Another Way to Burn a Book

Policy Review ^ | December 2003 | Stephanie Segall

[tbird5]

In 1970s a publishing house approached author Ray Bradbury asking to reprint his short story, “A Fog Horn,” for a high-school textbook. Bradbury refused upon learning that the editor of the reader deleted two phrases from the story: “in the Presence” and “God-Light.” This particular incident prompted Bradbury to add a coda to his most well-known work, Fahrenheit 451, in which he wrote:

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist, Zionist / Seventh-day Adventist, Women’s Lib / Republican, Mattachine / FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

Bradbury is just one of many whistle-blowers who have felt an obligation to speak out against the witless censorship of overly sensitive interest groups. A compelling addition to the literature is New York University education professor Diane Ravitch’s exposé on censors of American public education, The Language Police. Ravitch has a strong background in public education. She was assistant secretary of education for research in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Bill Clinton appointed her to the National Assessment Governing Board, where she advocated the creation of a non-partisan national testing standard for American children. She is also the author of six books on the state of American education. These credentials lend weight to the case she makes against the censorship that now pervades all aspects of the American educational system.

[Puckster]

Didn't Tipper Gore champion some form of censorship on records?

[unfortunately a bluestater]

Objectivity, not political correctness, is the key, I think. In history, teach the facts. In literature, read the book, poem, essay, whatever as produced by the author. We are losing sight of truth.

[rawcatslyentist]

CENSORS**T
the Ramones off the Mondo Bizzazro album

  Tipper what's that sticker sticking on my CD                                                   
Is that some kind of warning to protect me                                                      
Freedom of choice needs a stronger stronger voice
You can stamp out the source but you can't stop creative thought 

  Ah Tipper come on, ain't you been getting it on
Ask Ozzy Zappa or me we'll show you what it's like to be free 

  Ah Tipper come on it's just a smokescreen for the real problems
S&L deficit the homeless the environment

  Hey hey all you all you senator's wives
Better take a good look at your own lives
Before you go preach to me                                                                      
Your definition of obsenity
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The irony it seems it seems to me
It's unamerican policy
Yeah, we come so far but still only to find                                                     
People like you with ignorant minds 

Shut down the Alphabet Channels (ABJazerra & Her Sister Stations)!
Vote with your Remote!

Christmas Heart
But, I Have A Plan
Zippo Hero
Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes

[OpusatFR]

"Bradbury is just one of many whistle-blowers who have felt an obligation to speak out against the witless censorship of overly sensitive interest groups."

Finally! This writer gets it! I have had it up to here with stupid columnists who insist Bradbury was referring to GOVERNMENT censorship when all the time the people themselves wanted censorship so as not to offend with different ideas.