Posted on 02/20/2023 10:15:38 AM PST by Red Badger
The publisher of Roald Dahl, the famed children’s author who wrote “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “The BFG,” among other works, has collaborated with the Roald Dahl Story Co., which manages the works’ copyright and trademarks, to make hundreds of alterations in order not to offend anyone with Dahl’s original works.
The Roald Dahl Story Co. admitted they had worked with Inclusive Minds, which monitors children’s literature for inclusion, diversity, and accessibility, The Washington Post reported.
The Telegraph illuminated some of the changes made to Dahl’s books, and their report caused author Salman Rushdie, himself the subject of an Iranian death warrant for his work, to tweet, “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”
The Roald Dahl Story Co. argued that the changes were “small and carefully considered,” while insisting they wanted “to ensure that Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today.” Their statement added, “When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it’s not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details including a book’s cover and page layout.”
Some of the changes implemented by the publisher include the following:
In “The Twits”: “Have you ever seen a woman with an uglier face than that” became “Have you ever seen anyone with an uglier face than that.” “Oh do shut up, you old hag” became “Oh do shut up, you old crow.”
In “The Witches,” the following sentences were removed:
I do not wish to speak badly about women. Most women are lovely. “How horrid!” “Disgusting,” my grandmother said. When an actress wears a wig, or if you or I were to wear a wig, we would be putting it on over our own hair, but a witch has to put it straight on to her naked scalp. In “Matilda,” “mothers and fathers” became “parents.” “She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling,” became “She went to nineteenth century estates with Jane Austen. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and California with John Steinbeck.”
In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” this sentence was entirely removed: “Mike Teavee himself had no less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body, and every now and again he would leap up into the air and fire off half a dozen rounds from one or another of these weapons.”
This sentence was also removed: “The Oompa-Loompas spent every moment of their days climbing through the treetops.”
In “The BFG,” the word “black” was consistently replaced by the word “dark” in sentences such as “It was something black,” “It was something tall and black,” and “Something very tall and very black and very thin.”
1984 Ping!..................
I wonder why they didn't just burn them?
“Inclusive Minds” doesn’t sound very inclusive at all.
Because they still make lots of money...............
For sure, they could have gone Fahrenheit 451 instead of 1984.
I see that they’re examining ‘James and the Giant Peach’.
Now here’s the thing. My first name is James. And when I was in high school, I dated a large girl who was nicknamed ‘Peachy’. She dumped me. It hurt. And the pain comes back whenever I see that book’s title.
So I demand that the title of that book be changed! My feelings are as important as anyone else’s. No, I think they are actually more important.
I did Nazi this coming...
I thought 1984 was supposed to be a warning.
NOT a How To guise.
The Fall of Empire continues apace.
Exactly.
Woke with profit.
People For the Ethical Eating of Fruit, PFEEF, agree, the title should be changed because it has a fruit named in it.................
Not real impressive in the “minds” department either.
I wonder if his heirs went along with this, or if they even have any ownership.
Better leave the Movie alone.
“Is that the Memory Hole, or do you Woke folks just have your heads jammed up your ass?”
As an member of anti-veganfaux I demand that Peach be replaced by Juicy Med Rare T-Bone.
Foot soldiers for the New Cultural Revolution. They're at the other end of Orwell's foot stomping on a human face forever.
James and the Giant Meat?.......................
and that’s how
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
became
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.”
the whole beauty of “fishermen” becoming fishers OF men is wasted on wokeness
I went to a kids’ Summer Camp one year, and told the fishing instructor that I wanted to be a ‘fisherwoman’.
He corrected me and told me that I would be a fisherman.
(We didn’t have to alter good English back then to please silly people.)
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