I recently came across the following list on Amazon:  “100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime.”

As a fantasy writer myself, I decided to spend the next few years reading every book on this list and record the lessons I learned from each volume on how to be a great writer.

PLOT: The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. – goodreads.com

WHAT I LEARNED (Spoilers ahead!): Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books in which society as a whole is the villain. Every single one of Montag’s friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers is a potential enemy and would turn him in if they discovered he was reading books. Most people embrace the fascist, censorship-loving world in which they live and eagerly alert the authorities as to the whereabouts of anyone who reads. However, there is one character who stands above the rest, Montag’s boss, Fire Captain Beatty.

Beatty is arguably the novel’s most complex character. He was once an enthusiastic reader but has come to despise books and is now paid to supervise men who destroy them. In the middle of the novel, Beatty delivers a lecture on the history of their world, in which he blames minorities and (what we would today call) “political correctness” for society’s desire to destroy knowledge and free thought. Beatty’s life ends when he goads Montag into setting him on fire with a flame thrower, burning him as both men have burned countless volumes. Only later does Montag realize that his dead boss had wanted to die for a long time.

There is a tragic contradiction to the character. As far as we know he may secretly still love books, but he has embraced a society in which reading is illegal. While Montag is strong enough to fight back, Beatty remains determined to destroy the knowledge he once coveted.

So what lessons can we take away from this?

1) If your novel/short story is set in a corrupt society, remember to include a character who acts as the face and voice of that world. They should certainly be complex and have their own distinct personality, but they can also represent the culture as a whole.

Keep in mind, this individual doesn’t need to be the person who runs the government. They could be like Beatty who only has a mid-level job. In fact, it is often more powerful if the antagonist is just another “normal” individual who truly believes in the system, rather than a “dark lord” whose motivation is money and power. Why does this person believe in a world that is so clearly corrupt? What has happened to them to make them this way? Have they always been like this?

2) “Make your villain sympathetic” is cliché advice for a reason. Relatable antagonists are more complex and more memorable than the Evil Mc’Evils who do bad things just because that’s what they do. In Beatty we see what Montag would have become had he continued to believe in the system.

Beatty’s past is similar to Montag’s present only he turned right, sticking with the convictions of the world around him, while Montag turns left and breaks free. This is in part because he meets Clarisse McClellan, a woman who shows him how twisted the world is. Had Beatty met his own Clarisse when he was younger his life may have been very different.

OTHER THOUGHTS: There is something I should admit…I don’t particularly like Fahrenheit 451.

In fact I’m not the biggest fan of Ray Bradbury in general. This is odd because I feel like I should like him, but I honestly don’t (I feel the same way about Monty Python). He’s a better author than I will ever be and the world has benefited from his writing, but he often rubs me the wrong way. Many of his images and concepts are brilliant, but his works (including Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Martian Chronicles) often come off as overly nostalgic with a saccharine view on childhood, small town life and the past in general.

I’m not mentioning this to criticize Bradbury or his fans. These blogs aren’t reviews, they are a list of lessons learned from some of the best Sci-fi/Fantasy works of all time. The reason why I’m mentioning my tepid feelings toward Bradbury is to show that even if we don’t particularly care for an author, we can still learn things from him or her. Either we can try to avoid their “mistakes” or we can accept that even if we don’t particularly like them, there are some things they did right. Let’s be honest, this little blog entry only scrapes the surface of all the lessons that could be learned from a book like Fahrenheit 451. I may not be a Bradbury fan but there are a TON of things aspiring authors can take away from this work.

DISTINCT PASSAGE: The book’s opening line is one of the most iconic in twentieth century literature. As I said above, I’m not the greatest admirer of Bradbury’s work but this writing is downright brilliant.

Maybe one “last” lesson to take away from this book (for now) is to see what happens if we describe a horrible act as if it were beautiful. The juxtaposition will stand out in the reader’s mind and may make the event feel even more perverted.

It was a pleasure to burn.

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with the great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparking whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.