Artwork of Warning

I remember vividly snagging Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 from the school library.
That night I pulled out the my Christmas stocking flashlight to illuminate the cave under my quilt, confident that if my Dad came to check on me that my light could be extinguished before he discovered I was reading past my bed time. My eyes reddened with sleep as the horror of the book numbed my raw nerves; burning fires consumed libraries in my dreams that jolted me awake from between the pages. It was a powerful, and I hated it. Terrible, terrible book. The reading was a vital lesson in my experience of literature, for it was my first experience with reading and then feeling the power of an artwork of warning. It affected me like the Shakespeare’s character of Aaron in Titus Andronicus when he places corpses on their friend’s doorsteps, carving in their flesh to never forget. Perhaps this is overly dramatic, but it led me to a similar question what vile hole of the imagination this book came from? It has been many years since I read the book but I now care for it deeply, because it respects the life imbued in literature by warning of the dullness and chaos that fester when people lose touch with the voices of meaning. Literature is valuable for myriad reasons, and books that are artworks of warning are vital to our humanity because they make us feel the importance of our virtues, values, and very souls.

Recently I learned that the word nigger has been taken out of a version Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Fin. Not only does this desecrate the author’s workmanship and deny the historical dialect, it says disturbing things about our society. Nigger is a powerful word that causes a reaction. If we censor books or ban books, then we are well on our way to burning libraries as well. Attempting to burn words we despise makes our aversions into ghosts that will not leave our dreams. I would rather read powerful words that give me something to reflect on, confront face to face, and improve. Why are we so afraid of hearing our fears voiced aloud? Artworks of warning are powerful because they awaken our feelings, inspiring action to preserve or create something good. Fear leads us to beauty and to love.


“I grew up fostered alike by beauty and by fear.” – William Wordsworth