Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

Now considered one of the most influential writers in television history, Rod Serling is credited with creating many of the creative storytelling methods we use today. While he did not originate the anthology television series, Serling certainly perfected it with The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone was instrumental in the paradigm shift that led from people regarding television as an inferior subordinate to film, to eventually consider it as a serious art capable of accomplishing serious feats. The Twilight Zone was a safe way for Serling to communicate social and political messages while flying under the radar of censors and remaining ostensibly uncontroversial. Science fiction became the perfect medium as it could hardly be considered controversial.

In a world where logic is an enemy and truth is a menace, Romney Wordsworth is put on trial for being "obsolete". A former librarian in a time when books are done away with for reasons of obsolescence, Wordsworth stands up to the state by reminding them that they cannot "erase God with an edict," and that, "he is nothing more than a reminder to them that they cannot destroy truth by burning pages". This theme is one that is mirrored very closely in Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. (“The Obsolete Man”, 1961; Bradbury 1953, Fahrenheit 451) Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, to parents Spaulding Bradbury and Ester Moberg Bradbury in Waukegan, Illinois. Later becoming a literary powerhouse in the world of mainstream science fiction, Bradbury grew up admiring such authors as L. Frank Baum, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Despite making his decision to become a writer around the age of twelve, and only going as far as high school in terms of his formal education, the quality of Bradbury's works and the style in which they were written will live on forever. (“About Ray Bradbury”, 2012; “Ray Bradbury”,

Unwaveringly outspoken, he was not shy in his opinions of the schools that censored his writings. In an addendum, Bradbury addressed the letters he often got requesting that he change what he had written for reasons of political correctness. He mentions requests for representation in characters of minorities and special interest groups in his experiment in space mythology, The Martian Chronicles. Letters from publishing houses asked him to reprint his story, "The Fog Horn" in a way far more watered-down for high school students. Bradbury acknowledged the probable well meaning of the parents or school administrators making the requests, but referenced the dilution of literature saying, "Every story, slenderized, starved, ... resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like - in the finale - Edgar Guest. Every simile that would have made a sub-moron's mouth twitch - gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer - lost! ... Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention - shot dead." (“Censorship in the Age of