Fahrenheit 451 an introduction

What if? What if you had no right to read? And therefore, no right to write? And really, then, no right to think…

Themes Within 451 Censorship Free Speech Witch hunts Intellectual Freedom Civil Rights Ignorance vs. Knowledge Life vs. Death Animal Imagery Technology Paradoxes

Novel Timeframe: Sometime in the 24th century Once thought to be born of fire. Setting- In and around an “unspecified” city. There have been two atomic wars since 1990 to the opening of the novel.

Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings. -Heinrich Heine

Banned Books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn All Quiet on the Western Front The American Heritage Dictionary The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin The Bible The Chocolate War The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank Gone With the Wind Grapes of Wrath

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Lord of the Flies The Merchant of Venice Raisin in the Sun The Scarlet Letter To Kill a Mockingbird Where the Sidewalk Ends Fahrenheit 451

U.S. Constitution Article the third [Amendment I] Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Throughout history, both churches and secular institutions have taken turns as the book burners.

Examples… Under the Emperor Hadrian, the teaching of the Jewish Scriptures was forbidden; the Roman authorities regarded such teaching as seditious and tending towards revolt. Haninah ben Teradion, one of the Jewish Ten Martyrs executed for having defied that ban, is reported to have been burned at the stake together with the forbidden Torah scroll which he had been teaching. According to Jewish tradition, when the flame started to burn himself and the scroll he still managed to say to his pupils: "I see the scrolls burning but the letters fly up in the air" - a saying considered to symbolize the superiority of ideas to brute force.

The Oxford Martyrs The Oxford Martyrs were tried for heresy in 1555 and burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for their religious beliefs and teachings. The three martyrs were the Anglican bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Under order of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Nazi gangs raided the Berlin Library and gathered "un-German" books including the works of world-class authors such as Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Jack London, H. G. Wells, and Emile Zola as well as those of Jewish writers. In this photo, Germans crowd around a stall filled with confiscated books soon to be burned. Photo credit: National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives

New Mexico Burning Harry Potter Books

Book Burning Incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents

Ray Bradbury -an author for all generations

Biography Known as one of America’s greatest creative geniuses. Has authored over 500 published literary works Was born in Waukegan, Illinois but moved around a lot as a child. Finally settled in Los Angeles, California when he was 14. As a youth, he loved magic and aspired to be a magician. Studied acting in high school but was encouraged to develop his writing talent by two teachers.

Wrote for television shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. Won acclaim for his own cable television series, The Ray Bradbury Theater. Is one of the preeminent science fiction authors of his generation. Is also a noted technophobe who has never driven a car and does not trust the Internet, computers, or ATM machines. Lived most of his adult life in Los Angeles; published works as recently as 2007. Died in 2012.

Less Obvious (but more important) Themes in Fahrenheit 451 Too much screen time & reality television Infotainment Mob mentality Passivity & Complacence The fear of knowledge; anti-intellectualism Avoidance of all offensive or uncomfortable material or theories Rewriting history The connection between knowledge & control Manipulating the ignorant; Information vs. Wisdom Inability for sustained attention & effort Isolation (loneliness even in a crowd)

Pop culture & the demise of wisdom

Fahrenheit 451 It is a warning of a cultural wasteland… and it is already proving true. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. -Benjamin Franklin