0:00:06.624,0:00:09.754
“It was a pleasure to burn.[br]It was a special pleasure

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

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Fahrenheit 451 opens in a blissful blaze[br]- and before long,

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we learn what’s going up in flames.[br]Ray Bradbury’s novel imagines a world

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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

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

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the story raises critical questions[br]of how to preserve one’s mind in

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

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

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erasing almost all ability[br]for independent thought.

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

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the radio around the clock,[br]and three of their parlor walls

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are plastered with screens.[br]At work, the smell of kerosene

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

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hound after rats to pass the time.[br]When the alarm sounds they surge

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out in salamander-shaped vehicles,[br]sometimes to burn whole

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libraries to the ground.[br]But as he sets tomes ablaze day

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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.

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Montag realizes he’s always felt uneasy -[br]but has lacked the descriptive words

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to express his feelings in a society where[br]even uttering the phrase

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“once upon a time” can be fatal.[br]Fahrenheit 451 depicts a world governed

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

0:02:01.024,0:02:04.394
prescient, but also spoke to[br]the concerns of the time.

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

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This era kindled widespread paranoia[br]and fear throughout Bradbury’s home country

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of the United States, amplified by the[br]suppression of information

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and brutal government investigations.[br]In particular, this witch hunt mentality

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targeted artists and writers who[br]were suspected of Communist sympathies.

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Bradbury was alarmed at[br]this cultural crackdown.

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He believed it set a dangerous [br]precedent for further censorship,

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and was reminded of the destruction of[br]the Library of Alexandria and the

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book-burning of Fascist regimes.[br]He explored these chilling connections

0:02:44.034,0:02:49.224
in Fahrenheit 451, titled after the[br]temperature at which paper burns.

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The accuracy of that temperature[br]has been called into question,

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but that doesn’t diminish the novel’s [br]standing as a masterpiece

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of dystopian fiction.[br]Dysoptian fiction as a genre amplifies

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troubling features of the world around us[br]and imagines the consequences

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of taking them to an extreme.[br]In many dystopian stories,

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the government imposes[br]constrictions onto unwilling subjects.

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But in Fahrenheit 451, Montag learns that[br]it was the apathy of the masses that gave

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rise to the current regime.[br]The government merely capitalized on

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short attention spans and the appetite[br]for mindless entertainment,

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reducing the circulation of ideas to ash.[br]As culture disappears,

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imagination and self-expression follow.[br]Even the way people talk is short-circuited

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- such as when Montag’s boss Captain Beatty[br]describes the acceleration of mass culture:

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"Speed up the film, Montag, quick.[br]Click? Pic? Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here,

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There, Swift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out,[br]Why, How, Who, What, Where, Eh? Uh!

0:03:52.774,0:03:58.734
Bang! Smack! Wallop, Bing, Bong, Boom![br]Digest-digests, digest-digest-digests.

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Politics? One column, two sentences, a[br]headline! Then, in mid-air, all vanishes!

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In this barren world, Montag learns[br]how difficult it is to resist when there’s

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nothing left to hold on to.[br]Altogether, Fahrenheit 451 is a portrait

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of independent thought on the brink[br]of extinction - and a parable about a

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society which is complicit[br]in its own combustion.