Puffin, the publisher of Dahl’s classic works, has hired sensitivity readers to cleanse the author’s wording in the U.K. editions allegedly so everyone can enjoy them. His wonderful children’s books, some made into hit movies are gutted of so-called “offensive language.”
The Telegraph reports that they altered numerous descriptions of characters’ physical appearances, removed references to some characters being fat, and changed some language to be gender-neutral.
Michael Schellenberger tweeted, The publisher of the books of the late Roald Dahl has made hundreds of changes to them, supposedly to make them more palatable to “sensitive” audiences. This is totalitarian censorship and should be broadly condemned by authors and publishers.
It’s no different than burning books. Some of the changes even alter the meaning the author intended.
Book censors can pop up on either side of the political fence, but the worst danger comes from those on the Maoist left.
Neither right nor left will ever be free of the temptations of censoriousness, but if you want to understand which side is the greater threat to books, literature, journalism, thought, & speech, consider this Maoist episode, Dan Laughlin tweeted.
Dahl is only one prominent example. of the rapid changes made to children’s books.
The pathetic changes
“Words matter,” begins the discreet notice, which sits at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books. “The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvellous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”
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Put simply: these may not be the words Dahl wrote. The publishers have given themselves licence to edit the writer as they see fit, chopping, altering and adding where necessary to bring his books in line with contemporary sensibilities. By comparing the latest editions with earlier versions of the texts, The Telegraph has found hundreds of changes to Dahl’s stories.
The new Roald Dahl thanks to the culture terminators
The Telegraph lists the changes to each book, and here are a few.
Dahl’s character Augustus Gloop, the chubby character featured in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” is no longer “fat,” he’s “enormous.” Mrs. Twit, a character from “The Twits,” is described as just “beastly” instead of “ugly and beastly.”’
In “James and the Giant Peach,” the character of Miss Sponge is no longer described as “the fat one.” Miss Spider’s head is not “black” anymore. The Earthworm has given up its “lovely pink” skin for “lovely smooth skin.”
The Telegraph found 59 changes in his book The Witches alone. In Dahl’s “The Witches,” a paragraph describing witches as bald beneath their wigs includes a new line. “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”
You might think it’s okay to call a mouse fat, but, WRONG!
A passage from “The Witches” that originally described a “fat little brown mouse” is now “little brown mouse.” The part that says, “‘Here’s your little boy,’ she said. ‘He needs to go on a diet,’” now reads, “Here’s your little boy.”
In “Matilda,” the description of Mrs. Trunchbull’s “great horsey face” has been changed to simply “face,” and “eight nutty little idiots” now reads “eight nutty little boys.”
The changes have also resulted in the inclusion of gender-neutral language. In James and the Giant Peach, cloud men are now cloud people.
Meanings are changed. The mere mention of Rudyard Kipling was excised. Jane Austen replaced him in “Matilda.” Toy guns were taken from Mike Teavee’s belt in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
The only solution is to order older versions of the books.
GB News reacts
‘Enough is enough! To say that Roald Dahl is spinning in his grave is an understatement.’@MrMarkDolan reacts to Roald Dahl’s children’s books being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive by publisher Puffin.
📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604 pic.twitter.com/75dMry8TEp
— GB News (@GBNEWS) February 18, 2023
This is okay with leftists
Yet they will condemn you if you try to keep porn away from the children. Why is that, do you think?
UNREAL. Parent in @friscoisd reads from a pornographic book available to kids. A board member stops her and says “there’s a child in our board room.”
They acknowledge it’s inappropriate to read in front of children but these books can be in the school library. Make it make sense pic.twitter.com/VwpUBWOYnb
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 17, 2022
wpDiscuz
