"You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't
have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we
want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't
that right? .... Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving,
don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? ....
Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people
don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it."

And that is precisely what the firemen do, in Ray Bradbury's
classic novel of the future, FAHRENHEIT 451. They search out and
burn books. It is a crime, in this society, to own or read books.
Trivial information, in this culture, is good, and knowledge is
evil. People receive all of their culture through television walls
that are built into their houses.

Guy Montag is a fireman who loves his work. He likes nothing better
than to spray kerosene on a pile of books and watch the pages curl
and turn into flakes of black ash that flutter through the air.
Until the day he meets Clarisse, a young girl who has been told
about a world of books, thoughts, and ideas. Their conversations
precipitate a crisis of faith in Guy, and he begins to steal books
and hide them in his home.

When his wife discovers what he is doing, she becomes terrified.
Eventually she turns him in, and he is forced to burn his beloved
collection. Guy flees to avoid being arrested, and joins an outlaw
band of scholars who are trying to keep the contents of important
books in their heads.

FAHRENHEIT 451 is a brilliant, disturbing novel. It is as
meaningful today --- perhaps more so --- as it was when it was
written in 1950.

This is Banned Book Week. It is as good a time as any to read this
novel, if you haven't read it before. If you have, you might want
to take a second look at it, and contemplate a life without
books.