It was a pleasure to burn. --Opening line.
"Do you ever read any of the books you burn?"
He laughed. "That's against the law!"
"Oh. Of course."
He laughed. "That's against the law!"
"Oh. Of course."
"It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his
thoughts down, looking around at the world and life,
and then I came along in two minutes and boom!
it's all over."
- School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?
You can't build a house without nails and wood. If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood.' If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war.
"Remember the firemen are rarely necessary.
The public stopped reading of its own accord."
* * *
Last night we had a fire in the fire pit. In addition to sticks and logs we also burned some books. Before we're accused of book burning in the pejorative sense, these were books that a friend gave us for the purpose of burning. They were from a bookstore which gets credit for unsold books. Instead of sending books back to the distributor--which would be a shipping expense--they send the front covers so the remains can't be sold. The ashes from this book burning adventure might me called "the remains of the day."
* * *
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