Here's one for your irony file. "Fahrenheit 451" is about how our individuality contributes to our collective wisdom and how the resulting repository of human knowledge then allows individuals to find their way. That theme is apparently not universally understood:
Alton Verm, of Conroe, objects to the language and content in the book. His 15-year-old daughter Diana, a CCHS sophomore, came to him Sept. 21 with her reservations about reading the book because of its language.
[. . .]
"It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read "Fahrenheit 451." "The words don't need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class."
He looked through the book and found the following things wrong with the book: discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God's name in vain. He said the book's material goes against their religions beliefs.
The book is not really about heavy-handed government censors who want to control our thoughts, though that take on it is pretty widespread. The insidious thing about the society described by Ray Bradbury is that the government is merely responding to the people's wishes, giving them the comfortable world they want, where they do not have to be challenged and think of unpleasant things. Thus, Mr. Verm's unwitting courtship of irony.
