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Ray Bradbury is against banning books. Ray Bradbury’s book, Fahrenheit 451, has ended up on banned books lists. So much for his theme about censorship …

Video Transcription:

Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books that has definitely ended up on lists of banned books. Isn’t that ironic given that Bradbury’s number one theme is: Censorship.

OK, so with the pages and pages about book burning and book banning and books being “dangerous,” it’s not hard to figure out what Bradbury was trying to say: He’s against censorship, of course!

But here’s the key part of this theme. Bradbury isn’t just against banning books. What Bradbury is really railing against in Fahrenheit 451 is the kind of thoughtlessness—the kind of limited thinking and narrow-mindedness—that he believes is at the heart of censorship.

Books have fallen out of favor for all sorts of reasons in Fahrenheit 451. Other forms of entertainment have taken over. There’s just too much stimulation to allow for quiet thought.

But the bigger point is not why books have fallen out of favor, but what’s happened as a result. In Bradbury’s society, people expect to be fed information. They don’t think for themselves. And like Mildred’s friend who voted for the president based on the candidate’s looks, they’re incredibly superficial.

That’s what Bradbury wants his readers to be alert to—and to challenge. We all know what will happen otherwise. Books—like Bradbury’s—get banned.