The first dystopian novel I remember ever reading was at the age of 13 when on a snow day, I pulled a copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 off my father’s shelf. I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite understand it, but the story hooked me—the idea of a world where people burned books instead of reading them? I had never heard of such a thing.
For several years, I’ve made it a yearly tradition this weekend to take a day off to put the phone and world aside and reread it.
Today I finished my 15th reread, and It’s still just as good as it was the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time.
Ray Bradbury was a master of imagination and creativity. He was known for crafting unique worlds and weaving complex ideas such as censorship and human nature into engaging stories with his inventive prowess.
Every speculative author should read some Ray Bradbury because his innovative approach to storytelling blends the fantastical and the mundane, offering a unique lens on society that challenges conventional thinking and inspires creativity in character development, theme exploration, and world-building.
If you haven’t read any Bradbury- Go correct that problem now!
Just don’t read Something Wicked This Way Comes at night. Or in a carnival. I also loved Fahrenheit 451, and I hate dystopian as a rule. The way he writes the Mechanical Hound as this creeping dread monster was an inspiration for some of the monsters in my own stories.
I have never read that, JJ. *going to Amazon now*
I’ve been reading it for years. What is shocking is how relevant it is to today’s world. Lots of symbolism
Something Wicked This Way Come is far more creepier than most think. I may need to reread it this Halloween. But yes, the Mechanical Hound is one of the creepiest monsters there is. Just the concept is freaky. Its very modern day drone like…