Burning Books/Banning Books

TheRibbonOnMyWrist:

Okay, burning books people? For real? I understand that there are some things some people just do not want to hear or see. That's your personal choice. But for the love of all that is sacred, do not tell other people what they can and cannot read. It's this thing called freedom of speech. Don't ignore it.

Burning a book doesn't stop other people from reading it.

Certain books are for certain people. I don't think a librarian or somebody should tell a child they can't read a book because it's too big or too graphic. The parent should be the only one with the say of that unless the person knows what they can read.
Why would you burn them though? Well, if they were incredibly horrible maybe...

People still burn books? :cheese: I thought that died a long time ago.

^ Nope, it's very alive.
To me, burning/banning books is ridiculous. Books are like opinions; they have their own story to tell, their own life. I believe that books should be able to let us see their life, to let us see what kind of story they're going to tell us. I guess what I'm trying to say is that books are people as well, in a way. I know that sounds like a really immature thing to say.
When people burn/ban books, it's as if they're trying to control what goes through their society, like they're trying to limit the "evil" in the world. But like Nose Candy said, burning books won't stop others from reading them. They'll only want to seek those books out later and read them, simply because it is against what the authority says.
I really hope this comes to a close one day, but I doubt it. It's just like saying there will be peace in the world someday. It's impossible.

Book burning just seems so offensive. Well, unless there are books that are incredibly offensive to a group of people, sure, but if there are certains books you don't like - don't read them.

With banning books, I don't believe in that. I read the Catcher In The Rye at age 11 and I was fine to be honest. If people are so concerned with contents of books, then put a warning on them. If they wanted to bring the issue furthur, then maybe the rules with video games could be applied to books, books with "parental advisory" stickers can only be bought/borrowed with parental consent.

But there are a lot of books that I like, but my parents don't agree with.
It's always going to be hard with these kind of things.

Just have stricter control over who reads the books, for instance if a teen who is going to read an adult book, check then stop them.

Or

Like on computers you have blocks, do that with a book system

This reminds me of Fahrenheit 451.. Banning/burning books is so dumb. That's so medieval ages.

Mrs. Melting Crayons:

Almost every town in every country has some banned book, but fewer burn books. Personally, my city has banned some books such as...Fahrenheit 451

Oh the irony.

No books deserve to be banned or burned.
I believe people have the right to read anything they want to read, regardless of the contents of the book.

NOOOOOOOO THE BOOKS ARE MY BABIEZ :twitch: :twitch:

I don't think it's necessary, but then again I don't know much about these cultures or there ways. But my opinion is no!

This is never necessary.

I don't like it, but maybe in some situations, it is necessary?

double. :grr:

I was thirteen when I read "Go Ask Alice" and the book really opened my eyes to drugs and the affects it has on people and their families and it scared the crap out of me.So I don't think banning or burning books is needed. I believe its a stupid way to try to protect people from whatever they fear.

druscilla pushed.:

Mrs. Melting Crayons:

Some books, I'm okay with being banned as long as they're not ridiculously hard to get. In my town, there's a section in every bookstore for banned books, but we can't get them at a library or the library loses their funding.

My library was forced to ban a book that had a single paragraph that talked nongraphically about sex. The woman who crusaded to get the book pulled was the minister's wife at my church. She compared herself to Jesus in her crusade.

Also, I hate books being pulled because they have "witchcraft" or whatever. Harry Potter is not a book that needs to be banned. Neither is Anne Rice. I agree with ratings on books, like on movies, but not with banning them. Ever.

I agree. Ratings are fine. If a parent doesn't want their child reading a book because of the content, fine, that's that person's choice. But whole towns shouldn't ban books for everyone just based on one person's beliefs/opinions about it.

Mimi Marquez:

Mrs. Melting Crayons:

Almost every town in every country has some banned book, but fewer burn books. Personally, my city has banned some books such as...Fahrenheit 451

Oh the irony.

Fahrenheit 451? What could anyone possibly find offensive in Fahrenheit 451? *Googles it* Ah...apparently some people get offended because the Bible is burned at one point, so they think the author is advocating Bible-burning (*facepalm*), and the phrases "hell" and "damn" are sometimes seen as controversial, too. (:roll:) And another reason someone postulates is that people get offended by Fahrenheit 451 as our society grows more and more similar to the one in the book, so it consequently gets banned...?

Poor Ray Bradbury. :file:

Adam Lazzara.:

I don't like it, but maybe in some situations, it is necessary?

In what situations do you consider book-burning to be necessary?

emily.:

Well (I am not for book burning) a lot of people in this thread are saying "freedom of speech! freedom of speech!", and I may possibly have made the same argument earlier in the thread, but isn't burning a book someone's freedom of expression as well?

But then by burning it aren't you taking away the author's freedom of expression to create whatever literary work they want? The people who burned Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses were using their freedom of expression to say 'you don't have the right to freedom of speech as far as your book is concerned'. So it's pretty ironic. They're using their freedom to spit on another person's freedom. Is either any better?

I commented on this earlier, but I'd like to add that if it's your own personal copy, and it's your decision to burn the book, then I don't see anything wrong. If you buy the book, it's your property, so you should be able to do whatever you please with it.

On the other hand, no one should be banning books in places such as public libraries or school libraries. Everyone has a right to read whatever they feel like reading. And burning other's books, or trying to get rid of them by burning them, because you don't agree with their message or something, that's still wrong in my opinion.