READ!

Ray Bradbury was 91 years old when he passed away this week, so I think he'd earned the right to a peaceful departure, but his loss is still sharp. Fahrenheit 451...I know a lot of people probably claim to love it, but it's true, I really do love it. (What is it about dystopian novels that draws us in?) Mr. Bradbury once said that it was his only work of science fiction, because it was the one that could truly come to pass. A number of people have argued that that isn't the case, they'd never outlaw books, the whole wraparound television thing isn't coming. What Bradbury was alluding to was much more subtle by today's standards. We see it all the time: someone in line at the grocery store, constantly on the phone because they can't be bothered to actually interact with the person that's standing right in front of them. Constantly texting instead of having dinner with the family. Video games and movies instead of going outside and playing a game of baseball (though given the speed with which people drive, which he ALSO mentioned...) His slippery slope argument is indeed just that, but to a degree, it's already coming true. Books are challenged by groups all the time in an attempt to have them removed from schools or public libraries, because we can't be exposing our children--or anyone else's--to certain ideas. If they read any Harry Potter books, they might get the idea that they can brew potions and such (though good luck finding powdered horn of bicorn). If they read The Grapes of Wrath, they might figure out that life during the depression was not terribly idyllic. If they read What's Happening to my Body?, they might find something out in a way that doesn't make it awkward for them. Are some books dangerous, as the society in Fahrenheit 451 so ardently believes? Maybe. I've read a lot of banned and challenged books, and I've never read one I'd categorize as dangerous. Fire will never destroy them, it matters not how many copies get burned.