The Book Chute, or Library Processing Unit 232.7,[1] is an artificial personality in the Sink in Big MT. It appears in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.
Background
The Book Chute is a mechanical device located in the Sink, acting as a recycling device for old books and writing implements. As such, it is capable of rapidly pulping, processing, and generating blank books from any written material input. It can also break down pencils and clipboards into raw materials for re-use.[2] However, it was disabled shortly after Doctor Mobius left the Think Tank for the Forbidden Zone.
If its personality back-up is recovered from Dr. Klein's house (House 101 in Higgs Village), the Book Chute reveals its personality to be that of a stereotypical jingoist censor.[3] The Book Chute considers all pre-War books to be seditious material, and it desires nothing more than their wholesale recycling into properly patriotic books (blanks) in order to protect the citizenry. In its view, only blank books are safe because only they can encourage the reader to "blindly and zealously accept what's put in front of [them];" it calls this its "sole joy" in life.[4][5][6][7] The Book Chute also has a function to mulch pencils and clipboards, tools which can be used to create "seditious literature," into lead, spare parts, and duct tape, which it considers more useful to society.[8][9]
The Book Chute reacts with disbelief and fury to any mention of Communism, communists, or independent thought, and blames all problems it finds on traitorous activity, Chinese communist plots, or the like.[8][10] It claims that it was intended to have a "re-indoctrination module" that would have helped get rid of seditious beliefs in its users, but that the module was cut for budgetary reasons. As such, when pressed, it can only give instructions on how users can indoctrinate themselves -- a process that involves "a cage that can fit over [their] head and a sack of Mole Rats."[11]
Interactions with the player character
Interactions overview
The Book Chute converts old books into blank books, with each old book turned in yielding one blank book. The books that it will accept are as follows:
These blank books can, in turn, be used at a workbench to create one skill book of each type. The player character will need to acquire the recipe holotape (which are single-use items) for the skill book they wish to assemble, as well as 25 blank books and two bottles of wonderglue.
The mulching upgrade allows the Book Chute to breakdown any type of clipboard into one duct tape and one scrap metal. It can also breakdown pencils into five lead and one scrap metal for each turned in. The four clipboard types it accepts are:
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
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This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. | |
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This character is involved in quests. | |
Quests
All My Friends Have Off Switches: The Book Chute is one of the appliances the Courier must upgrade.
Other interactions
- If the Courier protests about destroying books, the Book Chute will call this seditious and give partial instructions for the Courier to "re-indoctrinate" themselves, claiming that it cannot do so itself because its supposed "re-indoctrination module" was cut for budget reasons.[11]
Effects of player's actions
- The Book Chute has a single default ending slide which plays as long as it is installed before completing Old World Blues. In the ending, the Book Chute decides to slow down its shredding of old documents and clipboards after nearly jamming due to a paper clip, though it still adamantly blames the incident on the Chinese, claiming it was an elaborate assassination attempt.[10]
- Like the other personalities, the Book Chute has a new greeting after the completion of Old World Blues, but a bug may prevent the Book Chute's greeting from playing.[12]
Notes
- Borous references the Book Chute in a pre-recorded message in the X-8 research center. He refers to it as an "incinerator chute" and both are anti-communists.[13]
- The X-8 research center is a reliable place in the Big Empty to find books that can be used by the Book Chute.
Notable quotes
- "I smell... sedition!"
- "Ah! Good day, Citizen! Library Processing Unit 232.7 is on-line and ready to eradicate sedition!"
- "If you know what the word "proletariat" means, do you know what that makes you? Well read and erudite... for a Communist!"
- "Citizen! Did you know that Communists have an organ behind their eyes that converts salt water into fresh? Or, wait... is that penguins?"
- "If you haven't found any Communists in your back yard, you're not looking hard enough!"
- "The Commies have eyes everywhere, Citizen. And that means they're not just Commies. They're Peeping Toms! "
- "I never trusted those Think Tank brains. Gave off a stench like ivory tower elitism. And brine."
- "Blank books are better for the mind, Citizen! Real science by real men in lab coats has proved that introducing outside thoughts confuses the brain!"
- – The Courier: "But those books are our last legacy of the time before! You can't destroy them!"
– Book Chute: "Citizen, that sounds dangerously seditious. If my re-indoctrination module was installed, I'd take care of that for you. Sadly, that system was cut for budget concerns, so you'll have to perform your own indoctrination. Now, to begin with, you'll need a cage that can fit over your head and a sack of Mole Rats..." - "Welcome home, Citizen! Find any seditious materials out there?"
- "Greetings, Citizen! Ready to receive seditious materials!"
- "Questions are dangerously close to independent thought, citizen."
- "Stay loyal, Citizen!"
- "Look out! Communist! No, false alarm. It was just a plate."
Appearances
The Book Chute appears only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.
Behind the scenes
- Travis Stout wrote the Book Chute, in addition to all the other artificial personalities in the Sink.[Non-game 1]
- The character is an amalgam of several concepts from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
- The Book Chute's concept is reminiscent of the "memory holes" present within the "Ministry of Truth," where the material that contradicts the current government line are placed, never to be located again.
- The self-indoctrination tool ("a cage that fits over your head and a bag full of mole rats") is a direct reference to a form of torture used in the novel's finale, which finally breaks Winston Smith's resistance.
- The Book Chute will muse that the Courier could use the blank books to keep a journal. Nineteen Eighty-Four is formatted as Winston Smith's journal, which he decided to keep after finding a blank book at an antique store.
- The Book Chute's personality tape is found in house 101 in Higgs Village. Room 101 is the ultimate torture chamber in the "Ministry of Love," and where Winston receives the aforementioned rat-based torture.
- The Book Chute's model number is a reference to Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, which when converted into metric is 232.7 Celsius. The book presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Book Chute: "Ah! Good day, Citizen! Library Processing Unit 232.7 is on-line and ready to eradicate sedition!"
(Book chute's dialogue) - ↑ Book Chute Upgrade: Mulching
- ↑ Sink Project: Book Chute
- ↑ The Courier: "So you make blank books? What's the point of that?"
Book Chute: "Blank books are better for the mind, Citizen! Real science by real men in lab coats has proved that introducing outside thoughts confuses the brain! Blank books encourage the reader not to question, but to blindly and zealously accept what's put in front of him! Also, I suppose you could use them to keep a journal."
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Eradicate sedition?"
Book Chute: "Of course, Citizen! That's my duty and sole joy in life! All those books from before the War, full of seditious, treasonous, complicated thoughts! Just dump them in and lickety-split I'll have them pulped, scrubbed clean, and pressed out again clean and white and sedition free!"
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "I have some seditious material for you to process."
Book Chute: "Fantastic, Citizen! Just input your quantity of seditious material on my interface, and in no time at all I'll have you a beautiful, clean book! Won't that keep you happy and docile, Citizen?"
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Blank books, huh? Yeah, I think I can find a use for those."
Book Chute: "Now you're thinking like a citizen, Citizen!"
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Courier: "Can you do anything besides processing books?"
Book Chute: "What good is eradicating sedition if the malcontents have ready access to the means to make more, Citizen? I can also process pencils and clipboards! Wait a moment - pencil processors off-line? Pencil processors off-line?! Apologies, Citizen, it seems traitors have absconded with that module. If you can find a backup copy of the module, I will happily eradicate your ability to create seditious literature!"
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "I found a backup copy of your... pencil processor."
Book Chute: "Excellent! Now I can turn pencils and clipboards into items more useful to society... like lead, spare parts, and duct tape!"
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ 10.0 10.1 Old World Blues endings; Book Chute
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Courier: "But those books are our last legacy of the time before! You can't destroy them!"
Book Chute: "Citizen, that sounds dangerously seditious. If my re-indoctrination module was installed, I'd take care of that for you. Sadly, that system was cut for budget concerns, so you'll have to perform your own indoctrination. Now, to begin with, you'll need a cage that can fit over your head and a sack of Mole Rats..."
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ Book Chute: "I never trusted those Think Tank brains. Gave off a stench like ivory tower elitism. And brine."
(Book Chute's dialogue) - ↑ Borous: "-Please place all filthy propaganda books in the incinerator chute in the Sink, especially those with funny pictures of me in them.-"
(Borous' dialogue) Note: This line is spoken over the intercom inside the X-8 research center.
Non-game
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