

‘It’s no good Montag. We’ve all got to be alike.’ Thus spoke Montag’s fire captain in Francois Truffaut’s 1966 movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451, a treatment Bradbury was reported to have been generally happy with. Truffaut presents a story about a dystopian future where as a means of social control people have been heavily drug addled, deliberately dumbed down, and are functionally illiterate, where ‘reading’ as a rule consists of at most interpreting the pictures of comics, and many cannot keep a simple line of thought without forgetting what it was they were speaking about in mid-sentence. And to, as quoted below, an extreme and destructive level of ‘tolerance’ is continuously preached by Cousin Claudette to ‘the family’ (as the overall population is referred to in this society) from the large flat screen TV’s people have in their living rooms, this too being a matter of social control, and not of right and wrong as people might mistakenly presume. ‘Finally, do remember to tolerate your friends’ friends, However alien and peculiar they may seem to you. Don’t despise minorities.

Smother malice. Strangle violence. Suppress prejudice. Hate hate. Be tolerant today…’ Sounds depressingly all too familiar, and 1966 was not that long ago. One has to wonder if the surviving actors of that film sense a touch of irony as they remember their rolls then in Truffaut’s ‘Farenheit 451’, and then look at the very Multi-Cultural world of today. I would have included this you-tube video and this one of clips from the film, which I invite you to watch, but the embedding feature was disabled. The excerpts from the fascinating dialogue of the movie are taken from this transcript. A well done movie, it was filmed in and around the London of the mid 1960’s, a product of the Pinewood Studios. I highly recommend watching it, not so much as it once was, a warning about the future, but rather now as a warning about the present. It provides a glimpse of the English, a physically handsome people, before the ravages of the Multi-cult had been fully brought against them. ‘Two cells of anti-socials were located earlier today in the Western Metropolitan Zone. The police have declined to comment so far…’ ‘Tell me, that number

you all wear, what’s it mean?



Oh, Fahrenheit 451



Why rather than

or ?



Fahrenheit 451 is the

temperature at which…



book paper catches fire

and starts to burn.



I’d like to ask you something

else, only I don’t really dare.



Go ahead.



Is it true…



that a long time ago…



firemen used to put out fires

and not burn books?



Really, your uncle is right.

You are light in the head.



“Put fires out”?

Who told you that?



- I don’t know. Someone. But is it true?

- What a strange idea.



- Houses have always been fireproof.

- Ours isn’t.



Well, then, it should be

condemned one of these days.



It has to be destroyed,

and you will have to move…



to a house that is fireproof.



Too bad.



Tell me,

why do you burn books?



What?



Well, it’s a job

like any other.



Good work with lots

of variety.



Monday, we burn Miller; Tuesday,

Tolstoy; Wednesday, Walt Whitman;



Friday, Faulkner; and Saturday

and Sunday, Schopenhauer and Sartre.



“We burn them to ashes

and then burn the ashes.”



That’s our official motto.

You don’t like books then?



- Do you like the rain?

- Yes, I adore it.



Books are just

so much… rubbish.



They have no interest.



Then why do some people still read

them although it’s so dangerous?



Precisely because

it is forbidden.



Why is it forbidden?



Because it makes

people unhappy.



Do you really

believe that?



Oh, yes. Books

disturb people.



They make them

antisocial.



Do you think

I’m antisocial?



Why do you ask?



Well…

I’m a teacher.



Well, not quite.

I’m still on probation.



This afternoon

the analyst called me in,



And I don’t think

I said the right things.



I’m not at all happy

about my answers.



That’s probably why I’ve been so

rude to you. Have I been annoying you?



Oh, no,

not at all.



In fact, I was questioned

this afternoon as well.



I didn’t do

too well either.



This is where I live.



You see?

This is my house.



- One more question.

- Another one?



- Just a tiny one.

- What is it?



Do you ever read

the books you burn?



Why should I? First,

I’m not interested.



Second, I’ve better things

to do. Third, it is forbidden.



Of course.



- You happy?

- What?



Of course I’m happy.’ ‘You’re nothing

but zombies, all of you…’ ‘Finally, do remember to

tolerate your friends’ friends,



However alien and peculiar

they may seem to you.



- Don’t despise minorities.

- Doesn’t cousin Midge’s face look swollen?



- That’s because she’s pregnant.

- Is that why?



I think it’s irresponsible

to have children.



Somebody’s got to have children,

Jackie. They can’t let the race die out.



Babies grow up to look

like you. That must be fun.



- Smother malice. Strangle violence. Suppress prejudice. Hate hate.

- Here’s Montag.



Be tolerant today.



Being just pretty

is not enough.



The wife who uses translusives

knows better than that.



Try some today, but watch out

for your friends’ husbands.



They’ll be around you

like flies.



No one will ever notice

that your chairs don’t match,



And you’ll be

as popular as ever.



Would you excuse me?



Yes, I like her hair

like this.



Come on, Montag,

be good now.



Come on over and sit with us. You haven’t

seen Jackie and Doris and Helen for ages.



- It’s very rude, you know.

- Leave me alone.



Aren’t you well?



All right,

but it’s very naughty.



...are being reclassified.



Two cells of antisocials

were located earlier today…



In the western

metropolitan area.



The police have declined

to comment so far.



Meanwhile, the “report those

who threaten you” campaign…



- met with particular success today…

- When an old woman, cousins,



chose to be burned with her books

rather than being separated from them.



If that’s a joke,

it’s not in very good taste.



- You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?

- Don’t be silly, Montag.



Things like that

don’t happen.



You mean, you don’t want

to hear about it. I saw it!



- My husband says…

- Oh, your husband! You don’t even know where he is!



- Montag!

- Of course I know.



- He’s been called on reserve for some field training.

- Or to fight a little war.



You never know, do you?

Why do you call it that?



Even if he was,

what about it?



He’s not allowed to call

me until it’s all over.



- It’ll only be about a week or two.

- He’ll be all right.



The point about wars is, if

you want to call them that,



it’s only other women’s husbands

who get killed. That’s true.



I never knew anyone

who got killed in a…



Not anyone whose husband

died like that.



Getting run over, jumping

out of a window, yes.



Like Gloria’s husband

a few nights ago.



But never

that other way.



Anyway, that’s life,

isn’t it?



That’s what you call it.



You’re nothing

but zombies, all of you.



Just like those husbands of

yours you don’t even know anymore.



You’re not living,

you’re just killing time!



Well, I think it’s time to go. Yes, I…



Thank you. It was a lovely afternoon.



Really fun. Yes. Sit down!



- Come on, sit down. It’ll only take a minute.

- Whatever is that?



- Darling.

- It’s not a book?



That’s what it is.

It’s a novel.



Oh, it’s a book! Oh, you

mustn’t! It’s against the law!



- Quiet. Sit down and listen.

- Since Montag really insists.



But when he’s through,

I hope we can do as we please.



“There can be no disparity

in marriage…



“like unsuitability

of mind and purpose.



“I had endeavoured to adapt Dora to

myself and found it impracticable.



“It remained for me to adapt myself to Dora,

to share with her what I could and be happy.



“It made my second year

much happier than my first,



“and, what was better still,

made Dora’s life all sunshine.



“But as that year wore on,

Dora was not strong.



“I had hoped that lighter hands than

mine would help to mould her character…



“and that a baby’s smile upon her breast

might change my child-wife to a woman.



“It was not to be.

My pretty Dora.



“We thought she would be running

about as she used to do in a few days.



“But they said wait a few days

more, and then wait a few days more,



“and still she neither

ran nor walked.



“I began to carry her downstairs

every morning and upstairs every night.



“But sometimes when I took her up, I

felt that she was lighter in my arms.



“A dead, blank feeling

came upon me,



“as if I were approaching

some frozen region…



“yet unseen

that numbed my life.



“I avoided direct recognition of this feeling

by any name, over any communing with myself.



“Until one night when it was

very strong upon me…



“and my aunt had left her

with her parting cry,



“‘Oh, good-bye,

little blossom.’



“I sat down at my desk,

alone, and tried to think.



“oh, what a fatal name

it was.



“and how the blossom…



withered in its bloom

up in the tree.”



I knew that’s what would happen.

It’s what I’ve always said.



Life isn’t like novels, novels

and tears, novels and suicide.



Novels are sick.

That was sheer cruelty, Montag.



You’re a cruel man. All

those words; idiotic words.



Evil words

that hurt people.



Isn’t there enough

trouble as it is?



Why disturb people with that

sort of filth? Poor Doris.



Bye, Linda. We were

having such a nice party.



- Such a shame.

- I can’t bear to know those feelings.



I’d forgotten

all about those things.



Oh, I’m sorry, Doris.



They won’t come back.

I’ll be all alone.



I won’t be popular anymore.



They won’t use me

in the family anymore.



And you made Doris cry!



She cried because

it is true.



What are you going to do now?

Haven’t you done enough harm?



Leave me alone, Linda. I’ve

got reading to do. Quite a lot.



- What’s the matter with you? Aren’t you well?

- It’s nothing.



I’ve got to read.



I’ve got to catch up with

the remembrance of the past!’



Comments:























Post a comment:



Next entry: A question and an answer

Previous entry: Atlantropa: The EU’s Solution to the Immigration Problem?