Doctor Curmudgeon® Fahrenheit 451
By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
Oh my goodness!
What is that awful odor?
It is actually making me ill.
It seems to be coming from outside.
I will not open the door….for I can recognize that smell. It shakes me to my core and I can almost hear the anguished screams coming from between the covers of books that have been banned. Books that have been thrown into a fire raging at the temperature of “Fahrenheit 451.”
One of the most frequently banned books was the classic written by George Orwell, “1984.” I was fortunate to read this novel in a college class where it engendered thoughtful discussions amongst us. The scene was 1984 London in which this somber book concerned a bleak future under the totalitarian rule of Big Brother. I have no idea why it was banned. Orwell’s “1984” was based on the Russia of Stalin and Hitler’s Germany. It was said to be pro-communism, when it was actually anti-communistic. It will be one of the first books to hit that fire.
And there is another book presenting its painful screams to my ears… To “Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee.
How could anyone censure this story of a young girl growing up in the South in the depression…a place of violence and inequality? The novel is the moving story of the girl and her lawyer-father who courageously defends a Black man who was unjustly accused of a crime. In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, she begins to see the despicable consequences of racism. Apparently, this classic has been banned because it made some people uncomfortable.
And even the treasured “Harry Potter” series by J.k. Rowling has been banned. Well my goodness! Who wouldn’t want these beloved books to be banned….they discuss magic and that just has to be anti-Christian. The ”Harry Potter” books are obviously satanic…so toss them onto the fire!
And we know the temperature to turn these books into charred ruins: “Fahrenheit 451”: Ray Bradbury’s nightmarish world of an America in which all books are burned.
This classic has been called a dystopian novel.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a dystopia as “An imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.”
In this futuristic society, people are glued to their television screen and books are outlawed, hunted and burned by ”firemen.” A stark warning about political correctness.
And there is such irony in “Fahrenheit 451”, a book about the banning of books….being banned.
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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