Theme

So last week I did a post about Fahrenheit 451 and why it banned. While I was researching the book, I discovered that Ray Bradbury himself stated his purpose in writing the book. This got me thinking. One of my favorite parts about literature is that two people could be arguing about the theme of a book and, so long as they both support their argument with decent evidence, they are both completely right. Part of that is because the author never really states the theme of a book outright. Even if it's blatantly obvious, it's usually not stated directly. But Ray Bradbury did that. He went on record and stated his purpose in writing the book.

So what does this mean? Does this mean that the people who believe that the book is about government censorship are wrong? That government censorship cannot be a theme at all? That what the author says goes? Or, does this mean that despite what the author's true intentions in writing the book are, it is still possible for there to be a thousand and one different meanings?

I know this is the shortest blog post I have made but I couldn't help bringing up these topics when they were so prominent to me while researching. I wanted to pose these questions to you guys and see what you thought. Do you like that Bradbury stated his purpose? Do you prefer the author tell us next to nothing about their motivation for writing a book? Or do you want to know everything about you're favorite book? I know there are a lot of questions in this post that I'm not answering with my own opinion, but I really wanted you guys to think about it like I have. So, take this post, think about it, and I'll see you next week.