Fahrenheit 451 Inspiration and ideas behind the book 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 ID: 478628
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Slide1
Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451
Inspiration and ideas behind the book Slide2
The Life of Bradbury
Born August 22, 1920 in IllinoisAs a young boy, he wrote short stories on butcher paperGraduated from a LA high school in 1938
Sold newspapers on street corners until 1942
S
pent 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 LASlide3
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 – 7:03Slide4
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 Slide5
Book Burnings
WWII Germany (Hitler)Wanted to bring German arts and culture in line with Nazi idealsMay
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.Slide6
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
.”Slide7
Your Thoughts on Television
We all know that television is quite popular in today’s societyWeigh the pros and cons…