Shades of Ray Bradbury circa 1953. My how times change.
Bradbury being a liberal concerned with far right nut job Joe McCarthy ( As he should have been ), put this work together.
Where are all the liberals on this. They should be hopping mad about censorship. Seems as though the left have forgotten all about civil rights. You all know. Those peskie
little freedom of choice issues being a large part of it. I am sure this is the tip of the iceberg.
Unbelievable.
Fahrenheit 451
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Fahrenheit 451 (disambiguation).
Fahrenheit 451 Cover shows a drawing of a man, who appears to be made of newspaper and is engulfed in flames, standing on top of some books. His right arm is down and holding what appears to be a paper fireman's hat while his left arm arm is wiping sweat from the brow of his bowed head. Beside the title and author's name in large text, there is a small caption in the upper left-hand corner that reads, "Wonderful stories by the author of The Golden Apples of the Sun".
First edition cover
Author Ray Bradbury
Illustrator Joseph Mugnaini[1]
Country United States
Language English
Genre Dystopian novel[2]
Published 1953 (Ballantine Books)
Pages 159
ISBN ISBN 978-0-7432-4722-1 (current cover edition)
OCLC 53101079
Dewey Decimal
813.54 22
LC Class PS3503.R167 F3 2003
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1953. It is regarded as one of his best works.[3] The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found.[4] The title refers to the temperature that Bradbury understood to be the autoignition point of paper.[5][6]
The novel has been the subject of interpretations primarily focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas. In a 1956 radio interview,[7] Bradbury stated that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he stated his motivation for writing the book in more general terms.
The novel has won multiple awards. In 1954, it won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal.[8][9][10] It has since won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984[11] and a 1954 "Retro" Hugo Award, one of only three Best Novel Retro Hugos ever given, in 2004.[12] Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.[13]
The novel has been adapted several times. François Truffaut wrote and directed a film adaptation of the novel in 1966, and a BBC Radio dramatization was produced in 1982. Bradbury published a stage play version in 1979[14] and helped develop a 1984 interactive fiction computer game titled Fahrenheit 451. A companion piece titled A Pleasure To Burn, consisting of a se******n of Bradbury's short stories, was released in 2010, less than two years before the author's death.
Co
Old_Gringo wrote:
Its hard to imagine that any school would have a problem with a book about a Christian family that helped Jews escape the Holocaust.
But Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with The Hiding Place, they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message.
We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves, Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI).
Pacific Justice Institute is representing a parent who discovered what they called a Christian purging of the charter schools library.
She was told by one of the library attendants that the library has been instructed to remove all books with a Christian message, authored by Christians, or published by a Christian publishing company, read a letter PJI sent to the public charter school. The attendant advised that the library would no longer be carrying those books. Indeed, our client was told that the library was giving those books away, and she actually took some.
Among the books deemed inappropriate, the PJI said, was The Hiding Place the biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who was imprisoned by the Germans for helping Jews escape the Holocaust.
It is alarming that a school library would attempt to purge books from religious authors, said Brad Dacus, president of the religious advocacy group. This is a major sweep by this charter school to eliminate the religious viewpoint. Libraries cannot engage in an open purging of books simply because they are of a Christian perspective.
Dacus said the charter school must reverse their ill-conceived and illegal book-banning policy. If they fail to do so, he said, PJI is prepared to take further legal action.
So why would a public charter school take issue with books written by Christians?
I figured Superintendent Hermsmeyer would be more than willing to set the record straight and explain the book purging. It seems I figured wrong. I gave her 24 hours to return my calls, and as of this writing, she has not done so.
But she did reply to the letter she received from Pacific Justice Institute. And what she told them was a bit alarming.
We are a public school, and as such, we are barred by law from purchasing sectarian curriculum materials with state funds, she wrote. We only keep on our shelves the books that we are authorized to purchase with public funds.
Im guessing Harry Potter is OK but Frodo is not.
Pacific Justice Institute said the charter school has violated the First Amendment. They cited a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that said local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. If youd like to read the entire case its Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico.
Hermsmeyer denied they were discriminating against Christian authors or publishing companies.
At no time, however, have we discriminated against Christian authors or publishing companies who create secular educational materials, she wrote.
Heaven forbid the children find a Bible in the library.
Its quite unfortunate that the charter school endorses the banning of books.
Some of the greatest literature of Western civilization comes from religious authors, Dacus said. Are they going to ban the sermons or speeches of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
I oppose all book banning. If a book offends you, dont read it.
The way I see it book banning is just one step away from book burning. And I dont mean to pour gasoline on the fire, but we all know what regime did that.
Its hard to imagine that any school would have a ... (
show quote)