İlahiyat Tetkikleri Dergisi (Apr 2025)
Fahrenheit 451, Books and History of Book Burnings
Abstract
Books are written sources of information that contribute to the history of civilization and culture. In certain periods of history books have been banned, destroyed, stolen, and removed for the personal interests of those responsible for their protection. The most effective and widespread way to destroy books has been to burn them. Incidents of book burnings that have happened for various reasons have mostly occurred in situations such as chaos and rebellion. Books have been burned in Athens, China, Jerusalem, England, Sarajevo, and Baghdad. The aim of this study is to examine the historical process and reasons for burning books through the events evoked by Fahrenheit 451 and stories of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Douglas Bradbury (1920-2012). Fahrenheit 451 is a novel in the science fiction genre. According to Bradbury, science fiction is also a sociological study of the future. The work stands out with the way it deals with social issues and people’s problems. Fahrenheit 451 builds a future based on a simple question: What if books were now just objects that were burned? Based on this question, it is necessary to emphasize that the book was written to prevent the feared situation from happening. Fahrenheit 451 is a book of warning. Bradbury envisions a future with advanced technology to stress that dependence on technology would change the structure of society and how people live as he fears that people will not read books in the future. In this study, information about books and book burning is given, based on the events in the Fahrenheit 451 novel and Fahrenheit 451 stories.
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