Fahrenheit 451

I have always loved teaching Fahrenheit 451. There are many things I love about this book:

1. Students almost always enjoy it.  Especially because dystopian novels are "in" right now and this somewhat fits the bill.
2. Bradbury's writing style is phenomenal.  He has such interesting figurative language and imagery…something we will be looking at and discussing in detail later this week.
3. Many of his predictions for futuristic America are correct.  He predicts we will become complacent, addicted to television and that human relationships will suffer as a result.  This is somewhat true, though change television with smartphones and you have yourself a connection!
4. I have always loved science fiction books, so the fact that I get to teach an entire sci fi novel just makes me happy!

Currently, my students are all through part one of the novel.  We have been introduced to the four main characters: Montag, Mildred, Clarisse, and Beatty.  We have been introduced to the setting: futuristic America where technology has really overtaken many of the human relationships and/or responsibilities.  And we have been introduced to the conflict: Montag realizes books may have valuable information and perhaps he should stop burning them (his job as a fireman is to burn books in case you have never read the novel).

I saw this video on the news the other day and it totally seemed like something Ray Bradbury might have predicted:

The thought that this could be in our near future is just insane to me!  (Though I can't say I wouldn't use it; I'm a big fan of Amazon).   I also read an article about it that suggested you could order something online and have it at your door in thirty minutes or less.  The article also discusses the current limitations on this service.  What an innovative idea!  Have you seen this video?  What are your thoughts?  Any other cool new technologies you know about?  I'd love to hear details!