Censorship, the main theme of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, has been around almost since people first started reading. That may be a slight exaggeration, but history tells us that certain books were banned at least as far back as 221 B.C.E. when Ying Zheng took over as emperor of the Qin during the Imperial Dynasty in China. He had many Confucians killed and had their books burned because he disagreed with them.
One might think our society is above all that, and while it is true that in the United States people are not executed for reading books, censorship is alive and well. Every year, parents ask that certain books be banned from school libraries and in classrooms. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was first banned in the United States in 1885, and it is still one of the books most often challenged today. The biggest criticism comes because of the language, especially that used to describe African Americans, but when Mark Twain wrote it, he was using the language of his day.
Cartoonists have had their lives threatened for publishing their depictions of the prophet Mohammed. Newspapers and publishers have been threatened as well, and violence has occurred against them, such as the Charlie Hebdo killings in France.
Another "banned" book is Fahrenheit 451 itself, which is pretty ironic, don't you think? People, again, object to the language and often cite religious reasons for not wanting their children to read it. Bradbury's book is important because it is a warning of what might come to pass if we get rid of books. The Fahrenheit world is one where everyone is told what to think, what to do, how to act. Nobody is allowed to think for him/herself. Books help us to do that. From books we can learn about other cultures, other cities, states, countries, continents, etc. They open up an entire world for us. Some people are frightened by that.
Others rebel against the idea of censorship, and a week called "Banned Books' Week" is celebrated every year around the end of September. I've included a link to an article about it at the bottom.
So, yes, Bradbury's book is still very relevant today. He wrote it in 1953, highly influenced by the events in WWII Germany. In an interview on January 5, 2005, he answered a question about his motivation for writing Fahrenheit 451.
"Well, Hitler of course. When I was fifteen, he burnt the books in the streets of Berlin. Then along the way I learned about the libraries in Alexandria burning five thousand years ago. That grieved my soul. Since I'm self-educated, that means my educators--the libraries--are in danger. And if it could happen in Alexandria, if it could happen in Berlin, maybe it could happen somewhere up ahead, and my heroes would be killed" (Interview with Dana Giola).
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