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"It is change ... that is the dominant factor in society today... the world as it will be. This means that ... every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.""
- Isaac Asimov
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| Salamander | ||
| Name given to the fire trucks of the future, which carry kerosene rather than water, and are used to burn houses. |
The fire trucks have a special role in Fahrenheit 451, of course; rather than providing equipment to put out fires, they are used to start fires.
| The Mechanical Hound was gone. Its kennel was empty and the firehouse stood all about in plaster silence and the orange Salamander slept with its kerosene in its belly and the firethrowers crossed upon its flanks and Montag came in through the silence and touched the brass pole and slid up in the dark air, looking back at the deserted kennel, his heart beating, pausing, beating. Faber was a grey moth asleep in his ear, for the moment. |
| Technovelgy from Fahrenheit 451,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Although salamanders are real creatures (lizardlike amphibians of the order Caudata, having porous scaleless skin), they once had the reputed ability to run around in fires. Here's an illustration of that legend from a modern classic Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling:
"...Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spend an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs."
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'... he had tightened the chest to gain maximum pumping action from the motion of breathing.'
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'And are all the people willing to be governed by a machine?'
'It's an old model,' Rawlins said. 'I'm not sure what to do.'
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...'
'He rode the bike with an intense lack of physical grace...'
