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In Praise of Banned Books, day 8: Fahrenheit 451

2008 at 8am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky

It’s only fitting to wrap up Banned Books Week by celebrating the book that is the ultimate warning against censorship and its implications for society. Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451 was the first book I read in a high school English class (with the awesome Mr. Hunsley from yesterday’s post), and it set the stage for what would become a deep love and appreciation for literature and the power it has to expand our minds and our world. It was a pleasure to re-read this classic and to fall in love all over again with books and reading.

Written in 1953 and still frighteningly relevant today, Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian future in which books are forbidden and firemen do not put out fires but set them to the homes in which books are found. Guy Montag is one such firefighter, but he is struggling with the temptation to secretly take and hide books, to read them and discover what is so powerful and forbidden. After burning down a house whose owner chose to be burned with it rather than go on living without her books, he wonders:

There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.

When Montag is traumatized by this event and is unable to go to work, his boss, Captain Beatty, visits his home and tells him the history of how books became forbidden. We learn that the ban on books grew out of movements in which citizens chose to stop reading because it emphasized the differences between them and seemed to cause more problems than it solved. Eventually, the goverment got involved, endorsing the idea that it was best for citizens not to think too much. Just tell me this paragraph wasn’t a prophetic prediction of what American society would become:

If the government is inefficient, topheavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it…Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Dont give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.

Fahrenheit 451 (the hypothetical temperature at which books burn) was hugely controversial upon its original publication, and it continues to ruffle feathers today. In 2007, individuals in Texas complained that the book’s references to drinking, smoking, and “dirty talk” (whatever that is), and its discussion of the Bible went against their “religious beliefs” (see here).

I find it so ironic that a book about censorship should be challenged and banned, but I suppose that’s what happens when authors present the idea that banning books is dangerous—the people who want the power to control what we read and who are afraid of having their ideas challenged get upset and want to remove the offending material. Fahrenheit 451 is one of the books on my “required reading for life” list. It’s too imporant to be ignored.

If you’re missed my weeklong celebration of banned books, see my daily features here: The Perks of Being a Wallflower—And Tango Makes Three—Catch-22—The Giver–The Things They Carried–The Bluest Eye–It’s Perfectly Normal

Devourer of Books has also done daily spotlights. Check these out: Kaffir Boy—The Grapes of Wrath—The Handmaid’s Tale—Native Son–In Cold Blood–To Kill a Mockingbird–Lord of the Flies. Visit her this afternoon at 2pm Central for her final banned book feature.

Thanks for celebrating banned books with The Book Lady’s Blog!

Filed Under Book Reviews

Comments

No Responses to “In Praise of Banned Books, day 8: Fahrenheit 451”

sahar009 on October 4th, 2008 9:14 am

Excellent review and intriguing book – I just added it to the list of books I want to read! Thank you!
Carla Pullum on October 4th, 2008 1:02 pm

Wow great review eye catching!
osarah on October 4th, 2008 1:04 pm

Thanks for the reminder of Farenheit 451. It was one of my favorite reads back in school, and I really want to go back and re-read it.
Banned Books Week is Over! The Past Week in Review on October 4th, 2008 8:27 pm

[...] Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury [...]
Jeane on October 5th, 2008 10:13 am

Such a great book. I really need to open it again. Funny, I never thought of this before, but does it really take such a high temperature to burn a book? I’d think that since they’re paper they burn pretty easily. And I used to be foolhardy enough to try and read books around a campfire!
Michele on October 5th, 2008 5:16 pm

Great choice….just last year, when I was still living in Houston, the school district just north of us removed this book from the shelves of the high school because of negative references towards God. Hmmmm.
Quote a Day, day 2 « The Book Lady’s Blog on March 9th, 2009 8:48 am

[...] Read my Banned Books Week feature of Fahrenheit 451 here. [...]
The Book’s The Thing » 50 Banned Books Everyone Should Read on June 13th, 2009 2:37 pm

[...] Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Perhaps the most ironic banned book situation, Fahrenheit 451 deals with the issue of censorship [...]
Sammie on September 14th, 2009 4:57 am

this was one of my favorite books in high school!