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get them while it's still legal
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View this Thread in Original format
| SuspicionVandit |
i went to my beautiful public library (really, it's the best library in San Diego). After I finished my studies for the day, I decided to maybe spend the rest of the day reading a book. I've only read 1984 once, and that was in 9th grade, so I wanted to check it out again. Looked for it, it wasn't in the library, nor was it in any catalog in San Diego! 6 copies of Animal Farm in my library, 0 copies of 1984 in San Diego :/
So I decided to go with Clockwork Orange from Anthony Burgress. Much to my dismay, there was 0 copies in San Diego as well. I've used the terminal before, but maybe I was making a mistake, so I asked the "tech" guy and he said 1984 had been asked to be removed throughout San Diego libraries[/b]! (and he's never heard of Clockwork Orange, but my guess is the same) and all that they carried now was the CliffsNotes book. :/. and also "!"
And here they are carrying a copy of Jenna Jameson's autobiography (which is very interesting)
http://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-C...84718299&sr=8-2
| quote: | In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party's official image of the world is a fluid fiction. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imaginations through a process of bewilderment and brutalization that alienates each individual from his fellows and deprives him of every liberating human pursuit from reasoned inquiry to sexual passion. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
Newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime--in 1984, George Orwell created a whole vocabulary of words concerning totalitarian control that have since passed into our common vocabulary. More importantly, he has portrayed a chillingly credible dystopia. In our deeply anxious world, the seeds of unthinking conformity are everywhere in evidence; and Big Brother is always looking for his chance. --Daniel Hintzsche --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. |
http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-45...84718349&sr=8-1
| quote: | | In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy." |
http://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Ora...84718371&sr=1-2
| quote: | | When Alex's friends gang up on him and leave him to be arrested by the police, Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison. But then the opportunity to change presents itself to Alex, and he can't help but take the offer. Without ruining the story as so many previous reviewers have already done, I can say that when everything is said and done, important questions arise: is being good truly good if it is not by choice? Is it good to be bad, if that is what one chooses? |
cor version: Dick Cheney has been reading anti-utopia literature |
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| Sunsnail |
| Stupid Napoleon :mad: |
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| Silky Johnson |
| Wow, 1984 isn't that bad. ing s. |
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| Fast Turtle |
| funny, 1984 was on our sophmore reading list in high school in america. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| land of the free! |
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| SuspicionVandit |
| Fahrenheit 451 and Dante's Inferno were both banned when my 10th grade teacher gave it to us to read. Since the school library didn't have it, he'd bought all the copies (they were already years old from his previous classes) |
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| 604trancejunkie |
i had a choice of reading fahrenheit 451 or 1984 and i decided to read 451, cuz it looked easier to read, and much shorter :D (in grade 12)
but i jacked 1984 from my school.
another good book similar in genre is brave new world by huxley |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by SuspicionVandit
so I asked the "tech" guy and he said 1984 had been asked to be removed throughout San Diego libraries |
Is that true or is the tech guy just an idiot? I'm going to assume he's an idiot anyways for never having heard of A Clockwork Orange but all too often they let idiots run around with facts that they can relay to others. |
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| tranceDJ |
| quote: | Originally posted by 604trancejunkie
another good book similar in genre is brave new world by huxley |
Just finished reading that recently. Also read Huxley's non-fiction follow-up to it, "Brave New World Revisited."
Its just so interesting because one of the main topics in these books being taken out of libraries is censorship and how powerfully damaging it can be to freedom. You remove culture you move towards removing free-thought and then people can be more easily controlled. Scary that we see more and more of this today in the US.
It would nice to know who exactly asked those libraries to remove the books. They are clearly classics and deserve to be amongst the shelves of all other books. |
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| SuspicionVandit |
| quote: | Originally posted by 604trancejunkie
similar in genre |
(movies)
I saw Minority Report on TNT the other night where the government utilizes psychics who can see the future to incriminate people before they commit the crime, aka precrime. It's supposed to be an adaptation to a short story from Philip K Dick
There is also Children of Men, which is fairly new (2006). The book was incredibly boring, and I couldn't finish it. But the movie is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The human population (for a reason never given) has suddenly become sterile. Sperm is impotent and women infertile. The impending doom of human civilization has caused the world to collapse into war, famine and chaos. Britian is the only remaining place with some civility. They call anyone outside of Britian a "refugee", and there are strict immigration laws to keep refugees out (many of these scenes parallel the Abu Gharib treatment). I remember there being a lot more to the government in the movie, but that's all i remember right now.
There is a movie called Equilibrium, which I thought had a cool plot, but was horribly directed. I can't remember if art was banned or freedom of expressions, but it's almost like Fahrenheit 451. |
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