A Texas parent has asked that a novel about the perils of censorship be removed from his child's curricula
Irony of ironies, a man named Alton Verm of Caney Creek, Texas wants Ray Bradbury's science fiction novel, <U>Fahrenheit 451</u> removed from the high school curricula because the book contains:
"discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God's name in vain"
The novel is itself about censorship - the title refers to the temperature at which paper burns. It poses a warning to society about the preservation and passing on of knowledge as well as asking whether the government should do the thinking for the people. The hero, Guy Montag, is a Fireman, one of the people who burns books, which are forbidden entirely. When a book-hoarder sets herself on fire rather than let the Firemen have her books, he begins to question why people would feel so fanatical about the subject and starts to read and think for himself.
