ChatterBank3 mins ago
Idiots Who Remove Roald Dahl’s Darkness Are Just Utter Wonkas
References to gender, weight, mental health, physicality and race in the fantasy world of Roald Dahl have been edited, slashed and, in parts, entirely rewritten.
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“You can’t go round pulling the hair of every lady you meet, even if she is wearing gloves. Just you try it and see what happens,” reads the original. In the latest edition, this reads: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that."
What? Anyone?
Wonder no longer why we're said to be entering a cultural war. This attack on our treasured literature is just one reason we need to. Barminess reigns but hopefully not for long. The worm needs to turn - and fast.
https:/
“You can’t go round pulling the hair of every lady you meet, even if she is wearing gloves. Just you try it and see what happens,” reads the original. In the latest edition, this reads: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that."
What? Anyone?
Wonder no longer why we're said to be entering a cultural war. This attack on our treasured literature is just one reason we need to. Barminess reigns but hopefully not for long. The worm needs to turn - and fast.
Answers
there's a brilliant article in the Telegraph today titled 'George Orwell’s chilling prediction has come true – it’s time to make a stand' - the summary then states 'The censorship of books, statues and history is an attempt to eradicate the past and enforce a single point of view.' As the article probably falls behind the DT subscription curtain, I'm copying...
13:14 Wed 22nd Feb 2023
DTC’s post covered much of the spectrum of what is becoming a culture war. When history is airbrushed, literature changed, statues torn down, poetry frowned upon, and free speech cancelled you’ll find that many people recognise that as what it is - an attack on their long-cherished culture - so don’t be surprised when they start to fight back.
The problem with that is that literature has been "changed" more or less constantly throughout history. This sort of thing is, after all, just a modern version of Bowdlerisation, which is taken from the pre-Victorian Thomas Bowdler's "Family Shakespeare". One thing I was surprised to learn when looking into this is that Bowdler's work, while frowned-upon by some at the time, was also credited with making Shakespeare's work more accessible than it had previously been. If changing a work allows it to reach a new audience, is this not a net positive?
I'm certainly not arguing that the unaltered versions should be expunged from history entirely: they have their place, after all, in helping to understand the author, the period in which he lived, and perhaps also the views of those who read his original books eagerly. And I'm also struggling based on the example I've seen to understand what was particularly "wrong" about the original passages in order to motivate the changes. But my point is that there's nothing new to this, so that this idea that it's the product of some new/recent "Culture War" is therefore wrong; likewise, the fears of wide-reaching censorship are wholly overblown. The Telegraph article is fear-mongering.
I'm certainly not arguing that the unaltered versions should be expunged from history entirely: they have their place, after all, in helping to understand the author, the period in which he lived, and perhaps also the views of those who read his original books eagerly. And I'm also struggling based on the example I've seen to understand what was particularly "wrong" about the original passages in order to motivate the changes. But my point is that there's nothing new to this, so that this idea that it's the product of some new/recent "Culture War" is therefore wrong; likewise, the fears of wide-reaching censorship are wholly overblown. The Telegraph article is fear-mongering.
i really think it is better to just encourage the creation of new things clare… roald dahl wrote of his time and we should do the same for ours! there are lots of talented writers out there who come from marginalized backgrounds… the fact that there is a precedent for bowlderization does not suggest it should be followed
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