Friday, August 1, 2014

What is the significance of the quote "if they give you ruled paper, write the other way" at the start of the novel Fahrenheit 451?

Bradbury was writing the novel in response to a fear of
mass media and mass thought control engendered by the rise of television and its
entrance into so many American homes.  His feeling was that any sort of mass-marketed or
mass-accepted distribution of ideas and thoughts and rules was dangerous.  So if it was
embodied by someone handing you a sheet of ruled paper suggesting that you ought to
write in a certain direction, he thought you might as well challenge it by writing the
opposite way.


Much of the action of the novel is also
pushing towards this theme of challenging what is accepted and being willing to push
back, even if it is in a basic form like using paper differently than is
expected.

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