Lovely Lenten Lady #451

[tealin]

All right, hands up everyone who's read Fahrenheit 451 ... Okay, how many of you actually remember it? Do you remember the Hound? The robotic 'pet' at the firehouse that can outrun and hunt down miscreants and inject them with a fatal dose of barbiturates?

Yeah, um ... way not to be reassuring, there, Defense Department:

The Pentagon's 'Cheetah' breaks legged-robot speed record

If you haven't read the book, or don't remember it from when you did read it in school, I highly recommend a (re)visit when you get the chance — it suffers, I think, from being famous and lumped in with very serious and worthy books like 1984 and Brave New World; it's a short and ripping read and would easily make a fantastic movie if anyone thought to do it.* When I read it in school, in the mid-90s, I was astonished how prescient it was regarding the direction of popular culture, and that was before the invention of iPods and Bluetooth and giant wall-mounted flat-screen televisions.
*Edit: there was a movie made in 1966, but I mean a modern movie with post-Godfather sensibilities and really good effects. It would be sweeet!

One of the things that really surprised me when I reread it recently was Clarisse McClellan, the nonconformist who fascinates the protagonist at the beginning of the book. Just how much did she (and the book as a whole) influence the adult I became? I was already well on the path to being a freaky weirdo by Grade 9, but my life as a non-driver and the lack of a television in my house might be traced back to this. (Ray Bradbury lived in LA and never drove; I consider that acceptable company.)