Post by @hipsterelectron@circumstances.run

d@nny disc@

@hipsterelectron@circumstances.run 2 hr. ago

AND WE GOT MELVILLE. AND BALZAC

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the cover of MOBY-DICK (or the white whale) by herman melville, in flames. on the opposite side of the title page is an illustration of captain ahab, with a peg leg. "Thought you could learn from these how to walk on the waters, did you?"

balzac's "Le Pea[xxx] Chag[xxx]". i'm not familiar with this text and can't match the title. "Montag must learn to think a little."

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d@nny disc@

@hipsterelectron@circumstances.run 2 hr. ago

when you realize these are truffaut's personal favorite texts the meaning of this scene is profoundly heart-stopping

d@nny disc@

@hipsterelectron@circumstances.run 2 hr. ago

the fire turning each page of the text as it burns, reading the books exactly once as it destroys them. much like an LLM, but also the way that the Book People must read a book in order to commit it to memory

d@nny disc@

@hipsterelectron@circumstances.run 2 hr. ago

recall that "commit" and "memory" long predate the practice of computation

d@nny disc@

@hipsterelectron@circumstances.run 2 hr. ago

Slim shrugged.

see how the print burns differently than the paper, how the text remains visible even in the act of destruction

a page from an unidentified text, close up, speaking of two characters, "Miss Blandish" and "Slim". the sentence begins "Miss Blandish didn't understand", and continues on the next line "just felt a cold sick feeling of fear". "sick" and "of fear" are progressively becoming blanked out by flame

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