It's been years since I read it, but I always got the feeling that the world was generally dystopian. Take the TV aspect of it - it's not just that people watch TV instead of reading, but that their attention spans are so shot that TV has become extremely vapid, violent, and rapid fire. The main characters wife runs over dogs for fun, and she almost kills herself taking sleeping pills because she couldn't pay attention to how many she took. The firehouse dog isn't a lovable dalmatian, but a cold and deadly eight legged robot.
If the book is based on a grotesque exaggeration of trends he was seeing in post-war America, then it could well be about censorship, TV, pills, paving over natural beauty, alienation from society, etc. Perhaps Bradbury has just emphasized different aspects at different times.
If the book is based on a grotesque exaggeration of trends he was seeing in post-war America, then it could well be about censorship, TV, pills, paving over natural beauty, alienation from society, etc. Perhaps Bradbury has just emphasized different aspects at different times.