What is wrong with “boys and girls” or “mothers and fathers”? Is it offensive nowadays? I am being serious. I am not American and not an English speaker. Just trying to understand…Can someone please explain to me?

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, has Twain been censored? I have not read that his books had, though clearly the audience and demand for Twain and Dahl are quite different

It's one of the most banned book in US schools, often the target of banning efforts by state legislatures and school boards.

Absurd. Just ordered used copies of Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

This is truly Orwellian.

Out of curiosity, has Twain been censored? I have not read that his books had, though clearly the audience and demand for Twain and Dahl are quite different

Let's just touch up the Mona Lisa, why don't we?

And to those people who are pointing to the Bible--the equivalent would not be an updated *translation*--the equivalent would be altering phrases from the Koine Greek. Roald Dalh is not here to approve of changes to his text. Living authors sometimes update their books, as Judy Blume has done with some of her OWN books.

I am a lefty liberal academic, PhD in the humanities, tenured professor at an R1 institution, and I am outraged. Children's literature is not just kids' books, it's also primary source material with specific historical context, especially when we are talking about books from a significant author with wide reach.

I've written a couple scholarly articles about the history of children's lit-it's not my primary field but I do have some expertise. I think this is a nothing story. Kids books that stay in print for a long time are regularly updated to remove anachronisms/update language.

This author supposedly said some horribly antisemitic things. And maybe there are some vicious antisemitic stereotypes in some books. But I’m appalled by these re-writes of some sentences. So creepy .. and so very 2023.

Anonymous wrote:“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." George Orwell, 1984

So much this!!

Roald Dahl is nasty, and has always been so. I think they might get a larger audience / readership if they make these changes. I could never stomach his work.

Other changes include swapping out the phrase “boys and girls” to “children,” calling Cloud-Men (in James and the Giant Peach) “Cloud-People,” young Matilda now reads the work of Jane Austen instead of Rudyard Kipling, and Mr. Fox (of Fantastic Mr. Fox) has three daughters instead of sons.

The question isn't about translating to another language, or editing for clarity. The question is one of integrity. Are Roald Dahl's books being censored and edited to reflect a particular world view that did not exist when they were written? Yes, they are.

“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." George Orwell, 1984

Anonymous wrote:I have to imagine the people commenting on this thread aren’t regular book forum people. The comments are too ridiculous to be the regulars here.

This does happen regularly. Common example: translation of historical works.

Fact:
The more someone yells about books, the less likely they are to read them.

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

You think the bible you read hasn't been edited and changed over time? That's hilarious.

It really hasn't been. What proof do you have that it has been?

You are woefully undereducated. How did you miss basic World History courses in secondary school? I ask this seriously. Were you home schooled? Did you attend a fundamentalist religious school?

I asked for proof. It seems you're the one undereducated. The "edited/changed Bible" is a bedtime story atheists like to tell themselves.

BTW, I attended publics all through grad school.

So you think it was written in English? Even if you do, you must be aware of all the different versions? Why do you think the King James Bible exists?

And you must realize that a translator doesn't do word-for-word substitutions. There are idioms and phrases that are changed to work for the language of translation.

https://www.npr.org/2011/07/17/138281522/how-bible-stories-evolved-over-the-centuries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations

NP. This is hilarious that you link to a wikipedia article on the bible. You assured us that you were a bible scholar because you took a world history course in high school.

No Bible scholar is as dense as PP.

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

You think the bible you read hasn't been edited and changed over time? That's hilarious.

It really hasn't been. What proof do you have that it has been?

You are woefully undereducated. How did you miss basic World History courses in secondary school? I ask this seriously. Were you home schooled? Did you attend a fundamentalist religious school?

+1

WTAF? Go look at all of the different versions/translations available today in 2023. Now stretch that back 2,000 years.

History isn't written by the winners; it's written by the editors.