Fahrenheit 451 (Chapter 3.2) Final Pages!!

[Music] hello and welcome to mica reeds today we're going to be continuing and finishing chapter three of Fahrenheit 451 you're gonna be like Micah Micah you can't read that many pages that's gonna make the video like two hours long well I don't want to make another one after this so we're just gonna make it a long video sorry anyways where are we sitting so let's back it up just one paragraph just to where we are we're on page 124 my god how did this happen said Montag it was only the other night everything was fine and the next thing I know I'm drowning how many times can a man go down and still be alive I can't breathe there's B be dead and he was my friend once and there's milli gone and I thought she was my wife but now I don't know in the house all burnt and my job gone and myself on the run and I planted a book in a fireman's house on the way could Christ the things I've done in a single week you did what you had to do it was coming on for a long time yes I believe that and if there's nothing else I believe it saved itself up to happen I could feel it for a long time I was saving something up I went around doing one thing and feeling another God it was all there it's a wonder it didn't show on me like fat and now here I am messing up your life too they might follow me here I feel alive for the first time in years Sid Faber I feel I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago a lifetime ago for a little while I'm not afraid maybe it's because I'm doing the right thing at last maybe it's because I've done a rash thing and I don't want to look like - I don't - look the coward to you I suppose I'll have to do even more violent things exposing myself so it won't fall down on the job and turn scared again what are your plans to keep running you know the wards on I heard God it's funny so the old man it seems so remote because we have our own troubles I haven't had time to think Montag drew out a hundred dollars I want to say thing I want to stay with you use it that I want this to stay with you use it in any way that'll help when I'm gone but I might be dead by noon use this Faber nodded you better head for the river if you can follow along it and if you can hit the old railroad lines going out of the country country follow them even though practically everything's airborne these days and most of the tracks are abandoned the rails are still there rusting I've heard they're still hobo camps all across the country here and they're walking camps they call them and if you keep walking far enough and keep an eye peeled they say lots of all at Harvard degrees on the tracks between here in Los Angeles most of them are wanted and hunted in the cities they survive I guess there aren't many of them and I guess the government's never considered them a great enough danger to go in and track them down you might hold up with him for some time get in touch with me in st. Louis I'm arriving on the 5:00 a.m. bus this morning to see a retired paint printer there I'm getting out in the open myself at last this money will be put to good use thanks and God bless you do you want to sleep for a few minutes I'd better run let's check he took them on tag quickly to the bedroom and lifted a picture frame aside revealing a television screen the size of a postal card I always wanted something very small and something I could walk to something I could blot out with the palm of my hand if necessary nothing that could shout me down nothing monstrously big so you see he snapped it on Montague with he be set said and it lit up M o nthe the name was spelled out by a voice guy Montague still running police helicopters are up a new mechanical hound has been brought from another district montague and faber looked at each other mechanical hound never fails never since its first used in track and quarry has an incredible invention and made a mistake tonight the network is proud to have the opportunity to follow the Hound by camera he'll hook up camera helicopter it starts unswayed down to the target Faber poured two glasses of whiskey we'll need these they drank no so sensitive the mechanical hound can remember and identify 10,000 odor indexes on 10,000 men without resetting Faber trembled a least bit and looked about his house at the walls the door the doorknob and the chains were Montag now set the chair while not James the chair Vermont now set Montag saw the look they both look quickly about the house Montag felt his nostrils dilate and he knew that he was trying to track himself and his nose was suddenly good enough to sense the path he had made in the air of the room and the sweat of his hand coming from the doorknob invisible but numerous as the jewels of a small can chandelier it was everywhere in and on about everything and he was a luminous cloud a ghost that made breathing once more impossible he saw Faber stop up his own breath for fear of drawing that ghost into his own body perhaps being contaminated with the phantom excitations and odours of a running man the mechanical hound is now landing by helicopter at the sight of the burning and there on the small screen was a burnt house in the crowd and something with a sheet over it and out of the sky fluttering came the helicopter like a grotesque flower so they must have their game out thought Montag the circus must go on even with the war beginning within an hour he watched the scene fascinated not wanting to move it seemed so remote that no part of him moves it was a play and separate wanders to watch not without a strange pleasure that's all for me you thought that's all this taking place just for me my god if he wished he could linger here and comfort and follow the entire hunt on through his swift phases and down alleys across streets over empty running avenues crossing Lots and playgrounds with positives here therefore necessary commercials of the other alleys of the burning house of mr. and mrs. black and so on finally to this house a Faber and himself seated drinking while the electric counts nuf down the last trail silent as a drift of death itself skidding to a halt outside that window there then if you wish Montag might rise walk to the window keep one eye on the TV screen open the window lean out look back and see himself dramatized described made-over standing there a limb din the bright small television screen from outside the drama to be watched objectively knowing that in other parlors he was as large as life in full color dimensionally perfect and if he kept his eye peeled quickly he would see himself an instant before oblivion being punctured for the benefit of how many civilian parlor sitters who've been wakened from sleep a few times ago by the frantic siren of the living room walls to come watch the big game the hunt the one-man carnival what do you have time for a speech as a hound seized him in view of ten or twenty or thirty million people might need sum up his entire life in the last week in one single phrase or a word that would stay with them long after the Hound had turned clinching him and it's Metallica a metal plier jaws and trotted off in the darkness while the camera remains stationary watching the creature dwindle in the distance the splendid fade-out what could he say in a single word a few words that would sear all their faces and wake them up there whispered Faber out of a helicopter glad something that was not machine nor animal not dead not alive glowing with a pale green luminosity it stood near the smoking ruins of Montag's house and the man brought its discarded flamethrower to it and put it down under the muzzle of the hound there was a whirring clicking and humming Montag shook his head and got up and drank the rest of his drink it's time I'm sorry about this about what me my house I deserve everything run for god's sake perhaps I can delay them here wait there's no use for you being discovered when I leave Bern the spread of brand the spread of this bed that I touched Bern the chair in the living room in your wall incinerator wipe down the furniture with alcohol wiped the doorknobs burn the throw rug in the parlor turn the air conditioning on full in all the rooms and spray with moth spray if you have it then turn on your lawn sprinklers as high as they go and hose off the sidewalks with any luck at all we can kill the trail in here anyway Faber shook his head I'll tend to it good luck we're both in good health next week the week after there get in touch general delivery st. Louis I'm sorry there's no way I can go with you this time by ear foam that was good for both of us but my equipment is limited you see I never thought I would use it what a silly old man no thought they're stupid stupid so I've given another Green bullet the right kind to put in your head go now one last thing quick a suitcase get it fill it with your dirtiest clothes and old suit the dirtier the better a shirt some old sneakers and socks favor was gone and back in a minute they sealed the cardboard valise with clear tape to keep the ancient odor of mr. Faber and of course said favors we're sweating at the job Montag doused the exterior of the Veliz with whiskey want that hound picking up two orders at once may I take this whiskey I'll need it later Christ I hope this works this shook hands again and going out the door glanced at the TV the hound was on its way followed by a hovering helicopter cameras silently sniffing sniffing the great night wind he was running down the first alley goodbye then Montague was out the back door lightly running with his half empty police behind him he heard the lawn sprinkling system jump up failing the dark air with the rain that fell gently and then a steady pour all about watching washing all the sidewalks and draining into the alley here at a few drops of this rain with him on his face he thought he heard the old man call goodbye but he wasn't certain he ran very fast away from the house down towards the river Montague ran he could feel the Hound like autumn come cold and dry and Swift like a wind that didn't stir grass that didn't jar windows or disturb leaf shadows on the white sidewalks as it passed the Hound did not touch the world he carries its silence with it so you could feel the silence building up a kind of pressure behind you all across town Montague felt the pressure rising and ran he stopped for breath on his way to the river it appeared through dimly wet dimly lit windows of wakened houses and saw the silhouettes of people inside watching their part of the walls and there and there on the walls the mechanical hound the breath of neon vapor spidered along here and gone here and gone now at home terrace Lincoln Oak Park up the alley towards Faber's house go past the Montague don't stop go on don't turn in on the parlor wall favors house with its sprinkler system pulsing in the night air the hound paused quivering no Montague held the to the windowsill this way here the propane needle flicked out and in houn in a single clear drop of the stuff of dreams fell from the needle as it vanished in the hounds muzzle Montague held his breath like a doubled fist in his chest the mechanical hound turned and plunged away from Faber's house down the alley again Montague snapped his gaze to the sky helicopters were closer a great blowing of insects to a single light source with an effort Montague reminded himself again that this was no fictional episode to be watched on his run to the river it was in actuality his own chess game he was witnessing move by move he shouted to give himself the necessary push away from the last house and the fascinating seance go on in there hell he was away a gun the alley and a street the alley is Street in the smell of the river leg out leg down leg out and down 20 million Montag's running soon if the cameras caught him 20 million Montag's running running like an ancient flickery Keystone comedy cops robbers chasers and the chase hunter isn't hunted he'd seen it a thousand times behind him now 20 million silently baying hounds ricocheted across parlors three-cushion shooting from the right wall to the center wall to the wall center wall to the left wall gone right wall and center wall left wall gone Montague jammed a seashell Dozier police suggests entire population on the Elm Terrace era to as follows everyone in every house in every Street open a front or rear door or look from the windows the fugitive cannot escape if everyone in the next minute looks from his house ready of course why hadn't they done it before why in all the years haven't this game been tried everyone up everyone out couldn't be missed the only man running alone in the night it's it the only man running alone in the night city the only man proving his legs at the count of ten one two he felt the city rise three he felt the city turned to its thousands of doors for the people sleepwalking in their hallways five he felt the hands on doorknobs smell the river was cool and like solid rain his throat was burnt rust and his eyes were wet dry with running he yelled as if this yell with jedem on fling him the last hundred yards six seven eight the doorknobs turned on five thousand doors nine he ran out away from the last row of houses on a slope leading down to a solid moving blackness ten the doors opened he imagined thousands on thousands of faces peering into yards and alleys and into the sky faces hit by curtains pale Knight frightened faces like grey animals peering from electric caves faces with gray colorless eyes great on some gray thoughts looking out through the number of the face but he was at the river he touched it just to be sure it was real he waited in and stripped in darkness to the skin splashed his body arms legs and head with raw liquor drank it and snuffed some of it up his nose then he dressed in favours old clothes and shoes he tossed his own clothing River and watched it swept away then holding the suitcase he walked out on the river until there was no bottom and he was swept away in the dark it was 300 yards downstream when the Hound reached the river overhead the Great racketing fans of the helicopter covered a storm of light fell upon the river and Montague dived under the great illumination as if the Sun had broken the clouds he felt the river pulled him further on its way into darkness then the light switched back onto the land the helicopters were filled with the city again as if they had picked up another trail and they were gone the hound was gone now there was only the cold river and Montague floating in the sudden peacefulness away from the city and the lights and the chase away from everything he felt as if he had left a stage behind in many actors he felt as if he had let left the great seance and all the murmuring ghosts he was moving away from an unreality that was frightening to Rhea into a reality that was unreal because it was new the black lands slid by and he was going into the country among the hills for the first time in a dozen years the stars were coming out above him in a great procession of Wheeling fire he saw a great juggernaut of stars forming the sky and threatened to roll over and crush him he floated on his back when the valleys filled and sank the river was mild and leisurely going away from people who ate shadows for breakfast and steamed for lunch and vapors for supper the river was very real it held him comfortably and gave him the lap at a time at last the leisure to consider this month this year and this lifetime of years you listen to his heart slow his thoughts stopped rushing with his blood he saw the moon low in the sky now the moon there and the light of the Moon caused by what by the Sun of course and what lights the Sun had sown fire and the Sun goes on day after day burning and burning the Sun in time the Sun and time and burning burning the river bobbled him along gently burning the Sun and every clock on earth it all came together and became a single thing in his mind and after a long time of floating on the land and the short time of floating in the river he knew he must never burn again in his life your Sun burned every day it burned time the world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and by time and time was busy burning the years and the people away without any help from him so if he burned things with a fireman in the Sun burn time that meant everything burned one of them had to stop burning the sudden wouldn't certainly so it looked as if it had to be Montag and people he had worked with until a few short hours ago somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping one way or another in books and records and people's heads and he weighed all as long as it was safe free from moths silverfish rust and dry rot and men with matches the world was full of burning in all types and sizes now the guild and the asbestos Weaver must stop shop must open shop very soon he felt this heel bum playing touch pebbles and rocks scrapes and the river had moved him towards Shore he looked in at the great black creature without eyes or light without shape and only a size they went for a thousand miles without wanting to stop and it's grass hills and forests that were waiting for him he hesitated to leave the comforting flow of the river he expected the hound there suddenly the trees might blow under a great wind of helicopters there was only the normal autumn wind high up going by like another river why wasn't the Hound running why the search veered inland Montague listened nothing nothing merely he thought all this country here listened to it nothing and nothing so much silence merely I wonder how you'd take it would you shout shut up shut up Milly Milly and he was sad Milly was not here and the Hound was still was not here but the dry smell of hay blowing from a distant field put Montag on the land he remembered a farm a visited when he was very young one of the few rare times he discovered that somewhere behind the Seven Veils of unreality beyond the walls of parlors and beyond the tin moat of the city cows chewed grass and Pig sat in warm ponds at noon and dogs barked after white sheep on a hill now the dry smell of hay the motion of waters made him think I'm sleeping in a fresh hay in the lonely barn away from the loud highway wit highways behind a quiet farmhouse and under an ancient windmill that word like the sound of the passing years overhead he lay in a high barn loft all night listening to distant animals and insects and trees the little motions and stirrings during the night he thought below the loft you would hear a sound like feet moving perhaps he would tense and sit up a sound move away you'd lie back and look out the loft window very late in the night and see the lights go out in the farmhouse itself until very young and beautiful woman would sit in an unlit window braiding her hair it would be hard to see her but her face would be like the face of the girl so long ago in his past now so very long ago the girl who had known the weather and it never burned by fireflies the girl who had known what dandelions meant rubbed off on her chin then she would be gone from the warm window and up here again upstairs near moon waiting room and then to the sound of death the sound of jets cutting the sky into black pieces beyond the horizon he would lie in the loft hidden and safe watching those strange new stars over the rim of the earth fleeing from soft color of dawn in the morning he would not have needed sleep for all the war motors and sights of a complete country night would have much rested and slept him while his eyes were wide in his mouth when he found though when he when he thought to test it was half a smile and there at the bottom of the hayloft stair waiting for him would be an incredible thing he would step carefully down on the pink light of the early morning so fully aware of the world that he would be afraid and stand over a small miracle and at last been to touch it a cool glass of fresh milk and a few apples and pears laid at the foot of the steps this is all they wanted now some sign that the immense world would accept him and give him a long time he needed to think all the things that must be thought a glass of milk an apple a pear he stepped from the river the land rushed at him like a tidal wave he was crushed by darkness and look of the country and a million odours on the wind that iced his body he fell back into the breaking curve of darkness and the sound and smell his ears roaring he whirled the Stars pored over his sight like a flaming meteors he wanted to plunge in the river again and let it idle him safely on down somewhere this dark land rising was like that day childhood swimming when from nowhere the largest wave in history of remembering slammed him down in the salt mud and green darkness water burning mouth and nose retched his stomach screaming too much water too much land out of the black wall before i'm a whisper a shape in the shape to eyes the night looking at him the forest seeing him the hound after all the running and rushing and sweating it out in half drowning to come this far to work this hard and think yourself safe inside with relief and come out the land at last only to find the Hound Montague gave one last agonized shout as if it were too much for any man the shape exploded away the eyes vanished the leaf piles flew up in a dry shower Montague was alone in the wilderness a deer he smelled the heavy musk like perfume mingled with blood and the gummed exaltation of the animals breath like oh all cardamom and moss and ragweed odor and this huge night where the trees ran at him pulled away ran pulled away to the pulse of the heart behind the eyes there must have been a billion leaves on the land he waited in them dry river smelling of hot clothes and worn dust and the other smells there was a smile like a cut potato from all the land raw and cold and white from having the moon on its most of the night there was a smell like pickles from the bottle and it smelled like parsley at the table at home there was a faint yellow odor like mustard from a jar there was a smell like carnations from the yard next door he put down his hand and felt a weed rise up like a child brushing him he felt fingers smelled of licorice he stood breathing the more he breathed land and the more he was filled up with all the details of the land he was not empty there was more than enough to hear to fill him there would always be more than enough he walked in the shallow tide of leaves stumbling and in the middle of the strangeness of familiarity his foot hit something that rang dully moved his hand on the ground he ardh this way a yard that the railroad track the track that came out of the city and rusted rusted across the land through forests and woods deserted now by the river there was a path to wherever it was going here was a single familiar ring thing the magic charm he might need a little while to touch to feel beneath his feet and as he moved into the brambles bushes and lakes of smelling and feel and touching among the whisperers and blowing down of leaves he walked on the track I'm surprised to learn how certain he suddenly was of a single fact that he could not prove once long ago Clara said walked here where he was walking now half an hour later cold and moving carefully on the tracks fully aware of his entire body his face his mouth his eyes stuffed with black notes in his ears stuff with sound his legs prickled with burrs and nettles he saw the fire head the fire was gone then back again like a winking eye he stopped afraid he might blow the fire out with a single breath but the fire was there and he approached warily from long away off I took the better part of 15 minutes before he drew very close to it indeed and he stood looking at it from a cover that small motion the white and red colour a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him it was not burning it was a warning it was warming wow he saw many hands held to its warmth hands without arms hidden in darkness above the hands motionless faces that were only moved and tossed and flickered with violet he hadn't known fire that could look this way he'd never thought in his life that it could be used that could give as well as take even the smell was different how long he stood he did not know but there was a foolish yet delicious sense of knowing himself as an animal come from the forest drawn by the fire he was a thing of brush liquid eye of furred muscle and hoof here's the thing of horn and blood that would smell like autumn if you bled it out on the ground he stood a long time listening to the warm crackle of the flames there was a silence gathered all about the fire and the silence was in the men's faces and the time was their time enough to sit this rustling track under the trees and look at the world and turn it over with his eyes as if it were held at the center of the bonfire a piece of steel these men were all shaping it was not only the fire that was different it was a silence Montague moved towards the special silence that was concerned with all of the world and then the voices began and they were talking and he could hear nothing of what the voices said but the sound rose and fell quietly and the voices were turning the world over and looking at it the voices knew the land and the trees in the city which laid down the tracks by the river the voices talked of everything there was nothing they could not talk about he knew from every cadence and motion of the continual stir of curiosity and in them and then one of the men looked up and saw him for the first or perhaps the seventh time and a voice called the Montague all right you can come out now Montague stepped back in the shadows it's alright the voice said you're welcome here Montague walked slowly towards the fire and the five old men sitting there dressed in dark blue denim pants and jackets dark blue shirts he did not know what to say to them sit down said the man who seemed to be the leader of the small group and have some coffee he watched the dark steaming mixture pour into a collapsible tin cup which was handed him straight off he sipped it gingerly and felt them looking at him with curiosity his lips were scalded but that was good the faces around him were bearded but the beards were clean neat and their hands were clean they stood up as if to a welcome a guest and now they sat down Montague sipped thanks he said thanks very much you're welcome Montague my name is Granger he held out a small bottle of colorless fluid how do they know his name drink this - it'll change the chemical index of your preparation half an hour from now you'll smell like two other people with a hound after you the best thing is bottoms up Montague drank the bitter fluid you'll stink like a bobcat but that's all right said Granger you know my name said Montague who entered nodded to a portable battery TV that's it by the fire we watched the chase figured he'd wind up south along the river we heard you plunging around in the fourth round out in the forest like a drunken elk we didn't hide as we usually do we figured you were in the river when the helicopter swung back over in over the city something funny there the chase is still running the other way though the other way let's have a look Granger snapped the portable viewer on the picture was a nightmare condensed easily passed from hand to hand in the forest all whirring color and flight a voice cried the chase continues north in the city police helicopters are converging on Avenue 87 in Elm Grove Park we in turn nodded they're faking you throw them off at the river and they can't admit it they needed it they know they can hold their audience so only so long the show's got to have a snap ending quick if they started searching the whole damn river it might take all night so they're sniffing for a scapegoat to end things with a bang watch they'll catch Montague in the next five minutes but how watch the camera huh bringing the belly of a helicopter now swung down an empty street see that whispered Granger it'll be you right up at the end of that street is our victim see our camera is coming in building the scene suspense long shot right now some poor fellow is out for a walk a rarity an odd one don't think the police don't know the habits of queer ducks like that many walk warning for the hell of it for the reasons of insomnia anyway the police have had him charted for months years never know when that sort of information might be handy today it turns out it's very usable indeed it saves face Oh God look there the man at the fire bent forward on the screen and man turned a corner mechanically and rushed forwards into the review into the viewer suddenly the helicopter lights shut down a dozen brilliant pillars that built a cage all about the man a voice cried there's Montag the search is done innocent man stood bewildered a cigarette burning in his hand he stared at the hound not knowing what it was he probably never knew he glanced up at the sky and the wailing sirens the camera rushed down the hound left up into the air with a rhythm and sense of timing that was incredibly beautiful its needle shot out is if to give the vast audience a time to appreciate everything the raw look of the victims face the empty street the steel animal a bullet nosing the target Montague don't move said the voice from the sky the camera fell upon the victim even as the Hound both reached him simultaneously the victim was seized by the Hound and camera and a great spider and clenching grip he screamed he screamed he screamed blackout silence darkness Montague cried out in the silence and turned away silence and then after a time the men sitting around the fire their face is expressionless and announced on the dark screen said the search is over Montague is dead the crime against society has been avenged darkness we now take you to the sky room with hotel Lux for a half hour of just before dawn the program of Granger's turned it off they didn't show the man's face and focus did you notice even your best friends couldn't tell if it was you they scrambled it just enough to let the imagination take over hell he whispered hel Montague said nothing but now looking back sat with his eyes fixed to the black screen trembling Granger touched Montag's arm welcome back from the dead Montague nodded Greentree went on you might as well know all of us now this is Fred Clement former occupant of the Thomas Hardy chair in Cambridge in the years before it became atomic engineering school this others dr. Simmons from UCLA specialists snort eiga you gas it professor West oh it was professor West here did a bit of for ethics and ancient study for now for column Columbia University quite some time ago Reverend Pett of our here gave a few lectures thirty years ago and lost his flock between one Sunday and the next first views he's been drumming with us some time now myself I wrote a book called the fingers in the glove the proper relationship between the individual and society and Here I am welcome Montag I don't belong with you said Montag at last slowly I've been an idiot all the way now we're used to that we all made the right kind of mistakes or we wouldn't be here when we were separate individuals all we had was rage I struck a fireman when he came to burn my library years ago I've been running ever since you want to join us Montag yes what do you have to offer nothing I thought I had to be part of the book of ecclesiastes and maybe a little of Revelation but I haven't even met now the book of Ecclesiastes would be fine where it was it here Montag touched his head Granger smiled and nodded what's wrong isn't that all right said Montag better than all right it's perfect great your turn to the Reverend do we have a book of the cliffs Ecclesiastes one a man named Harrison Youngstown Montag Granger took Montag shoulder firmly walk carefully guard your health if anything happened to the Harris you are the book of ecclesiastes see how important you've become in the last minute but I've forgotten no nothing's ever lost we have ways to shake down your clinkers for you but I've tried to remember don't try it'll come and we need it all of us have photographic memories but spend a lifetime learning how to block off things that are really in there Simmons here has worked on it for twenty years now we've got the method down we can recall anything that's been read once would you like some day Montag to read Plato's Republic of course I am Plato's Republic like to read Marcus Aurelius mister Seamans mr. Simmons is Marcus how do you do said mr. Simmons hello Sid Montague I want you to meet Jonathan Swift the author of that evil political book Gulliver's Travels and this other fellow is Charles Darwin and this one is Schopenhauer and this one's Einstein and this one here by my elbows mr. Albert Schweitzer a very kind philosopher indeed here we all are Montague arista feigns and Mahatma Gandhi and God Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas love peacock and Thomas Jefferson mr. Lincoln if you please we're all Matthew Mark Luke and John everyone laughed quietly it can't be said Montague it is replied Granger's filing we're book burners too we read the books and burnt them afraid they'd be found microfilming doesn't pay off we were always traveling didn't want to bury the film and come back later always a chance of discovery better to keep it in the old heads where no one can see it or suspected we're all bits and pieces of history and literature in international law Byron Thomas Paine Machiavelli or Christ is here and the hours late and the war has begun and we are out here and the city is there all wrapped up in its own code of a thousand colors what do you think Montague I think I was blind trying to go at things my way planting books and firemen's houses and sending in alarms now you did what you had to do carried out on a national scale and might have worked beautifully but our way is simpler and we think better all I want to do is keep the knowledge we think we will need and tact and safe we're not out to incite or anger anyone yet for if we are destroyed the knowledge is dead perhaps for good we are model citizens in our own special way we walk the old tracks we lie in the hills at night in the city people let us be we're stopped and searched occasionally but there's nothing on our persons to incur 'men 8 us the organization is flexible very loose and fragmentary some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints right now we have a horrible job we're waiting for the war to begin as quickly as then it is not pleasant but then we're not in control where the odd minority crying in the wilderness when the war is over perhaps we can be of some use to the world do you really think they'll listen then if not we'll just have to wait we'll pass the books or children by word of mouth and let our children wait and turn on other people hell I'll be lost that way of course but you can't make people listen they have to come round in their own time wondering what happened and why the world blew up around or them you can't last how many of you are there thousands on the roads and abandoned rail tracks tonight bums on the outside libraries inside it wasn't planned at first each man had a book you wanted to remember and did then over a period of 20 years of so we met each other traveling and got the loose network together and set out a plan the most important single thing we had to pound into ourselves is that we were not important we mustn't be pendens we were not to feel superior to anyone else in the world we're nothing more than dust jackets for books if no significance otherwise some of us live in small towns chapter one of Thoreau's Walden and Green River Chapter two and Wilden willow farm Maine why there's one down in Maryland only 27 people no bomb will ever touch that town it's the complete essays of a man named Bertrand Russell pick up that town almost and flip the pages so many pages to a person and when the war is over some day some year the books can be written again the people will be called n one by one to recite what they know and we'll set it up to type it until another Dark Age when we might have to do the whole damn thing over again but that's the wonderful thing about man he never gets so discouraged or just got disgusted that it gives up doing it all over again because he knows very well it's important and worth the doing what do we do tonight masked Montague wait said Granger and move downstream a little ways just in case you began throwing dust and dirt in the fire other men helped in Montague helped and there in the wilderness the men I'll move their hands putting a fire out together they said by the river in the Starlight Montague saw the luminous style of his waterproof five five o'clock in the morning another year ticked by in a single hour and Dawn waiting beyond the far bank of the river why do you trust me said Montague a man moved in the darkness the look of you is enough you haven't seen yourself in a mirror lately beyond that the city has never cared so much about us to bother with an elaborate chase like this to find us a few crackpots with verses in their heads can't touch them and they know it and we know it everybody knows it it was long vast population doesn't wander about quoting the Magna Carta and the Constitution it's alright the firemen were enough to check that now and then now the cities don't bother us and you look like hell they moved along the bank of the river going south Montague tried to see the men's faces the old faces he remembered from firelight lined and tired he was looking for a brightness to resolve a triumph over tomorrow that hardly seemed to be there perhaps he expected their faces to burn and glitter glare with the knowledge they carried to glow his lanterns glow with the lights in them but all the light that it came from the campfire and those men had seemed no different than any others who had run a long race searched for a long search and seen good things destroyed and now very late were gathered to wait for the end of the party and blowing out of the lamps there weren't at all certain that things they carry in their heads might make it refute damp dawn glow with pure light they were sure of nothing save the books run file beyond their quiet eyes the books were waiting in their pages uncut for the customers who might come by in later years some of the clean and some with dirty fingers Montague squinted from one phase to another as they walked don't judge a book by it's cover someone said and they all laughed quietly moving downstream there was a shriek in the jets from the city were gone overhead long before the men looked up Montague stared back at the city far down the river only a faint glow now my wife's back there I'm sorry to hear that the cities won't do well in the next few days said Granger it's strange I don't miss her it's strange I don't feel much of anything said Montague even if she dies I realized a moment ago I don't think I'll feel sad it isn't right something must be wrong with me listen said Granger taking his arm and walking with him holding aside the bushes to let him pass when I was a boy and my grandfather died and he was a sculptor he was also a very kind man who had a lot of love to give the world and he helped clean up the slum in our town and he made toys for us and did a million things in his lifetime he was always busy with his hands when he died I suddenly realized I wasn't crying for him at all but for all the things he did I cried because he would never do them again he would never carve another piece of wood or help us drop rays doves and pigeons in the backyard or play violin the way he did or tell us jokes the way did he was a part of us and when he died all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way that he did he was an individual he was an important man I've never forgotten his death often I think what a wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died how many jokes are missing from the world how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands he shaped the world he did things to the world the world was bankrupted of 10 million fine actions the night he passed on Montag walked in silence milly milly he whispered Milly what my wife my poor wife Milly poor and poor million I can't remember anything I think of her hands but I don't see them doing anything at all they just hang there at her sides and they live there on her lap there's a cigarette in them but that's all Montag turn and glance back what do you give to the city Montag ashes what did the others give to each other nothingness grandeur looked back at Montag everyone must leave something behind when he dies my grandfather said a child or a book or painting her house or the wall built or pair of shoes made or a garden planted something your hand touched some way or your soul was somewhere to go when you've died and people look at the tree or flower you planted you're there it doesn't matter what you do we said so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away the difference between the man who cuts lawns and the real gardener is the touching he said the lawn cutter might just as well have not been there at all the gardener will be there at a lifetime Granger moved his hand my grandfather showed me some v2 rocket films once 50 years ago have you ever seen the atom bomb mushroom from 200 miles up it's a pinprick it's nothing with a wilderness all around it my grandfather ran off the v2 rocket film a dozen times and then hoped that someday our cities would open up more and let the green and the land in the wilderness in Moore to remind people that were allotted a little place on earth and we survived in the wilderness and you can take back what it has back what it is given as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we're not so big we follow how close the wilderness is and the night my grandpa said someday it'll come in and get us if we have forgotten now terrible and real it can be you see green shirt on turn to Montague grandfather's been dead for all these years but if he lifted my skull by God in the convolutions of my brain you'd find the big ridges of his thumbprint he touched me as I said earlier he was a sculptor I hate a Roman name status quo he said to me stuff your eyes with wander he said live as if you drop dead in ten seconds see the world it's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories asked no guarantees asked note for no security that never was such an animal and if there were he'll be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down on a tree all day every day sleeping its life away to help with that he said shake the tree knock the great sloth down on this ass look cried Montague and the war began and ended in that instant what ok later the men around Montague could not say if they had really seen anything perhaps the merest flourish of light and motion in the sky perhaps the bombs were there and the Jets ten miles five miles one mile up from the merest instant like a grain thrown over the heavens by a great sewing hand and the bomb was drifting with drifts dreadful swiftness yet sudden slowness down upon the morning city they had left behind the bombardment was to all intents and purposes finished once the Jets had sighted their target alerted that Bombardier at 5,000 miles an hour as quick as the whisper of a scythe the war was finished once the bomb was released once the bomb release was yanked it was over now fall three seconds all of the time in history before the bomb struck the enemy ships themselves were gone half or half around the visible world like bullets and such a savage in island air might not believe because they're invisible yet the heart is suddenly shattered the body falls in separate motions and the blood is astonished we freed in the air the brain squandered his few precious memories and puzzled eyes this is not to be believed it was a merely adjuster Montag saw the flit of the great metal fist over the far city and he knew the scream of jets that would follow and would say after the deed disintegrate leave no stone on another perish die Montag held the bombs in the sky for a single moment with his mind in his hands reaching helplessly to up at them Ron he cried to favor to Clarissa run to Mildred get out of there get out of there but Clarissa he remembered was dead Faber was out there was the deep valleys of the country somewhere at the 5:00 a.m. bus was on its way from it one destination to another though the desolation had not yet arrived it was still in the air it was certain as any man could make it before the bus had run another 50 yards on the highway its destination will be meaningless and it's points of departure change from Anna tropi list to junkyard and Mildred get out run he saw her in her hotel room somewhere now and the half-second remaining with the bombs er two-foot an inch from her building he started leaning towards the great shimmering walls of color and motion where the family talked and talked and talked to her with a family prattled and chatted and said her name and smiled at her and said nothing of the bomb that was an inch now half an inch now a quarter of an inch from the top of the hotel leaning into the walls if all the hunger of looking would find the secret of her sleepless unused there Mildred leaning anxiously nervously as if to plunge drop fall into that swarming immensity of color to drown at the bright happiness the first bomb struck Mildred perhaps who would never would ever know perhaps the great broadcasting stations for their beams of color and light and talk and chatter went first into oblivion Montag falling flat going down saw or felt or imagined he saw or felt the walls go dark in Willie's face heard her screaming because in the millionth part of time left she saw her own face reflected there in a mirror instead of a crystal ball it was such a wildly empty face all by itself in the room touching nothing starved and eating of itself and that at last she recognized it has her own and looked up quickly at the ceiling as it and the entire structure of the hotel blasted down upon her carrying her with a million pounds of brick metal plaster and wood to meet other people in the hives below all in their quick way down to the cellar where the explosion rid itself of them in its own reasonable way I remember Montague clung to the earth I remember Chicago Chicago a long time ago Millie and I that's where we met I remember now Chicago a long time ago the concussion knocked the air crossed sand down the river turned the men over like dominoes in a line blew the water and lifting sprays and blew the dust and made the trees above them mourn with great Pat wind passing away south Montague crushed himself down squeezed himself small eyes he blinked once and in that instant saw the city instead of bombs in the air he'd placed they had displaced each other for another there was impossible instance the city stood rebuilt and unrecognizable taller than it had ever hoped or strived to be taller than man had built taller than any man had built it erected at last and gouts of shattered concrete and sparkles of torn metal into a mural hang like a reversed avalanche a million colors a million oddities a door where a window should be a top for a bottom side for a back and then the city rolled over and fell down dead the sound of its death came after Montag lying their eyes gritted shut with dust a fine wet cement of dust in his net now shut mouth grasping and crying now thought again I remember I remember I remember something else what was it yeah yeah part of ecclesiastes part of aklavic Liese acid is in revelation part of that book part of it quick now quick before it gets away before the shock wears off before the wind dies book of ecclesiastes here he set it over to himself silently lying flat to the trembling earth he said the words of it many times and they were perfect without trying there was no denims dentifrice anywhere it was just a preacher by himself standing there in his mind looking at him there said a voice the men lay gasping like fish lay down on the grass they held to the earth his children hold the familiar things no matter how cold or dead no matter what has happened or what will happen their fingers were clawed into the dirt and they were all shouting to keep their eardrums from bursting to keep their sanity from bursting mouths open Montag shouted with them a protest against the wind that ripped their faces and tore at their lips making their noses bleed Montag watched the great dust settle and the great silence moved down upon their world and laying there is the scene we saw every single grain of dust every blade of grass that he heard every cry and shout and whisper going up in the world silence fell down in the sifting dust and they all the leisure they might have need to look around to gather the reality of this day into their senses Montag looked at the river will go on the river he looked at the old railroad tracks or will go that way world walk on the highways now and we'll have time to things into ourselves and someday after it sets in this in a long time it'll come out our hands and our mouths and a lot of it will be wrong but just enough we'll be right we'll start walking today and see the world the way the world walks and round and talks the way it really looks I want to see everything now and well none of it will be me when it goes in after a while it'll all gather together it all gathered together and inside and it'll be me look at the world out there my God my God look out there outside me out there be on my face and the only way to really touch it is to put it where it's finally me where it's in the blood where it pumps around a thousand times ten thousand times a day I'll get a hold of it so it'll never run off I'll hold on to the world tight someday I've got a finger on it now and that's the beginning the wind died the other man lay a while on the Dawn's edge of sleep not ready to rise up and begin a day's obligations it's fires and foods it's thousands of details of putting foot after foot and hand after hand they'll a blinking their dusty eyelids you'd hear them breathing fast and slower and then slow Montag set up you did not move any further however the men did likewise the Sun was touching the black horizon with a faint red tip the air was cold and smelled of coming rain soundly Granger arose felt his arms and legs swearing swearing incessantly under his breath tears dripping from his face he shuffled down to the river to look upstream it's flat he said a long time later the city looks like a heap of baking powder it's gone and a long time after that I wonder how many knew it was coming I wonder how many were surprised and across the world that Montag how many other cities dead and here in our country how many a hundred a thousand some one struck a match and touched it to a piece of dry paper taken from their pocket and a shove down shoved this under a bit of grass and leaves and after a while added tiny twigs which were wet and sputtered but finally cotton the fire grew larger in the early morning as the Sun came up on the men slowly turned from looking upriver and were drawn to the fire awkwardly with nothing to say and the Sun colored the back of their necks as they burnt bent down Granger unfolded an oilskin with some bacon in it well I have a bite and then we'll turn around and walk upstream they'll be meeting us up that way someone produced a small frying pan bacon went into it and the frying pan was set on the fire after a moment the bacon began to flutter and dance in the pan and sputter of it filled the morning air with its aroma you men watch this ritual silently Granger looked into a fire Phoenix what there's a silly damned bird called a Phoenix back before Christ every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up almost been the first cousin to man but every time he burned himself up he's spraying out of the ashes he got himself born all over again it looks like we're doing the same thing over and over but we've got one damn thing and the Phoenix never had we know the damn silly thing we just did we know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as soon as we know that we'll always have it around we can see it someday we'll stop making goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them we'll pick up a few more people and remember every generation he took a pan off the fire and let the bacon cool as they ate it slowly and thoughtfully now let's get on upstream Sid Granger and hold onto one thought you're not important you're not anything someday the load we're carrying with us may help someone but even when we had the books on hand a long time ago we didn't use what we got out of them went right on insulting the dead we went right on spitting on the graves of all the poor ones you've had before us we're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week in the next month in the next year and when they ask us what we're doing you can say we're remembering that's where we'll win out in the long run and someday we'll remember so much we will we'll build the biggest goddamn steam shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war and cover it up come on now we're about to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them they finished eating and put out the fire the day was bright and all about them as if a pink lamp had been given more wick in the trees the birds that have flown away quickly now came back and settled down Montag began walking and after a moment found that the others had fallen in behind him going north he was surprised and we've decided to let Granger pass but granter looked at him and nodded him on Montague went ahead he looked at the river and the sky and the rusting track going back down to where the farms lay with a barn stood and full of hay where a lot of people had walked by in the night and their way in their way from the city later in a month or six months and certainly not more than a year he would walk here again alone and keep right on going until he caught up with the people but now there was a long morning's walk until noon and if the men were silent it was because there was everything to do everything to think about and much to remember perhaps later in the morning when the Sun was up and they had warmed them and they would begin to talk or just say things they remembered to be sure they were there to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them Montag felt the slow stir of words the slow simmer and when it came to this turn what he could say what could he offer on a day like this to make the trip a little easier to everything there's a season yes the time to break down and a time to build up yeah so time to keep silence enough time to speak yes all that but what else what else something something and on the other side of the river there's a tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nation's yes thought in Montag that's the one I'll save for noon for noon when we reached the city and that's the end of the book we finished it guys that's the whole thing here is a picture of Montag dabbing so you win something he's not dabbing he's crying because that's his house that's burning up in that picture so there's me being insensitive so we finished the book let's do a quick review of this chapter ending and then the entire book and what it means so first what happened in this last part of the chapter Montag after he burned down his old boss speedy escapes planted a book at a fireman's house and I think that fireman was beetee's house so his wife would have to stick stand out in the cold then he went to Faber's house talked a favor for a while him and Faber worked out semi amounts of a plan Faber was going to go to st. Louis in the morning Montag was going to go run away south and so they turned on the news on like the only screen in his apartment which was hidden like behind up something a picture or something because he didn't want screens in his apartment because he I'd be like everyone else and so they pull up the screen and they look at it and they're following what is now a hound is being lowered by helicopter that they brought in from a different districts because their hand got burned up by Montag and so the hound gets dropped it sniffs around and starts following Montag's path and he's watching on TV he's like I can't be distracted by watching my own pursuit on TV so he he leaves he says by a favor favor gives him new clothes which he appreciates and so Montag gets that in a suitcase and get some whiskey too so he can try and cover up his scent as the Hound chases him down there's that spider him with like six legs and a proboscis and like clampy jaws I drew it awhile ago anyways so he's running around and he can like kind of feel the dog behind him like it leaves a presence like an absence of presence because it's not alive or dead it's kind of like just a robot and say like anyway so he's running away and he hears on his like a little earpiece thing the news is it's saying hey everybody that's on this street look out your window in ten seconds because he's probably out there and then he can let us know where he is and stuff Montag's like racing this countdown and they're like ten nine eight and he finally like cuts to the river which is like out of sight of all the houses and so everybody goes out but they don't see him because he's by the river and so he jumps he covers himself in alcohol the whiskey drinks some of it so he can cover his scent any changes out of his clothes into favors clothes the favorite gave him and then he just kind of drifts down the river and so the hound like reaches the river sniffs around a bit and then runs back into the city and so they they lost his scent he did a good job of that I'm sorry just gets carried down the city and just gets carried down the river and he disappears for a while and then all of a sudden he comes out of the river and he sees what he thinks is a hound but it's just a deer and it runs off and so he like finds the tracks that are he was supposed to follow the tracks south and so he finds the tracks and he follows them and all of a sudden he sees a fire in the distance he's like oh there's a fire there and so he approaches the fire and it's a bunch of old men having a good conversation around a fire and he'd never seen a fire like this before because the only fires he's seen are the ones you set which are like burning houses down but this one's like just a nice quaint little fire to keep everybody warm and I was like a different smell to it he likes he's really thinking about like the countryside and like the smells he never got the smell and things like that and who's being overwhelmed by his senses and so they say hey we know you're hiding back there once you join us and they introduce themselves and they're like hey we're keeping books and he's like were you keeping books and they're like we're keeping them up here and Montag is like oh interesting I have books up here too and so basically they say that they're people that have run out of cities and stuff they've been run out of cities by like committing crimes much like Montag has and it's happened all over the country and they're just wandering basically homeless people that have like kept these stories in their heads and they've formed a network of just like everyone keeps their own story like you remember these books I'll remember the pages of this book and everybody kind of like spreads out the knowledge of all the books they think are important throughout the country and they've like they say they've like found a way to like make sure they don't lose any of the information and they say we're gonna get it out to the public but we don't think we're better than anyone we don't want to like make it a thing we're just gonna keep storing it for whenever mankind needs it we're just gonna keep holding on to it and some on tags like cool I'll join you guys and I'm like yeah join us and so he joins them and they put out their fire like I have we gotta head south now and so they're like walking south and all of a sudden they look back at the city and in an instant like really an instant the entire city is just completely flattened just like boom bombs drop on it they say planes are flying it like 5000 miles an hour which is like fast hold on if Mach 1 is like 700 miles an hour they must be going it like Mach 6 or 7 which is really really fast it's like is that hypersonic I don't think that's hypersonic yet but that's supersonic and so planes flying dropping bombs instantly vaporize the entire city big shock wave everybody gets knocked down they kind of like are down until the morning and then they all get up and they're like hey I guess it's our time now does helping people out and spreading the the words of the books that we know and so they turn around and they start heading back towards the city or oh it was the city because now it's completely flat and I don't know what kind of survivors they hope to find in a city that's been like literally flat like a dust but maybe there's some survivors out there and so they want to go and but just talk to him and so in this moment a little bit they've been talking about like hey do you remember the book that you read or that part of the book that you read and Montag's like I can't really get it out I've been thinking about it like you won't you don't need to think about it it'll just come out when it's ready so right after the explosion it actually came to him the words and so as they're heading back to the city Montag's in the lead and he's like oh he I figured out a phrase I figured out a phrase that's uh that's part of the book that I read and that phrase is on the other side of the river there was a Tree of Life which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month and it leaves that tree were for the healing of the nation and so that's the part of the books he remembers he's like that's what I'm gonna carry with me and that's the end of the book that's it that was that was everything and so what was the point of his last statement there great question I wish I had kept it open because that would have been handy I think what's important here is healing of the nations that's the important part of the quote because people keep fighting people are constantly having Wars and there's flattening cities and not only where the cities flatten here but also overseas pundit ton of cities probably got flattened and the war was just began and ended just instantaneously just one straight attack it's interesting so hmm interesting so what is this book all about what's the point of it great question I think this is Ray Bradbury in general he likes to write books that are anti-war and kind of dislike moving towards like a global unity going into the future he wrote Star Trek I don't know if you knew that but he wrote the original Star Trek series and so I don't know if you've seen it probably not but it's all about like a global society wants to explore space because there's no more wars on earth the entire thing and so what's happened in this book particularly as things did not go well as humanity evolved we decided to keep locking ourselves in rooms with screens rather than talking to each other and in doing so and this is written like in a time where that wasn't something that really it was pretty future thinking to think that now what he didn't get right was this book was written in such a way that it would say that nobody cares about social sciences anymore and we're only gonna care about like tinkering with things so you don't actually have to think really hard about stuff you're just gonna want to sit there and be told stuff which is partially true people just want to sit there and be told stuff that's how news works but right now what I very much disagree with in this book is it says people will leave social sciences behind no more history no more like philosophy no more thinking about stuff like that but if you look at our country we have tons tons of people taking those useless degrees those psychology majors histories again major I guess political science those useless majors the social sciences where you think about stuff I'm an engineer so I can't appreciate this book as much as other people can I'm on the side of yeah we need to know history and ethics and that's that's about it anyways so yeah where's the book going what's the whole point of this so societies in this place where we're all looking at screens and stuff and we're not paying attention to people around us and we're burning books because we don't want things to remind us that we should be thinking we don't want things that will make us think we just want to be told all the time what to do we don't want decisions those sensations want to be made for us we just want to sit there and just be sponges to absorb things for all time and that's the whole thing that's a that's the the concept of a society therein and Ray Bradbury's disagreement with this through the character Montag is uh the people that burn those books that stop people from thinking which books are now illegal because I guess it's illegal to think not that that's really explained to well I think it's there's no natural benefit to it I think it was just kind of like a side effect I don't think you flushed it out well enough anyways so burning books that's his job it's Jesus one of those people in your lives hey why am i burning these books like what's what's what's with these books like what's what's so dangerous about him so he takes one home he reads it and he's like ow nothing special about him but he but he decides there's got to be something so he doesn't get rid of them and because he doesn't get rid of them his whole life falls apart he thinks that the things they're written in there they aren't like valuable but they are like in themselves but they do make you think which is what their value is and so he gives himself away a couple times he like recites poetry in front of other people and those other people who report him and eventually his wife reports him for having books and so he has to burn his own house and that's where everything starts falling apart it's not that long of a book it isn't even that dense there isn't that much of a theme to it either it's mostly just maybe you should think about things maybe rather than just absorbing all the time you should really just work things out by yourself like think about them and maybe we shouldn't have awards either it was kind of shoehorned in at the end it was kind of like wars are really terrible and they're only gonna get worse as time goes on but at least they'll be quick and so that was shoehorn in at the end is anti-war thing which I agree with obviously I don't think we should have Wars but I also don't think you should put in every single piece of literature you make which Ray Bradbury does anyways I think that's it if you my explanation was pretty trashed for this book I've been pretty good with other books but this one it's just so if you have any questions at all I will definitely look up and figure out answers to your questions just drop them in the comments I'll help you out thank you for joining me guys I'll catch you in the next video oh yeah also don't forget check out my other videos I have like a Florida man stories I do now I think I'm gonna be making them like once a week good entertaining content with absolutely no purpose so if you just want to absorb stuff like this book tells you not to check out my channel I got some stuff going on anyways thank you guys goodbye [Music]

Channel: Micah Reads

Views: 29,168

Rating: 4.9481134 out of 5

Keywords: michael, jordan, michael b jordan, fahrenheit, farenheit, 451, four, five, one, ray bradbury, book, books, audiobook, reading, aloud, content, hd, hq, news, hbo, hound

Id: 03J8UOMXUUY

Length: 63min 46sec (3826 seconds)

Published: Fri May 25 2018