Burning Down the House

10/9/2019

"Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings."
- Heinrich Heine (1821)

Explain the quote above. Why do you think Heine makes the leap from burning books to burning people? What are some cultures you are aware of that burn books? Are those cultures also dangerous to people?

68 Comments

Jonah

10/9/2019 11:58:27 am

I thought of Nazi Germany. They burned books, as well as people. Maybe it's because I'm reading The Book Thief. Anyway this culture was in fact dangerous to people. Also I just want to say this guy has quite the name.

Tyler

10/9/2019 12:00:05 pm

Wow that kind of depressing

Boaz

10/9/2019 12:10:07 pm

That is right I forgot that they literally burned people.

Ady

10/9/2019 01:21:42 pm

I agree

Ele

10/9/2019 01:26:42 pm

Yes that is sad.

Tyler Hilton

10/9/2019 11:58:32 am

I think that this quote is implying that if you take away something that people love you will also loose those people. I don’t current know any cultures that burn books. I think that the only people they are a danger to is themselves; they are depriving there own society of the access to gain knowledge.

Jonah

10/9/2019 12:26:02 pm

The Nazi book burnings provoked international criticism from intellectuals and the press. They saw it as a barbaric act that was out of keeping with a modern, civilized society.

Kendra

10/9/2019 01:15:29 pm

I like how you put that.

Hailey

10/9/2019 01:20:21 pm

I agree that it’s a deprivation of rights.

Keely

10/9/2019 01:21:50 pm

I agree that taking certain rights away can greatly effect those surrounding the problem

Boaz

10/9/2019 12:08:27 pm

It all starts with disregard of certain rights. When people in power start to take away basic expressions of humanity they become easier to see as an entity instead of people. This decrease in freedom also makes the people less humane in a way. The more you dehumanize someone in the mind or in actuality, the more you are able to make decisions that negatively or even fatality effect them. Some of these cultures could be Nazi Germany or even the early Americans that basically created the first forms of bio-warfare. Obviously not some cultures that we want to emulate.

Tyler

10/9/2019 12:10:03 pm

That’s sort of what I thought

Jonah

10/9/2019 12:26:07 pm

That was very well thought out. I had to take a second to think of how to respond to this, and nothing came to mind. I didn't think of early America.

Boaz

10/9/2019 12:33:16 pm

Clarification: Early European colonizers that spread foreign diseases like a wildfire, obliterating culture on two continents. Not early American citizens

Dakota James

10/9/2019 01:18:50 pm

Yeah that makes sense.

Hailey

10/9/2019 01:19:46 pm

I agree that we shouldn’t come anywhere close to emulating those cultures.

Nathan

10/9/2019 01:21:34 pm

I agree

Erik

10/9/2019 12:16:07 pm

I think what it is saying is that if you start burning books you will begin to burn people’s personalities and what they love to do. If you burn books you are also burning many bridges to imagination. If you burn a book you are burning the author’s opinion and work.

Jonah

10/9/2019 12:29:59 pm

Burning a book doesn't seem like a big deal. We've got tons of 'em, and we've got the internet now too. Well, the implications of book burning go far beyond the physical act of setting a manuscript aflame. Burning a book is perhaps the oldest form of censorship, and it can signal more extreme actions to come.

Boaz

10/9/2019 12:40:43 pm

My literary son! *wipes tear* they grow up so fast. That was a beautiful response

Keely

10/9/2019 01:23:10 pm

I like your last sentence. Very true.

Nathan

10/9/2019 01:23:21 pm

I greed it’s what burning books means, not what the physical act of burning books

Kendra

10/9/2019 01:14:28 pm

I agree with that. I thought similar things.

Dakota James

10/9/2019 01:19:38 pm

Yeah you’re right, burning books can alter the way people think and in my opinion that’s not good.

Kendra

10/9/2019 01:13:26 pm

I thought of as you burn books it’s kind of like burning the person’s love for books or who they are. That could determine their attitude and personality.

Trishelle

10/9/2019 01:18:11 pm

Kendra your smart.

Eliza

10/9/2019 01:18:42 pm

That’s a good way to look at it.

Cade

10/9/2019 01:22:36 pm

I thought the same that burning a book destroys who a person is and what they stand for.

Sienna

10/9/2019 01:13:31 pm

Books are made by people. Eventually at one point if you want to get rid of a certain idea you must destroy all traces of it.

Olivia

10/9/2019 01:16:26 pm

Good ideas.

Micah

10/9/2019 01:16:52 pm

Exactly

Trishelle

10/9/2019 01:17:23 pm

I agree with you....

Janessa

10/9/2019 01:27:22 pm

Your response was so simple but it was so in depth.

Micah Tolman

10/9/2019 01:15:47 pm

Burning books is burning people’s thoughts/opinions. I think the leap he took is from the fact that because they burned peoples books to prevent their opinions from getting attention, now they will start having to burn people to prevent the “wrong” opinions from getting out. I don’t know of any cultures that do this.

Olivia

10/9/2019 01:17:23 pm

I agree.

Myah

10/9/2019 01:25:29 pm

I like what you said about “wrong” opinions. By burning books they burn the right to think for themselves increasing power for those in charge.

Janessa

10/9/2019 01:28:39 pm

They are tying to control the public and have one “right” idea. All others are wrong.

Olivia

10/9/2019 01:15:54 pm

The stories of our ancestors are in the books. Books are experiences that have been in the past. I think he says “burning people” because those books were made by people for people, with genuine ideas and opinions from the past to the future.

Cade

10/9/2019 01:21:08 pm

I agree that books contain stories from the past and that when a book is burned, so is a person.

Madeline

10/9/2019 01:27:11 pm

I think those are very good points.

Trishelle

10/9/2019 01:16:59 pm

If you burn all these books people will burn too, because the love of the books these people have.

Lizzie

10/9/2019 01:21:01 pm

Wow this is really great.

Dakota James

10/9/2019 01:17:50 pm

Burning books is basically burning people because they no longer have the right to read words that they should be able to and that is wrong. Also the Nazis used to burn books. They were dangerous because they took the learning out of peoples lives with books and that hurt them. Fortunately today we have other ways of learning besides books

Ady

10/9/2019 01:22:57 pm

Good point.

Ele

10/9/2019 01:26:03 pm

Yes, I agree

Eliza

10/9/2019 01:18:00 pm

I think that she is referring to peoples past.

Janessa

10/9/2019 01:31:23 pm

Like we are burning people’s pasts?

Keely

10/9/2019 01:18:32 pm

I think they made leap from burning books to people because they will harm those that still believe or read what books have to offer. It’s a disregard for rights. I don’t know of any cultures that burn books but I would figure that would not be a wise desicion to follow.

Lizzie

10/9/2019 01:22:07 pm

I agree this is a very good point.

Hailey

10/9/2019 01:18:55 pm

The act of burning books is dangerous to human beings. So, when Heine says burning books will lead to burning humans, it’s because they’re both as destructive to the human body and brain. Destroying books destroys history, as well as knowledge. Nazi Germany burned books, and we should strive to have as little similarities with that culture as we possibly can.

Beth

10/9/2019 01:21:57 pm

I agree. Good views

Jaylee

10/9/2019 01:19:01 pm

I think that this means that burning books can burn creativity and imagination. Nazis do this.

Madeline

10/9/2019 01:26:10 pm

I agree it can be like burning creativity.

Cade

10/9/2019 01:19:29 pm

I think this quote is saying that by burning a book, your making other people see you as a monster instead of a person. By burning books, you’re taking away someone’s rights to read and someone’s work that they spent time creating. When I read the quote, I thought of the Nazis and when they would burn both books and people.

Ady

10/9/2019 01:19:56 pm

In the Nazis they would have there youth patallton burn books to promote what they believed in. I think the quote means that since people are burning to books to get rid of that opinion they could possibly burn people who think that as well.

Lizzie

10/9/2019 01:20:16 pm

I think he makes the jump between burning books and burning people because when you burn a book you’re burning someone’s story. An example of a culture that burned books was the Nazis and Hitler. There is a possibility that burning books could lead to much more extreme things.

Micah

10/9/2019 01:21:17 pm

Good point

Beth

10/9/2019 01:22:25 pm

We don’t want that

Beth

10/9/2019 01:20:32 pm

By burning books, we burn people’s life work, education, and culture. Books influence and inspire the next generation. Without books, people loose motivation and focus. Books are essentially what society is make of.

Lizzie

10/9/2019 01:22:30 pm

Very interesting.

Megan

10/9/2019 01:20:47 pm

Burning books can be bad in some instances it just depends on what book it is and the sentimental value. You could be burning people’s thoughts and personalities.

Nathan Deschaine

10/9/2019 01:20:52 pm

People that burn books do not agree with knowledge and they want to keep people in ignorance. They want to to oppress people and they are willing to do it through forcc.

Myah

10/9/2019 01:28:25 pm

Keeping people oppressed to increase power by burning their knowledge is a good point.

Myah

10/9/2019 01:23:32 pm

Burning books isn’t a really eficient way of getting rid of them. Now days we have the ability to create and print mass amounts of books. You can’t just get rid of them by burning them because there would be no way of finding every single copy. There are also copies online. I do know that other societies burned books but in a place a free and wild as America it would be practically impossible because of how much we have.

Janessa

10/9/2019 01:24:56 pm

People burn books because they don’t agree with their opinions or messages. The next thing we will burn is humans because of all of our opposing opinions. In a society that burns books, it’s trying to not have different perspectives and ideas. They want a conformed public that all think the same. The only way to get that is to eliminate those who are “wrong” or different.

Ele

10/9/2019 01:25:02 pm

When I see this quote I think that burning books is burning ideas and many different things, like it burns people because it takes away their ability to learn about different things.

Janessa

10/9/2019 01:33:00 pm

I like how you thought of it metaphorically.

Madeline

10/9/2019 01:25:29 pm

I think that Hein makes the leap from burning books to burning people because a book can be a persons legacy and they could have spent lots of time writing it. When you burn the book it’s like burning that persons legacy. I don’t know of any culture that burns books but I can assume that they would be more dangerous than they would be less dangerous.

Burning Down the House

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