“Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability.”

A parallel to modern day capitalism: poverty is synthetically maintained to allow the rich to stay where they are.

“Les utopies apparaissent comme bien plus réalisables qu'on ne le croyait autrefois. Et nous nous trouvons actuellement devant une question bien autrement angoissante: Comment éviter leur realisation définitive? Les utopies sont réalisables. La vie marche vers les utopies. Et peut-être un siècle nouveau com- mence-t-il, un siècle où les intellectuels et la classe cultivée réveront aux moyens d'éviter les utopies et de retourner à une société non utopique, moins "parfaite" et plus libre.” — Nicolas Berdiaeff

The word “utopia” is a term coined by Sir Thomas More in his samely-titled satirical essay “Utopia” a conversation between two people about this supposed perfect world. The word is a mix of the ancient Greek “ou,” ‘not,’ and “topos,” ‘place,’ thusly becoming “not a place.” The theme of utopia often explores, what is presented to readers, a perfect place. Rather than highlighting the perfection of that utopia, it provides a stark juxtaposition to our modern time.

I’m not used to reading more modern contemporary works like these!

“It was a pleasure to burn.” Such a short opening sentence with an enormous magnitude! Bradbury is meticulous in writing this in the perspective of Montag, who is part of the 451 task force in burning books. Through his perspective, he creates the associations of burning books with power, control, dominance, destruction, something that these book burners, including Montag, internally crave (i.e., a binary of those with power vs without power).

But, these desires, and such a rhetoric, is only a tact to control those people (often with a superiority/inferior complex and/or lack of critical thinking). Thus, the only people truly in power are the ones pushing the book burning from above, while everyone else, including the book burners, is being controlled.