Librarian Says Book About Censorship Is Being Censored
The Idaho Falls Public Library is in the middle of a community reading project to encourage people to read books. But the book the library chose is about censorship, and one librarian thinks the controversial book just like its topic, is being censored.
Library staff is encouraging everyone to read Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". They're giving out 15 hundred books, but the library staff is surprised that not everybody wants one.
Written in 1953, it's about censorship, propaganda and conformity. The book has been challenged and banned because it's also about thinking outside the norm, and making choices for yourself.
First off, Fahrenheit 451 is one of my absolute favorite books. If hard-pressed (i.e., I can't call the Lord of the Rings trilogy one book), I'd say it is my favorite book.
Secondly, the librarian is confusing "censorship" with "don't give a damn". Censorship we can fight - we can hold vigils, protests, etc. to shine the light of truth on the ugly roach of censorship. This, however, is people not giving a damn. The book's not censored; rather, no one wants to read it.
Which is a fucking shame. Bradbury really nailed our society some 55 years ago (holy SHIT is it really that old???) From the TV walls that cocooned Montag's wife to the farcical presidential race, one almost wonders if Bradbury himself had a time machine to our present time when he wrote F451.
Looks like I'm going to have to put my 52nd reading of Dune down and read Fahrenheit 451 for the 137th time...
(And apologies to James Rummel for the new category. It was fitting as well as in keeping with my alliterative alignments...)
That is all.
5 comments:
My boy, a sophomore in highschool, just read it in english class and typed out a very nice essay on it. I can tell it had a big influence on him as his essay was over flowing with enthusiasm for the story.I read it too way back when, but I reckon I'll be borrowing his copy to get reaquainted.
Oh geez!!! Why is it only the freaks in Idaho make the news. I have several friends who live here in Idaho and they are at least as normal as I am.... ;-P
I hadn't heard of the book or the freebie. Maybe I'll check it out and read it.
I'm usually too busy reading work stuff and kid books.
It is obvious that the librarian quoted never read the book, because as you correctly point out, "don't give a damned-ness" is not censorship. The really damning thing about people not wanting a copy of the book is that that very not-wanting was discussed in Fahrenheit 451 between Montag and his boss. The firemen did not set out to ban and burn the books; people stopped wanting to read them which eventually expanded to not wanting a tiny minority to read them either.
I read a news report and I think the reporter thought the librarian thought the lack of interest was censorship (what else is new), not that the librarian herself thought the lack constituted censorship. The librarian said that they put on a show about censorship and also had a talk about banned books.
I can't find the link but I read that the librarian said something to the effect that people are concerned about censorship but don't read (which gets back to Fahrenheit 451 in which Montag's boss tells him that the book burning started with people not reading, not the other way around).
I think part of the lack of attendance at the "banned books" meeting the librarian spoke of is that, honestly, almost no books are banned here in the US.
Sure, some get removed from school libraries, in small amounts in a few places (and honestly, some of them never belonged in a primary educational facility library in the first place) - but banned from a non-school library? Almost never, if ever.
And banned by the State saying you can't own a copy, produce a copy, or sell a copy? I've only heard of the latter two, very rarely, due to copyright issues, and the former? Not these past few decades.
Nobody cares about American censorship of books because it isn't currently a problem; not even close.
(And those places where it is a problem either don't care what Americans think or are thought of as Superior by The Right-Minded, such as Cuba.)
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