Tuesday, January 2, 2007

DISHWATER

Books, so the damned critics said, were dishwater. No wonder the books stopped selling. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive. And the three-dimentional sex magazines, of course. There you have it, Montag. It didn't come from the government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressures carried the trick, thank God!

Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time. You are allowed to read comics, the good old confessions, or trade journals.

--from Fahrenehit 451, Ray Bradbury, 1950