Book burning

A good old fashioned book burning, Nazi-style.

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“”Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them, at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us... Those who don't build must burn.

—Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“”Now, they didn't burn the books, they pulped them, which is more civilized. Also, books don't burn very well actually, I'm told, they're kind of like bricks, but pulping works. And it wasn't just our book that was eliminated, it was all the books published by that publisher.

—Noam Chomsky

Book burning is done to express condemnation of the content of certain books (and often also music in the form of LPs or CDs) by piling up the books in question and starting a bonfire with them. It is a symbolic expression of censorship. Sometimes book burning is not merely symbolic but a real attempt by a government to remove all copies of books opposed by the government from circulation by destroying them.

The irony is that while burning books is an act of freedom of expression, it is done in opposition to others' use of the same freedoms, and such events are usually viewed as noxious by the general public. The end result is usually negative publicity for those holding the book burning, although publicity of any sort and getting people riled up is probably what they had in mind in the first place.

While in modern times book burning is largely a symbolic act, in centuries past it was a means of completely erasing human knowledge and opinions. Before the printing press, many copies of the written word were unique, and burning them therefore rendered the contents lost forever.

Examples (in rough chronological order)

Ancient history

Lookee ma! We're havin' us a good ol' fashion'd buk burnin'!!

There are some exaggerated accounts from these times. Also, fire was a huge problem in ancient cities, as they obviously didn't have a modern scientific understanding of fire, nor did they have things like fire sprinklers. In China, the first emperor of Imperial China, Qin Shihuangdi, is said to have gathered all of the books (and their authors) that didn't have practical application (literature, history, philosophy, etc.) and had them burned and buried; this is known by the rather literal name of the "burning of books and burying of scholars" (焚书坑儒). Modern historians instead explain that he may have had it done on a small scale to "make an example"; it's unlikely he actually did it throughout his entire realm.

Burying of scholars and burning of books during the Qin dynasty.

The ancient Library of Alexandria was burned a bunch of times, although at least some of them appear to have been accidental. The accounts we have are spotty; according to ancient sources, one of the fires occured accidentally during Julius Caesar's siege of the city in 48 BC, although whether the blaze actually spread to the library itself or simply to surrounding buildings which also housed scrolls and manuscripts is not specified. What is certain is that the last remnants of the library were destroyed for good some time towards the end of the third century, a tragic and priceless loss of ancient knowledge. The Serapeum, a pagan temple which was referred to as a "daughter" of the Great Library, was destroyed at the end of the fourth century due to sectarian rioting in Alexandria; while some sources state that the building housed an "irreplaceable collection of classical literature", others claim that by this point there "was no remaining "Great Library" in the sense of the iconic vast, priceless collection" of scrolls". The destruction of the Serapeum is attributed to the Christian Saint Theophilus of Alexandria, although he was clearly "encouraged" by Emperor Theodosius I, who at the time was engaged in the "vigorous suppression of paganism".

Ten libraries, including the House of Wisdom, were destroyed during the Mongol sacking of Baghdad in 1258. Baghdad was the largest city in the world at the time and was the intellectual center of much of the Western world, but the Mongol invasion put an end to all of that. One library managed to survive and is a valuable collection of old and beautiful works, but in 2014 it's been threatened again by DAESH militants.

Spanish friar Diego de Landa burned almost all of the Mayans' books in 1562 in an attempt to destroy their religion and culture. Only three books survived the blaze. Despite this horrific erasure, he did document and research the Mayan culture that scholars found invaluable. De Landa's writings on the so-called "Maya alphabet" were ironically integral to the effort to decrypt the Maya script. Fortunately, while most Maya writing that was put to the regional equivalent of paper was destroyed by the Spanish, we have plenty of surviving examples of Maya writing that was either carved into stone or painted onto pottery. We also have plenty of examples of post-conquest Maya literature, as Maya scribes wrote down their histories and lore using the newly introduced Latin script.

Modern history

Copying books have been easier so destroying texts are considered more symbolic than effective, but they still happen.

United States

During the late 19th and early 20th century, the United States was dedicated to destroying any literature it considered to be obscene, such as pornography. Anthony Comstock, the head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, boasted about overseeing the destruction of 15 tons of books. However, "Comstock’s idea of what was obscene was expansive and included Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” anatomy textbooks for medical students and especially anything providing women with information about contraception. “Books are feeders for brothels,” he declared." The NYSSV would lead the charge to ban hardcore X-rated smut like James Joyce's Ulysses and D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. By the 21st history, the idea of book burning faded into public conscience, but usually, book burnings were held by insane fundies. The Amazing Grace Baptist Church, a small King James Only Independent Baptist church in North Carolina, gained international media attention in 2009 for announcing a Halloween book burning of all versions of the Bible other than the King James, plus "Satanic" books by Christian authors like Rick Warren, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mother Teresa. Before this, most people were unaware that burnings still happened, and the shock of the content to be burned was too much.

Even the 2010s in the United States saw a few prolific book burnings. Another extremist American Christian group, Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, gained notoriety when the pastor, Terry Jones, announced plans to burn the Qur'an on the 9^th anniversary of 9/11. When death threats and pleas against the burning from prominent fundies and politicians were lobbed in his direction, he chickened out on holding it… until April 2011, when the church "judged" it and burnt a copy on the barbie. Then, of course, this made other extremist Afghan Muslims whipped into a tizzy over it and killed members of a United Nations contingency. Then, of course, some politicians in majority-Muslim countries called for his execution while Western politicians blamed the old git for the riot deaths and the Religious Right and other far-right groups pointed to the whole thing as proof that Muslims are all violent savages. (They should be the ones deciding who to execute, dammit!)

Germany

One of the more infamous examples, the Nazis held large-scale book burnings in the 1930s to destroy all "un-German" or "degenerate" works. See also the degenerate art section in Modern art and architecture. In a 1935, a New York Times editorial decried the Nazi book burnings, noting that the books were burnt because they were critical of the government, whereas the concurrent book burnings of allegedly obscene literature in New York City were done to guard "public morals", which sounds quite similar to destroying "obscene" literature in the United States. What the editorial did not say was that the Nazi burnings were also justified under the guise of public morals. One particularly notable incident was the burning of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (roughly Institute of Sexology), which resulted in the burning of much of the literature of the time about LGBTQ+ people. The Nazis came to full power in 1933 following the February 28 decree eliminated most civil liberties. On May 6, the Institute of Sexology's library had been destroyed by the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi paramilitary organization.

Chile

Burning left-wing books during the early days of the Chilean military regime

The military following the 1973 coup that installed General Pinochet's dictatorship also committed to book burnings. Tragicomically, the dumb-as-sugar-cubes Chilean soldiers even burned books on Cubism because they thought it had something to do with the Cuban Revolution. One prolific example involved Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart's book, Para Leer al Pato Donald in 1972, was an anti-Disney and anti-American imperialism comic book that replaced captions in Donald Duck comics with scathing analysis. Dorfman worked in the government during the presidency of Salvador Allende (1970-1973). After the military coup, Dorfman was able to escape to a safe house. They immediately turned on the TV where they saw a live broadcast of one of his books burning by the military. Dorfman believes he may have been the first person to have seen his own book being burned on live TV.

In popular media

• One quote about book burning comes from the famous Jewish-German poet Heinrich Heine, who wrote in his 1823 play Almansor: A Tragedy a truly prophetic line: "Where they burn books, they'll end up burning people, too" (the line in the play referred to people burning or wanting to burn copies of the Qur'an). About a century later, a certain regime did exactly that. The quote now appears as a memorial inscription at Dachau.
• Several of Jack Chick's comics end with a book burning at a church after a new convert to Christianity renounces his/her former "Satanic" activities, and burns their Dungeons and Dragons materials, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, heavy-metal music, and those filthy romance novels with adultery and bad language.
• In the disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, several survivors camping in the New York Public Library use books as fuel for a campfire to keep from freezing to death. One of the survivors, a librarian, protests this decision, while another survivor suggests that they burn all of the tax books.
• Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 depicts a future dystopia of hedonism and anti-intellectualism in which books are forbidden. The job title of "fireman" no longer means a firefighter, but somebody employed to seek out and burn books (with the 451 in the title being the temperature at which book paper catches fire). In an example of supreme irony, Fahrenheit 451 itself was burned in South Africa during apartheid by government authorities.
• Otis Oracle, a character in the comic Bloom County, is head of the local chapter of the Moral Majority. He holds a book burning which the ever-mischievous Milo Bloom sabotages by bringing some foul and vile Pat Boone records to burn.

In the Bible

Papists burning Martin Luther's works (16^th century)

See the main article on this topic: Bible

• Acts 19:18-20: "And many that believed, came and confessed and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed."

What to bring

• The offensive materials
• Matches and lighter fluid, or other fun pyromaniac instruments
• Fire extinguisher (for when the priest stands too close)
• Chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers, hot dogs, etc.
• Bible (however, burning the KJV is looked down upon)
• Hymn Book
• Fundamentalist, closed-minded attitude

Sikh tradition

See the main article on this topic: Sikhism

Sikhs sometimes burn their own holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib (or just "Granth"). Sikhs believe the Granth to be an incarnation of their final guru, and hence treat it similarly to a living person. In Sikhism, when a person dies the preferred funeral method is cremation. Hence, when a copy of the Granth becomes unreadable it is considered to have died. Thus, the Granth is burned in a special ceremony. In this case it is more like book cremation than book burning.

Burning books as necessity

In order to cut down on stock, libraries sometimes burn books. Although it may be obvious that outdated phone books and other such materials are burned, antiques are sometimes also burned. They cannot simply give the books away in most cases, as any indication of which library the book came from will result in someone trying to return the book down the line.

Outside of libraries, book-burning is necessary for soldiers overseas due to the limited space and lack of return options. Sending them two boxes of your books — instead of, you know, actually useful supplies — in order to self-promote is not recommended.

Instead of burning books

Stop book burning (1942).

Burning books is wrong. Instead, you should have them taken out and shot. (Banks in fact still has the copy in question.) Even though they're cheaper, burning e-books is not recommended, though you CAN burn them on a CD or DVD. Consider reselling, gifting/donating, or reusing or recycling unwanted books instead.

See also

• Satanic panic

External links

• See the Wikipedia article on List of book-burning incidents.