Book Burning

I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451.  It is set in the future in a society that is, in a very extreme way, like ours.  Guy Montag is a fireman.  Instead of helping stop fires though, he starts them.  He is a book burner.  But he doesn't realize really what he is doing in the beginning.

I feel very strongly about book burning and the book burning mentality.  I think it is one of the worst things ever.  I can't even describe completely how horrible, ugly, and wrong I think it is.  Now you might be thinking, nobody burns books!  In this country maybe, but in others and in history it pops up. 

Here is the thing- people might believe that ideas come from books.  That was what people thought in Fahrenheit 451, that's what Ancient Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang and others might have thought.  I think that books might help plant ideas, but I don't believe that is where they are from!  The emperor thought that by burning books he would unite people more.  I believe that by doing such a horrible thing, aside from killing scholars and building the Great Wall, that he was setting up even more that it was before a him vs. everybody else mentality. 

What was upsetting about Fahrenheit 451 was that so many things were the more extreme version of what is already happening!  They said that people didn't really miss books.  Really, I think that's pretty true!  Many people like watching TV or playing video games or the like, over reading.

The other thing that was very upsetting for me was just thinking about burning books.  Can you imagine how horrible it would be to lose them?  Classics hundreds of years old, history that will never again be taught, because nobody knows!  Ideas and religions!  Ash.  Blowing away.  Lost.  Forever.

And now, even though people don't literally burn books, they have the book burning mentality.  You shouldn't read this book becasue it has this in it, you shouldn't read this book becuase it says this, they are bad books, dirty books, you shouldn't read this book because, because, because.... why?  Do you really think that people learn all about sex, drugs, suicide, homosexuality, violence and the like by reading a book?  Really?  If the reason you don't want to read a book is because you don't want to taint your soul, then you should never venture out into the world.  TV should be banned.  So should computers.  Songs should be banned too. 

The reason I did this post is because I read this article about Twilight being on the top list of books that parents disapprove of.  But that's not all.  It was talking about all of these books that have been on the list for some time now.  "To Kill a Mockingbird" was on the list.  It made me sick.