Experience forbidden reading
‘The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.’ – Mark Twain
Book Burning
Fiction - 1966 Movie
“I wasn’t trying to predict the future...I was trying to prevent it”. —Ray Bradbury
Reality - Twenty-first Century
Indeed, Ray Bradbury was prescient in his concerns about book burning in the future.
Burned out library ruins
Undoubtedly, the destruction of the library at Alexandria, Egypt, caused the worst loss of accumulated human knowledge in the history of the world.
Classic Banned Books
“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell. Specifically, parents in Florida challenged the 1949 dystopian novel in 1981 for being “pro-communist” and sexually explicit.
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. In 1922, after parent complaints about the use of racist epithets, the Burbank (CA) Unified School District superintendent removed this title from required classroom reading lists.
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. For example, the Corona-Norco Unified School District challenged this book as required reading in 1993 because it is “centered around negative activity.” Furthermore, a high school library in Foley, Ala., removed the novel in 2000 after a parent complained that it showed contempt for religion, marriage, and family.
“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. In 1972, a school district in Strongsville, Ohio, banned the 1961 antiwar novel. Ultimately, after students filed a lawsuit, a federal appeals court restored access. The court decided the students had “the right to receive information which they and their teachers desired to have.”
