Wherever there is knowledge, there will be those who look to remove it, because facts and evidence can stand contrary to entire parties—and that really upsets oligarchs, demagogues, and dictators. For today’s post, let’s take a look at the world as Ray Bradbury envisioned it in Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and try to understand why burning books happens.
Novels
I am in the mood for pumpkins, ghouls, and Halloween specials, so I bought a couple of books to tide me over until the most glorious day of the year.
George Bernard Shaw is definitely a fascinating character and produced some fine work, so let’s take a brief look at the man’s life and career!
A summer poem by Tony Hoagland.
This is a story about a couple of drinking pals and their exploits, and it gets a little weird and a little unfriendly.
I can imagine the dark sky and the rain on the classroom windows and the autumn leaves blowing on the street outside. It was then that I thought to myself: “I am going to teach one day because I want this experience to exist for others.”
After writing about Sir Walter Scott, I had to track down the Border stories that inspired him to write great movements within literature, because, well, frankly, I think it’s really cool.
When I think of Sir Walter Scott, I think about Smailholm Tower, where under its looming shadow he was raised on romantic, adventurous tales of heroes and villains; and, with this tower over his head, he was compelled to read great literature and poetry ( by previous legendary authors, of course).
I love me some Jonathan Swift, so the last few posts have been focused on his life and writings, and this one is no different, as we are going to be looking at the four-part prose piece Gulliver’s Travels.
I remember reading A Modest Proposal at a young age and finding it funny—because our class had the background on the satirical piece itself. Audiences when the piece dropped weren’t so lucky and were quite disgusted by its implications, but the joke might’ve been lost on them, because the author, Jonathan Swift, was an expert satirist.
The Writing Post 