Adam Carolla: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury | The Book Club | PragerU

[00:00:01][music] Welcome back to the book club. I'm Michael Nolles. The book this month is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. And I'm very pleased to say that my guest is a man who may have written more books than he has read, but he has read this book.

[00:00:25]That would be the one and only Adam Corolla. Adam, thank you for coming on the show.

[00:00:29]>> Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. I want you to know this is a tall order for me because of my disability, but so what what you asked me to do, which is read a book and then come here and talk about it, is like saying to a fat guy, we're playing softball.

[00:00:45]>> Yeah.

[00:00:45]>> And he he has all those thoughts rushed through his mind about being picked last in junior high and being made fun of and running the wrong way to third base after >> bunting, you know. So, I was immediately struck by a lot of insecurities. When I was like 30, someone just went, "You need to be tested for dyslexia." And I'm like, "I don't know how to read cuz I know read, but I don't think I have a disease." And they're like, "You got to get tested." And I got tested and they were like, "You don't have dyslexia."

[00:01:14]And [laughter] I was disappointed because I wanted a title to hang on my disability. And yet it was because you know what's left? You're dumb.

[00:01:25]>> You're dumb. That's all that's left.

[00:01:26]>> You just can't read.

[00:01:29]>> Yes.

[00:01:29]>> We've diagnosed you, sir. You can't read.

[00:01:32]>> Yes. So, but because I didn't learn to read growing up and I didn't I stayed away from it my whole life. I just hid from it.

[00:01:39]>> Your real disability was that you went to public school in Southern California?

[00:01:43]No, my real disability is I went to a hippie school in Southern California, sort of Billy Jack days, like early '7s, where there was no fundamentals of reading or any of any any language skills. We threw dirt clouds and made stuff out of clay. And then at some point, I got dropped off into the LA Unified School District in the fifth grade. But by then I didn't know how to read at all. I didn't have any of the >> foundational building blocks of reading.

[00:02:22]And now I was in I was in public school and I just pretended I knew how to read but I didn't. And and because LA Unified was sort of of they we they had sort of a tacid agreement with the students like we won't ask, you won't tell. It's like whatever gay guys had in the military in the 80s, you know what I mean? Like don't ask, don't tell. Like you can't read, fine. Don't talk to us. We won't talk to you and we'll just sort of warehouse you and push you through to the next level and we'll get paid. So I was able to sort of make it all the way through and then at some point I got into radio and they would hand you a script, you know, go do it's a live read or whatever. or I got into TV and they'd go, "It's all on the prompter. It's all on the prompter. Don't worry about it.

[00:03:13]We got it on the prompter." And I'd be like, "Don't worry about it. I'm not going to be able to get through this thing." And so I got thrust back into having to learn how to read.

[00:03:23]>> So you you are not only an enjoyer of this book, you are in some ways kind of the subject because the the book is about a society that doesn't have books anymore, >> right?

[00:03:32]>> And that burns books. Actually, >> I call it utopia. [laughter] Yeah, >> I'd like to be the mayor of that society.

[00:03:38]>> Really?

[00:03:39]>> I would preside over every bonfire >> on the side of the firemen over here. I do. You usually on the show we do a one minute summary from the guest.

[00:03:46]>> Well, let's see. 1953.

[00:03:50]Uh I think that's when Ry wrote it.

[00:03:52]>> Yeah.

[00:03:53]>> Um it's got the dystopian thing, you know, we've we've seen that that theme a few times. Um it's a a future I I don't it's unclear what year it is. It's just the the future. It has lots of though it's kind of interesting which is like the book he wrote it in 1953. So there's like even though it's the future there's a lot of 1953 in it. It it I mean in the sense that like if you watch cowboy movies from the 50s, the guys had pomade in their hair, you know, and it's like >> I don't think old timey guys in like 1851 had >> Elvis's hair.

[00:04:41]>> So like it does feel kind of 50s in it, but also >> I futuristic. putitively the the date I could be confusing this with another dystopian novel I was just reading but I think it's like 2021 or 2022 I think it's somewhere around our own time >> uh which didn't it didn't totally uh >> didn't totally turn out that way though >> uh you know you kind of make the point we don't really read anymore >> and and so the I guess the short version of the summary is there's this guy his name is Guy Montto yes and he's a fireman >> fireman but not a fireman >> but he's not this is the big hook you read the opening pages you say, "Oh, he's a fireman." But then, >> right, >> what he really he goes to people's houses to set fires to their books.

[00:05:24]>> Yeah.

[00:05:25]>> And so, he's got this horrible wife, Mildred, who's completely frivolous and just watches TV all day. They have no kids. They have no family. It's just they have an imaginary family on the screens. Uh they really interesting moment. They have these little seashells which are just AirPods. So, he does predict AirPods.

[00:05:42]>> Yeah, it does predict AirPods >> and just constant blaring music. And uh eventually though they the firemen get dragged out on a call and they light a a woman's library on fire and she sets herself on fire with it. But I also thought his writing was so granular and so specific and so I don't want to say unnecessary but like every detail was woven in to the text. And I was kind of thinking about it as a guy who writes comedy books. you're sort of being specific, but you're sort of getting to the joke or you're wanting to kind of get to the joke all the time.

[00:06:30]>> And his descript like he in this book, you couldn't just shake a guy's hand.

[00:06:36]His hand had to be weathered and cold as if he'd been on a ranch his whole life.

[00:06:40]It's like I just shake the guy's hand and move on to the next thought. Would you please two paragraphs on this guy's hand? I share some of your criticism about this because this is one this is one of these books that you're supposed to read in ninth grade. I didn't. This was the first time I was reading it.

[00:06:56]>> It'd be hard to stay with in the ninth grade.

[00:06:58]>> Well, you know, I I was mentioning to a buddy, I said, "We're doing Fahrenheit 451 on the on the show this week." He's very smart, very educated. And he said, you know, I don't think it's a great book. I said, "Well, thanks for that's great." And I this is my first week ahead of me. And so in the story, he meets a young girl, Clarice, and she kind of shakes him out of his rut, makes him a little more self-conscious, and he, you know, begins to question his life. His wife is basically uh zonked out. She's, you know, suicidal, but she's on happy pills all the time. And, you know, >> by the way, the wife's name, someone will look it up.

[00:07:33]>> Mildred.

[00:07:33]>> Mildred. Okay. If you're making a movie, if you're writing a book about the future, >> don't give [laughter] the guy's wife a name from 1877.

[00:07:44]>> You know what I mean? Like there's nobody named Mildred.

[00:07:48]>> Anyone know anyone named Mildred under the age of 90?

[00:07:52]>> Answer, no.

[00:07:54]>> Mildred is not a futuristic name.

[00:07:57]>> That's one that's one of my critiques of [laughter] the book. the other the other. So >> to fast forward to the end, eventually >> he turns against the the this totalitarian government and he is saving books and he go he finds an old professor in poverty and he says they're going to print books and he says, "Oh, there's some old academics down the river. You just got to run away." He mounts this amazing escape. He kills the bad guy, his fire chief Batty. And he makes it down there and the whole, you know, a war sets off. the bomb destroys the whole civilization. They have to they have to figure out how to rebuild.

[00:08:33]Okay. My chief criticism is not just Mildrid and it's not just the weathered handshake. It's that this to me it's kind of a liberal fantasy lowercase L. This was a screed against McCarthy, Jo Joseph McCarthy, the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. It's kind of like a lib book.

[00:08:53]>> Yeah. Well, the thing about McCarthyism, which is no one really brings up, is communism is bad. It gets a lot of people killed and we don't want that here. Or maybe New York wants it, but we as a nation >> usually reject communism. And McCarthyism was in a reaction to communism, which is horrible in the middle of the cold war in Russia. I think we, you know, I I think I think we understand how that turned out and how Russia, like no one's a big fan of Russia and there were people here that were trying to export that here >> at the top of the State Department. I mean, they were legitimately communists.

[00:09:36]>> So, somebody went I we should figure who these people are and stop this. And then we look at it and everyone in Hollywood looks at us like, "Oh, dear Lord." But by the way, these same people are like, "Unless you get vaccinated for CO, we'd like you out on the street. We'd like your business closed down, and if you wander onto the beach during lockdowns, we'd like you arrested." Like, >> yeah.

[00:10:00]>> Okay. Well, that didn't exist, but communism did exist and was evil.

[00:10:05]>> Yes.

[00:10:06]>> So, why are you constantly waving that in front of our face? McCarthyism. It was a an overreaction to an evil, but it's based on something >> I love, Adam. I love so much that the this is like the most contrarian opinion on Fahrenheit 451. I thought, ah, man, I hope this is going to be too far away. I love that you're on the same page with this. It's It's kind of >> Let's burn that page we're on.

[00:10:32][laughter] >> Whatever page we're on, >> who's got a mask? Light it up. Does anyone Someone get me a Cuban.

[00:10:37][laughter] >> And I'm not talking about a cigar. I want >> Cuban national right here.

[00:10:44]>> Look, I totally agree with all that. Uh, however, there is an interesting observation he makes that I think is totally salient about human nature.

[00:10:51]Namely, he says, you know, this totalitarian state, this is Batty, the fire chief explaining to the protagonist Montag says, you think it's this totalitarian state, went around, took everyone's book, set people on fire, all the rest. That's not really how it went down. the way it went down after the civil war when you the parties gaining all this power, people kind of gave up their books on their own. We didn't we the totalitarian government didn't actually have to rob this. They gave it up themselves because they wanted to be frivolous and trivial and not think about anything serious, >> right? Yeah. No, we well I I think back to co I I learned that we will do the bidding of the government like they don't [sighs] they don't have enough the government the city and whomever local law enforcement whatever they don't have enough to enforce whatever it is they want to enforce if we don't self enforce you know what I mean so when the government says we're locking down or whatever If if they say, "Look, we're locking the beaches down during CO." If everyone just goes to the beach, then they stand back and watch. Yes. But if I go to the beach and some Karen is yelling at me when I'm getting out of my car, then then we're self-p policing.

[00:12:11]>> Yes.

[00:12:12]>> This stuff, which we will easily do, which I didn't know because it's so unamerican. I didn't know how easily we'd slide into that and how many people would support that. And I I learned it during co I was like, "Oh my god, what happened?"

[00:12:28]>> It was very dystopian in many ways. And and even the the end of the book is a is a dramatization of what you're describing about, you know, look, if we all just go on the beach, they can't actually stop us because the protagonist, Montag, he does get away.

[00:12:42]They've got the steam powered dog, you know, chasing him down. This super uh scent powered or scent driven dog that should be able to get him anywhere.

[00:12:51]Well, he he outf foxes him. His human ingenuity actually outf foxes even the great machine and the totalitarian government. And what does the government do? The government once they lose him, the government pretends and broadcasts as if they caught him and they pin it on some innocent guy. They frame him. They get their image on TV. They plate the public. The state wins in the end. And to your other point, they let they let him get away and they let him be with all the other weirdos who like the books who who just aren't a real threat to the state. It's not ideal, but you know, they they memorize the books, they keep them in their heads, and the state goes on and carries on. Uh that rang very true.

[00:13:36]>> Yeah. It's also I was thinking his name was Guy and I wonder if they named him I wonder if Ray Bradberry named him guy cuz he just meant guy like all guys like like he was trying to capture >> cuz Mildrid [laughter] that's a name you know but he didn't name him Steve or Bob he named him guy and maybe he used that as a sort of universal hey guy >> well there are there are great illusions uh throughout that you know his name Mont it read his name. Montag is referring to Montigu like in Romeo and Juliet. Um and then there's uh Do Beach by uh Matthew Arnold, a great they just print part of the poem, a beautiful poem about the sea of faith, you know, receding. And so it's one thing I really liked about the book is it you get to live the experience that of this society in as much as you look around and you say oh you know I actually haven't read that Matthew Arnold poem I actually don't know the poetry of Edna Vincent Malay or William Faulner or Walt Whitman blessed are you if you don't know the poetry of Walt Whitman and you know all of these illusions at one point the big enforcer the fire chief uh he he outsmarts the our poor protagonist And he says, you know, a little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep or never taste the period springs. Very famous line. And he's really using it on him. He says, you've read a few books and it's driven you completely insane. You used to be complacent and maybe not really happy, but at least complacent. And now that you're reading books, you're you're having thoughts, you're having disagreements. There's a big blow up where the the husband just thinks that his wife's friends are so frivolous and ridiculous that he just starts screaming at them. some men might resonate with this situation. Uh, you know, and he says, well, you know, what's it what's it all for? You know, why? And that was obviously the argument of the totalitarian state. Said, who needs this strife? Who needs this worry? Just sit, drive fast, let the pretty pictures on the wall lull you, take some drugs, and and you'll be just fine. uh you you can see the the works of art, you know, the the texts being used to undermine the the reading of texts and you do get a little bit lost. You get the professor guys in in Montag's ear.

[00:15:58]He's saying, "Don't let him fool you.

[00:15:59]Don't let him trick. Don't you let him use his Jedi mind tricks on you." You know, uh but but the the book, it's supposed to be this clear morality tale written by a left-winger against McCarthy or something, but it's a little more ambiguous than that.

[00:16:13]Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting.

[00:16:16]A lot of studies and messages, especially like in creative endeavors, but mostly in movies, I've noticed they have a like a theme, and the theme is supposed to be one thing, but to me, a lot of it is they hurt their own point with lots of other messages. And I'll I'll explain because I know that's muddy, but um my synopsis of our society is it >> started falling apart about the time the movie Little Miss Sunshine came out.

[00:16:53]>> And Little Miss Sunshine was a darling of the industry. It was like they loved it and it got nominated for everything and they looked at as a great >> film and a great message. But if you look at little Miss Sunshine, >> they you got a grandpa who's a junky essentially pervert junkie.

[00:17:15]>> He's a he's been thrown out of retirement homes for molesting elderly women essentially who's teaching his >> chubby nine-year-old granddaughter to just shake her ass like a basically. And so she has no skill set.

[00:17:31]She's going to a competition where people play the piano and spin a baton and she just like does [laughter] like Chris Farley dancing, you know what I mean? So, she has no skill set because she hasn't practiced. She doesn't do it.

[00:17:43]And we're supposed to be rooting for her over the the one who plays Beethoven on a harp. You know what I mean? Who's practiced since she was three. So, I what that Okay, that's one message. the other one. So, the the protagonist is a junky perverted grandfather. Like, he's literally doing rails in the bathroom of the hotel while she's practicing her dance in the next room and is a pervert.

[00:18:10]>> Yeah.

[00:18:10]>> Okay. That's him.

[00:18:12]Then you got Steve Carell's character who is a gay professor who tried to commit suicide because his partner dumped him for a younger dude. And then you got sort of the free to be you and me mom who's always defending them. And then you have Greg Conir's character.

[00:18:32]Gray Conir's character is the heel of the movie, but he's just the dad who's working real hard trying to keep the whole thing together.

[00:18:42]>> Yeah.

[00:18:42]>> And he's the actually he's the heel in the movie, but he's the only one who has it together. He's the one who pays taxes. He's the one who keeps the lights on at the house, >> gas in the car.

[00:18:54]>> Right. Right. And he's saying at the beginning, the eight or nineyear-old daughter is saying to the gay character, "Why are you wearing gauze on your wrist?" Cuz he tried to commit suicide. By the way, Steve Carl's character wears gauze on each wrist and then wears a long sleeve shirt and rolls the sleeves up and then tries to hide his wrist. Okay, just pull the stupid sleeve down and then no one would ask you about the gauze on your wrist. But okay, so he is at the table and an olive, the daughter saying, "What happened to your wrist?" And the dad, the heel, >> yeah, >> is saying no, no, no, not at the table.

[00:19:42]Like I don't want to hear about the gay guy tried to kill himself with the with the eight-year-old. Like he does not suitable for that. And everyone is looking at him going, "What? The truth is for all." You know, and he's going, "No, I don't think it's appropriate that we talk about this." Okay. Later on, >> yeah, >> about middle act three, they're at the diner and they're eating breakfast and she orders ice cream for breakfast. And he goes, "Olive, look, if you're going to a beauty pageant where people are in their, you know, in their bathing suits, you don't want to eat ice cream for."

[00:20:19]And they're all looking at him going, "What are you talking about?" And he goes, "I'm just telling her the truth."

[00:20:24]And now they're all pissed off. So gay guy coming out with the suicide that's appropriate for them. Truth about nutrition on the way to a bikini competition for fat kid. Not. He's the heel, but he's really dying America. His dad >> saying, "Hey, daughter, >> don't eat this stuff." And hey crazies, this is not how we do it.

[00:20:48]>> Keep it to yourself.

[00:20:49]>> And he is the butt of the joke. And so the filmmakers are trying to make this point where it's like, isn't he the idiot? Yeah.

[00:20:58]>> And the answer is no. He's the only sane one. And by the way, if the country was inhabited by these people, we'd have no country.

[00:21:06]>> Yeah. Yeah. And it is currently inhabited by all these people.

[00:21:10]>> So sometimes they try to make a point and they make the opposite.

[00:21:14]>> Yes.

[00:21:15]>> Point.

[00:21:15]>> Yeah. I [laughter] was wondering how that was going to come back. Yes. No, that's that's right.

[00:21:20]>> John Kuzzac's 2012 I can do as well >> because they built arcs for the end of the world. See that one?

[00:21:28]>> Yeah. No, I didn't actually. Here's one point.

[00:21:33]The end of the world was coming.

[00:21:35]>> Yeah.

[00:21:36]>> And uh Kuzac was a divorced dad and uh the flooding was going to come and just take over the earth. And so up in the Himalayas or something, they had these giant modern arcs and all the rich people who paid for the arcs at some point their beeper started going off going, "Oh, it's time.

[00:21:54]>> It's time."

[00:21:54]>> And they all started going up to the Himalayas and getting on these three giant arcs. so they could survive the flood. And then of course all the poor people started showing up going, "Why aren't we getting on the ark?" And they're making this point and I'm like with the other guys the whole I'm with the evil guy who says keep the poor people off the ark [laughter] because a they're dumb. We don't want them procreating and then b they didn't pay for the ark. These guys paid for the ark and then c if they all get on there is no ark. So, so Adam watches the movie, says, "Yeah, I keep the poor people off the ark." Absolutely. And then Adam reads Fahrenheit 451, says, "Hey, get me hand me one of those flamethrowers.

[00:22:34][laughter] This is a great idea.

[00:22:36]>> I want one of those steam powered dogs.

[00:22:37]>> I I definitely want one of the dogs. I Okay, there's one point before before we close in this epic book, which now I think everyone has to read now.

[00:22:47]>> It's it's ver it's got a lot of verbiage in it. Like, it is rich. It's rich in oldtimey ladies names for for starters.

[00:22:56]>> Also, I didn't when I I was like, is this how all books are written >> cuz I didn't know there was so much >> description in every movement. This could be a monologue from the book. This is like when Mtog encounters whatever Tennyson or throw or something. Is this or he's reading the Bible really the Bible is the kind of the main point.

[00:23:19]It's what what the book ends on. He says, you know, is this what is this?

[00:23:23]What am I encountering? You know, he does he he doesn't even know how to make sense of it, which is why he goes to the professor Faber, but there is this point even as I as I disagree with sort of the hook of it and the pmical aspect of it.

[00:23:36]There is this point at the very end you say, "Yeah, the the Hoy paloy, they don't want to read. They're frivolous.

[00:23:43]Maybe there's a way to help them, but it's going to take a while." So this it's not a super like democratic message at the end. But there are a handful a remnant of people who have the but they don't even have the books actually because it's too dangerous to hold on to the books. They're going to get hassled by the cops. So they they get rid of the books. The books are just up here. They say, you know, this guy's Ecclesiastes and this guy is Hamlet or And they just keep it. And and that point I think was really brilliant because there's a a monologue in here where I guess it's Faber talking to Montto and he says you talk about books like they're magical things. They're not.

[00:24:21]They're just it's paper. It's a technology. You can have really good movies. You can have really good any kind of work of art. Uh what what matters though is how it touches you.

[00:24:30]You know how it molds your brain, how it affects how you see the world. And so when when the the remnant at the end put the books put the the works into their bodies so that they can recite them. So it's really affected them. That's really what it's about, you know. And the whole reason to read like dusty old books is is not really anything practical. It's might not help you make any more money or anything. It's to make sense of your leisure time, to make sense of your your freedom, to to to just develop your your experience of the world and to enrich it and to bring it into three dimensions. And I think he makes that point really beautifully at the end, even if there's this uh ambiguous conclusion, which is, you know, maybe maybe that's not going to be for everybody. Maybe some of those people are not getting on the ark because Adam is kicking them off the ark.

[00:25:22]I don't I don't think he literally said that, but that's the broad message.

[00:25:25]>> Do you want a cod up pedophile grandfather on that arc? I know I'm taking two movies and making one out of it, but would you want that guy running around your arc? Your daughter >> a fat promiscuous child on No.

[00:25:41]>> She was the least talented person in the talent show. She didn't do anything.

[00:25:48]But we were supposed to celebrate her because she's fat and she doesn't know how to dance.

[00:25:53]That's that was the beginning of the decline of Western civilization. But despite the decline, everyone should read this book. Yes. Back to the book.

[00:26:07]60-cond summary. Guy Montto is a fireman. And you think that means he puts out fires. No. No. He sets fires.

[00:26:14]He lights books on fire because this totalitarian state ever since the Civil War has gone around. They fireproof the houses. The houses aren't going to burn down, but they got to go in and burn the libraries because no one's allowed to read. Everyone just has earbuds in all the time and they're just getting blared with music and violence and sensations and they don't ever cultivate their minds. And anyway, they don't have opinions about anything. They do their work. It's unthinking. Eventually he he becomes self-conscious and he he seeks out books and he comes to blows with his boss and he uh seeks out a professor to teach him and he has an a climactic fleeing scene from the totalitarian state and everything goes up in flames.

[00:26:58]How was that?

[00:27:00]>> Excellent summary.

[00:27:01]>> Adam, thank you very much for coming on the book club. Everyone else, go read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradberry. We'll see you next month on the book club.

[00:27:12]Thank you so much for watching this episode of the book club on Prageru.

[00:27:16]Prageru is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, so we rely on donations from viewers like you to keep this content on the air. Please consider making a taxdeductible contribution today to help keep this content coming.

[00:27:31]Thank you very much.