Reply #84: Farenheight 911 is both a literary allusion and an homage

[Nikki Stone 1]

According to Moore on David Letterman last week, the title Farenheight 911 comes from the title of an email sent by a fan. It's actually a great compliment to Ray Bradbury that his book has become so much a part of the national psyche--not to mention so many high school curricula--that someone immediately alluded to it describing events almost half a century later.

I actually think the allusion is entirely appropriate. While no one is actively burning books, corporations ARE actively shaping the information we get. We live in an era in which getting "real" news or "relevant" interpretations of facts is quite difficult unless you know where to look. The bulk of the population, like that in Farenheight 451, is watching interactive TV instead of reading. (In the book, all four walls of a house were video/TV screens and the viewer could affect certain programs by interacting with them.)

The general idea behind the book is that everyone was being entertained and no one was thinking, except a small group who preserved books. This is entirely appropriate to a country ignoring their government while watching "American Idol" and "The Bachelor".