Burn, Baby, Burn!

10/4/2023

"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?

34 Comments

Julian Logan

10/4/2023 09:11:16 am

I agree with this quote 1000%. If we burn books, it might not be an immediate or literal burning. However, if we burned all the books in the world, then humans as a species would "collapse". Books are our way or storing information indefinitely, recording things that have happened in the past so we don't repeat them in the future. If we were to burn all books, we dispose of important knowledge that was written down for a reason. It is most dangerous to burn books, because, as I said before, we get rid of information that was put there by someone who more than likely had the intent of spreading that information for the greater good of mankind.

Alyssa

10/4/2023 09:22:09 am

I agree with you, burning books rids us part of our knowledge.

Brianna Anderson

10/4/2023 09:22:45 am

I agree, books have a huge impact on the world so it would be a disaster without them.

Lucile

10/4/2023 09:12:23 am

When you burn books, you burn the history from the people. Without their writings, they are fully gone from the world with no one to remember their stories and lessons. It could also mean that if a person thinks that a story should be burned for an opinion, why aren't we be burning people with that same opinion? When it comes to burning people nowadays, no person would think it would be humane to kill them however, when it comes to burning books for the same reason, some people seem to agree with the idea without a second thought.

Sydnee Cluff

10/4/2023 09:17:23 am

I agree with you that when people burn books they are getting rid of people's past history.

Alyssa

10/4/2023 09:19:32 am

I didn't think of it that way. I totally agree with you.

Brianna Anderson

10/4/2023 09:19:55 am

I agree, books are how we learn from others past and use this as lessons.

Mykala

10/4/2023 09:26:18 am

I agree that they could start burning humans for the same reason as books because we share the same purpose. To use the knowledge we have and share it with others.

Lilly Cerise

10/4/2023 09:12:33 am

I think that Heine jumped from burning a book to burning a human because most cultures that burn books do it for control. They want to control what we believe, and they want it to be the same as what they believe so that they still can control us and it just becomes a cycle after that. One major culture that burned book was the Nazis, and they burned books that were "un-German". The Nazis, as we all know, were very dangerous and killed millions of people who they believed weren't pure, as they were trying to create the perfect race.

Sydnee Cluff

10/4/2023 09:16:18 am

I agree with you that in come cultures burning books was for the people/ community to have control.

Autumn Schewe

10/4/2023 09:17:43 am

I agree with you! I didn't think about the control others would have over eachother when books are burned.

Lucile

10/4/2023 09:22:18 am

Yes, control is a big part of burning/banning books, there is a reason people want them banned, there could be something they don't want us to know.

Sydnee Cluff

10/4/2023 09:15:08 am

In my opinion Heine makes the connection between burning books and people because in the past people who believe in different thing as everybody else, lost their lives. Most people that had power over others would kill anybody that didn't believe in the same beliefs as they did. One of the main cultures that I know of that burned books were the Nazis. Yes, the Nazis were dangerous people because they were killling off people, specifically the jewish culture becuase they looked different, had different beliefs, and the Nazi's were trying to create the perfect race.

Mykala

10/4/2023 09:15:21 am

Heine wants to show that people will burn books to prevent others from gaining knowledge and obtaining information. But people are just like books. We have knowledge and we share it. If we burn books for the reason of restricting knowledge shouldn't we burn humans that do the same thing?

I don't know of any specific cultures that burn books. I do however know that people do still burn books across many cultures. I honestly don't know if they are a threat to harm other humans the same way they ruin books, but that's just become I'm not well informed in the topic.

Lisa Mualem

10/4/2023 09:20:38 am

I agree that people burn books to prevent knowledge from being known.

Lucile

10/4/2023 09:23:40 am

I agree, if we are burning people from existence for an opinion, why aren't people trying to do the same for other people?

Autumn Schewe

10/4/2023 09:16:32 am

He makes the leap of burning books to people because books have been the way of learning for decades and writing has been around for centuries. Books are super important in our lives to spark our creative minds, help us learn messages and themes, and to find commonalities between you and the characters in the book. Some cultures that still burn books include, China's Qin Dynasty, the House of Wisdom during the Mongol siege of Baghdad, the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl and many more. It depends what the other cultures think of other people, some may not like people because they don't burn books and people outside of their culture may not like them because they burn books.

Abby Jackson

10/4/2023 09:24:16 am

I agree books are super important to humans and they really do help us all learn more.

Hudson Bertram

10/4/2023 09:17:16 am

I believe that most cultures that burn books without a doubt seem to trend in the "burning people" direction. Historically it also seems anyone who burns books or even stop people from reading them is looking for power and usually gets it. I mean I don't know a ton of examples but Nazi Germany in 1922-1945 is a massive example. When Hitler wanted complete extermination of the Jews he started by burning their culture in the form of books.

Sienna Crispin

10/4/2023 09:33:42 am

I totally agree, power takes a huge role when burning books and once the cultural books have been burned than that culture has no way of completely passing on their culture to later generations besides for verbal stories.

Alyssa

10/4/2023 09:17:30 am

People usually start from one simple thing and take it to the next level. We could start on level one and skip all the other levels to reach level 100 just like that. We start off by banning and burning books because they tell some explicit things, then doing the same with humans as they tell explicit things too. Then one thing leads to another. I think Heine makes the leap because people will take the most simple things to heart, thinking it hurts them.

Lisa Mualem

10/4/2023 09:18:35 am

That's an interesting way to think of it, I never thought of that.

Autumn Schewe

10/4/2023 09:18:57 am

I agree with you that people will take the simplist thing to heart.

Abby Jackson

10/4/2023 09:26:02 am

It's crazy how people go straight to burning books as they think it is the answer to everything.

Lisa Mualem

10/4/2023 09:17:36 am

To me the quote means that if we burn our history, the past mistakes we have made, we are basically burning the future of humans. The books are written by humans so burning the writing you are also burning part of the author with it. Books are a lot like people, they are authors words and thoughts. They have opinions and can be bias towards one topic. People aren't going to burn someone because they had a different opinion though, because that's too much work. Burning books is much easier because no one would ever know. Cultures that burn books may not necessarily be dangerous, they are just harming the future of our world by taking the past away.

Mykala

10/4/2023 09:22:37 am

I agree that when we burn books we are burning our futures when it comes to the advancement of society.

Sara Chaffin

10/4/2023 09:31:23 am

I like the perspective that its not just burning our past, but also our future.

miles

10/4/2023 09:18:21 am

In Nazi Germany pre-WW2, the Germans burned books. shortly after, they started burning Jewish people or killing them off. As of today's world, I don't know about any cultures that burn books. I do know for a fact though, from the past, that cultures that burn books are in fact, dangerous because we all know that the Nazis were bad, and even earlyer in history, during the dark ages, people went through the same kind of thing; prohibit science and knowledge, and encourage religion.

Brianna Anderson

10/4/2023 09:19:03 am

Burning books is like burning people for many reasons. One of those reasons being that burning a book with lessons and stories is burning that persons past and if its the only thing left of them then you are burning the only piece of that person we have left. Another reason is as a society we use books to learn and grow, they give us lessons on what not to do or how to be apart of society. If we were to burn all books we would be like zombies because we would have no literature knowledge and we would have no motivation to find other ways to obtain this knowledge.

Sienna Crispin

10/4/2023 09:28:10 am

I agree, if we burn books from the past it might feel like we are erasing not only the story but the author as well.

Sara Chaffin

10/4/2023 09:29:47 am

I like how you compared us to becoming zombies.

Abby Jackson

10/4/2023 09:22:04 am

He is stating that where the books are burned is where humans are burned too. They burned the books so people wouldn't learn the past, history and present, or enjoy certain things. He was right though, because after the books were burned the Nazi's turned to humans to hurt and burn. Some of the Muslims and China's Qin Dynasty burn books and both are dangerous as they could strike out and kill or hurt people more and again.

Sienna Crispin

10/4/2023 09:25:55 am

If we burn books then we are also burning human resources to advance our knowledge. Books help us learn from past mistakes and help to the world evolve and grow in the future without repeating the same mistakes. Not only do books teach us, they are a form of entertainment. If we start burning books than the human species would start to slowly fail and repeat past mistakes causing us to go into turmoil. The Muslims, Romans, Spanish, Puritans, and Chinese all have burnt books. I don's think that those cultures are dangerous because all of these instances happened in the past and I believe that the world has grown and realized the power and knowledge books hold.

Sara Chaffin

10/4/2023 09:27:30 am

Heinrich Heines quote takes a leap from burning books to people because he's explaining once we start controlling peoples choices then it will lead to deaths of those who stood up to the control. He's explaining that there will be a negative empact to taking awasy ones freedom. We as a whole have experienced several book burnings throughout history. The China's Qin Dynasty in 213 B.C. burned books to show power from the new ruler of the empire. Nazis burned books during WW2. People who didn't like that were punished. Heinrich Heine isn't wrong about people getting hurt whether it's physically or mentally. The U.S.A. has brought back the burning of books in recent years to show control and power over the readers. Burning books will help collapse todays society. These society's and cultures are dangerous to people because its control over people who should be free.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

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