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Post by John Green on Feb 18, 2023 11:57:46 GMT
"Roald Dahl’s children’s books are being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive by the publisher Puffin. Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author’s text to make sure the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”, resulting in extensive changes across Dahl’s work. Edits have been made to descriptions of characters’ physical appearance. The word “fat” has been cut from every new edition of relevant books, while the word “ugly” has also been culled, the Daily Telegraph reported. Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as “enormous”. In The Twits, Mrs Twit is no longer “ugly and beastly” but just “beastly”. Hundreds of changes were made to the original text – and some passages not written by Dahl have been added. In The Witches, a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.” In previous editions of James and the Giant Peach, the Centipede sings: “Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat/And tremendously flabby at that,” and, “Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire/And dry as a bone, only drier.” Both verses have been removed, and in their place are the rhymes: “Aunt Sponge was a nasty old brute/And deserved to be squashed by the fruit,” and, “Aunt Spiker was much of the same/And deserves half of the blame.” References to “female” characters have disappeared." www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/18/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-to-remove-language-deemed-offensive Cripes. |
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Feb 18, 2023 12:17:23 GMT
I suppose it isn't surprising he'd be the first to "need" changes. I opened "George's Marvellous Medicine" a few weeks ago and the descriptions are very frank. I always assumed that's what made it more realistic and therefore better for children once they had the right age.
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Post by John Wall on Feb 18, 2023 13:54:10 GMT
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
- George Orwell, 1984
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Post by mattg on Feb 18, 2023 14:48:43 GMT
“…hired sensitivity readers…“ …And sadly one can confidently surmise just the sort of fertile recruitment grounds (read dysfunctional online communities) they’ve recruited that ‘politically reliable’ bunch from too! Jobs for the boys comrades.  That said, some of the stated changes don’t seem too bad - describing Augustus Gloop as ‘enormous’ rather than ‘fat’ for example arguably isn’t too terrible a compromise. Others however are rather less condonable and it’s no surprise that The Witches seems to be one of the more significant casualties in this most righteous of revisionist purges. Indeed, certain ideological zealots have long attacked both Dahl’s work and his character having convinced themselves that ‘Witches intentionally demonises all women, ever, apparently... This really will not end well. For anyone. |
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Post by mattg on Feb 18, 2023 15:05:12 GMT
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” - George Orwell, 1984 …Incidentally I’m pretty sure that Prevent, the British government-inaugurated task force initially set up to investigate/combat religious radicalism, recently denounced 1984 as far right propaganda… The times we live in.  |
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Post by John Wall on Feb 18, 2023 15:22:10 GMT
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” - George Orwell, 1984 …Incidentally I’m pretty sure that Prevent, the British government-inaugurated task force initially set up to investigate/combat religious radicalism, recently denounced 1984 as far right propaganda… The times we live in. There were reports from 70-75 years ago of some from the Soviet bloc recognising it in their lives. |
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Post by Scot Ferre on Feb 18, 2023 15:37:28 GMT
Interesting. I have three young kids. I don’t think it’s a problem doing this. These are different times, and it’s good to be more positive and inclusive for all people.
I get why censorship would be a problem but these are our kids we’re talking about.
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Post by nathangeorge on Feb 18, 2023 15:52:38 GMT
I don't suppose all the Roald Dahl completists out there will want to miss these revised editions... I'm sure the fact the publishers are now guaranteed to shift a few hundred thousand copies of these pld stories this year never entered into their decision-making process here at all! Everything is done for money. I'd be very surprised if they give a penny fig for diversity or inclusion, outside how many more millions they can make from a dead man's set of stories. Never kid oneself into thinking capitalists care about anything except money.
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Post by mattg on Feb 18, 2023 16:19:56 GMT
Interesting. I have three young kids. I don’t think it’s a problem doing this. These are different times, and it’s good to be more positive and inclusive for all people. I get why censorship would be a problem but these are our kids we’re talking about. Yet as we see time and time again censorship and the increasingly specious justifications cited for its application is such a slippery slope. Worse, with every piece of ground ceded more is soon demanded, seemingly by an extreme minority giddy on its own power and long proficient at emotional manipulation. Point is one must consider the wider picture here: If Dahl’s (and other author’s) works are being slightly edited for pseudo heretical content now what will have to be expurgated in twenty, thirty years time in the speculative name of inclusion, etc, etc? It likely won’t be mere words and/or short sentences being revised by that point but whole chapters if not the stories themselves! I also wonder whether proponents would be quite so approving were the Church still the predominant (if self-appointed) moral power in the land and thus the instigators of these righteous censorial corrections instead. Naturally they too would justify such actions as being for the greater good… They always do. |
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Post by mattg on Feb 18, 2023 16:40:45 GMT
I don't suppose all the Roald Dahl completists out there will want to miss these revised editions... I'm sure the fact the publishers are now guaranteed to shift a few hundred thousand copies of these pld stories this year never entered into their decision-making process here at all! Everything is done for money. I'd be very surprised if they give a penny fig for diversity or inclusion, outside how many more millions they can make from a dead man's set of stories. Never kid oneself into thinking capitalists care about anything except money. ‘Calling all kids and young at heart adults! Remember Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, etc by Roald Dahl? Well now you can buy inferior versions of these timeless classics specially ruined for modern times!!!’ I should’ve been in marketing…  Puffin’s motives for this may well be cynical if not disingenuous but if they really do believe this is going to be a money spinner for them then I fear they’re being a tad optimistic. |
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Feb 18, 2023 18:54:45 GMT
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” - George Orwell, 1984 Sorry maybe I didn't read the article very well. I missed the part where young children get a rat on their face. I'm sympathetic to discussing if these changes are justified. But I'm not that keen on a histrionics/superlatives contest. Just not interested to enter the race for the Dystopian Analogies Cup. |
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Post by John Green on Feb 18, 2023 20:12:32 GMT
Hmm. If a prince is described as "The most handsome youth in all the land" that means that all the other lads aren't so pretty. Isn't that worrying for anyone concerned about their looks? (I've heard that there are such people).
And where do the Famous Five get off having adventures? Made my own childhood quite mundane in comparison. 'Five Go Shopping Again' should be out in time for Christmas.
If they try the same thing with Edith Nesbit, The Enchanted Castle's 'Ugly-Wugglies' scene, terrific though it is, is going to need a lot of work...
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Post by clive on Feb 19, 2023 0:43:12 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'.
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Post by John Wall on Feb 19, 2023 11:48:34 GMT
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Post by tombeveridge on Feb 19, 2023 17:06:49 GMT
In The Witches, a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”
Hmm! So all witches are women, according to Puffin! Are, therefore, all nurses women?
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