# Is Fahrenheit 451 a criticism of liberalism?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 14, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565 "2005-09-14T06:52:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565/21 "2005-09-15T01:21:34Z")

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> [@FordPrefect](#):
>
> All I need to add at this point is that if we are going the route of tapioca banality, I want my 3D sex magazine.

Man, if I could get tapioca and sex tonight, that’d make my life complete…

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565/22 "2005-09-15T11:05:24Z")

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> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Man, if I could get tapioca and sex tonight, that’d make my life complete…

I think that’s the Canadian Dream.

😃

**Larry Mudd** , you’re doing a great job of _criticising_ the work as opposed to taking the easy route and _reviewing_ it. Well done. _Very_ well done.

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565/23 "2005-09-15T20:00:34Z")

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Thanks for all the kind words, folks – although I must admit I’m a bit perplexed.

I thought that my observations were fairly straightforward and not particularly insightful. Usually, when I think I’m actually being clever, nobody seems to notice. 😃

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**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565/24 "2005-09-15T20:12:50Z")

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> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> I thought that my observations were fairly straightforward and not particularly insightful.

Nice. Now you are going to rub our noses in it? You are a bastard, **Larry Mudd** , a goddamn bastard.

😉

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fahrenheit-451-a-criticism-of-liberalism/321565/25 "2005-09-15T20:30:38Z")

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For those curious about Bradbury’s political state of mind around the time\* he was writing _F451_, see his angry open letter “To the Republican Party”, chastising it for McCarthyism, in an advertisement he paid for in _Daily Variety_, 10 November 1952, just after elections.

- It first appeared as a novella in _Argosy_ magazine in 1951, and then as a longer novel in 1953.

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