Outdoor Discussion

 12-Monday-2020

 On Saturday-10- October the Bogota Public Library took advantage of the some mild weather to hold an in-person discussion of  Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  This is the featured book in the 2020 Big Read in partnership with Little Ferry and Ridgefield Park Public Libraries.  This is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and will continue until Saturday-17-October. 

  The group gathered outside in front of the Bogota Borough Hall. This allowed the participants  to talk to one another face to face and to stay at a safe distance.  They started with the sharing of their thoughts on how they felt about the story. This moved to talking about specific characters and how they were written in the story. When talking about the characters from the story the participants would wonder how they would react to similar situation in real life.  Some other discussion points that were talked about dealt with some of the names  and phrases  Mr. Bradbury used in the story. 

   The discussion then move to a basic theme of the book which involved governmental, or any other form, of censorship.  An overall agreement of those in attendance was that all type of censorship is not appropriate.  This includes books, and now internet stories,  that may be offensive to some people at different time. They also talked about how ideas that are not factual should be label as such, but the freedom of speech in part of a free society.  This extended to historical writings  still available. With works of fiction, or biographies, the era in which they appeared should be taken into consideration.  One example was stories about American Westward  expansion in the 19th Century. These types of books should still be available to anyone who wishes to read them, but should also include the discussion of how attitudes have evolved over time. 

   More events in the 2020 Big Read included a virtual lecture Censorship and Oppression.  This will be given by Alexis Romay    To register for this event please go to:  https://bccls.libcal.com/event/6943636

And a special Big Read celebration  with kids crafts to pick up. Every Saturday at 10:00 a

For more information on these and other program continuing at the Bogota Public Library please go to: https://www.facebook.com/bogotalibrarynj 
Or visit their website at: https://bogotapubliclibrary.org/  

  

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