Probably the most ironic book to enter the banned book list is “Farenheit 451”. Set in the future, where fireman have the arduous task of burning books, “Farenheit 451” is arguably one the most influential books on modern day science fiction.

For example, “Farenheit 451” more than likely inspired the 2002 film, “Equilibrium”  in which Christian Bale, as a police officer, is responsible for ensuring the safety of the inhabitants of the futuristic state by keeping them emotionless through the use of medication and restriction from art, books, music, and anything that might prompt somebody to feel. Just as the fireman Montag in “Farenheit 451” begins to doubt the morality of what he is doing, Christian Bale’s character experiences a change after he misses a dose of the medicine.


“Farenhiet 451” unfortunately has many parallels to the real world as well. Although “Farenheit 451” was banned in Mississippi because of the use of the words, “God damn” in the text, many books are banned from school libraries because of their ideas, as in the case of those who are concerned that the Harry Potter books and their ilk will encourage the young to explore witchcraft or that those reading Judy Blume’s books might have sex.

It’s also interesting to note “Farenheit 451”s relevance in current times, which has more to do with the Internet than books. At the moment, Google has recently determined that the search engine site will stop censoring political information to the citizens of China, regardless of China’s retaliation. Google is planning to continue to censor sex and gambling sites in the country, but that is all.

It’s easy to imagine the hard-line hackers in the Chinese government as the modern-day equivalent to Montag’s fellow firemen, who are forced into restricting information as a means to controlling thought for the benefit of the state at a detriment to the people.

The obvious difference, however, between “Farenheit 451” and modern times is that each time there is censorship, there are more people fighting against the restriction of information than those who want to keep it for themselves.