[HPFGU-OTChatter] Book burning

[Sister Mary Lunatic]

Jen - good post on legal rights and book burning.  I'm reminded of several
things while reading your message:  Fahrenheit 451, the burning of the
Beatles records in the '60s, Hitler's book-burning rallys, the internet/WWW.

Fahrenheit 451, where books and reading of any kind were prohibited, so that
the state could control what information was going into the minds of its
citizens.  There were book-hoarders all over (England) hiding books and
memorizing books to keep literature alive.  I'd do that, for sure!  I can't
imagine a day going by without reading a book.  I always wondered how the
Fireman was able to read the books he pilfered during one of his raids -- I
guess he must have learned at school before books were banned.  It's been a
while since I read the book or saw the movie.

The Internet:  As long as there are computers world-wide, it's pretty
certain that no important book will disappear ever again.  I have hundreds
of megabytes-worth of full-text books on my computer and on CD-ROM (much
easier to hide from the Firemen than paperbacks, LOL).  Of course, if
there's some kind of holocaust, the CD won't be of much use without a
working computer {{sigh}}.  But if there's a nuclear holocaust, I imagine
reading won't have too high a priority on a list of survival skills.  Still,
the Gutenberg Project, along with hundreds of independent book-posters, are
the hope for the future of both classic and little-known literature.

Burning the Beatles:  Oldtimers may remember when John Lennon made an
off-hand remark "We're more popular than Jesus" and it was, of course,
immediately misinterpreted by thousands of lame-brains to mean that Lennon
thought he was better than Jesus.  O the perils of the off-the-cuff remark!
Dimwits all over the place organized burning parties where they tossed their
Beatles records and other memorabilia into the flames.  I remember thinking
how stupid they were, because the whole thing was a misunderstanding, and
they were eventually going to have to go out and buy new copies of the
records for their collections, which was just icing on the cake for the Fab
Four's bank accounts.

Hitler.  Book Burning.  We know how well that turned out.  'Nuff said?

SML


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Inside every older person
is a younger person -
wondering what the hell happened.
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