"Burning to Read" Assembly Series lecture kicks off area-wide Big Read project

Jan. 18, 2007 -- The spring 2007 Assembly Series at Washington University will begin on January 24 with a talk on books and censorship by David Lawton, professor and chair of the Department of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington Universtiy. The free lecture, which is open to the public, will be held at 11 a.m. in Graham Chapel, just north of Mallinckrodt Center.

Called "Burning to Read," Lawton's talk will center on the modern classic Ray Bradbury novel, Fahrenheit 451, which is the book chosen for the metro-wide Big Read project. Billed as "the nation's largest book club" and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the WUSTL grant provides resources to encourage the entire community to participate in an array of discussions, lectures, exhibitions, readings, films, and theatre performances (NOTE: Please visit the web site, bigread.wustl.edu, for information on Washington University's community project, and www.neabigread.org to learn about the national literacy program.)

Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper burns, and when Bradbury wrote the science fiction story in 1953, the Nazi book burnings and Stalin's artistic suppressions were still fresh in American memories. Bradbury has stated that the central theme of censorship in his novel was about "all kinds of tyrannies anywhere in the world at any time, right, left, or middle."

"Fahrenheit 451 is a fine novel in its own right, and it also raises many important questions about the power of books and reading," explained Lawton. "All participants are welcome, the more the better -- to participate in a book discussion group, attend a film festival, theatrical event or a staged reading, or visit an exhibition at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum or the Missouri History Museum. This program is about getting many readers and non-readers involved in discussing the themes of the book," he said.

Washington University is partnering with three local governments, area library districts, area school districts, museums, arts and literacy organizations, and the Regional Arts Commission, to mount the six-week Big Read project.

For more information on the Assembly Series, call 314-935-4620, or visit the web site at assemblyseries.wustl.edu.