Posted: 6/16/2006 2:49:00 PM
Author: Walter Skold
Source: http://www.4freadom.org/blog/
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The Pathology of Book Burning
by Walter Skold (Freadom Blog: Librarians, Writers and Activists for Intellectual Freedom in Cuba and Around the World)
Professor Rebecca Knuth has done the library and literary world a great service through her research and writing on the "evil" and pathology of book burning. Her excellent book, "Burning Books and Leveling Libraries," is a must read for anyone wanting to seek why someone like
Fidel Castro, an early admirer of Adolph Hitler, would torch books.
Like in her previous book, "Libricide," Mrs. Knuth zeroes in with great precision on the mental sicknesses, often induced by totalitarian ideologies, which fan the flames of book burning frenzies.
Hers is a voice in need of hearing as the ALA gathers this month to take up the issue of whether or not to support Latvia and Lithuania in their just attempt to censure Cuba for book burning -- something Ray Bradbury has called for the ALA to speak out about.
Now, who will write the explanation for the pathology at work within the extreme left wing of the ALA to explain why they have been denying and trying to supress the evidence of Castro's book burning?
