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A cheap shot at a bestseller or a deeper book with connections relevant to the human race? In The Call of the Wild, the protagonist is a dog named...
Would would the world be like without books? Ray Bradbury tackles that question—and many more— in Fahrenheit 451. Go ahead; read it on your Kin...
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Would would the world be like without books? Ray Bradbury tackles that question—and many more— in Fahrenheit 451 . Go ahead; read it on your Kindle.
Transcript
- 00:03
Fahrenheit 451, a la Shmoop.
- 00:07
The name's Guy Montag. [Montag in a forest]
- 00:09
Pleasure to meet you.
- 00:10
Who am I?
- 00:11
Well, I…I'm kind of reinventing myself right now.
Full Transcript
- 00:14
But I used to be a fireman. [Montag as a fireman]
- 00:16
And as a fireman, I took a solemn oath to uphold the universal book ban.
- 00:21
Translation?
- 00:22
I burned books.
- 00:23
So why am I here and not torching copies of Shakespeare?
- 00:27
Well, that's quite a story…and one that I don't intend to burn.
- 00:30
A while back, we received several complaints about contraband in the neighborhood. [Dog walks by a fireman]
- 00:34
We conducted a raid, and you wouldn't believe the stash we uncovered.
- 00:38
Seriously, this lady had 'quite a collection the type of books you don't burn everyday.
- 00:42
And sure maybe i pocketed one but, it was just one.. no big deal right?
- 00:47
…448, 449, 450… that's the sweet, book-burning temperature, for those of you who don't know. [Firemen collecting books]
- 00:54
Anyway, we're about to torch this lady's house, when we realize we have a small problem…
- 01:00
She won't leave.
- 01:01
She struck a match and did our job for us.. well before we knew what was happening.. the whole thing went up in flames [Woman lights a match]
- 01:10
I always enjoyed burning books, but after that?
- 01:13
Well, I wasn't feeling so hot.
- 01:15
…Pun mildly intended.
- 01:16
On my way home, I ran into my neighbor, Clarisse. [Montag bumps into Clarisse]
- 01:19
She put me on the hot seat about being a fireman.
- 01:22
She asked me if firemen used to put out fires and help people.
- 01:26
Then she asked me if I ever read the books before I burned them.
- 01:30
And finally, she asked me something I had never before considered: was I happy? [Clarisse asks Montag if he's happy]
- 01:35
Well….was I?
- 01:37
It got me thinking.
- 01:38
And pretty soon, I was thinking that maybe… it was time to close the book on my firefighting [Montag places helmet in trash]
- 01:43
career.
- 01:44
so I visited this guy named
- 01:47
Dr. Farber.
- 01:48
He was an English professor, way back when. [Dr Farber teaching English]
- 01:50
Surprisingly enough, he hadn't worked in years.
- 01:53
Dr. Farber warned me that a great war was brewing against rogue thinkers.
- 01:57
And when i later learned that Clarisse had been hit and killed by a car [Clarisse hit by car]
- 02:02
I started to think…maybe this wasn't the kind of world I wanted to
- 02:06
live in anymore.
- 02:08
Clarisse was right.
- 02:09
Our humanity was going down the tubes, and I was starting to notice. [Montag burning with books]
- 02:13
There were problems at home…
- 02:15
…and at work.
- 02:16
…And Captain Beatty was starting to read between the lines.
- 02:20
He caught me with a book, but I played cool and insisted it wasn't mine. [Captain Beatty snatches book from Montag]
- 02:24
I thought everything would be okay.
- 02:25
And I kept thinking that….right up until the fire truck stopped in front of my house.
- 02:31
But the funniest thing happened: I didn’t care anymore.
- 02:34
So what if my own wife called in the alarm? [Montag's wife and Captain Beatty stood outside house]
- 02:37
And so what if I had books?
- 02:39
I was seeing things in a whole new light.
- 02:41
And Captain Beatty?
- 02:43
Well…he won't be seeing much of anything anymore. [Montag sprays Beatty with a hose]
- 02:45
I knew I had to skip town, and fast.
- 02:48
People don’t take too kindly to burning your superiors alive.
- 02:51
So I ran, and I didn't stop running until I found these guys. [Montag running in a forest]
- 02:55
They're a bunch of intellectuals, lead by this man.
- 02:58
Goes by the name of "Granger."
- 03:00
Did I feel out of my league?
- 03:01
Sure.
- 03:02
These were people who had memorized classic literature.
- 03:05
I’ve only memorized a part of The Book of Ecclesiastes.
- 03:09
But…we all gotta start somewhere, right?
- 03:11
And now that the city's been bombed and everyone I knew is probably gone…well…somebody's [City bombed by plane flying above]
- 03:16
gotta be around to rebuild society
- 03:19
Why not me?
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