On the Burning of Books

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an intriguing apocalyptic story about censorship, and while it has some liberal thoughts, I found a portion of Bradbury's coda at the end of the book very interesting.  He mentions:

"Two weeks ago my mountain of mail delivered forth a pipsqueak mouse of a letter from a well-known publishing house that wanted to reprint my story "The Fog Horn" in a high school reader.  In my story, I had described a lighthouse as having, late at night, an illumination coming from it that was a 'God-light.' Looking up at it from the viewpoint of any sea-creature one would have felt that one was in 'the Presence.'  The editors had deleted 'God-light' and 'in the Presence.'"

Wow, to censor Ray Bradbury, the author who foretold of censorship.  And it's not that he comes across from a Christian point of view either.  Fascinating.

He then writes more about the editing of yet another "literature anthology" for school readers.  He asserts:

"How do you cram 400 (count 'em) short stories.....by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant and Bierce into one book?  Simplicity itself.  Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy.  Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito--out!  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 story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like--Edgar Guest.  Every word of more than three syllables had been razored.  Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention--shot dead.....the point is obvious.  There is more than one way to burn a book."

So what does this mean for homeschoolers?  Of course, I could ask, what does this mean for anyone, but the ones who really seem to care would be those who choose to home educate their children.  Do your best to avoid those watered down literature anthologies or pre-filtered abridged versions of, some of the best literature that is chosen by you for your children to read.  Allow them to be challenged by lengthy sentences, high-minded thoughts, tedious or challenging words.  Encourage them to read broadly and express their opinions freely about what they read.  I do not mean trashy stuff, I mean a wide variety with an eye to challenge and provoke them to grow into their own perspective on society, culture, worldview and ultimately to challenge them in their Christ-like walk in this age, above all not neglecting to absorb the Word of God with voracious appetite, knowing that possibly, someday, it could be abridged, filtered or burned as well.