The Simulacrum of Carnival

Attached is an article about the novel written by Johnathan Eller and William Touponce. In it, they discuss character themes, plot, and analyze social norms as they propell Montag from complacent citizen to enlightened outsider.

This article is wonderful supplimentary material to the novel, and offers a poignant discussion of the finer qualities of Bradbury's writing.

Enjoy and thanks for checking in!

The Simulacrum of Carnival

"While Your At It": Reading Other Books on Dystopia

If you enjoy reading about the general decline of society to entertainment and numerous vices, here is a short list of other texts to look into:

1) I am currently reading a book called "Empire of Illusion" by Pulitzer laureate Chris Hedges. It discusses the general decline of literacy and the 'triumph of spectacles/fantasy' within contemporary Western society. Hedges analyzes the trends in Academia, Pornography, and the entertainment industry at large so as to better understand the dire cultural state we are in today.

2) While "Fahrenheit 451" has become a ubiquitously required high school text, many have the option of choosing to study other texts such as "1984" and "Brave New World". If you are one of those who chose "Farenheit", please venture forth and read the latter two books. They are gamechangers in the dystopian sci-fi genre, and deserve no less repute than they have garnished thus far.

3) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is Philip K. Dick's novel later adapted for film under the pseudonym "Blade Runner". It chronicles the dystopian society that, since the creation of androids, has lost touch with humanism and the quest for intellectual progress. A must read for sci-fi fans and fiction buffs alike.

4) Isaac Asimov's "Cave of Steel" is a story about the dominance of technology in modern society and how immediate gratification has grown to such excess that people no longer venture outside of shopping malls and theaters within an underground city. Asimov created a overpopulated, agoraphobic world to best elicit the ongoing struggle between fantasy and reality that is present in "Fahrenheit 451".

5) The Eastern European and Russian states during the mid 20th century have also been regarded as prime examples of social control and propagandistic nationalism. With this in mind, I suggest reading Czeslaw Milosz's "The Captive Mind". Told from the perspective of an escaped citizen, "The Captive Mind" deconstructs communism and fascism so as to deter its rebirth.

6) And last, but not least, "Children of Men" by P.D. James is a necessary read for those interested in propaganda and the power of fear in a world devoid of hope. For those of you who have yet to see the movie, read this first, then take a few weeks off to stabilize. The book is just as disturbing and will put you in a disassociative funk, to say the least.

Ray Bradbury and the Busty Origins of Fire

In 1947, Bradbury wrote a short story titled "Bright Phoenix" (later revised for publication in a 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction).Bradbury later expanded the basic premise of "Bright Phoenix" into The Fireman, a novella published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. A few months later, the novel was serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of Playboy.

Bradbury wrote the entire novel in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library on a pay typewriter that he rented for a fee of ten cents per half an hour.

It's poetic that a quintessential book about the decline of literacy would be confined by rental fees and initially published in a soft-core porn mag.

Playboy has a respectable list of subsequent articles and stories published. Joyce Carol Oates, Roald Dahl, Norman Mailer, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, and a many others have published awardwinning material in the magazine. Yes, people do buy Playboy for the articles. Not that Playboy lacks filler content otherwise.

This was the cover for the May 1954 issue that included the first installment of Farenheit 451.

This is one of the few portraits of Austen. It is a still life completed during her childhood, which many call simply "The Rice Portrait".

Quote from Pride and Prejudice

"To yield readily--easily--to the persuasion of a friend is no merit.... To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either."

Jane Austen

Jane Austin: A Short Biography

Here is a brief biography of Jane Austin, gratis The Jane Austen Society of Australia. The website includes a chronological list of events, publications, and personal experiences that shaped the author's life. It also has a direct link to Austen's original obituary and the notification to the public regarding her sole authorship of her canon of novels, a topic of great debate due to social inequalities between the sexes in the early 1800s.

As an added bonus, the bottom of the page has a slew of JASA essays that discuss the letters and novels at length.


As always, enjoy and thanks for reading!

JASA Database

This is a posted link to Joseph Carroll's rivetting installment in one of my favorite collections, The Literary Animal. The article is based around the deconstruction of literature from the Darwinian perspective, and, by page 94, discusses the themeatic elements within Pride and Prejudice that withstand the tests of time due to their accuracy in the description of subtle qualities of human nature. Carroll starts the later part of the article with a brief summary of the book, then elaborates using the rudimentary analysis he discusses at the beginning of the piece.

This is a very interesting article that will undoubtedly change your opinion of Austen and possibly alter your personal interpretation of most literature. Hope you enjoy. Please leave comments as you feel inclined.

Happy Reading!

"Human Nature and Literary Meaning: A Theoretical Model Illustrated With a Critique of Pride and Prejudice"