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one evening in 1949 ray bradbury was out
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walking with a friend along wilshire
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boulevard in los angeles
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a police car pulled up alongside them
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and an officer began questioning the men
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bradbury was furious that he was made to
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feel like a criminal for simply walking
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on the side of the road
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he returned home and wrote a story
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called the pedestrian
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about a future society where humans are
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restricted from walking anywhere under
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any circumstances
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in 1951 the piece evolved into another
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short story called the firemen
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bradbury's publisher urged him to expand
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the story to feature length and in nine
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days in 1953 he completed fahrenheit 451
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[Music]
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bradbury took his inspiration from a
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spate of book bans and burnings that had
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occurred around the world during his
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lifetime
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during the 1920s and 30s lenin and
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stalin ordered the destruction of books
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they believed were harmful to the soviet
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union
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it's estimated that by 1927 60 of all
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books had been removed from soviet
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libraries
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[Music]
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in april 1933 the nazi german student
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association's main office for press and
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propaganda announced a nationwide action
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against the ungerman spirit
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its aim was to purify the german
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language and its literature to purge the
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country of texts that were seen to be
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unpatriotic
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university students carried out a series
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of book burnings across germany
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many of the works destroyed were by
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well-known jewish novelists
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intellectuals and scientists like franz
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kafka albert einstein and sigmund freud
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[Music]
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in germany the brown shirts of hitler's
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on our nazi army command world attention
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by boycotting germany's half million
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jews prisoning thousands and
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impoverishing tens of thousands and by
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reverting to medieval standards burning
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books that conflict with nazi ideals
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[Music]
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the largest book burning took place in
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berlin
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where a cheering crowd of around 40 000
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people gathered to hear a speech by the
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nazi propaganda minister joseph goebbels
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the german revolution has again opened
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the way for the true essence of being
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german revolutions that are genuine stop
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at no boundaries no area must remain
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untouched
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just as it revolutionizes people it also
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revolutionizes things therefore you are
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doing the right thing as you at this
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midnight hour surrendered to the flames
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the evil spirit of the past
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after the end of world war ii censorship
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grew in the united states as
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anti-communist paranoia swept the nation
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folks here's the answer to your problems
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dr utopia's sensational new discovery
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isn't
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ism will cure any ailment of the body
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politic it's terrific it's tremendous
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i hereby turn over to ism incorporated
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everything i have including my freedom
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and the freedom of my children and my
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children's children
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in return for which said ism promises to
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take care of me forever
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[Music]
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in 1950 senator joseph mccarthy
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announced that he had the names of over
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200 known communists working in the
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government
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apparently every time anybody says
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anything against anybody working for
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senator
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mccarthy accusing them of communism
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he embarked on a highly publicized
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investigative campaign now referred to
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as the red scare which failed to uncover
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a single communist in the u.s government
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in 1953 mccarthy sent his aides roy
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cohen and david shine
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to europe to visit us-run information
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service libraries
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these libraries were established around
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the world in the 1940s to provide
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official information to foreign citizens
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about american life and culture
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the u.s information service at istanbul
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attracts many young turks eager to learn
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about america
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an interest which has been continuous
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since famed robert college was founded
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by americans nearly a century ago
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[Music]
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mccarthy claimed the libraries had been
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infiltrated by communist literature and
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demanded that 30 000 books be removed
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from the shelves including works by mark
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twain and herman melville
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[Music]
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ask yourself
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what do we want in this country above
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all people want to be happy isn't that
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right haven't you heard it all your life
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i want to be happy people say well
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aren't they
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don't we keep them moving
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don't we give them fun
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that's all we live for isn't it for
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pleasure for titillation
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and you must admit our culture provides
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many of these
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after the second world war the united
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states entered a period of economic
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prosperity suburbs provided affordable
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housing options for the middle class
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which resulted in a demand for household
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appliances furniture and television sets
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while less than 200 000 homes had
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television sets before the end of world
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war ii by 1955 over half of american
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households owned a tv
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daytime soap operas targeted housewives
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while families gathered at night to
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watch sitcoms and game shows
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as a result the popularity of radio and
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print media declined as people
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increasingly relied on television as
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their primary source of information and
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entertainment
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with families increasingly moving to the
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suburbs cars became more essential than
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ever to the american way of life people
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could now easily leave cities and travel
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huge distances on the new interstate
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highways
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drive-in restaurants drive-in cinemas
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and shopping malls thrived as a result
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between 1950 and 1958 the number of
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registered cars on the road increased
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from 25 million to more than 67 million
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to buy one of his own cars became a
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symbol of freedom and a key aspect of
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american youth culture
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[Music]
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the young american breed is swinging in
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that wider radius the teenager has
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forsaken the parlor the car dominates
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his life
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75 percent of all high school juniors
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and seniors have driver's licenses
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44 of all teenage boys own their own
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cars
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this is the first generation of
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youngsters to have grown up with cars as
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an indispensable part of their daily
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routine
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[Music]
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as a result of the economic boom the
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teenagers of the 1950s had money and
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became a thriving market for
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corporations
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rock and roll music and hollywood films
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promoting rebellion and sexuality became
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highly popular as did teen idols like
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elvis presley his earnings
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[Music]
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everything seemed idyllic in the united
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states yet ray bradbury saw the dangers
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of these emerging trends in consumerism
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and popular culture
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he saw the potential for an oppressive
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future
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[Music]
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in 1516 thomas moore published the latin
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novel utopia
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which depicted an island nation without
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class distinctions poverty or crime
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the book's title combined the greek word
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for not and place to mean no place
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which suggested the setting was too
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perfect to exist in the real world
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the word utopia subsequently became
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associated with societies that possessed
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ideal social conditions laws customs and
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politics
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during the first half of the 20th
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century the concept of a dystopia had
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arisen in fictional texts like you have
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jenny zemyatins we aldus huxley's brave
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new world and george orwell's 1984
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dystopias were the opposite of utopias
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societies characterized by tyranny
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deprivation and
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what you injustice
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is real elements common to the dystopian
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genre include totalitarian governments
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oppressive technology
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and protagonists that grow to question
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and challenge the society around them
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fahrenheit 451 was an important and
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influential addition to the dystopian
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canon
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after its publication in 1954 the book
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met with instant acclaim and has since
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been adapted into two films a stage play
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a radio play and even a video game
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a testimony to the ongoing relevance of
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its themes and concerns
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[Music]
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you
