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Post by John Wall on Mar 3, 2023 23:11:13 GMT
And I still think that the Swallows and Amazon film from 1974 beats hands down any later version alert to racial prejudice and discrimination that refuses to call one of the girls by her given name of Titty. 😂😂😂😂
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Post by John Green on Mar 6, 2023 12:56:01 GMT
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Post by John Green on Mar 9, 2023 13:08:06 GMT
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Post by darrenlee on Mar 10, 2023 13:45:59 GMT
Most of these people focusing on the financial reasoning for editing Roald Dahl's books look like they are trying to avoid expressing an opinion on whether it's intrinsically a good thing or not.
Toning Dahl's books down may just make them more realistic and therefore potentially more upsetting or frightening. For example, I could believe that someone might be more upset by simply 'enormous' or 'fat' than by 'enormously fat', which conjures up a cartoonish level of obesity not relatable to real life for many.
The books are quite simply 'inappropriate' and cannot be made 'appropriate' with a bit of tinkering. They need to be rewritten completely, e.g.
A person called Charlie lived in a place with some more people. It was not draughty because they had either invested in good insulation themselves or been helped to do so by government schemes, and there is nothing wrong with that.
One day one of the people who lived with Charlie announced that the diverse board of 'Extremely Delicious Stuff Solutions' was going to open their workplace for a visit from five lucky finders of colour-diverse tickets hidden in their products, including a fair share in 'free-from' items.
"That just sounds like a ruse to shift more product", said Charlie, "whilst dividing people into winners and losers, which is not good. There's very little chance of winning, anyway."
"But", came the reply, "you're bound to win because you want it more than anyone else."
"That's the sort of fallacy that causes hard-working families to spiral into debt through gambling addiction, though help is available if you or someone you know has been affected by this issue", explained Charlie. "Anyway, their confections are mainly high-sugar and high-enormity and should not form too large a part of anyone's daily intake. I would much rather eat a piece of fruit, even a beastli fruit, which at least counts as one of my five-a-day, so long as I remember to clean my teeth afterwards in a manner approved by dental experts."
"Then it's a shame you'll not get to meet the colleagues at Extremely Delicious Stuff Solutions, who are happy to work hard and not go on strike because they are paid a living wage with share options, receive a generous holiday package, benefit from a well-written company policy opposing discrimination and have access to on-going training to keep key skills up to date. And you won't hear them sing their song:
'We know that poetry ends in a rhyme,
But we've never heard of rhythm or scansion because we are instead committed to putting our efforts towards improving the world for the many not just the few at least most of the time.'
Are you sure you don't want to buy a chocolate bar? No pressure, as that would not be best practice."
"Yes."
THE END
With thanks to Roald Dahl, especially for providing such a splendidly non-gender, non-ethnicity specific name in 'Charlie'. Also, an equal amount of thanks to everyone else in the world so no-one feels left out.
The name's Bond, Jamie Bond, licensed to listen and maybe offer a little counselling where appropriate.
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Post by John Green on Mar 10, 2023 17:08:26 GMT
A rewriting of Strewwelpeter would leave very little of the original: www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/struwwelpeter(Ironically, the spelcheck-thingy suggested 'Streetwalker' as an alternative. No wonder cheeks blush! ).
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Post by Stephen Byers on Mar 27, 2023 0:24:34 GMT
There’re re-working Enid Blyton too. Bring back the gol. And Dickens, Bond, and Shakespeare, et al … But major book stores are getting back by replacing such as Blyton’s books in more central eye catching positions.
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Post by sonnybh on Mar 27, 2023 20:33:49 GMT
There’re re-working Enid Blyton too. Bring back the gol. And Dickens, Bond, and Shakespeare, et al … But major book stores are getting back by replacing such as Blyton’s books in more central eye catching positions. I had though the Noddy books had been redone years ago, along with some updates to Mallory Towers & St Clare's books.
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Post by anthonybartley on Mar 28, 2023 8:43:18 GMT
Now it's Agatha's turn www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/26/agatha-christie-novels-reworked-to-remove-potentially-offensive-languageAs I said earlier in this discussion - there are no victories here, just a temporary reprieve before everything gets thoroughly sanitised so that 0.00001% of society can sleep better at night. Never before has censoring the masses to please the (very) few been so evident. There is, perhaps, a more interesting point to be made here: By re-writing these works - and creating 'new' works in the process - does copyright then get extended another 75+ years for these new editions? This may well explain why publishing houses are so keen to throw everything into a grinder and re-write history in the process. Just a thought. Anyway, I guess it's now just a matter of time before Shakespeare is thrown onto the chopping block. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/25/shakespeare-antisemitic-lines-mark-rylanceThat was just one person's attempt to re-write a play - but I suspect the books will get their 'sensitivity' moment in the very near future. "One can see any number of places in the text where there could be judicious cutting, or alteration. The frequent use, for example, of “the Jew”. When Portia, in the guise of a lawyer, comes into court she inquires: “Who is the merchant and who is the Jew?” One party is identified by profession, the other by race. It could be tactfully altered to “Who is the merchant and who is the moneylender?” And who would notice?"I can just imagine 100 years from now, readers studying old (no doubt banned and illegal) uncensored versions, scratching their heads and asking themselves "Why were Jews money lenders? Why can't we know that now?" But if all texts pass (one would logically assume) through some sort of AI generated 'antisemitic' filter many years from now - that key aspect of Jewish history wouldn't exist anymore. Whoever these people were, they'd just be known as 'the money lenders' for future generations studying the past. People wouldn't even know they were Jewish. "And who would notice?" (says the clearly very dumb Guardian writer) Um... erm.... historians? You know, those curious people who try to study our past - often to work out where we're heading. But I guess we won't need historians anymore - what with everything being rewritten more times than the Bible, what would be the point in studying a history that doesn't exist or has been covered up? I could think of better things to do with my time, like being a 'sensitivity reader' for example My one overriding thought here is that we won't be a species that learns from its mistakes - No, we will be a species that (conveniently) deletes its mistakes so we don't need to bother learning anything in the first place. Somehow our past will be perfect and squeaky clean - and we'll all have a clear conscience. Now wouldn't that be nice? Tea time in the not-too-distant future: "Another crumpet, dear?" George suddenly leaps up out of his armchair and violently spits out his tea all over the new coffee table. "Darling, say that word again and you'll get us both arrested!"
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Post by Frank Shailes on Apr 3, 2023 15:48:14 GMT
Hasn't this already been done to Enid Blyton several years ago, with the Noddy books being particularly affected. Not sure if B!g Ears still exists, but definitley the G0llyw0gs have gone.. And earlier than that (although not a childrens book), Agatha Christies 'Ten Little N!ggers has also had a number of renames and words replaced for 'less offensiveness'. Reportedly not just titles but entire texts of all Agatha Christie novels are going to be rewritten by the "sensitivity readers". Soon, no-one will be able to read the original texts of anything by any author. The point of Jews historically being moneylenders is they were legally barred from any other profession. So, far from fighting anti-semitism, they "sensitivity readers" are removing knowledge of it happening. What will they embark upon next? Holocaust denial?
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Post by anthonybartley on Apr 7, 2023 12:55:01 GMT
Someone needs to make a documentary about these sensitivity readers.
All these big decisions and sweeping changes, yet all we know about them are two words (their name/title)
I wonder what's more worrying here? Is it the fact that these changes are being made in the first place - or the fact that we know absolutely nothing about the people doing it?
The mind boggles.
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,863
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Post by RWels on Apr 16, 2023 19:13:28 GMT
Pay attention people. I had to read ELSEWHERE that P.G. Wodehouse was also targeted. What do I come here for?
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Post by sonnybh on Apr 16, 2023 20:26:46 GMT
Pay attention people. I had to read ELSEWHERE that P.G. Wodehouse was also targeted. What do I come here for? Interestingly he was accused of being a collaborator because of some radio broadcasts in the Second World War & had to live his later years in exile.
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,863
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Post by RWels on Apr 16, 2023 20:46:47 GMT
Pay attention people. I had to read ELSEWHERE that P.G. Wodehouse was also targeted. What do I come here for? Interestingly he was accused of being a collaborator because of some radio broadcasts in the Second World War & had to live his later years in exile. Yeah you do a few radio shows for the nazis, and all of a sudden people won't stop holding it against you. Who would have thought that it would be a bad idea...?! It's not really relevant though, is it? It's completely unconnected.
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Post by Stuart Douglas on Apr 17, 2023 10:07:28 GMT
Hasn't this already been done to Enid Blyton several years ago, with the Noddy books being particularly affected. Not sure if B!g Ears still exists, but definitley the G0llyw0gs have gone.. And earlier than that (although not a childrens book), Agatha Christies 'Ten Little N!ggers has also had a number of renames and words replaced for 'less offensiveness'. Reportedly not just titles but entire texts of all Agatha Christie novels are going to be rewritten by the "sensitivity readers". Soon, no-one will be able to read the original texts of anything by any author. I hadn't heard the news that all previous print editions of all books, plus all the e-versions and online editions were being recalled and burned/pulped/erased. You'd think something like that would have had far more widespread coverage...
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Post by John Wall on Apr 17, 2023 10:37:41 GMT
Fortunately there are plenty of second hand editions of popular works so there’s no need to spaff money on censored versions 👍
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