9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
“It was a pleasure to burn.[br]It was a special pleasure

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to see things eaten,[br]to see things blackened and changed.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Fahrenheit 451 opens in a blissful blaze[br]- and before long,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we learn what’s going up in flames.[br]Ray Bradbury’s novel imagines a world

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where books are banned from all [br]areas of life - and possessing,

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let along reading them, is forbidden.[br]The protagonist, Montag, is a fireman

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
responsible for destroying what remains.[br]But as his pleasure gives way to doubt,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the story raises critical questions[br]of how to preserve one’s mind in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a society where free will, self-expression,[br]and curiosity are under fire.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In Montag’s world, mass media[br]has a monopoly on information,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
erasing almost all ability[br]for independent thought.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
On the subway, ads blast out of the walls.[br]At home, Montag’s wife Mildred listens to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the radio around the clock,[br]and three of their parlor walls

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are plastered with screens.[br]At work, the smell of kerosene

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hangs over Montag’s colleagues, [br]who smoke and set their mechanical

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hound after rats to pass the time.[br]When the alarm sounds they surge

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
out in salamander-shaped vehicles,[br]sometimes to burn whole

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
libraries to the ground.[br]But as he sets tomes ablaze day

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after day like “black butterflies.”[br]Montag’s mind occasionally wanders

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to the contraband that[br]lies hidden in his home.

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Gradually, he begins to question[br]the basis of his work.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Montag realizes he’s always felt uneasy -[br]but has lacked the descriptive words

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to express his feelings in a society where[br]even uttering the phrase

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
“once upon a time” can be fatal.[br]Fahrenheit 451 depicts a world governed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by surveillance, robotics, and virtual[br]reality - a vision that proved remarkably

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
prescient, but also spoke to[br]the concerns of the time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The novel was published in 1953,[br]at the height of the Cold War.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This era kindled widespread paranoia[br]and fear throughout Bradbury’s home country

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the United States, amplified by the[br]suppression of information

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and brutal government investigations.