The Controversy Of Censorship

“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon." (Bradbury 58) Censorship is the act of suppressing speech, works of literature, music, movies, work of arts, and ideas that are thought to be politically incorrect, offensive, and threatening to society. The current idea of censorship began in Western Europe briefly after the invention of the printing press in the late 1400s, but the term ‘censor’ existed long before in the offices of censor in Rome in 443 BC while the first censorship law was established in China in 300 AD. The most famous case of censorship in ancient times is of an ancient Greek philosopher named Socrates. He believed that the more a person knew, the greater their ability to reason and make choices would be. For his beliefs many people felt that he threatened their way of life, leading to him being sentenced to death by poison. Before the 15th century monasteries controlled what could be written in books and manuscripts. They would burn all the books and sometimes even the authors that went against their religious lifestyles. They held great power over universities and places of publications. No books were allowed to be printed or sold without permission from the church. Due to the printing press many

For example, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first banned at the Concord Public Library in Massachusetts in 1885 for the use of the word “nigger.” Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was challenged because many people believed it went against their religious beliefs for using the words “hell” and “damn.” J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was removed from classrooms and school libraries for the use of the words “fuck you” on more pages than