The censorship of Roald Dahl

[Anonymous]

Did anyone catch this in the news? Puffin is censoring Roald Dahl's books:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/critics-reject-roald-dahl-books-censorship-97322797

I am both shocked and not shocked.

[Anonymous]

This Salon article says the Oompa Loompas are now gender neutral. They're also censoring the word female in all his books.

https://www.salon.com/2023/02/18/roald-dahls-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-rewritten-to-include-gender-neutral-oompa-loompas/

[Anonymous]

I'm with Salman Rushdie on this, and I find this concerning. The edits were allegedly begun before the rights were acquired by Netflix, but I assume these changes are profit-motivated. I wonder what books will be on the chopping block next?

[Anonymous]

Next they'll be censoring the Bible to remove references to gender.

[Anonymous]

Farenheit 451 will be rewritten as a nice little story about keeping warm.

[Anonymous]

I'm also with Rushdie.

Keep the language - learn from the past - don't censor it.

[Anonymous]

Just so you know, some conservative Christians are making this into a huge thing.

Lots of works get updates to appeal to a new audience and the norms of the day. The fact is most people don’t even notice.

[Anonymous]

My favorite author changed something in a book they wrote about years ago. I’ve read the book so many times that I noticed it when I borrowed an ebook version instead of reading my physical copy.

The edit removes something that some would see as culturally insensitive. Doesn’t change the story at all. I’m glad they made the change. The scene always struck me as odd.

[Anonymous]

It's like they are writing the stump speech for GOP candidates. This is just feeding into their platforms against "woke liberals" and I understand why too. Why does "fat" need to be changed to "enormous"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just so you know, some conservative Christians are making this into a huge thing.

Lots of works get updates to appeal to a new audience and the norms of the day. The fact is most people don’t even notice.

No, I didn't realize that novels regularly get rewritten to conform to 'the norms of the day'. They removed and rewrote quite a bit of text. And you do know Salman Rushdie isn't a Christian, right? Stop trying to normalize this by making it seem like a fringe, far-right concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite author changed something in a book they wrote about years ago. I’ve read the book so many times that I noticed it when I borrowed an ebook version instead of reading my physical copy.

The edit removes something that some would see as culturally insensitive. Doesn’t change the story at all. I’m glad they made the change. The scene always struck me as odd.

What was the book?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just so you know, some conservative Christians are making this into a huge thing.

Lots of works get updates to appeal to a new audience and the norms of the day. The fact is most people don’t even notice.

Is this a bad thing? What does it matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite author changed something in a book they wrote about years ago. I’ve read the book so many times that I noticed it when I borrowed an ebook version instead of reading my physical copy.

The edit removes something that some would see as culturally insensitive. Doesn’t change the story at all. I’m glad they made the change. The scene always struck me as odd.

Name the book.

[Anonymous]

Fat = Fat
Ridiculous that the term can't be used.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why the oompa loompas need to be gender neutral. What's wrong with calling them men? Is this offensive?