Banned Books and Beatty

OK, opinion time. I know that I wanted to keep this blog light, and I still do, but the occasional opinionated spree on some issue is healthy I think. Especially since Marwa has come back to us and suggested it. ~♥

Banned Book Week. I haven't been interested in banned books since I was a kid, the sexy nature of a book that some one thought was "dangerous" was appealing to my adolescent self. But now I see more people talking out against banned books than I see books banned and I can't help feeling, at the most distaste and at the least disinterest in the whole event. It feels more like people looking for a cause to speak out about to create a stir and flaunt their indignation, and not people who believe in a cause in order to change their circumstance. That is just my experience, however.

My favorite banned book has always been Fahrenheit 451. It's one of my all time favorite books. Every time I see a new edition of it I have to read it, for one reason and on reason only: Captain Beatty, my favorite character in the book (and possibly out of any book). Every new edition has a different forward and afterward, in which there is often insight into the character Beatty that confirms what I thought about his character.

What I love about Beatty is the uniqueness of his character in the world he lives in. In case you have never read Fahrenheit 451, it is a novel that takes place in a world where books are illegal and firemen burn books instead of putting out fires. Captain Beatty is the fire chief and a loyal book burner, but it is also implied that he is the most well read character in the book. In one of the afterwards Ray Bradbury, the author, mentions a scene that he imagined years after writing the book of the protagonist going to Beatty's house and finding it full of books.

There are only a few characters that seem to break the status quo. The protagonist, the young woman he meets, and the men who are forming an human library are amongst them. And despite believing in the order of his world, Beatty isn't in the status quo either. That beatty believes in the book burning and not just accepts it sets him apart. He has been in a world of books, has read them, enjoyed them well enough to memorized passages, and still decided that book burning was OK. He is the true opponent to the idea that book burning is detrimental to society,one of the central themes of the books.

Which is why I find him so fascinating. He challenges my ideas and is wonderfully complex. He reminds us that those who think differently than us are not as dumb or thick headed or cold hearted as we want them to be. It is just that their experiences have brought them to different conclusions. Everyone's reality is different, but it is reality. And when two opposing realities cross there is no right and wrong; only a winner, a loser, triumph and bitterness.

Which is why I have trouble with absolutes and witch hunts claiming to be the righteous, when they are only trying to enforce their reality over someone elses. So, Banned Book Week, we've had some good times. I'm not a fan of censorship, you're not a fan of censorship and we'll always have that. Thank you for encouraging Fahrenheit 451 to be required reading in schools across the entire country. But in the foreseeable future, we just don't see eye to eye.

I could go on about my distaste of censorship, but I'll spare you (my state is trying to ban Ethnic Studies classes, just FYI, so it's a hot topic here).

Also: I have no idea what I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo! We can make "ideas for NaNoWriMo" the theme for next weeks blogs.