If you haven't read his new release "From the Dust Returned", then you can't call yourself a Ray Bradbury fan. It is once again a masterpiece of literature. And I am also sorry to say that F-451 has now been put on the list of banned books from school curriculums. This is one of the biggest mistakes that any school board could make; F451 was literary genious. But let me know what you think

I can't believe anyone would ban "Farenheit 451" It describes the reason banning books (and other thought) is so harmful. Perhaps they should study with the Taliban. Obviously, the decision to ban this book is rooted in close-minded ignorance. What would compel someone to ban it? The great themes? The unforgettable characters? The amazing dialog? The arguments about freedom of thought and expression? The fact that it has turned thousands upon thousands of HS students on to reading? I just don't get it! I can see arguments in some of the other books that have been banned; but the idea of banning Farenheit 451 seems pathetically ironic!

I thought we were beyond banning this book! It is an American icon! Who is banning it?

P.S. I am embarrassed about how much I haven't read (of Ray and others). I must repent or perish in ignorance!


[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 09-12-2002).]

I'd like to know what schools are banning it, too. It would be time to start writing their local newspapers about the insanity.

I was at a Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Chicago last week, on North State Street, and their banned books table didn't have a Fahrenheit 451.

They did have Harry Potter (banned because large church and school groups complained about the emphasis on witchcraft, etc. playing to an audience caught in the "hey kids, you just gotta read this" hysteria...

There was... To Kill a Mockingbird

Catcher in the Rye

Satantic Verses...(banned because it claimed that Mohammed was dictated to by Satan)....

but no...".451".

FROM A CLASSIC 451 COVER: Maybe the school boards of said districts should read the following: ("Irony of ironies!")

Montag is a fireman - a fireman of a future time when books are forbidden and reading is the greatest crime. For books lead to thinking, thinking leads to dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction can lead to a desire for change - a thing the government will do anything to prevent. Montag's job is not to extinguish fires but to set them: to burn the homes (occupied or not) of bookowners and, above all, to burn the books. He accepts unquestioningly the necessity for his work; what he cannot understand is the criminals who persist in hiding, preserving, and even distributing the banned material. And then one day Montag begins to read one of the books he has been destroying, and his life changes forever...