A statesman is a politician who’s been dead ten or 15 years.

-- Harry S. Truman

A desperate disease requires a desperate cure.

-- Guy Fawkes

"It was a pleasure to burn!"

--Ray Bradbury

Ah, yes..."Guido" Fawkes!
(And of course, Guy Montag - his name suggests two significant possibilities — Guy Fawkes, the instigator of a plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in 1605, and Montag, a trademark of Mead, an American paper company, which makes -ironically - stationery and furnaces.) http://mycontemplations.files..../03/burning_book.jpg

I am aware of the "corporate" connotations of the name Montag, but I have always thought the literal meaning (German for "Monday", the start of a new cycle of days) was significance enough for the fireman's surname.

Phil,
Good one! I had not heard that previously. In view of the metaphor it does make sense. How much of these interesting twists did Mr. B purposefully conjure as he was running up and down the stairs from the basement to the bookshelves of the UCLA Library back in early 1951 ("The Fire Man")?

Then this irony: "Faber" is the name of a pencil manufacturing company. Bradbury also chuckles about this in his afterword. In many ways, Faber, the instructing professor, is like a pencil, writing on Montag's notepad. On a metaphorical level, Faber symbolizes the tool (as his name implies) of learning.

Blessed "Peter Faber" also met St. Ignatius (of Loyola) and became one of his associates. He tutored Ignatius in the Greek philosophy of Aristotle while Ignatius tutored the former shepherd in spiritual matters.

Like Montag, St. Ignatius goes on to greater things, in the world's view. So, the tutor (Faber) made the difference but remained somewhat in the background!

To us Brits, "Faber" has instant connotations of publishing, because Faber is a famous British publisher - see Wikipedia entry here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faber_and_Faber

I can't help thinking that Ray must have had a few Faber books on his shelves in the early 1950s, as they published a lot of poetry.

What delightful irony!

I was not thinking of a connection between Guy Fawkes and Guy Montag when I was posting that quote.

...or was I? Subconsciously Guided? I think so!

quote:

Originally posted by Kukai_Aoki:
Subconsciously Guided?

(sniff, sniff)

I smell story title!

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
Only this, and nothing more."

E.A. Poe
(RB's Papa)

"The Raven" published today in the New York Evening Mirror, 1/29/1845.

Aaaahhh...

We give dogs’ time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. In return, dogs give us their all. It’s the best deal man has ever made. - Margery Facklam

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create. - William Blake

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

- Henry David Thoreau

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

-- Mark Twain

"Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love."

- Butch Hancock of The Flatlanders