Unless it was a rare or hard to find book, sure! If it pissed me off or I had such a fundamental problem with it that I felt it held back all of humanity, torch it!
Poll: Would you ever burn a book?
- Thread starter Joseph Valdez
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Depends on the book and the situation. Would I burn one of the Dresden files or one of the night angle trilogy. No because I loved the night angle trilogy and the Dresden files are my favorite books. Would I burn twilight or harry potter. yes. because twilight is shit and harry potter is overrated and shit.
Now if i was freezing to death then I would burn anything I could get my hands on.
Now if i was freezing to death then I would burn anything I could get my hands on.
Only if necessary to survival. In the case of protests and such, I never would. If I disagree with a book's message, I'll either ignore it or form a legitimate argument against it.
I would burn books as fuel, and I would burn and have burnt books to destroy the personal or sensitive contained within (e.g. my old exercise books from school or reports & financial records).
However, I wouldn't take part in a book burning, since I don't believe in the symbolism/statement behind them and even if I did, they're ultimately pointless. You can't erase a work of literature without destroying the original master copy/source from which all copies are printed from, and by buying or destroying mere commercial copies, you're creating demand for them and giving money to the publisher and creator of the works you so despise.
However, I wouldn't take part in a book burning, since I don't believe in the symbolism/statement behind them and even if I did, they're ultimately pointless. You can't erase a work of literature without destroying the original master copy/source from which all copies are printed from, and by buying or destroying mere commercial copies, you're creating demand for them and giving money to the publisher and creator of the works you so despise.
Depends on the book. If it's a first edition of a classic that has absolutely no other copies available then no, I'd leave it.
But if I needed to burn it to survive then I would, after all, in this digital age burning a book means nothing now. I can destroy a million books in half a second by simply loading them onto my hard drive and then deleting them. It doesn't really mean as much as it used to (or at least it shouldn't, since some people seem to think it's a big deal for some reason) since books are readily available and copies of them are extremely easy to get either online or in physical form simply because we now have the technology to mass-produce them to a much higher scale than we ever did in the past when book-burning was an issue.
However, burning books for ideological reasons is pretty stupid to me. Obviously it's a powerful visual message you're sending but it has no meaning whatsoever. It's just lazy as far as I'm concerned when you should be putting some effort into tearing the book to shreds with arguments against it in a constructive debate. That's far more effective and respectable, in my opinion.
EDIT: Nothing to add to my post, but I just noticed that this is my 881st post and this is the 88th comment. I just thought that was cute.
But if I needed to burn it to survive then I would, after all, in this digital age burning a book means nothing now. I can destroy a million books in half a second by simply loading them onto my hard drive and then deleting them. It doesn't really mean as much as it used to (or at least it shouldn't, since some people seem to think it's a big deal for some reason) since books are readily available and copies of them are extremely easy to get either online or in physical form simply because we now have the technology to mass-produce them to a much higher scale than we ever did in the past when book-burning was an issue.
However, burning books for ideological reasons is pretty stupid to me. Obviously it's a powerful visual message you're sending but it has no meaning whatsoever. It's just lazy as far as I'm concerned when you should be putting some effort into tearing the book to shreds with arguments against it in a constructive debate. That's far more effective and respectable, in my opinion.
EDIT: Nothing to add to my post, but I just noticed that this is my 881st post and this is the 88th comment. I just thought that was cute.
it gets cold in Minnesota, and some books just aren't that good, I'd rather live minus a few books I don't like than die with an intact libraryJoseph Valdez said:
If there was nothing else to burn and I needed a fire, then yes. Normally I would find some wood to burn.
I have.
I was reading a book called who has seen the wind, and it was horrible. We were at a camping trip and wanted to start a fire so we could cook marshmallows. Usually we use newspaper under the wood to get the flames going, but we had none. So I grabbed the book, ripped out about half the pages, crumpled them up, and threw them to the bottom of the fire-pit. Problem solved.
I was reading a book called who has seen the wind, and it was horrible. We were at a camping trip and wanted to start a fire so we could cook marshmallows. Usually we use newspaper under the wood to get the flames going, but we had none. So I grabbed the book, ripped out about half the pages, crumpled them up, and threw them to the bottom of the fire-pit. Problem solved.
Such a general question. Which book? I suppose you are aiming for the "are you one of those that accept all kind of information even if it is toxic towards your personal interests?" question. You could have asked it that way.
I wouldn't burn any kind of legitimate book. Not even Mein kamph (and just to let you know the book is perfectly fine even tho it contains the nazy ideologism in it, I've read it and I've not turned into a blackpeople-hating, perfect race-seeking fanatic) because everyone's free to inform themselves about any subject no matter how controversial this subject would be.
I would burn a Justin Bieber book tho.
I wouldn't burn any kind of legitimate book. Not even Mein kamph (and just to let you know the book is perfectly fine even tho it contains the nazy ideologism in it, I've read it and I've not turned into a blackpeople-hating, perfect race-seeking fanatic) because everyone's free to inform themselves about any subject no matter how controversial this subject would be.
I would burn a Justin Bieber book tho.
I could either die a slow and painful death because of the coldness or I could use Twilight as efficiently as possible.
HMM.
No, seriously, books don't hold any more or less value than any other item to me. They tell stories and are full of the author's intentions, sure, but it's not the story I'm burning, it's just an insufficient material manifestation that coexists with any other piece of creation that is in itself an artistic expression. Chairs are art, too, by not even the widest of definition. Wouldn't stop me from ripping them apart to make a makeshift weapon to defend myself.
Would I burn a book out of disagreement or dislike? No. I just don't see how it would improve the situation in any kind, leave alone relieve stress.
HMM.
No, seriously, books don't hold any more or less value than any other item to me. They tell stories and are full of the author's intentions, sure, but it's not the story I'm burning, it's just an insufficient material manifestation that coexists with any other piece of creation that is in itself an artistic expression. Chairs are art, too, by not even the widest of definition. Wouldn't stop me from ripping them apart to make a makeshift weapon to defend myself.
Would I burn a book out of disagreement or dislike? No. I just don't see how it would improve the situation in any kind, leave alone relieve stress.
Besides the amount of waste involved, I couldn't destroy something that has had so much labour and though put into it. Even the most meager mills and Boon has hundreds of hours of graft behind it, often the produce of a soul writer. Whether it is a painting or a book, I just plain couldn't destroy it.
I had to buy a used copy of Twilight to write a paper on its sexist bullshit. I'd happily burn my copy. I'd never burn someone else's copy though.