THE FAHRENHEIT 451 SOCIETY

By ABE and BIBLE BELTED

Does anyone remember a science fiction book titled Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury? We do. When some of us were growing up we read a lot of Bradbury and we feel that this particular book is especially prophetic.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the plot line, it takes place in a futuristic society in which books have been banned, the written word has virtually been stamped out. So we’re talking about a society in which not only offensive or controversial literature has been eradicated, but a totalitarian regime in which ALL written material has been effectively banned. In this regime, the individuals responsible for “maintaining order” as it were are the firemen, who hunt down and burn surviving books from the past. That’s right. You read us correctly. The firemen in this society, often operating on anonymous tips, are the preservers of repression as they go about burning books to preserve the stability of their insane world.

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