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Author Biography: Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

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Author Biography: Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

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Bradbury chose to be a writer as a very young age, hoping to "live" through fiction forever. Since he graduated high school during the Great Depression, he couldn't afford college, so he went to public libraries three days a week for 10 years. After not being drafted into World War II because of his vision problems, he became a full-time writer and started publishing many book, writing every single day. He has been considered a science fiction author many times, but he constantly rejects this statement. "I don't write science fiction. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal." He has written books on humans fighting aliens, a topic that many would consider to be science fiction but the fact that he rejects that statement, makes him a very interesting author.

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Quick Facts
"I don't need to be vindicated, and I don't want attention. I never question. I never ask anyone else's opinion. They don't count.""I don't write science fiction. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal.""If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder.""I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."

Name

Ray Bradbury

Birth Date

August 22, 1920

Death Date

June 5, 2012

Place of Birth

Waukegan, Illinois

Place of Death

Los Angeles, California

Who Was Ray Bradbury?

Ray Bradbury was an American fantasy and horror author who rejected being categorized as a science fiction author, claiming that his work was based on the fantastical and unreal. His best known novel is Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian study of future American society in which critical thought is outlawed. He is also remembered for several other popular works, including The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury won the Pulitzer in 2007, and is one of the most celebrated authors of the 21st century.

Early Life

Author Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, to Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, a lineman for power and telephone utilities, and Ester Moberg Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant. Bradbury enjoyed a relatively idyllic childhood in Waukegan, which he later incorporated into several semi-autobiographical novels and short stories. As a child, he was a huge fan of magicians, and a voracious reader of adventure and fantasy fiction - especially L. Frank Baum, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Bradbury decided to become a writer at about age 12 or 13. He later said that he made the decision in hopes of emulating his heroes, and to "live forever" through his fiction.

Bradbury's family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1934. As a teenager, he participated in his school's drama club and occasionally befriended Hollywood celebrities. His first official pay as a writer came for contributing a joke to George Burns' Burns & Allen Show. After graduation from high school in 1938, Bradbury couldn't afford to go to college, so he went to the local library instead. "Libraries raised me," he later said. "I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression, and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."

Books and Short Stories

To support himself while he wrote, Bradbury sold newspapers. He published his first short story in a fan magazine in 1938, the same year he graduated from high school. The next year, he published four issues of his own fan magazine, Futuria Fantasia. Nearly every piece in the magazine was written by Bradbury himself; he used a variety of pseudonyms to try to hide the fact that the magazine was a virtual one-man show. "I was still years away from writing my first good short story," he later said, "but I could see my future. I knew where I wanted to go."

Bradbury sold his first professional piece, the story "Pendulum," in November 1941, just a month before the United States entered World War II, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ruled ineligible for military service by his local draft board because of his vision problems, Bradbury became a full-time writer by early 1943. His first collection of short stories, Dark Carnival, was published in 1947.

That same year, he married Marguerite "Maggie" McClure, whom he met while she was working as a clerk at a bookstore. McClure was the breadwinner in the early days of their marriage, supporting Bradbury as he worked on his writing for little to no pay. The couple had four daughters, Susan (1949), Ramona (1951), Bettina (1955) and Alexandra (1958).

In 1950, Bradbury published his first major work, The Martian Chronicles, which detailed the conflict between humans colonizing the red planet and the native Martians they encountered there. While taken by many to be a work of science fiction, Bradbury himself considered it to be fantasy. "I don't write science fiction," he said. "Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't happen, you see?" Television and comic book adaptations of Bradbury's short stories began to appear in 1951, introducing him to a wider audience.

Bradbury's best-known work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, became an instant classic in the era of McCarthyism for its exploration of themes of censorship and conformity. In 2007 Bradbury himself disputed that censorship was the main theme of Fahrenheit 451, instead explaining the book as a story about how television drives away interest in reading: "Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was."

Despite his apparent distaste for television, Bradbury advocated for film adaptations of his work. He wrote numerous screenplays and treatments, including a 1956 take on Moby Dick. In 1986, Bradbury developed his own HBO television series, allowing him to produce adaptations of his short stories. The series ran until 1992.

Famously prolific, Bradbury wrote for several hours every day throughout his entire life, allowing him to publish more than 30 books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, screenplays and plays.

Though Bradbury won many honors and awards throughout his life, his favorite was perhaps being named "ideas consultant" for the United States Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. "Can you imagine how excited I was?" he later said about the honor. "'Cause I'm changing lives, and that's the thing. If you can build a good museum, if you can make a good film, if you can build a good world's fair, if you can build a good mall, you're changing the future. You're influencing people, so that they'll get up in the morning and say, 'Hey, it's worthwhile going to work.' That's my function, and it should be the function of every science fiction writer around. To offer hope. To name the problem and then offer the solution. And I do, all the time."

Adaptation of 'Fahrenheit 451'

In 2018, HBO released a film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, starring Michael Shannon and Michael B. Jordan, the latter also serving as executive producer on the project.

Death and Legacy

Bradbury wrote well into his 80s, dictating for three hours at a time to one of his daughters, who would transcribe his words to the page. Though curtailing much of his traveling and public appearances, he granted several interviews in his latter years and helped raise funds for his local library.

In 2007, Bradbury received a special citation from the Pulitzer board for his "distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy." In his final years, Bradbury felt content about his place in the annals of science fiction history, having achieved his childhood ambition of living forever through his work. "I don't need to be vindicated," he said, "and I don't want attention. I never question. I never ask anyone else's opinion. They don't count."

Bradbury died in Los Angeles on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91. He was survived by daughters Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra, as well as several grandchildren. An inspiration to writers, teachers and science-fiction enthusiasts, among countless others, Bradbury's fascinating works will be remembered for decades to come.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

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"I don't need to be vindicated, and I don't want attention. I never question. I never ask anyone else's opinion. They don't count." "I don't write science fiction. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal." "If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder."

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Fahrenheit 451 doesn't give the reader a specific message. That absence of a setting makes those messages broader and is asking society as a whole.

As a society, how much have we stopped reading and just going along with everyone around us?

I think with these billion dollar companies and government bills, that society is just accepting it because there is nothing we can do about it. Companies like amazon and google, with the Alexa and Home. many reports that their microphone is always on and they can record conversations that get transferred back to their servers. We just allow companies and governments to do what they want and while it is in the news and we all read it, there is nothing we can do about it.

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Fahrenheit 451 setting is fairley anonymous. The only given a partial location of some city in the United States. We are not given the year or even what century. It is some time in the distant future. Since we are not given anything but the country, it shows that the message this book sends is not directed anywhere but the future and society as a whole. It also allows us to image the setting from the beginning with no other influences, other than knowing we are in the United States

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In Fahrenheit 451, there is a predominant theme of technology, and how everyone is always "plugged in". If they aren't watching TV, they have headphone in their ears listening to music and advertisements.

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Poem: Welcome to Society, by Erin Hanson

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Poem: Welcome to Society, by Erin Hanson

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Welcome to Society is meant for the reader to questions the societal "norms". We are always trying to be ourselves, don't be conformed to society but are we actually doing that? Or are we doing that to a certain extent that society lets us. Erin Hanson is trying to convey a sense of realization of what society is really like. It's not as free and open as we say it is.

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Welcome to society,
We hope you enjoy your stay,
And please feel free to be yourself,
As long as it's in the right way,
Make sure you love your body,
Not too much or we'll tear you down,
We'll bully you for smiling,
And then wonder why you frown,
We'll tell you that you're worthless,
That you shouldn't make a sound,
And then cry with all the others,
As you're buried in the ground,
You can fall in love with anyone,
As long as it's who we choose,
And we'll let you have your opinions,
But please shape them to our views,
Welcome to society,
We promise that we won't deceive,
And one more rule now that you're here,
There's no way you can leave.

The purpose of this poem is to get the reader to question some of the societal norms we just accept. We are so hung up on expressing ourselves and being original but we can be out cast for having certain views. You can be yourself, but only to a certain extent. The unspoken rules of society are very contradictory. Society gives us the perception of freedom and open self-expression but really if you say the wrong thing you can be out cast. The emotion the writer is trying to communicate is realisation, realisation that these unspoken rules are very twisted. The structure of this poem is simple but very effective. A line of the promised appealing freedom, followed by the fine print, the harsh reality. The language used in this poem is simple but effectively conveys the message. This poem is very simple but very effective and doesn't feature any similes, metaphors, personification etc. This poem has a steady rhythm and flawless rhyming pattern, which makes it easy and interesting to read. It helps communicate the message effectively with the reader.

I think this a very clever poem and the message is conveyed in a very interesting way. It can give readers a new perspective on society.

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Welcome to society, We hope you enjoy your stay, And please feel free to be yourself, As long as it's in the right way, Make sure you love your body, Not too much or we'll tear you down, We'll bully...

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Media has become a source that can influence the population in an alarming rate. We say the news is a "credible" source because they are getting first hand information and they are at the scene, but is it really just straight facts or is there another motive? In most cases, there is another motive behind news stations and it is almost always political. Different news stations will give you information that is favored for one side. The role of media in Fahrenheit 451 is very alarming. A way the government kept the population occupied was by using their own names for characters on TV, so they could live out their fantasy of being important enough to be on TV and that keeps them occupied all the time

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The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of life and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.

H owever, traditional mass media has shifted from the few to the many.

There is an association between the development of mass media and social change, although the degree and direction of this association is still debated upon even after years of study into media influence. Many of the consequences, either detrimental or beneficial, which have been attributed to the mass media, are almost undoubtedly due to other tendencies within society.

Few sociologists would refute the importance of the mass media, and mass communications as a whole, as being a major factor in the construction and circulation of social understanding and social imagery in modern societies. Therefore it is argued that the mass media is used as "an instrument", both more powerful and more flexible than anything in previous existence, for influencing people into certain modes of belief and understanding within society.

The question of medias influence on society and its cultural framework has often been debated upon from leading theorists to anyone with any form of media connections can have an influence on an audience members attitude, beliefs or interpretations of society is a very simplistic and debatable version of the truth. The media does influence, but using more diverse and subtle roles of impact.

Influence, Society and Individuals

As Jane Root wrote in the book "Open The Box", which delves into the possibilities of media influence, "It has a role in defining what we think of as a natural...it helps to map out who we think we are". To look at the medias effect and influence, there is an underlying need to define influence as we understand it in relation to society and it's overall effect.

Media is a major piece within society that is often linked to the notion of social influence. Society understands the notion or concept of being influenced as an "external force" (the media) linking itself or connecting with a personal action or viewpoint of the recipient. (John Corner: 2000: 378)

The forces of influence that have been described as a major power in media effects are those that are circumstantial and directed, those which can be placed within a framework or model, for example "uses and gratifications", those of a generic function but ultimately those which state perspectives, interpretations, and measurements which can lead to evidence and proof.
Uses & Gratifications Model
A systematic and widely used model in social sciences study of media influence over the effects on an audience concerning behaviour, attitudes and beliefs, is the theory of uses and gratifications.

Blumler and Katz (1974) concluded that audience's fulfilment of needs came within the broad generalisation of four desires:

1. Diversion - a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressures.

2. Personal Relationships - companionships via television personalities and characters and sociability through discussion about television with other people.

3. Personal Identity - the ability to compare one's life with characters and situations within programmes, and hence explore personal problems and perspectives.

4. Surveillance - a supply of information about what is going on in the world.

The thought that the media is an overwhelming force that influences their audiences through the means of appealing to their desires and needs, must be examined in contrast with the notion that "every one is free". Meaning that the mass media's audience can resist being controlled, simply through choice. An individual always has the option of simply not watching that programme or not reading that particular newspaper. An individual makes the choice, and the selection that is made will merely underpin the views and inclinations that they already have.

Our first impressions are not always the correct ones. Since we are all now becoming "the media" what influence and impressions do we have on our world of endless connections?
What say you?

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The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of life and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.

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China's constitution grants the citizens freedom of speech, but is actually heavily restricted. The government can deem any article as dangerous, saying that they are revealing secrets that could endanger the country, but there is no criteria. Their definition of secrets is very vague and can he applied to almost anything. In 2016, Freedom House ranked China last out of 65 countries in regards of free media.

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Introduction

The Chinese government has long kept tight reins on both traditional and new media to avoid potential subversion of its authority. Its tactics often entail strict media controls using monitoring systems and firewalls, shuttering publications or websites, and jailing dissident journalists, bloggers, and activists. Google's battle with the Chinese government over internet censorship and the Norwegian Nobel Committee's awarding of the 2010 Peace Prize to jailed Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo have also increased international attention to censorship issues. At the same time, the country's burgeoning economy relies on the web for growth, and experts say the growing need for internet freedom is testing the regime's control.

Official Media Policy

China's constitution affords its citizens freedom of speech and press, but the opacity of Chinese media regulations allows authorities to crack down on news stories by claiming that they expose state secrets and endanger the country. The definition of state secrets in China remains vague, facilitating censorship of any information that authorities deem harmful [PDF] to their political or economic interests. CFR Senior Fellow Elizabeth C. Economy says the Chinese government is in a state of "schizophrenia" about media policy as it "goes back and forth, testing the line, knowing they need press freedom and the information it provides, but worried about opening the door to the type of freedoms that could lead to the regime's downfall."

The government issued in May 2010 its first white paper on the internet that focused on the concept of "internet sovereignty," requiring all internet users in China, including foreign organizations and individuals, to abide by Chinese laws and regulations. Chinese internet companies are now required to sign the " Public Pledge on Self-Regulation and Professional Ethics for China Internet Industry," which entails even stricter rules than those in the white paper, according to Jason Q. Ng, a specialist on Chinese media censorship and author of Blocked on Weibo. Since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power, censorship of all forms of media has tightened. In February 2016, Xi announced new media policy for party and state news outlines: "All the work by the party's media must reflect the party's will, safeguard the party's authority, and safeguard the party's unity," emphasizing that state media must align themselves with the "thought, politics, and actions" of the party leadership. A China Daily essay emphasized Xi's policy, noting that "the nation's media outlets are essential to political stability."

How Free Is Chinese Media?

In 2016, Freedom House ranked China last for the second consecutive year out of sixty-five countries that represent 88 percent of the world's internet users. The France-based watchdog group Reporters Without Borders ranked China 176 out of 180 countries in its 2016 worldwide index of press freedom. Experts say Chinese media outlets usually employ their own monitors to ensure political acceptability of their content. Censorship guidelines are circulated weekly from the Communist Party's propaganda department and the government's Bureau of Internet Affairs to prominent editors and media providers.

Certain websites that the government deems potentially dangerous-like Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and some Google services-are fully blocked or temporarily "blacked out" during periods of controversy, such as the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre or Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement protests in the fall of 2014. Specific material considered a threat to political stability is also banned, including controversial photos and video, as well as search terms. The government is particularly keen on blocking reports of issues that could incite social unrest, like official corruption, the economy, health and environmental scandals, certain religious groups, and ethnic strife. The websites of Bloomberg news service, the New York Times, and other major international publicationshave periodically been blacked out, their journalists harassed and threatened, and visa applications denied. In 2012, Bloomberg and the New York Times both ran reports on the private wealth of then Party Secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Wen Jiabao. Restrictions have been also placed on micro-blogging services, often in response to sensitive subjects like corruption, including 2012 rumors of an attempted coup in Beijing involving the disgraced former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai. Censors are also swift to block any mention of violent incidents related to Tibet or China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority group, and the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

The Censorship Groups

More than a dozen government bodies review and enforce laws related to information flow within, into, and out of China. The most powerful monitoring body is the Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department (CPD), which coordinates with General Administration of Press and Publication and State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television to ensure content promotes party doctrine. Ng says that the various ministries once functioned as smaller fiefdoms of control, but have recently been more consolidated under the State Council Information Office, which has taken the lead on internet monitoring.

The Chinese government employs large numbers of people to monitor and censor China's media. Experts refer to an October 2013 report in a state-run paper, the Beijing News, which said more than two million workers are responsible for reviewing internet posts using keyword searches and compiling reports for "decision makers." These so-called "public opinion analysts" are hired both by the state and private companies to constantly monitor China's internet. Additionally, the CPD gives media outlets editorial guidelines as well as directives restricting coverage of politically sensitive topics. In one high-profile incident involving the liberal Guangdong magazine Southern Weekly, government censors rewrote the paper's New Year's message from a call for reform to a tribute to the Communist Party. The move triggered mass demonstrations by the staff and general public, who demanded the resignation of the local propaganda bureau chief. While staff and censors reached a compromise that theoretically intended to relax some controls, much of the censorship remained in place.

Exerting Control

The Chinese government deploys myriad ways of censoring the internet. The Golden Shield Project, colloquially known as the Great Firewall, is the center of the government's online censorship and surveillance effort. Its methods include bandwidth throttling, keyword filtering, and blocking access to certain websites. According to Reporters Without Borders, the firewall makes large-scale use of Deep Packet Inspection technology to block access based on keyword detection. As Ng points out, the government also employs a diverse range of methods to induce journalists to censor themselves, including dismissals and demotions, libel lawsuits, fines, arrests, and forced televised confessions.

"To the degree that China's connection to the outside world matters, the digital links are deteriorating."

As of February 2017, thirty-eight journalists were imprisoned in China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based watchdog on press freedom issues. In 2009, Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to eleven years in prison for advocating democratic reforms and freedom of speech in Charter 08, a 2008 statement signed by more than two thousand prominent Chinese citizens that called for political and human rights reforms and an end to one-party rule. When Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize, censors blocked the news in China. A year later, journalist Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison for drawing attention to government corruption and poor construction of school buildings that collapsed and killed thousands of children during the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province. Early 2014 saw the government detain Gao Yu, a columnist who was jailed on accusations of leaking a Party communiqué titled Document 9.

The State Internet Information Office tightened content restrictions in 2013 and appointed a new director of a powerful internet committee led by President Xi Jinping, who assumed power in late 2012. A July 2014 directive on journalist press passes bars reporters from releasing information from interviews or press conferences on social media without permission of their employer media organizations. And in early 2015, the government cracked down on virtual private networks (VPNs), making it more difficult to access U.S. sites like Google and Facebook. "By blocking these tools, the authorities are leaving people with fewer options and are forcing most to give up on circumvention and switch to domestic services," writes Charlie Smith [pseudonym], a cofounder of FreeWeibo.com and activist website GreatFire.org. "If they can convince more internet users to use Chinese services-which they can readily censor and easily snoop on-then they have taken one further step towards cyber sovereignty." The restrictions mount on a regular basis, adds the New Yorker's Evan Osnos. "To the degree that China's connection to the outside world matters, the digital links are deteriorating," he wrote in an April 2015 article. "How many countries in 2015 have an internet connection to the world that is worse than it was a year ago?"

Foreign Media

China requires foreign correspondents to obtain permission before reporting in the country and has used this as an administrative roadblock to prevent journalists from reporting on potentially sensitive topics like corruption and, increasingly, economic and financial developments. Under Xi, the ability of foreign journalists and international news outlets to travel and access to sources have shrunk. "The hostile environment against foreign journalists is being fueled by efforts to publicly mark Western media outlets as not only biased, but part of a coordinated international effort to damage China's reputation" [PDF], according to PEN America's 2016 report on the constraints of foreign journalists reporting from China. Eighty percent of respondents in a 2014 survey conducted by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said their work conditions had worsened or stayed the same compared to 2013. International journalists regularly face government intimidation, surveillance, and restrictions on their reporting, writes freelance China correspondent Paul Mooney, who was denied a visa in 2013.

"Some people in China don't look at freedom of speech as an abstract ideal, but more as a means to an end."

Emily Parker,

Austin Ramzy, a China reporter for the New York Times, relocated to Taiwan in early 2014 after failing to receive his accreditation and visa. New York Times reporter Chris Buckley was reported to have been expelled in early January 2013- an incident China's foreign ministry said was a visa application suspension due to improper credentials. China observers were also notably shaken by the 2013 suspension of Bloomberg's former China correspondent, Michael Forsythe, after Bloomberg journalists accused the news agency of withholding investigative articles for fear of reprisal from Chinese authorities.

The treatment of foreign reporters has become a diplomatic issue. In response to the Arab Spring protests in early 2011, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to continue U.S. efforts to weaken censorship [PDF] in countries with repressive governments like China and Iran. In response, Beijing warned Washington to not meddle in the internal affairs of other countries. On a December 2013 trip to Beijing, then Vice President Joe Biden pressed China publicly and privately about press freedom, directly raising the issue in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and meetings with U.S. journalists working in China.

U.S. Technology in China

In more recent years, China has made it exceedingly difficult for foreign technology firms to compete within the country. The websites of U.S. social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are blocked. Google, after a protracted battle with Chinese authorities over the banning of search terms, quietly gave up its fight in early 2013 by turning off a notification that alerted Chinese users of potential censorship. In late 2014, China banned Google's email service Gmail, a move that triggered a concerned response from the U.S. State Department.

In January 2015, China issued new cybersecurity regulations that would force technology firms to submit source code, undergo rigorous inspections, and adopt Chinese encryption algorithms. The move triggered an outcry from European and U.S. companies, who lobbied governmental authorities for urgent aid in reversing the implementation of new regulations. CFR Senior Fellow Adam Segal writes that "the fact that the regulations come from the central leading group, and that they seem to reflect an ideologically driven effort to control cyberspace at all levels, make it less likely that Beijing will back down."

Circumventing the Censors

Despite the systematic control of news, the Chinese public has found numerous ways to circumvent censors. Ultrasurf, Psiphon, and Freegate are popular software programs that allow Chinese users to set up proxy servers to avoid controls. While VPNs are also popular, the government crackdown on the systems have led users to devise other methods, including the insertion of new IP addresses into host files, Tor-a free software program for anonymity-or SSH tunnels, which route all internet traffic through a remote server. According to Congress, between 1 and 8 percent [PDF] of Chinese internet users use proxy servers and VPNs to get around firewalls.

Microblogging sites like Weibo have also become primary spaces for Chinese netizens to voice opinion or discuss taboo subjects. "Over the years, in a series of cat-and-mouse games, Chinese internet users have developed an extensive series of puns-both visual and homophonous-slang, acronyms, memes, and images to skirt restrictions and censors," writes Ng.

Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt, said in early 2014 that encryption could help the company penetrate China. But such steps experienced a setback in March 2014 when authorities cracked down on social networking app WeChat (known as Weixin in China), deleting prominent, politically liberal accounts. Soon thereafter, the government announced new regulations on "instant messaging tools" aimed at mobile chat applications such as WeChat, which has more than 750 million users and was increasingly seen as replacing Weibo as a platform for popular dissent that could skirt censors. CFR's Economy says that the internet has increasingly become a means for Chinese citizens to ensure official accountability and rule of law, noting the growing importance of social network sites as a political force inside China despite government restrictions.

China had roughly 731 million internet users in 2017. Although there have been vocal calls for total press freedom in China, some experts point to a more nuanced discussion of the ways in which the internet is revolutionizing the Chinese media landscape and a society that is demanding more information. "Some people in China don't look at freedom of speech as an abstract ideal, but more as a means to an end," writes author Emily Parker. Rather, the fight for free expression fits into a larger context of burgeoning citizen attention to other, more pertinent social campaigns like environmental degradation, social inequality, and corruption-issues for which they use the internet and media as a means of disseminating information, says Ng.

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China's central government has cracked down on press freedom as the country expands its international influence, but in the internet age, many of its citizens hunger for a free flow of information.

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Chief of Censor of New Zealand, David Shanks, talks about how he struggles on when to censor and when not too. What information should he let the public know about and what should be kept secret? Censorship is one of the most predominant themes in Fahrenheit 451. The fact that there are firemen that burn books is censorship as it is because they don't want to allow the public to form their own opinions and learn things for themselves.

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The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act says that, "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form." And yet, some content is so heinous, and risks causing so much damage, that it must be limited for the safety of society.

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The art of individuality is lost in the need for conformity. Being singled out is hard for the human brain to accept because everyone wants to fit in, but if you aren't in agreeance with the "norms", then what do you do? I thought this was an important theme because in Fahrenheit 451, everyone is just hollow inside. They are not allowed to think for themselves and that makes them hollow. When you aren't allowed to think for yourself, you become derived of any emotions regarding anything, you are just a robot doing what you are told and that is what the society was in Fahrenheit 451.

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Losing your Individuality.

Where does this come from, how does it happen and how do you know when you've got it back. All three questions seem to be more difficult to answer than most. As we don't keep track of these things, they just happen over time... it's difficult to know when you've succumb to the average and to those around you when you don't improve all the time, or reach outside your comfort zone. This could be seen as conformity vs individuality both compromise of self.

When conformity is looked at from one angle, it is simply defined as the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals that guide their interactions with others. Which in specific terms meaning not having a sense of individualism to stand out from the crowd. To give up in your own thinking and becoming like another in order to be like-minded. To say you've become a sheep is kind of layered to be true. So why did I bring this up, this is because as humans, we are social creatures with hierarchies in the local system that happen automatically... I mean no one is at fault for becoming someone they don't want to be, when it's the crowd they're with. Fitting into a special crowd where you don't have to conform and keep your individuality is a lot rarer than you think... the act of being accepted and not tested for your beliefs is something that is hardly felt anymore. We all want to be heard and seen.

Individuality is harder to accept when you aren't allowed to accept yourself, by looking at social barriers we can see that there's conflict just by being a specific type of person, at the most natural form extroverts and introverts, sure they can be friends, many people are, but there are barriers that allow them to go on for only so long without realizing pressures on a more intimate level. We lose it as soon as we are in a crowd, I remember watching my baby cousin on the playground with friends quickly adapt his mannerisms to the other kids alike.

I guess it all starts the same, when in primary school we have a group of friends where we need to wear certain clothes to belong with them or need to play a certain sport have a certain mark on our report cards to keep u with the rest. Isolation is not the answer, but mere acceptance of our own likes and dislikes should set us apart from others. As soon as we are forced to do something that conflicts our feelings is the start of losing our individuality.

To acquire a sense of belonging is more important that having in your mind the "right" thoughts and being wrong to others when it could compromise happiness from being in the group. I mean who truly wants to be alone in today's age just because they are different to peers, I mean, I certainly don't. I am different by all means and I find comfort in knowing I am me and take a piece of everyone else as I move along my journey through time to see what else and who else I can become. Now, don't take it the wrong way in me saying I steal a piece of someone's heart just by being with them, no... I am rather saying through connections we develop something from another person's characteristics or mannerisms, but through this knowing whom oneself is, is more important.

How does one even begin to think about accepting themselves when we lie to ourselves and others... See, what this creates is saying that the other person is more important than us. And yes lying to ourselves is the same thing, as well as when we don't speak u when we have an opinion. Fixing it has to be the best part of this process through realizing our mortality. One we do that we see it's not worth our time to be someone else when we are perfect people in ourselves. Why would we spend this one life being like someone else, being a part of that other group that we don't belong in because we are fearful to be alone? We are all made out of what the stars are made out of, the biggest mountains, the toughest lions and the cutest kittens!

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Losing your Individuality. Where does this come from, how does it happen and how do you know when you've got it back. All three questions seem to be more difficult to answer than most. As we don't keep track of these things, they just happen over time...

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Kurt Vonnegut wrote a story called, Harrison Bergeron, which is very similar to Fahrenheit 451. The story is about a society where everyone is physically and mentally equal, no one is more athletic or smarter than the next person. People who are above the average either have an ear piece that plays a sharp noise so they don't think too much, and some may have weights attached to them, so they are physically burdened. There is a boy named Harrison who escaped from prison who before had to wear huge headphones with the noise because he was so smart, and have scrap metal hung all around him because of how strong he was, close to 300lbs.

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by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
French Translation from Avice Robitaille.
Hindi Translation by Ashwin.
Urdu Translation by RealMS
Russian translation

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.

On the television screen were ballerinas.

A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.

"That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did," said Hazel.

"Huh" said George.

"That dance-it was nice," said Hazel.

"Yup," said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren't really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped. But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.

George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.

Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George what the latest sound had been.

"Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer," said George.

"I'd think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds," said Hazel a little envious. "All the things they think up."

"Um," said George.

"Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?" said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. "If I was Diana Moon Glampers," said Hazel, "I'd have chimes on Sunday-just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion."

"I could think, if it was just chimes," said George.

"Well-maybe make 'em real loud," said Hazel. "I think I'd make a good Handicapper General."

"Good as anybody else," said George.

"Who knows better than I do what normal is?" said Hazel.

"Right," said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that.

"Boy!" said Hazel, "that was a doozy, wasn't it?"

It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes. Two of of the eight ballerinas had collapsed to the studio floor, were holding their temples.

"All of a sudden you look so tired," said Hazel. "Why don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch." She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George's neck. "Go on and rest the bag for a little while," she said. "I don't care if you're not equal to me for a while."

George weighed the bag with his hands. "I don't mind it," he said. "I don't notice it any more. It's just a part of me."

"You been so tired lately-kind of wore out," said Hazel. "If there was just some way we could make a little hole in the bottom of the bag, and just take out a few of them lead balls. Just a few."

"Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out," said George. "I don't call that a bargain."

"If you could just take a few out when you came home from work," said Hazel. "I mean-you don't compete with anybody around here. You just sit around."

"If I tried to get away with it," said George, "then other people'd get away with it-and pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn't like that, would you?"

"I'd hate it," said Hazel.

"There you are," said George. The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?"

If Hazel hadn't been able to come up with an answer to this question, George couldn't have supplied one. A siren was going off in his head.

"Reckon it'd fall all apart," said Hazel.

"What would?" said George blankly.

"Society," said Hazel uncertainly. "Wasn't that what you just said?

"Who knows?" said George.

The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It wasn't clear at first as to what the bulletin was about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For about half a minute, and in a state of high excitement, the announcer tried to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen."

He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.

"That's all right-" Hazel said of the announcer, "he tried. That's the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard."

"Ladies and Gentlemen," said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.

And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice for a woman to use. Her voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody. "Excuse me-" she said, and she began again, making her voice absolutely uncompetitive.

"Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen," she said in a grackle squawk, "has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous."

A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen-upside down, then sideways, upside down again, then right side up. The picture showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet and inches. He was exactly seven feet tall.

The rest of Harrison's appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.

Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds.

And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.

"If you see this boy," said the ballerina, "do not - I repeat, do not - try to reason with him."

There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges.

Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.

George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake, and well he might have - for many was the time his own home had danced to the same crashing tune. "My God-" said George, "that must be Harrison!"

The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.

When George could open his eyes again, the photograph of Harrison was gone. A living, breathing Harrison filled the screen.

Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood - in the center of the studio. The knob of the uprooted studio door was still in his hand. Ballerinas, technicians, musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees before him, expecting to die.

"I am the Emperor!" cried Harrison. "Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!" He stamped his foot and the studio shook.

"Even as I stand here" he bellowed, "crippled, hobbled, sickened - I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can become!"

Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.

Harrison's scrap-iron handicaps crashed to the floor.

Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the padlock that secured his head harness. The bar snapped like celery. Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall.

He flung away his rubber-ball nose, revealed a man that would have awed Thor, the god of thunder.

"I shall now select my Empress!" he said, looking down on the cowering people. "Let the first woman who dares rise to her feet claim her mate and her throne!"

A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow.

Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask.

She was blindingly beautiful.

"Now-" said Harrison, taking her hand, "shall we show the people the meaning of the word dance? Music!" he commanded.

The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too. "Play your best," he told them, "and I'll make you barons and dukes and earls."

The music began. It was normal at first-cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.

The music began again and was much improved.

Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the music for a while-listened gravely, as though synchronizing their heartbeats with it.

They shifted their weights to their toes.

Harrison placed his big hands on the girls tiny waist, letting her sense the weightlessness that would soon be hers.

And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!

Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.

They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.

They leaped like deer on the moon.

The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it.

It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.

And then, neutraling gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time.

It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.

Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.

It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned out.

Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out into the kitchen for a can of beer.

George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. "You been crying" he said to Hazel.

"Yup," she said.

"What about?" he said.

"I forget," she said. "Something real sad on television."

"What was it?" he said.

"It's all kind of mixed up in my mind," said Hazel.

"Forget sad things," said George.

"I always do," said Hazel.

"That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was the sound of a rivetting gun in his head.

"Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy," said Hazel.

"You can say that again," said George.

"Gee-" said Hazel, "I could tell that one was a doozy."
"Harrison Bergeron" is copyrighted by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961.

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French Translation from Avice Robitaille. Hindi Translation by Ashwin. Urdu Translation by RealMS Russian translation THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else.