I don't know if this belongs here or in D&D, so mods, feel free to lock or move this thread if necessary http://www.hcnonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17270600&BRD=1574&PAG=461&dept_id=532215&rfi=6 GET OUT OF OUR STATE
I love how ironic this is. Farenheit 451 was about a fictional government's attempts at eliminating books and knowledge and what do you know, some dad tries to do just that.
I wish somebody could point the irony out to the dad. I'm glad I went to a secular private school and didn't have to worry about this bs.
"Fahrenheit 451" was one of the best books I've ever read. Sadly, if my parents had known it was required reading for school, they may have put up a fuss about it. I wasn't allowed to read "Brave New World" senior year. I have read it since then however, and I've also read "A Clockwork Orange," "Catcher in the Rye," "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and pretty much every other book on banned lists. Censorship is a b****, but coming from a fundamentalist Christian home, I've seen first-hand the thought process that goes into whining about "language" and "inappropriate content." I did a research project on literary censorship last year. Most of the charges from these parents are completely asinine. It's not just Texas either.
Same state where they are firing an art teacher for taking kids to the Dallas Museum and exposing them to nudity. Backwards rednecks should move to OK.
There is no defense to idiots like this. I went to a CISD school. It wasn't nearly as bad back then as it has been over the past 10 years. A good friend of mine headed up a group that managed to stop the Montgomery county commissioners from banning books in the public library. It's an ongoing fight in Montgomery County against the morons from Conroe and east county. Anyone who listens to anyone named Alton Verm or a person from greater Cut-N-Shoot should be drawn and quartered...along with Alton Verm.
I think this guy would have a heart attack if he read "Catcher in The Rye." I "read" Fahrenheit 451 when I was a sophomore. By read, I mean that I sparknotes'd it. It seemed pretty good. I didn't find anything offensive about it at all.
It's just as good as the other two. Another series that delves into similar social commentary is Issac Asimov's series on robots (I think its actually referred to as the Robot Series) and his Foundation series. The Robot Series is a similar critique of utopia and social engineering.
That one is an amazing story. Principal apparently suggests that teacher take the students to the museum. A parent complains. Principal fires teacher for doing what the principal suggested. The best part of that story? When at least one of the local TV stations did a story on the controversy, they blacked out the "naughty parts" of the art. My parents were never all that strict when it came to these sorts of things, so I can't really relate. I really can't imagine my mother or father complaining about something like Fahrenheit 451... of course, we never read Fahrenheit 451, but we read some other books that have generated protests elsewhere. I dont recall hearing about anyone in any of my classes complaining about any of the books we read (we did get a big speech from the teacher about Huck Finn, though, before we read it. She basically told us to suck it up and get over it if we were offended), and I went to school in Amarillo, which is fairly well-known for its conservatism (and not just in the political sense of the word).
I read this book as a freshman at a Catholic high school. No complaints and no problems. We also "The Great Santini" which contains a passage in which the main character is an acolyte in church. He envisions a naked breast coming out of a chalice and he gets an erection. Nobody had problems with that either.
after watching some extended pay television I would let you know that when I think of Texas (beyond the Rocks) I generally think of boob jobs. everythings bigger in Texas they say. well, as far as trash TV is concerned, chicks in Texas = paid for boobies.
