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“People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.” SAUL BELLOW
terrible five-year period when everyone died. “The Banoff,” as it had come to be known in the new-language, brought the human race as close to extinction as it had ever come. The Banoff plague had struck with the suddenness and fury of a fatal car crash.
But a true library, in the traditional sense of what they once had been, and what his still was, with physical books, would be extinct as soon as he closed the doors, in ten days, for the last time.
“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”
“Libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.” – John F. Kennedy, October 29, 1960.
“Morning, Runit,” Nelson said, inhaling deeply that flawless blend of paper, ink, and age. The scent of a million books.
One of the primary reasons physical libraries had died out so easily was that not many people could read the old books without a special computer interface.
‘More powerful than armies and police, stronger than guns and bombs, words are what change the world, and that is why they’re always a threat to those that rule with corrupt ways.’
“There’s no difference between a disease and a contrarian idea, once the epidemic gets started, things will never be the same.”
Missing Harper occupied less time than it used to, but her absence left an unending echo in his heart. “Whenever I read a book,” he continued slowly, “I could feel what she would have thought about it. Still, ten years after her death, I know what she would say to every question I have. How she would react to any situation. She was more than a person. Harper was part of nature the way rain and wind are. She was an experience, and everyone she knew swam in her existence.”
What a salute to a wife!!
It’s theatre. Sports heroes, film celebrities, rock stars, politicians, controversies of all sorts filling the daily news cycle, it’s all just different channels of the same show. Distract and keep them happy.”
The early Aylantik government took the position, still held seven decades later, that organized religions encouraged separateness. And while Aylantik was trying to save and unite a wounded and scattered world population, it had determined that separateness would only encourage war.
“Books are more than words, they’re dreams, ideas, and answers, and that is why they fear them,”
“Isaac Asimov once wrote, ‘It isn't just a library, it is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you -- and most of all, a gateway, to a better, happier, and more useful life.’
In truth, a library contains the entire universe, and each book is a portal to a different world.”
A corrupt leader needs to control what the people think so they don’t revolt. There are three ways to do that: don’t allow them to learn anything that counters the official line, bombard them with propaganda disguised as news, and finally, give them a distraction, usually an enemy.”
Dwight Eisenhower’s warning, “Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book...”
Losing your best friend, your guiding star, the bedrock of your life, is a hollowing I’m not sure I can endure . . . He stared blankly at Nelson, lost and destroyed. How does one live without unconditional love?
a line from Fahrenheit 451. ‘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 them.’ Ray Bradbury was wise a hundred years too early.”
