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Fahrenheit 451

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Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is a dystopian science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. It is set in a world where books are banned and critical thought is discouraged; the central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this case, means "book burner"). 451 degrees Fahrenheit is stated as the temperature at which paper ignites and begins to burn. See fire point.

Though, given the time of the book's publication, its theme most obviously brings to mind the repression of intellectual freedom that characterised the McCarthy Era, Bradbury's critique of the censorial tendency also encompasses acts motivated by radical egalitarianism and what would today be called political correctness.

The book, with some plot changes, was made into a film in 1966 by François Truffaut, with Oskar Werner as Montag. There are plans for a remake in 2005, directed by Frank Darabont.

In addition to the movie, there have been at least two BBC Radio 4 dramatisations, both of which follow the book very closely.

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After meeting a girl named Clarisse McClellan, Montag, a fireman, starts questioning the world he is in. The plot is driven by Montag's rejection of the mindless world in which he lives. He begins to collect books, to the horror of his wife, Mildred, whose only interest in life is the viewing of vacuous television shows (a parody of 1950's programming). When ordered to put fire to his house, he does so before turning his flamethrower on Beatty, his fire chief. With the aid of Faber, a well-educated but timid old man, he eludes a police helicopter and escapes into the forest, where he joins a wandering band of intellectual rebels, who have committed books to memory. The books ends as he watches "the city" destroyed by an atomic bomb.

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