Lee affirming Bradbury: “There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, do not read them "?

The American science fiction writer is often attributed to a statement of how harmful refusal of reading is. We checked the correctness of such an attribution.

Typically, this quote is given as an excerpt from the most famous Bradbury novel - the anti -utopia “451 degrees Fahrenheit”, in the world of which reading is prohibited, and any books found in people are subject to burning. It is in the form of excerpt from this work that the phrase is presented on numerous sites with quotes, among which Citaty.info, Socratify.net, "Pearls of thought" And "Quotes and aphorisms", as well as in the collections of Bradbury's statements on the publishing house website "Exmo" And the portal "Inosmi". The phrase of real crimes against books bring And users of the popular service with literary recommendations and reviews of Livelib. In 2012 "RIA Novosti" It was entitled A note about Bradbury with a quote “There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, do not read them. ” It is readily used by users of social networks, including "VKontakte", Twitter, Facebook And Instagram.

To begin with, with the novel “451 degrees Fahrenheit” this quote is probably associated solely due to the fact that the characters burn books in the plot. Otherwise it is very difficult to explain why the verified phrase is absent in original English -language text, and in translation into Russian.

In somewhat similar (but not identical) statements by Bradbury, at least twice did in an interview. So, in 1993, in a conversation with the correspondent of The Seattle Times, the writer noted: “There is no need to burn books in order to destroy the culture. Just make people stop reading them. ” In another interview, published Seven years later, Bradbury argued: "There is no point in burning the book if no one reads them." Moreover, in 2010, Time correspondent in a conversation with a science fiction writer He asked: “You once said that there are crimes worse than burning books, and one of them is not to read them. Why don't people read as much as before? " Bradbury did not comment on whether he really belonged to the words about crimes against books, and immediately went to the answer to the interlocutor’s question.

English-speaking Internet users often attribute the verified statement to the poet Joseph Brodsky, who in 1972 emigrated From the Soviet Union to the United States, where he began to teach and write an essay in English. In 1991, the Congress library appropriated the position of the US Laureate poet Brodsky. The responsibility of the owner of this status, which is valid for two years, Enters Consulting the library on poetry and conducting open lectures, he can also offer projects related to the support of literature in the United States or preserving the poetic heritage of his predecessors.

How Approved In the fourth edition of the collection of Oxford Essential Quotations, compiled by the Oxford University, it was during the press conference after assigning him the status of the poet-laureate Brodsky pronounced the verified phrase of the burning of books. Literally, according to the publication, it sounded like this: “There are crimes worse than burning books. One of them is not to read them. ” This press conference really took place on May 17, 1991, even in the archive of the library of Congress Saved Brodsky’s photograph during communication with journalists. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the transcript of that conversation.

At the same time, Brodsky at least used very similar rhetorical turns twice. For example, on October 2, 1991, the poet opened the next literary season in the library of Congress and in his lecture noted: “I don’t know, the right is worse: to burn books or not read them; I think, however, that the publication of poetry with symbolic circulations is something intermediate between that and others ”(translation Dmitry Chekalova).

In 1987, Brodsky received Nobel Prize in Literature. In his Nobel lecture laureate Reasoned: “There can be no laws that protect us from ourselves, not a single Criminal Code provides for punishments for crimes against literature. And among these crimes, the most serious crimes are not the persecution of the authors, not censorship restrictions and the like, not the tradition of the books of the fire. There is a more serious crime-neglect of books, their non-reading. ” 

Thus, the quote “There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, not to read them ”is definitely not taken from the novel“ 451 degrees Fahrenheit ”and, with a huge degree of probability, is not connected with Ray Bradbury in principle. Similar phrases are found in his interview, they were at least once attributed to science fiction and correspondent directly during the conversation, but there is no strict confirmation of such an attribution. It is much more likely that the authorship of the phrase belongs to Joseph Brodsky. Its use is fixed in authoritative sources, the poet also expressed an identical thought of unlike formulations at least twice.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. R. Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451
2. The Seattle Times. Bradbury Still Believs in Heat of `Fahrenheit 451 '
3. I. Brodsky. The immodest proposal (a lecture read in the Congress library in October 1991)
4. I. Brodsky. Nobel lecture