Bafflingly there really are plenty of people out there who see nothing wrong with the idea.
So where could this go? There is plenty of antisemitism in Shakespeare and Marlowe. Should they be fixed? Then there is the racism and the sexism. But why stop at books let’s fix the movies too;
can’t wait to see the redo of ‘Gone with the Wind.’
Great way for the publisher to ensure every children’s library is forced to refresh it’s Dahl collection in fear of having the wrong “version” on their shelves. Money in the bank in the name of inclusion.
Rightly so, it is pandering hogwash which does little but ridicule and undermine genuine social progress
Woke BS . Should be opposed by ever sensible person . Including we in the sane Left
Guess I’ll hold out for the 3 page edition of mein kampf?
How about stop trying to change the past and build a future.
With them being children’s books, I wouldn’t be *wholly* against the idea of changing problematic phrases, as they might often be read without the relevant educating context.
But many of these changes are just bizarre. “Both of the tractors were black”, has been cut from Fantastic Mr Fox. That makes no sense. They’re tractors, not people.
“Tortoises are very backward creatures. Therefore they can only understand words that are written backwards”, has been changed to, “They can only understand words that are written backwards”. What’s offensive about saying tortoises are backwards creatures?
I think if changes are going to be made to children’s books to bring them up to date with modern society, they should probably be the minimum changes necessary.
Should be disallowed under false advertising.
How far can you change the text of the book before claiming it was written by a particular author is simply a lie?
Way to give ammunition to the right wings accusations about a woke culture war being waged trying to censor anything and everything.
The problem with making everything “woke” for want of a better term is that things will never be woke enough for some people.
IMO this just means that everything will eventually become so bland it will lose all the magic that made it special in the first place.
It’s absolutely censorship and worse, harms their own cause.
As they should. Why should a man’s life’s work be changed to suit some entitled person’s opinion? You don’t see ppl chipping the p*nises off of Greek statutes bcus that offends someone. So there’s no reason a more recent work of art should be altered bcus of what’s considered ‘socially acceptable’ today.
I’ve seen a lot of dumb things this year but I literally cannot understand why this is a thing.
Books shouldn’t be changed or censored. It’s the equivalent of when people whacked off the genitals of statues.
​
Leave them as written, regardless of the language used. If needs be, slap a warnign sticker on.
Will they also be censoring the Bible and Quran? I don’t think so.
I don’t want to be the “tHiS iS jUsT lIkE 1984!” person, but carefully erasing history so that it can no longer be discussed and rewriting previously published material so that it doesn’t contradict the standards of the day is basically what they do in 1984.
Simple solution that would make everyone happy: Continue publishing the old one alongside the new one. Label them “Classic Edition” and “New Edition”. At the start of each publication have a one page disclaimer which, in the classic edition, explains that there are language and ideas in the book that aren’t considered acceptable by modern standards, but the publication was done for the purposes of accurate preservation, and in the new edition, explain that while it is mostly the same, some changes have been made to make the literature more appropriate for modern audiences.
It’s a terrible idea. By all means publish each book with a new introduction that places the author and the story in context, but leave the original text alone. Roald Dahl would be appalled.
An interesting case where changing the text (and even the title) could be justified is Agatha Christie’s *And Then There Were None*. It used to be called *Ten Little Indians*, but it was changed when that was deemed offensive. However! It was originally called *Ten Little N**gers*. I know this because my grandmother used to have the book. And she wasn’t even a crazy racist. She just liked Agatha Christie books.
Wait….is ‘fat’ supposed to be offensive now? I’m fat and I call myself fat. I don’t think ‘enormous’ would be any better….
Why not just do what the Looney Tunes did and add a disclaimer explaining that they’re a product of the time they were written?
What if the people being stupidly sensitive are ALSO the people who are getting offended that “enormously fat” has been changed to “enormous”?
I mean, if the oversensitivity of the people the publisher is trying to appease matters then surely the oversensitivity of the people crying about the changes matter too. How are they different?
This is why it is important to have these conversations though. People tote these ideas, and others say….. no actually, that is unnecessary, and going a bit too far. If we don’t discuss these things, then we don’t know where the line is. For example, the use of Firefighter or Police officer as opposed to the default “man”…… yeah, fair enough, it was never malicious in it’s origins, but dropping the “man” does send a positive message to young females with those aspirations. “Fisherthem” however, is just silly. No need to get outraged, just all agree “No…….. no, that’s not happening, it’s fucking ridiculous.” and move on.
They removed references to the character Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being fat, when the central theme of his character is greed.
He’s a fat, greedy child who consumed far too much junk food and fell into a river of chocolate and got dragged into a pipe because he couldn’t control his greed.
The bad behaviour of the children is literally the central theme of the story, with Augustus being a literal representation of greed.
Removing the word fat doesn’t make the character not fat. I understand that some overweight people may not like that word but that has no bearing whatsoever on Dahl’s story or the character of Augustus Gloop, who is fat.
Censoring the books is such an odd decision.
I’m pretty sure this kind of thing is just 4d marketing get people riled up free coverage and increased loyalty to the product just before a launch then revert the “damage” Clarksons farm did the same thing.
I figured there must have been something outright racist that I’d forgot about but na, it’s just you can’t call Augustus Gloop fat any more lol. Who is actually asking for this?
What’s wrong with being a cashier? It’s more offensive to downgrade a person’s job. As for the tractors – they are black. It’s like saying it’s offensive to call those red curtains, red. And shielding kids from offensive material, how are they meant to learn it’s offensive if you keep blanketing it? If you don’t expose children to offensive material, you can’t educate them. At the end of the day, certain terms were deemed acceptable 20/30/40/50 years ago. It’s part of our history. You teach a child that, it’s history. You can’t erase history, you can only educate and show/explain why those things were wrong.
“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…Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
– George Orwell, 1984
Surely Puffin should have seen how grossly and universally unpopular this would be. Companies need to start realising the people who would be offended by a Roald Dahl book are in the vanishingly small minority.
It’s frightening that a small group of American students have such a stranglehold on all our companies and institutions, even in the UK. I hope people fight this and Puffin are forced to retract these amendments. Perhaps the cost of a reprint will send a message to other publishers considering censoring art, just to appease a small mob on Twitter.
Edit: this is their customer email address if anyone else feels compelled to complain.
I hate to be that guy, but if enough people express their unhappiness with this blatant and needless censorship, it might stop this happening in future.
Historically this is a hop skip and jump away from burning them all.
As expected, so which stage are we at now?
1/ Its not happening, its just a far right myth
2/ If it is happening its not that much anyway
3/ Yes its happening and actually its a good thing
Are people too dense to see past this right Vs left drivel that’s designed to divide the country so that we don’t focus on the real issues? Murdoch media spits out that left-wing people are against certain types of people being referred to as certain types of things (in reality it’s a very loud minority), Murdoch media spits out this story about a company changing beloved books in response to their last stories, we argue and forget about the REAL issues in the country.
I love that part in Charlie and the chocolate facotry where Augustus doesn’t get stuck in the pipe and then the Oompa Loompas sing a song about how stunning and brave his is.
33 comments
Bafflingly there really are plenty of people out there who see nothing wrong with the idea.
So where could this go? There is plenty of antisemitism in Shakespeare and Marlowe. Should they be fixed? Then there is the racism and the sexism. But why stop at books let’s fix the movies too;
can’t wait to see the redo of ‘Gone with the Wind.’
Great way for the publisher to ensure every children’s library is forced to refresh it’s Dahl collection in fear of having the wrong “version” on their shelves. Money in the bank in the name of inclusion.
Rightly so, it is pandering hogwash which does little but ridicule and undermine genuine social progress
Woke BS . Should be opposed by ever sensible person . Including we in the sane Left
Guess I’ll hold out for the 3 page edition of mein kampf?
How about stop trying to change the past and build a future.
With them being children’s books, I wouldn’t be *wholly* against the idea of changing problematic phrases, as they might often be read without the relevant educating context.
But many of these changes are just bizarre. “Both of the tractors were black”, has been cut from Fantastic Mr Fox. That makes no sense. They’re tractors, not people.
“Tortoises are very backward creatures. Therefore they can only understand words that are written backwards”, has been changed to, “They can only understand words that are written backwards”. What’s offensive about saying tortoises are backwards creatures?
I think if changes are going to be made to children’s books to bring them up to date with modern society, they should probably be the minimum changes necessary.
Should be disallowed under false advertising.
How far can you change the text of the book before claiming it was written by a particular author is simply a lie?
Way to give ammunition to the right wings accusations about a woke culture war being waged trying to censor anything and everything.
The problem with making everything “woke” for want of a better term is that things will never be woke enough for some people.
IMO this just means that everything will eventually become so bland it will lose all the magic that made it special in the first place.
It’s absolutely censorship and worse, harms their own cause.
As they should. Why should a man’s life’s work be changed to suit some entitled person’s opinion? You don’t see ppl chipping the p*nises off of Greek statutes bcus that offends someone. So there’s no reason a more recent work of art should be altered bcus of what’s considered ‘socially acceptable’ today.
I’ve seen a lot of dumb things this year but I literally cannot understand why this is a thing.
Books shouldn’t be changed or censored. It’s the equivalent of when people whacked off the genitals of statues.
​
Leave them as written, regardless of the language used. If needs be, slap a warnign sticker on.
Will they also be censoring the Bible and Quran? I don’t think so.
I don’t want to be the “tHiS iS jUsT lIkE 1984!” person, but carefully erasing history so that it can no longer be discussed and rewriting previously published material so that it doesn’t contradict the standards of the day is basically what they do in 1984.
They’ve been BOWLDERIZED!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bowdler
Simple solution that would make everyone happy: Continue publishing the old one alongside the new one. Label them “Classic Edition” and “New Edition”. At the start of each publication have a one page disclaimer which, in the classic edition, explains that there are language and ideas in the book that aren’t considered acceptable by modern standards, but the publication was done for the purposes of accurate preservation, and in the new edition, explain that while it is mostly the same, some changes have been made to make the literature more appropriate for modern audiences.
It’s a terrible idea. By all means publish each book with a new introduction that places the author and the story in context, but leave the original text alone. Roald Dahl would be appalled.
An interesting case where changing the text (and even the title) could be justified is Agatha Christie’s *And Then There Were None*. It used to be called *Ten Little Indians*, but it was changed when that was deemed offensive. However! It was originally called *Ten Little N**gers*. I know this because my grandmother used to have the book. And she wasn’t even a crazy racist. She just liked Agatha Christie books.
Wait….is ‘fat’ supposed to be offensive now? I’m fat and I call myself fat. I don’t think ‘enormous’ would be any better….
Why not just do what the Looney Tunes did and add a disclaimer explaining that they’re a product of the time they were written?
What if the people being stupidly sensitive are ALSO the people who are getting offended that “enormously fat” has been changed to “enormous”?
I mean, if the oversensitivity of the people the publisher is trying to appease matters then surely the oversensitivity of the people crying about the changes matter too. How are they different?
This is why it is important to have these conversations though. People tote these ideas, and others say….. no actually, that is unnecessary, and going a bit too far. If we don’t discuss these things, then we don’t know where the line is. For example, the use of Firefighter or Police officer as opposed to the default “man”…… yeah, fair enough, it was never malicious in it’s origins, but dropping the “man” does send a positive message to young females with those aspirations. “Fisherthem” however, is just silly. No need to get outraged, just all agree “No…….. no, that’s not happening, it’s fucking ridiculous.” and move on.
They removed references to the character Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being fat, when the central theme of his character is greed.
He’s a fat, greedy child who consumed far too much junk food and fell into a river of chocolate and got dragged into a pipe because he couldn’t control his greed.
The bad behaviour of the children is literally the central theme of the story, with Augustus being a literal representation of greed.
Removing the word fat doesn’t make the character not fat. I understand that some overweight people may not like that word but that has no bearing whatsoever on Dahl’s story or the character of Augustus Gloop, who is fat.
Censoring the books is such an odd decision.
I’m pretty sure this kind of thing is just 4d marketing get people riled up free coverage and increased loyalty to the product just before a launch then revert the “damage” Clarksons farm did the same thing.
I figured there must have been something outright racist that I’d forgot about but na, it’s just you can’t call Augustus Gloop fat any more lol. Who is actually asking for this?
What’s wrong with being a cashier? It’s more offensive to downgrade a person’s job. As for the tractors – they are black. It’s like saying it’s offensive to call those red curtains, red. And shielding kids from offensive material, how are they meant to learn it’s offensive if you keep blanketing it? If you don’t expose children to offensive material, you can’t educate them. At the end of the day, certain terms were deemed acceptable 20/30/40/50 years ago. It’s part of our history. You teach a child that, it’s history. You can’t erase history, you can only educate and show/explain why those things were wrong.
“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…Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
– George Orwell, 1984
Surely Puffin should have seen how grossly and universally unpopular this would be. Companies need to start realising the people who would be offended by a Roald Dahl book are in the vanishingly small minority.
It’s frightening that a small group of American students have such a stranglehold on all our companies and institutions, even in the UK. I hope people fight this and Puffin are forced to retract these amendments. Perhaps the cost of a reprint will send a message to other publishers considering censoring art, just to appease a small mob on Twitter.
Edit: this is their customer email address if anyone else feels compelled to complain.
customersupport@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
I hate to be that guy, but if enough people express their unhappiness with this blatant and needless censorship, it might stop this happening in future.
Historically this is a hop skip and jump away from burning them all.
As expected, so which stage are we at now?
1/ Its not happening, its just a far right myth
2/ If it is happening its not that much anyway
3/ Yes its happening and actually its a good thing
Are people too dense to see past this right Vs left drivel that’s designed to divide the country so that we don’t focus on the real issues? Murdoch media spits out that left-wing people are against certain types of people being referred to as certain types of things (in reality it’s a very loud minority), Murdoch media spits out this story about a company changing beloved books in response to their last stories, we argue and forget about the REAL issues in the country.
I love that part in Charlie and the chocolate facotry where Augustus doesn’t get stuck in the pipe and then the Oompa Loompas sing a song about how stunning and brave his is.