Friday, May 10, 2013
Censorship in Our World
In Fahrenheit 451, the main theme is censorship and how it can affect a world as a whole. Today we see censorship mostly in things such social norms. An example of this censorship is gay and lesbian wedding in most states of the United States of America. They don't allow these kinds of people to be married just because they think that it is not normal. In the book Fahrenheit 451 people are not allowed to read books because the government does not think that it is right. This kind of censorship really hurts people and how they are.. I do not think that censorship should be part of our world.
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You got a good theme for your book. Censorship is shown a lot in our society today because we see things that are not right in our eyes but normal for the people that have these defects. Your book looks interesting because the government does not let people read books, and they see that books are not normal to read. Maybe that world might have people that can not have think out of the box. You gave a good example about the homosexuals and the books banned in your book. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHey Carl. This is the very first time I am checking out your blog and I’m glad I did because the book you are reading is amongst the few I have not read. :) You spoke about censorship in your recent post and I find this to be a very interesting motif. The government censors information and mediums of information—namely books, songs, and websites—with a sole purpose: to maintain control over the ideology that dominates the minds of its citizens. In history you can find many examples of rulers who have executed censorship through various means. There was Hitler and the Qin dynasty, who guaranteed the loyalty of their citizens to their dictatorship through the “Burning of Books.” There is today the nation of North Korea, whose ruler, Kim Jong-un, has isolated the nation from all means of connection to the global community in order to avoid ideas from the outside world infecting his tyranny.
ReplyDeleteInformation is power and as those with authority recognize the breadth of its impact on the mind frames of their citizens. They thus censor it if it does not align with the principles they are promoting. There have also been instances in the past in which citizens themselves instigated censorship movements. Similarly to the government, their efforts were rooted in one thing—fear. They feared certain ideas, were uncomfortable with them, disapproved of them, and could not bear to watch them proliferate throughout their communities and infect the brains of their children. Censorship is also demonstrated in the banning of books in the United States against novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Color Purple that exposed ugly social truths.
Nevertheless, censorship is a major tool in the obstruction of ideological infection. It is in and of itself a very broad theme that can be found in so many different realms of real societies around the world. As I read your blog I appreciated the connections you made about things like homosexuality that deviate social norms and that people consequently shun through censorship. Your novel seems like a good science-fiction read and I may consider purchasing it someday.
I can totally agree with the point you make about censorship. I feel that so much is taken away from people, especially scholars (children and adult alike) when sources of information are banned. I recently did a report on a banned book, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, and I have been able to explore the several negative aspects of keeping such books from the general public. People are mature enough to make the decision of whether something is good for them to read, watch or listen to, and the choice to say yes or no to such a thing should not be taken from them!
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