I recently stumbled upon a book that quite concerned me, for the record I will state I have not read the book. My analysis omes from the title which first caught my attention, and the synopsis of the book. The book is called The Bookburners, now that in itself was no big deal, it sounded intriguing and could have gone in many different directions. The first thing which came to my mind was the possibility that it was a take on Fahrenheit 451.
I looked up the book to read more about it. The premiss of the book is that a group of individuals who work for the Vatican have to hunt down certian books that are deemed dangerous to soiciety and destroy them. The book is a fantasy/supernatural story so the said dangerous books are certian books which contian and unleash dark magical powers. The ones who have to save humanity form the evils of magic are part of what is called the anti-magic squad.
The primary issues I have with this book while it puts it in a fantsy setting about books that release demons into the world it still seems to be sneding a message that some books are bad and it bis up to some people (specifically the Christian church) to determine that said books are bad and destroy them to protect everyone else.
The other problem I have with this book is its anti-magic message. The idea that magic is inherently bad and must be destroyed. Many of you might think well magic isn’t real so what does it matter? Well for many people who follow a spiritual path outside of Christianity thier beliefs and practices can be said to be magical in nature. For that matter the Bible itself contians magic, but of course Christians call them miracles and some how determine that miracles and magic are not the same thing and miracles = good while magic = bad but that is a story for another day.
To put things into context there is a book called The 21 Lessons of Merlyn, is is a book written as a guide for those who follow the Pagan path. Ala the storyline mentioned above this book could be deemed as containing evil magic and sentenced to be destroyed.
Some might say that The Bookburners is just a book and I am overacting but books do matter because they can reveal shifting tides in how culture is changing and what the mood of the society is. Yeah the book might just be a story, and maybe no one will take it seriously but you cannot say that the author was not aware of the message he was sending and he had enough of a following to get the book published.
Now unlike The Bookburners (and those of that mindset) I am not advocating that the book be banned or burned for that matter, but when potentially dangerous ideas pop up we should at least be aware and not caught of guard wondering what happened when the first seeds are there to warn us.
Labyrinth of the Mind 