BANNED BOOKS WEEK
Post #2
The first time I ever read of book-burning, I think I cried. I couldn't conceive! I still can't. I do know that as a child, I cried when I first learned of the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria, by fire.
{Even though its collection was all in scrolls, which I couldn't have read}.
Book Burning (tomecide) is a public expression of contempt for certain titles, authors, and for books in general. Destroying books has been performed for reasons of religion, politics, philosophy, or personal offense. Consider: removal of one or more books could be accomplished privately; burning books publicly is more about the individual's or group's or political party's or government's agenda.
Ray Bradbury stated in 1956 that he had written FAHRENHEIT 451 (publication 1953) out of his concerns with McCarthyism {an era promoting censorship, suppression of free speech and intellectual freedom, and "witch hunts"--quite similar to the Nazi Era of the 1930's and 1940's .--blogger interjection}. Later Mr. Bradbury expressed concern about the dumbing influence on modern culture of mass media. {Demonstrated efficiently in the book}
Fahrenheit 451: Challenged? Banned? Burnt?
Ironically, FAHRENHEIT 451 has been challenged more than once, redacted, and suggested for removal (in school systems).
The story is all about book burning {shudder}, and the title is the temperature at which paper burns. It's also a chronicle of the triumph of the human spirit, despite... It's a chronicle of wonder, and amazement, of the evolution of the imagination, and of change.
Review: FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
Something there is about Ray Bradbury' s incredible gift that is unlike any other I've read. I am certain that in some mysterious and unaccountable fashion, reading FAHRENHEIT 451 changed my life--or at least, altered me internally.
This novel made me grieve, for all the lost books, for all the lost knowledge, for the Firemen, who are such instruments of wanton destruction, and for a virtually blinded, "dumbed-down" populace, who would rather watch spectacularly-staged televised "talking heads" on their living room walls, than read or even think.
From the beginning, I knew this is a Dystopiana I never want to enter or experience. However, 64 years after its initial publication, popular culture holds little hope of avoiding it. We can only hope that, as in the conclusion of FAHRENHEIT 451, those there are who will memorize and retain millennia of wisdom, who will retain the wisdom of books.
The story is all about book burning {shudder}, and the title is the temperature at which paper burns. It's also a chronicle of the triumph of the human spirit, despite... It's a chronicle of wonder, and amazement, of the evolution of the imagination, and of change.
Ice Age by Brian Freemantle
