rachel: I mean, I could start, we can start there.

Nova: Sure.

Rachel: Okay, I’ll start and I’ll go off but okay, so I think that honestly this book, there’s parts of it that don’t, but that’s because it was written in the 50s. But I think it’s a very good reflection about how we could go. You know? I think, there is something interesting when you look at the fact that there’s a lot of newspapers right now doing the clickbait-baity thing where they write these super catchy titles and everyone runs with it, no one reads the articles nothing, and when you kind of read this book, there is that moment where you’re kinda like oh is this what the world could be? You know? Like I-I don’t know, I find it difficult to separate where we are now too where we could be if we continue in this quarter-sort of-if we continue down this train, I’m like where are we gonna end up? Are we gonna be like Fahrenheit 451? Is no one gonna read and it’s maybe that’s just cause like I’m riding the high of Fahrenheit 451, so now I got like these super extreme thoughts, but I I don’t know it’s kind of interesting that I saw this whole thing about like oh Fahrenheit 451 is like what the social media generation needs today. And I’m not saying that, I think there’s plenty of people who still enjoy books, and I don’t think that like one day we’re just suddenly gonna be like oh no books, everyone will sing. Because I think we do really respect individuality still in the world, and I think it’s important to continue respecting individuality, but I do find it interesting when you think about how the world’s kind of going and how these clickbaity titles and all the newspapers are making money off of people reading, so they make things kind of sound worse than they are.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: You know?

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: So.

Nova: I feel like I agree. Like some aspects, it does kind of like translate over into modern day. Books are like definitely making a comeback. So like from things I’ve read of like you know, we went to ebooks and that was everyone’s like oh, physical books are going to disappear, but like the last few years, physical book sales have been much higher than ebook, so like, it’s like they’re not going away. But I think like it’s still like one of those things like we are doing such a push for equality. Like could we take it too far?

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like they took it way too far like it is definitely something we want to get to. Where like we’re on the same page. But like there is a taking it too far like this book of we’re going to burn everything because it makes us unequal, and it’s like, so. I feel like in a way that kind of does translate over because, you know the-we are doing like that kind of thing. My train of thought just kind of zoom gone. You know the sentence.

Rachel: Yeah. I also think that to me the story itself is not very developed or detailed. While it’s like the idea is good, I feel like modern day books are so detailed and the characters are so developed that like that doesn’t translate very well like everyone’s kind of flat. But also, he did write this book in nine days so.

Nova: I mean, yeah, anything you write in that little amount of time, it’s not gonna end up the greatest thing.

Rachel: Yeah, see I guess he was renting a typewriter and the typewriter was like per half an hour and it was like $0.30 for half an hour or something like that. So he was, he wrote the entire book in nine days.

Nova: Wow.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: That’s insane.

Rachel: So it’s like. Yeah so from that perspective, I understand that these characters are not going to be super developed, but I think that that kind of, you kind of have to remember that this is like an older novel because of that, because they, they don’t super develop any of these characters, and I think that’s, I don’t know that doesn’t translate very well for me because I feel like I don’t really know these characters and I think that the movie does a better job of that.

Nova: Yeah, I agree. The movie definitely did a better job with that aspect. But yeah, that would make a lot of sense, like if he only had it for a certain amount of time to have to do it, but you’re right. It still is like, you can’t, there’s very few you can connect to.

Rachel: Yeah. Like I read a book like that a couple months ago and like one of the characters, it’s like close to the main character died and I didn’t care. And I was like, oh, this, this is not very well written, but like, I’m not saying that Fahrenheit 451 isn’t well written, it’s like a great idea. It just doesn’t have a whole lot of depth.

Nova: Yeah, I agree with that. Like it is, the idea is on point, it is a great idea, I think if he had more time, I think he could have definitely brought it to where it could have been.

Rachel: Yeah. I think it could have been longer. I think he could have played in the world more. Oh one interesting thing too, because I remember we mentioned we both kind of talked about how the ending felt like not really an ending.

Nova: Mmm-hmm.

Rachel: So he actually kind of wrote a sequel. But it’s a video game and you have to have a very old computer to play it.

Nova: Oh my gosh.

Rachel: Yeah, and it goes on. I guess the journey of Guy working with the resistance.

Nova: Okay.

Rachel: Yeah, but I couldn’t really see that much about it. Besides that it exists and that there is no further adaptation for it. But Ray Bradbury actually did write the video game storyline so it his-is his actual work, so it’s canon, but I-I don’t see that there’s been any sort of adaptation to make it for modern day consoles or anything that like we can realistically play because I don’t, I don’t even know how to rent or get an old computer that’s old enough to be able to play a game like that.

Nova: Yeah, you almost have to like see if you could find like a gaming store or something that would have something that old.

Rachel: Yeah, so I don’t know. I just I was like could you have not written it down for us please? Like I read books sometimes I play video games but not enough so.

Nova: Yeah, you think like someone would have at least tried, maybe to put it into words or like even if you just like wrote a summary and was like this is what I thought would happen.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: And so everyone who has questions.

Rachel: Like us

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Well, it’s like, isn’t the Halo books, weren’t they based off of the video game? I don’t think the Halo books came out first.

Nova: I-

Rachel: Like.

Nova: I’m not sure about that one. I think like Assassin’s Creed was that way, but I’m not sure about Halo. Probably. I know there’s some series that come out after like television shows as well, so it wouldn’t surprise me.

Rachel: Yeah, it actually did surprise me. Someone, I was looking at something the other day and I found this list of like books are released based on movies and some of them was like oh those didn’t come out first? I can’t remember off the top of my head what they were. But I was I was like I’m shocked I was like whoa, okay.

Nova: It’s definitely like you’re not expecting it because for so long everything has come the book first and the movie is based on the book. So when someone writes a book based on a movie, it’s like, Wait. What?

Rachel: Like this, oh, one of the things is these Disney books that are based on the villain. Have you seen those yet?

Nova: I think so. I think I know what you’re talking about.

Rachel: Yeah, I keep sharing all my Instagram stories and the hopes that someone will get my the hint because my birthday is coming up so.

Nova: I mean.

Rachel: At the time of recording, not at the time of publishing, but. But I keep hoping you know, like maybe one day?

Nova: Maybe someone?

Rachel: Why I don’t buy them for myself, I have no idea.

Nova: You just gotta wait till after the birthday and then if someone doesn’t then you just go get it for yourself.

Rachel: Honestly, I just treated myself to like 4 of the Witcher novels so.

Nova: Oh my gosh.

Rachel: Would you recommend this book to a friend?

Nova: Um, I think so. I think I probably would be like, hey, by the way, it’s kind of, feels almost unfinished, but I did like it and I think you might like it. I think I would only refer it to like specific people. I don’t think I’d do it to everybody, cause it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think there are a few people I would be like. Hey, you should check this out.

Rachel: I have a couple of friends who are just starting to like try and get into reading and I think this book is it’s old enough that it’s now in the public domain because I’ve seen PDFs of it available online now so, I think it is or their legal, I’m not even sure, this is really bad.

Nova: It’s-I think about cause, I think it’s like 70 years after publication, because then essentially, they’re thinking the author is going to be dead at that point.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: So I think it’s like between 60-70 years is when it goes into public domain after publication.

Rachel: Cause I have the 60 year Anniversary Edition and even that I think was published in, 2010 sticks in my head, but I’m-I can actually look like I have it right here, let’s see.  Well, if it’s 1950.  Let’s see if it says, it’s always somewhere right.

Nova: Yes, I think so.

Rachel: Okay, so the introduction copyright of the, of these 60th anniversary was 2013. So I think it’s probably about 70 years now.

Nova: Somewhere around there, I think it was like 1952 or 1953, if I can remember.

Rachel: It says Copyright 1951, 53, and 67.

Nova: Okay.

Rachel: And then it got renewed. In 79, 81, and 95.

Nova: Okay.

Rachel: So now I actually don’t know how copyright works, so that might have been an illegal edition, but it was from a University, so I feel like you can’t. I don’t know.

Nova: Well, too late now.

Rachel: I know, it might not.

Nova: Sorry to anybody if we took that from.

Rachel: I know well, it’s just like the first thing. If you search Fahrenheit 451 PDF, and now I’m telling everyone how to do this. Okay. Yeah, you’re all probably millennials listening. You probably know how to do this anyways, but whatever. If you search Fahrenheit 451 PDF, it comes up from a University and it’s readily available. But anyways, I recommended it to a friend who’s just starting to get into reading as like they never really read throughout their life and I was like listen, I have all these books and I’m going to do a little self plug here, but I think that’s fine. I wrote a bunch of short stories on my blog and he like devoured all of them and he’s like, oh, I kind of might like reading. I’m like okay, here. Fahrenheit 451, it might be something you’re interested in, cause I think it does a good job of moving the plot along without getting bogged down by character development, which I appreciate character development, but I feel like someone who’s never really read books before and is not super interested isn’t ready for like super character development and character based writing and instead kind of just wants a plot that moves quickly. I think this is the perfect book.

Nova: Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, I’ve always grown up learning like everyone can be a reader, but you just have to find like a book for you and so like that’s always been my thing of ever-there’s a book for everyone out there, you just have to find it and like it will get people into reading. I know so many people who like hated reading in middle school and high school and then picked up a book because they were like oh whatever I might as well do something. And it clicked with them and they were like, whoa wait, I actually like this. And so then they’re like actively searching for books that they’re like, okay, like I think I might like this. I’ll try this.

Rachel: I know for-

Nova: So it’s, it’s yeah for like, I know I lost my thought go.

Rachel: Oh sorry.

Nova: It’s okay.

Rachel: It’s like for everyone I know that’s just got, is like just trying to get in reading, because basically I’ve been forcing my friends to start reading. It’s just a thing that’s happening right now, but every time I’m like okay, what type of movies do you like? And then I start basing the recommendations off of the movies because I know if you ask people what genre of books are interested in, they’re not sure because they’ve never really read a book, but I’m like if you can tell me what about a movie you enjoy, that I can probably recommend a book to you.

Nova: Yeah, I that’s definitely the way to go. And like I am, I know people who like liked Harry Potter and they’re like, oh, there’s a book like I’ll try that and from there have been like oh okay I want to try something similar and keep going from there. So that’s definitely a way to go. Or like if they like are big gamers or something, figure out what type of games they like and recommend off of that, like The Witcher is a big game to be like, hey, why don’t you go try and like read the book like you know?

Rachel: Yeah, the cover art for The Witcher series too, it looks very videogame-esque and it’s really pretty.

Nova: I don’t think I’ve actually-

Rachel: You haven’t seen it yet?

Nova: I don’t think I’ve actually seen the covers yet.

Rachel: I’ll send you a picture later.

Nova: Okay.

Rachel: Like when we’re done, but yeah, they’re really pretty.

Nova: Oh, I can imagine.

Rachel: But yeah, so I think I would just recommend this to someone who’s not super into reading currently. You know? I think that’s probably the best way to go. So any overall thoughts about the book? I feel like I should have sent you these questions beforehand, but oh well.

Nova: It happens, it’s, it’s been a crazy week like we were talking about. So like it happens. I think I don’t know like overall, just like my opinion of it or like just like things that happened I guess?

Rachel: Ah, let’s do overall opinion.

Nova: I-I think I on like Goodreads or I did this like a four out of five stars.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I feel like with the lack of character development and the ending feeling very like-

Rachel: Open.

Nova: Yeah, I think if they had, he had closed up those and like develop the characters more. I think I would have rated five stars cause I really enjoyed it. It was just those two things I was like. I have more questions than answers at this point.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like what the heck so.

Rachel: That’s how I kinda felt too I. I think you know this book is really good, it has a-it plays on a lot of interesting topics, but I definitely wish there had been more character development. I wish that we did something with Mil-what is her name? Mildred? Yeah. I think so.

Nova: The-the wife? Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah, I wish we had like actually discovered anything about her that made her a human being. You know?

Nova: Yeah, cause all we knew is that she just like the TV.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like she wanted a fourth one. They had three and she wanted another one.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: And she called it her family.

Rachel: Yeah. And it’s like I guess that that’s supposed to be kind of that everyone’s the same and no one really has any sort of character or interest or hobbies, but I still kinda wish she would have done some sort of actor rebellion. Or like we could have explored her thought process of why she had to turn her husband in and all that kind of stuff.

Nova: I feel like her friends were almost more developed than her.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like the one that one was like oh my husbands off like going to war like this is my fourth husband. It’s only going to be 48 hours. I guess he’ll be back and then the other one who’s like kids are useless.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like they had almost more than she did.

Rachel: Yeah, like they had like thoughts. Even if they were like weird and obscure and kind of off kilter like they still kind of had some sort of emotion.

Nova: And like it felt like just they were only there for what? Like 10 pages. Ish.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: And so I feel like they had more internal like, I guess, I don’t know. I’m not looking for dialogue, but internal dialogue is what came to mind of like what’s going on like in their head then Mildred and like he lived with her.

Rachel: Yeah, I know I was kinda, felt kind of weird about that one.

Nova: So it’s like okay. Are we like not supposed to know because you know he’s married to her so he knows everything, so it’s just kind of like oh yeah, she’s in my life whatever? Like was it purposeful in that way or just?

Rachel: I know, I was like is this anti-feminist? I can’t decide. I feel a little bit like it was, you know.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: But I’m also like, I mean, it was published in the 50s, but at the same time I’m like, why do we not know anything about women?

Nova: Really, yeah.

Rachel: But I mean, I guess Clarisse is developed, but, then she immediately gets murdered, but okay.

Nova: I know she had like nothing. It was like bye-bye. I wonder if it also goes back to the he wrote it in nine days. So like he wasn’t thinking about like the wife like, maybe it was just oh the wife needs to turn him in. And so, like she was kind of supposed to be like a plot device, and so she didn’t get developed like I also thought about that of.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: You know, it could have just been a time thing as well, but it does-she just seemed really weird.

Rachel: Yeah alright, well that is our summary of Fahrenheit 451.

Hi everyone, so this was supposed to be two episodes but due to me messing up the microphone and accidentally using the computer microphone instead of my you know, podcast recording microphone that sounds great and delightful. Um, this was originally supposed to be two episodes and it’s no longer going to be two episodes because I don’t want you all to, you know, have to suffer through this for two episodes. Honestly, it’s just because I messed up and I just and we’re going to reward you for listening to it by just giving you the whole thing. So therefore, this is just going to go straight from the overall impressions into the movie, so that’s what’s happening now.

Okay, so hello everyone we are going to talk about the Fahrenheit 451 movie today. I have a lot of thoughts. So to start off with-oh! Also I’m joined today by Nova.

Nova: Hi again.

Rachel: I know, I just like got so into the movie that I’m like, oh I can’t even introduce my guest you.

Nova: You’re just prepared and ready to go.

Rachel: I know, I’m like all right straight to the point, they’ll figure out who you are.

Nova: 10 points for whoever guesses correctly.

Rachel: I know. Gryffindor. Okay, so the intro it really seems like they use the same burning animation over and over again. Did you notice that?

Nova: Yeah. It was like okay, now you just look like a fake fire.

Rachel: I know, I was like what’s your budget? What did you spend your budget on? Was it buying all the books to burn because you know we could’ve just used replays of that instead of the same burning an-animation over and over again?

Nova: Really, though, like, there are ways to make fire look not like the same animation, and that was not how you do it.

Rachel: And you’re telling me HBO who can CGI Dragons could not afford to get a secondary burning animation?

Nova: Ah they spent all their budget apparently on Game of Thrones.

Rachel: Yeah, I don’t even think is this came out in 2011 I believe, or somewhere around there. So I don’t even know if Game of Thrones start, I don’t know when Game of Thrones started actually.

Nova: The movie came out in 18.

Rachel: Yeah, oh it did?

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Oh, you’re right, you’re right, so yeah they did waste the entire budget on, on Game of Thrones. So they’re like there’s nothing left.

Nova: All their money there were like, well we have to keep producing stuff, but we don’t have the money to do this.

Rachel: I know.

Nova: So we’re going to try.

Rachel: It was like Game of Thrones, Westworld, and then they look at Fahrenheit 451 and were like not for you.

Nova: Basically.

Rachel: Also, there’s a, okay, so you know, the intro aside, I would-as soon as it starts he’s putting like eye drops in and I’m like what is this thing with the eye drops.

Nova: Yeah, I was like, uh, what is going on?

Rachel: I was like, I know I was like, does everyone have dry eye from looking at screens all the time?

Nova: I mean valid.

Rachel: Probably yeah, there’s blue light glasses for a reason, friends.

Nova: Really though, oh my gosh.

Rachel: Also, I do think it’s interesting that they changed everyone playing poker to suddenly the firefighters are in a fight club. I’m like weren’t they playing poker in the book all this time and just playing cards and now suddenly they’re like fighting?

Nova: Yeah, it was the cards and then they would do like the dog fight with the mechanical hound outback.

Rachel: Oh yeah.

Nova: They’d like give it stuff like they throw stuff in with it and like watch it then perish essentially so they could see what the hound would do.

Rachel: I forgot that that was part of it, but the mechanical hound not being in the book-ah the movie, I mean, kind of made me upset.

Nova: That was, I was so looking forward to that because he was such a big part. I call it he like it… (laugh) and, and then it was just gone. I was like, uh what?

Rachel: That and the fact that the end of it they had an actual like dog. I was like, wait, there’s not supposed to be animals in this world so, not sure what that’s about.

Nova: Yeah, I was like okay, they can have a real dog but they can’t have their mechanical death pupper that is in the book.

Rachel: I know. One good boy.

Nova: So I was like, okay, interesting.

Rachel: Yeah, the other weird thing was that they summarized the books on the Internet, which they called the Nine, and I’m like this wasn’t even an option before. You know there was no summary books. They basically pretended like books didn’t even exist.

Nova: Yeah, they like they definitely modernized the movie for like what’s going on now. I think because like the whole like social media thing like as they were doing the news stream, you could see like the things part pop up like the heart Montag and like plus 100 or whatever.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like that is very like one of like the live things like Facebook or Instagram live nowadays.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I was like so they definitely took it and like moved it into now.

Rachel: Yeah, I definitely saw that too. I think I think they did a good job of modernizing the novel, but there was, there were some things about it that I was kind of confused about. So one of the things that they talk about is the first house they’re burning, they’re trying to upload books to the Internet. And basically make E books.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: And then I was confused about the Eels and natives and my whole issue with the Eels is that you’re instead of like, I guess putting these people in prison for life you’re basically allowing them to take away the structure that you’ve created. You know? Because these people aren’t going to stop wanting books to be returned that they’re part of a rebellion. So it’s like they’re basically allowing the rebellion to exist because all they do is take away their fingerprints, you know?

Nova: Yeah, they like it was, I thought it was weird because like yeah, they can’t do a whole lot anymore because like at one point it showed Guy going through like a train station and he had to use his fingerprint to get in. So like they’re limiting what you can do, but it’s like you can still do things.

Rachel: Yeah, like.

Nova: So like what was the point?

Rachel: Yeah, I don’t know cause it’s like in the book I think everyone goes to an insane asylum.You know or guides?

Nova: Yeah, they were like sent away, yeah.

Rachel: But it’s like all these people still exist in the culture, so it’s like they’re still going to rebel, you know? I don’t know, cause there’s no reform system. You know?

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Like you can’t really brainwash people to not want books anymore. So I don’t know it’s, it was weird. I thought it was, that was one thing that was a plot device I didn’t really understand.

Nova: Yeah, that was kind of weird like I got like, I thought it was, I like the use of like the Eels because they at one point were like their slippery as an eel or whatever, like to go into hiding. I was like, okay, I kinda like that-

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Usage. But it didn’t, yeah, it didn’t make sense of like you think they would throw him in jail or like in the book, the insane asylum.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Because like in the scene with all the kids, they were like, books are bad and these kids are like cheering them on when they burn the fake book.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: So it’s like there’s gonna be something going like that they do to these Eels like what?

Rachel: Yeah, cause then there isn’t really any repercussions besides making your life a little bit harder.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: But the thing that was weird to me is then brain washing the children was like very reminiscent of like the Nazi, what is that? The kids that were the informants? Do you remember what that was called?

Nova: No, I don’t remember that. Like I don’t remember what it was called, no.

Rachel: Oh yeah, it was like the Nazi kids who were. Basically, it’s kinda like the same thing with the, the, in Harry Potter the High Inquisitor squad.

Nova: Oh, okay.

Rachel: Where yeah, where they were like basically it was all these kids that were supposed to keep like a watchful eye and make sure that their neighbors weren’t doing anything wrong or their parents weren’t doing anything wrong, you know? And it turned these kids into like little, you know, tattletales-

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: And would get parent their parents and like their friends and adults in jail or killed, you know?

Nova: Yup.

Rachel: So it’s very reminiscent of that when I was watching that. That’s what I kind of felt like was happening.

Nova: I thought it was interesting how they used the see something, say something-

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Because that’s been a big like anti-bullying camp-campaign right now and I was like, okay. I like how they like twisted that of like we’re trying to stop it using this campaign and then taking it to like the next level, I was like, okay, that is kind of clever.

Rachel: Yeah, there was a lot more correlations to like modern day that I think they did very well.

Nova: Definitely. They definitely hit that like pretty well.

Rachel: Yeah, and the one thing that I thought was interesting, this Clarisse being their Intel for the entire movie, you know? Because in the book she’s just like some neighbor kid that liked books.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: And now she’s like Intel and trying to make sure that people she doesn’t know get burned while still trying to reduce her sentence and like they give them their fingerprints back? Is that how that works?

Nova: It sounded like it when she said that she was like you told me I had this much left before you removed me from being an Eel. And, like I was like, wait, they can take it back? Like-

Rachel: Yeah, that’s weird.

Nova: Do they reprint their fingerprints?

Rachel: Yeah, I’m like how does that work since everyone get their fingerprints stored and then they’re like, oh you can have yours back.

Nova: It was weird. I also wondered, like if that community she was in was Eels because everyone else was in these nice fancy houses and then she’s in like this like really poverty-ish building.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: It was like okay, is this like what is this? Is this where they go? Is this where they live? They can’t live a good life?

Rachel: Yeah, that’s what I was kind of wondering too. But I guess-

Nova: Cause like the whole thing is about equality and like when you all be in like the same type of house then?

Rachel: Yeah, why were these even built? Like.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Another thing I thought was kind of interesting is I did a little bit of research while I was looking at the movie, and it turns out that when Ray Bradbury was originally looking at adapting this movie, he had like assisted with, I don’t know if it was a play or if it was an earlier movie, but he had let Clarisse stay in for out-throughout the movie so I think he kinda regretted killing her, in the novel a little bit.

Nova: I think so. Like she didn’t even get like a good death like she was just dead.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like she got hit by a car.

Rachel: Yeah, she’s just like bye. This like all off screen.

Nova: It was like, it’s a con, like if you’re going to kill her like have her being killed for reading or something like.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Don’t just hit her with the car.

Rachel: I know.

Nova: And we find out like through the wife is like oh by the way, I think she died.

Rachel: There is not as much, there is like no vehicular manslaughter in this movie either.

Nova: There was like no vehicles at all besides the fire trucks.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: There were very few like the scenes where the fire trucks were going down the road. It was just them.

Rachel: Yeah, I know I was like huh? I was like where’s the vehicular manslaughter? Like I was promised.

Nova: Really.

Rachel: Also, I had to make a note that they pronounced his name Bay-ty instead of like Beatty as it was in my head.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Did you notice that?

Nova: Yeah, I was like okay.

Rachel: Yeah, I-I don’t know if that’s canon and how that’s actually supposed to be pronounced, or that’s like a, you know, uh, Jim Dale first started reading the books before the movies come out and he pronounced it Valdemore.

Nova: So yeah, or like Hermione, everyone like.

Rachel: Hermoni

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: So I’m like is this canon like should I say Baby or should I say Beatty?

Nova: Yeah, I was. I was like okay. Interesting.

Rachel: Yeah. And then the wife’s not even in this movie at all. Mildred is completely gone.

Nova: I know it’s just like the love interest is Clarisse, which I kind of liked because it gave her more of like-

Rachel: Purpose?

Nova: Yeah, I think I like that a lot better than her just being like the neighbor kid because I feel like the wife I had mentioned like in the other one, that she was almost like a plot device and wasn’t really there. So I liked the use of Clarisse as, like actually trying to help him figure out what he’s thinking and the love interest and I thought that was a great way to do it.

Rachel: Yeah, I like that they actually like aged her up well. You know? because she was like a teenager and I think he was supposed to be like 30 you know?

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: And then they made them the same age and the actual movie, which I think was a better plan.

Nova: Oh, definitely.

Rachel: Cause it did seem like there was a little bit of like love in the book and I was kind of uncomfortable about it.

Nova: Yeah, they were kind of hinting like a weird kind of romantic thing.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: It was like, okay.

Rachel: I was like she’s too young, that’s gross. And then in the movie they’re trying to get rid of all the old people so that true history is gone and he literally says true history. And I was like oh, so you all  know and you’re just trying to kill off everybody that actually remembers.

Nova: Yeah, I like how even like the he asked the what is it like the ucksi-yucksi? I don’t know what like how to pronounce that.

Rachel: Yeah, I don’t know.

Nova: He was like, didn’t firemen used to put out fires and like it’s like that’s a classic lie.

Rachel: It’s-they said it’s Eel propaganda.

Nova: Yeah, and so like there is so weird cause like then, like with the whole getting rid of the old people, it’s like how long ago did this started? Like.

Rachel: I know it seems like it only happened like a generation ago, but they suddenly were like oh everyone is going to be the same, whereas in the book it seems like, it had been happening for awhile.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Oh no, actually because Faber-Fabeer, however you say his name the professor was a professor, so this all actually in the book too was only about a generation ago that this started happening.

Nova: It’s yeah, so they brainwash them pretty quickly.

Rachel: Yeah, I didn’t even think about that, I thought, because the professor in the book had said something about how his classes used to be full and then over the years they like dwindled to you know, no one showing up.

Nova: Yeah, I forgot about that.

Rachel: Yeah, I did too until I was kinda thinking about it, but I guess you know this all happens very very quickly in the book and in the movie.

Nova: Yeah, it definitely seems to because like there’s no way they can talk about like oh, the old people know-

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Without it being this quick of like a switch.

Rachel: Uh huh. Uh, another thing that was kind of interesting is, like Beatty, is writing and then he lights it on fire.

Nova: Yeah, that kind of, I was wondering, like cause we talked about which side was he on? Because he was very back and forth.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I was like is he part of this whole like he doesn’t want to see books go? And so that’s why he’s writing things down. And then it was like weird things that he was writing down.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I was like, okay, what is?

Rachel: I was trying to figure out if it was poetry or not, you know? Or if it was just like verses or what it was.

Nova: Cause some of them seemed like quotes from things and then at one point he was writing about Montag.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I was like okay, what is going on inside your head there buddy? Like what are you thinking of? Why are you writing this? And like he’d put the lamp over the uh…

Rachel: Video links or whatever.

Nova: Yeah, and like, even after he told he told it to go dark, he put the lamp over it. So like when Montag started, like reading in the bathroom, I was like oh my God, they’re going to know.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Because it’s still seeing everything.

Rachel: So I’m like this is why he gets in trouble, you know, because they don’t have the wife to report it anymore. So they had to like have something that’s going to report it, and I guess it’s basically like in home Alexa.

Nova: Yeah, that-I-that just made me think of like you know, people are having a lot of issues with those nowadays people are hacking them and like getting information about you and stuff.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: And like using it against you, I was like that just made me think of that was like wow that also connects in that way of like look at this thing like in our house.

Rachel: And I literally have one in my bedroom and it just lit up as I said that. Me and my boyfriend whenever we are-one of us has to set one and we’re on the phone we’ll say like she who must not be named so she doesn’t like ring up, you know?

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: But yeah, I thought that was kind of wild. I-I-I do think that that’s interesting because they took out Mildred and they had to take make that still work. I think it’s interesting to have something that is supposed to only be able to hear, but still sees.

Nova: Yeah, like that, I don’t know that just like was such a creepy thing.

Rachel: It was really real and it hit too hard and I was like, oh.

Nova: But I liked how they did that for like the modern, you know, that’s, that’s what we have now. We had those.

Rachel: Yeah. Another thing I thought was pretty interesting too, is that they didn’t really have a whole lot of physical books, so people who had books mostly had like tapes and such that they were uploading to the Internet or trying to.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Like there’s a few people who did have actual physical books, but most of the people who are part of the rebellion only had like tapes.

Nova: Yeah, I noticed that like Clarisse was making like the tape players. I thought that was interesting like a thing for her as well.

Rachel: Yeah. And then one thing that I thought was really weird too, is that they call books graffiti.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: And then, when, they’re raiding that house instead of like, instead of Montag taking the book itself, Beatty was like telling him to read the book.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: You know?

Nova: I thought that was interesting.

Rachel: Yeah, so like I think he was kind of trying to convert him at that point a little bit. Even though he’s like ashamed, but he still writes and reads.

Nova: Yeah, because he was very like, I questioned him the whole time because he is so back and forth all the time.

Rachel: Yeah. For sure.

Nova: And like at that moment it was kind of he was like do it, do it.

Rachel: Read a book.

Nova: It was like okay, is he hinting that he wants him to do this, like be part of it?

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: So it was very like interesting to see that dynamic in that way.

Rachel: Yeah. For sure. And then the other thing I thought was weird that when they raided that lady’s house to have like a ton of books, she taped books to her like they were bombs.

Nova: I laughed at that. That was hilarious. I love that part. That was amazing. I was like oh my God, she’s going all in.

Rachel: I know, I was like, okay, like what-I have no idea why that’s a thing that’s happening right now.

Nova: I know it was. It was something else.

Rachel: Also, they did a terrible voiceover to hide the code word.

Nova: I know like people can see that guys, like they know that’s not what they’re saying.

Rachel: I know they didn’t even try either.

Nova: It’s like okay, clearly we know that these people are that brainwashed because you can see it clear as day that that is not what is being said.

Rachel: Yeah, and I’m like don’t they live stream all of this?

Nova: Yeah, they do.

Rachel: I’m like, how did they correct this after you know, because tens of thousands of people probably already saw it?

Nova: Yeah, for-it’s like it’s almost hard to change it at that point. Like good luck trying to make that any different.

Rachel: For sure.

Nova: People know it, and they’re going to go with it.

Rachel: Yeah, and then the first time I knew something was wrong was on Montag put the sensor in the dark, and it still responded to him. I was like ooh, no like I knew he probably, when I saw when I saw Beatty put the light over, I knew that like Montag’s gonna have an issue with this. But as soon as it said it’s not responding because I am in the dark, it’s just me and you now, I was like no don’t trust it. Don’t trust it.

Nova: I know I was like you’re so screwed.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I think it was like two times two isn’t five and he’s like looked up like uh, I was like yep, have fun with that.

Rachel: I know I’m like you have ruined it. Also, one of my big notes was there’s a lot less murder in this movie.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Which we kind of already talked about, but I still, it just is wild to me. I’m like that was a big part of the plot was that kids were like killing people.

Nova: Yeah, it seemed very odd that that wasn’t as big of a thing.

Rachel: Yeah. And then they kind of talked about how they’re getting rid of different languages. Which I know there’s been-a couple of years ago I remember there being like a sort of push for a universal language. Do you remember that?

Nova: Yeah, I kinda do, yeah.

Rachel: Yeah, so I kind of was like oh yikes, like that’s-cause I kinda remember them saying that like English should be the universal language and I’m just now kinda thinking like if that’s if we did go down that road like as a like population like in the world, what-how far would we take that to make things universal like it could get really close to Fahrenheit 451, and I don’t like it.

Nova: Yeah. That’s for sure. I think I know like I think they’re kind of doing something like that for, like at least officials-

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like going to like the United Nations since most everyone speaks English in some sense anyway to make it for that, but like not requiring everybody everywhere to do it, which I think that makes sense because, you know, they have to go to all these meetings and if you guys can’t understand each other then, like, how?

Rachel: It takes longer.

Nova: Yeah, so like.

Rachel: I know, I’m like-

Nova: That makes sense to me like that seems fine.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: But to make everybody do it is kind of like uh.

Rachel: I do think it’s kind of wild that they’re making English the universal language. Because English is one of those languages that’s very hard to learn if you know another language because we don’t have any rules.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: You know? Where it’s like languages have rules for how sentence structures should be like. This is how you change if it’s a female that you’re talking to a male you’re talking to, or you know whatever they have certain rules but it’s like English, it’s like, eh, whatever it goes. Like we have I before E except in most cases.

Nova: Yeah, it’s like I before E except after C and in cases like neighbor and weigh. And then you think of like weird and like all these other words like, have you seen that mug is like I before E except after C and then it says weird and then it like lists all these.

Rachel: Other ones?

Nova: Like words.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: I’m like, yup.

Rachel: But I’m just like I’m not a proponent-I don’t think English should be the number one language. I think it’s kind of difficult for anyone to learn to be honest. Like unless you already know English, it’s really hard to actually like learn English because it’s we have no rules.

Nova: We pretend like we have rules.

Rachel: Yeah, literally.

Nova: Doesn’t actually get followed, but you know, yeah.

Rachel: Or just like is America so selfish that we just continue our like, like our language is the best even though it makes no sense ever?

Nova: I think it’s also because, like there are other countries, that’s the main language like the UK and Australia are both English countries.

Rachel: Yeah, and I guess they’re pretty big countries as in that too. You know. Like population wise, they are really big, so I don’t know. I guess we’re just like overpowering the rest of the world, but I really feel like it should not be English. That’s just a personal thing though, but whatever. It’s not that deep, um, one big note is that they made clear he’s older, which is kind of what we talked about earlier and that he doesn’t have a wife, so that’s good. You know? There’s less weirdness about her being a love interest.

Nova: Yep.

Rachel: And then Clarisse mentions that the drops are apparently making them forget. And like have bad memory. But I’m like why is everyone taking that like what’s the cause that makes them think that they need to take them every day?

Nova: Yeah, like is it part of the brain washing? Of like they came out with at first like, oh like if you don’t take these drops like you’re going to get sick or something.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: And then just kind of went from there. Like could that have been kind of the start? And then so people are like oh I have to use my drops. And then at that point everyone’s kind of already just using them and it’s normal.

Rachel: And then apparently there in Ohio, and I don’t think they ever actually mentioned where they were in the book.

Nova: No, they mentioned some close by things like I think it was like Detroit and St. Louis.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: So like I knew it was in like that area.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: But like yeah, they didn’t really have a location, location.

Rachel: Yeah, but hard and fast in the movie they’re in Ohio.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Also they show like Blind people reading Braille. And I just that kind of hurt me cause I was like, yeah, in this world where everything’s kind of visual and TV’s and all this stuff like they don’t really make accommodations for anyone that has any sort of disabilities.

Nova: Yeah, so much for being equal.

Rachel: Yeah, literally, I’m like if anyone was like blind. You know they can hear it, but.

Nova: I can’t see it.

Rachel: If you’re deaf, there wasn’t any captions on anything.

Nova: Yeah, like you saw like the live stream things, but-

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: It’s like those were completely forgotten about.

Rachel: Yeah, so I’m just like how does anybody with a disability exist in their world? Or are they like auto Eels?

Nova: Maybe they are.

Rachel: It’s terrible, it’s so awful.

Nova: Cause I know in like other dystopian things, like if you are, like have a deformity or something, you’re outcasted so like they get rid of that gene.

Rachel: Yeah, ah.

Nova: And so, like it doesn’t make everybody equal, because now, you just have a whole like chunk of the population. You’re just like bye.

Rachel: Yeah. It’s so bad. So then they basically start raiding all these Eel camps, and Montag helps Clarisse escape and again, you know it’s still problematic, but they didn’t like put them in an asylum or whatever, like they didn’t expect and rebel again.

Nova: Uh huh.

Rachel: They basically made a system where everyone that likes books becomes poor and all live together.

Nova: Yeah, like.

Rachel: And they’re like, this isn’t going to do anything.

Nova: And that seems very weird because like we want to get rid of this problem, but we’re going to completely just ignore the fact that they’re all together.

Rachel: Yeah, literally.

Nova: Like, okay.

Rachel: So.

Nova: Good job getting rid of it.

Rachel: Yeah, Beatty caught Montag lying, and Montag keeps getting flashbacks to his dad, who I guess, read books. But like his dad is like an amazing firefighter, but he’s still like raining books. I don’t really know.

Nova: Yeah, that was kind of odd I thought, but like I think it kind of was interesting of like Beatty was there. At the very end we saw that he was there. So like was it, he knew this kid was going to be like his dad, so he wanted him to grow up-

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: A different way? Or like what? Like it was just very odd I guess of how it all happened.

Rachel: Yeah. So Montag attempts to quit, and Beatty’s like nope. Won’t allow him to quit. So now I’m like *noise of disgust* because now you basically force firemen to stay in their position.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: Even if they are not like leaving the mission at all.

Nova: Yeah, I was like this is gonna end up badly for everybody because.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like can they not just like go get a different job or is it kind of like a?

Rachel: Signed at birth situation.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: That’s what I was wondering too.

Nova: Cause it just it did seem very odd that you know.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: He wasn’t allowed to leave.

Rachel: Yeah. So. The book nerds take Guy to a compound and there’s an entire underground network of book nerds which I love and I guess they’re using animals to transmit books. You know?

Nova: Yeah, I thought that was interesting how they put it in the DNA. And so like.

Rachel: Yeah, I’m just like how does that work?

Nova: Like all of the history is in the DNA. I was kind of upset with the ending because of that, because like he releases the bird but it just goes into a flock of birds.

Rachel: Yeah, it does have like the tracker on it, but I’m like how am I going to get this bird like with the tracker.

Nova: I was I was like come on, like I felt like it was the book all over again of the ending just like didn’t happen-

Rachel: Do anything, yeah.

Nova: Because, like you know, we could have seen someone like even just grabbing it.

Rachel: Yeah, for sure, not even like helpful.

Nova: Like it went over like this farm and I was like oh perfect, we’re getting an ending and then it’s up in the air with all these birds and I was like.

Rachel: Seriously. Like?

Nova: Okay, that’s where this is ending?

Rachel: Honestly.

Nova: Like we don’t even get an ending again. Come on guys.

Rachel: I know. So mad about it.

Nova: Like I know they said like it could breed like once they were going to take it out and put it in other animals and just keep breeding it. So like obviously can breed into other birds, but like if you can’t find where it went, it’s useless.

Rachel: Yeah, I’m like you’re just gonna keep testing birds, hoping that like this bird is mating with other birds?

Nova: Really, though, like it made no sense.

Rachel: I don’t know. Yeah. And also like if it’s a caged bird, I was surprised it survived in the wild enough to join a flock.

Nova: Really, I wonder if like maybe it they just took it out of the air or something?

Rachel: I don’t know.

Nova: Like cause it was the kids pet, so like maybe they like I just picked it up somewhere?

Rachel: Yeah, I don’t know. Kinda weird.

Nova: Because there weren’t really any pets.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: So like where would they have gone and gotten it.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: So.

Rachel: So then while he was trying to get the transmitter for the bird, basically, Beatty says that he knows that he read a book because he asked him if two plus two equals five and Guy was like uh oh. And they said that they got a special tip about Montag’s house. So. It looks like someone had planted the books in his house though.

Nova: Yeah, that was definitely, they planted that. I was like wow.

Rachel: Yeah, it was like sitting in the middle of the living room. So I’m like how did they break into this Guy’s house and just plant the books in the living room?

Nova: That was so infuriating because it was like, then it was kind of clear what side Beatty was on because it’s like you literally set this up.

Rachel: Yeah, honestly.

Nova: And like he’s standing there and he’s like that’s not mine and they’re like oh! Everyone on like the nine is calling him a traitor.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: And he’s like I don’t even know what to do at this point.

Rachel: Yeah, and then they showed someone burn alive on the TV but he didn’t kill Beatty, which he did in the books.

Nova: I was so mad about that.

Rachel: And then the firemen somehow found Omnus before they did.

Nova: I know like I don’t understand how they figured out that’s where they were going because they said it was off grid.

Rachel: I mean, I guess the tracker, but how would you know which one was taken? Or that one was actually taken.

Nova: And like, they got there before them, so it’s like how do you even know where they’re going?

Rachel: Yeah, how many firemen locations are there that they can get there first?

Nova: Really like they’d have to know beforehand where they were going and have like that good GPS to get them there first. But like how did they even know?

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: That was my big question of like you guys had no idea where this was, otherwise you would have gotten it months ago.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Now all of a sudden you do.

Rachel: And-yeah, I know I was kinda shook about that myself too. And then in this one, Beatty actually kills Montag and I was like, seriously? I was not happy about that.

Nova: I-yeah-no, I liked it so much better when Montag was the one that killed Beatty.

Rachel: Yeah me too.

Nova: Like, it made more sense.

Rachel: It really did. It didn’t make any sense for Beatty to kill Montag.

Nova: And like he almost did it like he was like angry and it’s like okay, why are you that angry that a bird got away?

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: Like there is something else going on here that we just don’t know about?

Rachel: Yeah honestly.  It’s wild. But yeah, I think the movie definitely did a really good job about bringing this into the modern day.

Nova: Yeah, for sure. I, besides the end, I really enjoyed the movie.

Rachel: I thought was really good. I yeah-so that was the movie. Any other thoughts?

Nova: I don’t think so. I think for the most part it was really good. I mean, I wish they had followed some other things more like the, like the mechanical hound, I feel was such a big part and they didn’t have it.

Rachel: Yeah.

Nova: But I feel like some aspects were better, like the character development with like Clarisse especially. But just in general like the characters felt more real than the book. So overall I thought it was like a really great movie.

Rachel: For sure, yeah, I really like to do. I basically had the same thoughts. I thought it did really well. I could get brought it even more into the modern day.

Nova: Yeah.

Rachel: I think it did a really good job with that.

Nova: Oh, definitely.

Rachel: To be honest, I do think that like making Clarisse more of a love interest was a better idea. And like aging her up.

Nova: I think so too, yeah.

Rachel: I still don’t really love the fact that like the Eels are allowed to be an underground organization, but that’s just me.

Nova: It’s like they haven’t figured out yet.

Rachel: Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me Nova, where can all the people find you?

Nova: They can find me pretty much anywhere at Novasaurusrexx with two Xs and pretty much anything that doesn’t have that name is linked to one of those, so it’s pretty easy to find me.

Rachel: And I’ll link you down below so that everyone can just click ’em.

Nova: Okay, cool.

Rachel: Alright, thanks for joining me and I will catch you all later.

Nova: Bye.

Rachel: Bye.

(Outro Music)

Rachel: Thank you all so much for joining me on this episode of the Barely Bookish Podcast. I really love having you all here and I love making these episodes and I’m sorry that this one was not as good of audio quality, but I promise that I am working towards constantly improving and hopefully that won’t happen again. But I hope you all still enjoyed it and that it wasn’t that bad. So some quick little announcements if you haven’t joined our Barely Book club yet, we’re hoping to start picking a new book for December here shortly, so please be sure to join that and enjoy it. And come talk about books with us. We also have a book chat that’s a lot of fun. It’s also on discord. It’s-right now we’re talking about From Blood and Ash and Throne of Glass, A Court of Mist and Fury, and there’s a Cruel Prince? Yeah, Cruel Prince chat in there that I do not pay attention to because I have not read it yet and I’m sorry. But if you have read that series, you can talk to some great people in that as well. So that’s fun and you can find those at barelybookish.com/connect the link that’s also in the notes. And it’s a lot of fun. I’m also pretty much everywhere if you want to connect with me online it’s at barelybookish at basically everything, so that’s also you can find those on barelybookish.com/connect as well. The next book that we’re going to be talking about is Little Women. A lot of people say that they love this for winter time and so I was like, yeah, we’ll do that, sounds good. So be sure if you don’t want to get any spoilers, you read that, just read at least like the first half for next time, if you aren’t able to read the whole thing and then you won’t get any spoilers or watch the movie. I don’t judge you do what you will do what you want. If you just want to watch the movie, go for it. Do it. I don’t care. Do whatever makes you happy. If you want to just listen and let me talk about it, do that to do whatever you want to do. It’s chill. You know? No judgment here. Judgment free zone. So yeah, that’s about all I have. My logo was designed by my little sister Sarah. It’s beautiful. I’m obsessed with it. She is very talented. And our theme song is called Video Game Blockbuster by Rafael Crux on freepd.com. And that’s all I have for you. I will catch you on the next one, bye.