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What does Ray Bradbury mean when he says through Faber, "The book has pores"?

Faber, an older dissident Montag meets, values books and reads them even though they are illegal. When he says books have pores, he means good books are filled with "texture," details and ambiguities that encourage people to think. Faber says the pores can be put under a microscope, by which he means examined and pondered, and


The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet...

Faber, an older dissident Montag meets, values books and reads them even though they are illegal. When he says books have pores, he means good books are filled with "texture," details and ambiguities that encourage people to think. Faber says the pores can be put under a microscope, by which he means examined and pondered, and



The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more `literary' you are. That's my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often.



Faber goes on to state that people turn away from the "pores" because the pores can reveal uncomfortable truths about life and force people to look at things they might not want to face. The giant view screens, in contrast, show only the "pretty," superficial side of life, Faber says, and work to keep people from asking questions. The televisor, he says, "tells you what to think and blasts it in."


Faber thinks it is important for people to wrestle with the "pores," the uncomfortable and sometimes ugly details in books that show us reality, rather than to be numbed by media that simply show a neat, uncomplicated, tidied-up version of reality.

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