Roald Dahl's Books Being Altered

[8ball]

Poll fail really. No 'leave the books as they are' option.

Put a sticker on if you must, but books, including children's books are social history. Leaving things in the original shows where we were, and also where we are now.

You’re the sort who’d be pushing that Shakespeare and Bible filth onto children given half a chance.

 

[Raheem]

Make both available and let people choose??

No, there's no way they'll do that. Not "by popular demand", having stoked up a load of publicity. Not a chance.

 

[Raheem]

I think this is just a longstanding thing in children's publishing, isn't it? Possibly not really a scandal or a news story. Maybe it would be better to just let dead children's authors fade away so living ones get a better share of the market, but publishers will do whatever makes money.

 

[Storm Fox]

Bonkers.

I'm very much over cancel culture now. Very very much.

How long until we delete the entire 1940s-2020s.

But as soon as someone tries to state the truth about what went on under colonial British rule, which has been 'cancelled' until recently. That makes you woke too.

 

[Humberto]

Meanwhile:

Ron DeSantis’ academic restrictions show he hopes to change history by censoring it | Francine Prose

Florida’s Stop Woke Act and ban on African American studies will only deprive students of the right to think and learn

www.theguardian.com

 

[Pickman's model]

lets see what she says on the topic

"Augustus Gloop is a greedy character. He'll still remain morally greedy and his moral greed will be wrong, whether or not we have lots of lots and lots of references to how fat he is, which I think can be upsetting," she told 5 Live.
"We've always updated children's books. It's a tribute to the way that these books are becoming myths... that we've adjusted them again."

As opposed to immorally greedy I suppose

 

[A380]

Oh, and Philip Pullman is shit. I mean, really shit. I tried, I really did. But it's shit.

Nope, His stuff is ace.

(I canz literary criticism )

 

[hitmouse]

Nope, His stuff is ace.

(I canz literary criticism )

Do you reckon it's suitable for kids though? I heard some of his material is a bit dark.

 

[A380]

Do you reckon it's suitable for kids though? I heard some of his material is a bit dark.

Subtle.

 

[Pickman's model]

But as soon as someone tries to state the truth about what went on under colonial British rule, which has been 'cancelled' until recently. That makes you woke too.

Er no see for instance the various histories of the Indian mutiny / war of independence eg malleson, or Marx's newspaper articles on same. The popular song about we've got the maxim gun and they haven’t might also have given an inkling of what went on. Reams of paper were given over to saying what went on under colonial rule both in books and newspapers, it's not like there was a conspiracy of secrecy when senior participants wrote their memoirs or journalists wrote about eg to Khartoum with kitchener not to mention the campaign against concentration camps during the boer war

 

[Riklet]

The edition of Crash with the Quentin Blake illustrations yes.

I loved the new colab hes done for the rerelease of American Psycho too.

 

[8ball]

I loved the new colab hes done for the rerelease of American Psycho too.

A lot of misogyny needing cutting in that book.

 

[CNT36]

I think this is just a longstanding thing in children's publishing, isn't it? Possibly not really a scandal or a news story. Maybe it would be better to just let dead children's authors fade away so living ones get a better share of the market, but publishers will do whatever makes money.

Can we fade away that prick Walliams yet?

 

[Riklet]

A lot of misogyny needing cutting in that book.

Its a horrible book. I couldnt finish it.

 

[belboid]

Its meant to be a horrible book, thats kinda the point of it.

 

[Storm Fox]

Er no see for instance the various histories of the Indian mutiny / war of independence eg malleson, or Marx's newspaper articles on same. The popular song about we've got the maxim gun and they haven’t might also have given an inkling of what went on. Reams of paper were given over to saying what went on under colonial rule both in books and newspapers, it's not like there was a conspiracy of secrecy when senior participants wrote their memoirs or journalists wrote about eg to Khartoum with kitchener not to mention the campaign against concentration camps during the boer war

I mean the fuss made around, for example, the National Trust, stating this kind of thing happened to allow the previous owners to gain their wealth, which in the past the NT has glossed over.

 

[Pickman's model]

I mean the fuss made around, for example, the National Trust, stating this kind of thing happened to allow the previous owners to gain their wealth, which in the past the NT has glossed over.

Ah, right

 

[Diamond]

Meanwhile:

Ron DeSantis’ academic restrictions show he hopes to change history by censoring it | Francine Prose

Florida’s Stop Woke Act and ban on African American studies will only deprive students of the right to think and learn

www.theguardian.com

This is what I was getting at further up the thread.

Establish the principle and then watch other people do whatever they want with it.

 

[8ball]

I mean the fuss made around, for example, the National Trust, stating this kind of thing happened to allow the previous owners to gain their wealth, which in the past the NT has glossed over.

It always seemed absurd to me as a kid being dragged round such places that no one ever seemed to mention where the money came from, but I think the NT would have had a harder time acquiring properties if the original families that owned them knew it would result in all the dirt being dished on them.

 

[Sue]

A lot of misogyny needing cutting in that book.

That's kind of the point, no?

 

[Humberto]

This is what I was getting at further up the thread.

Establish the principle and then watch other people do whatever they want with it.

Maybe. I was thinking more about how it shows the extremeties of the 'wokeism' panic and how absurd and contradictory it all is.

I think I'm with danny la rouge that children's popular fiction will tend to move with the times.

 

[belboid]

This is what I was getting at further up the thread.

Establish the principle and then watch other people do whatever they want with it.

They've been doing it to us for years, you dumb fuck. Its only now that bigots and racists are being held to account that the right wing press are making a fuss.

 

[hitmouse]

This is what I was getting at further up the thread.

Establish the principle and then watch other people do whatever they want with it.

I mean, as I've mentioned I'm not particularly convinced that these changes are necessary, I'm not hugely celebrating them or anything, but I think the exercise of state power and a commercial decision by a publisher are two different things and it's a bit of a category error to mix them up?

 

[8ball]

That's kind of the point, no?

Yeah, I think that one landed right in the middle of Poe's Law Valley.

 

[Artaxerxes]

I mean, as I've mentioned I'm not particularly convinced that these changes are necessary, I'm not hugely celebrating them or anything, but I think the exercise of state power and a commercial decision by a publisher are two different things and it's a bit of a category error to mix them up?

No because you see the Woke Deep State are behind this, you mark my words.

 

[A380]

No because you see the Woke Deep State are behind this, you mark my words.

Careful, Big Blyton will be on to you.

 

[A380]

Er no see for instance the various histories of the Indian mutiny / war of independence eg malleson, or Marx's newspaper articles on same. The popular song about we've got the maxim gun and they haven’t might also have given an inkling of what went on. Reams of paper were given over to saying what went on under colonial rule both in books and newspapers, it's not like there was a conspiracy of secrecy when senior participants wrote their memoirs or journalists wrote about eg to Khartoum with kitchener not to mention the campaign against concentration camps during the boer war

Wasn't really a song, its from the Modern Traveler book by Hilare Belloc.

(Whatever happens we have got, the Maxim gun, and they have not).But otherwise this.

People didn't hide from what was done in the name of Empire. The imperialists also weren't stupid (mostly). For example the generation of racism against people in what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was a deliberate policy post the American Revolution. Prior to that the EIC acknowledged that many of the societies in India were equals to Europe and Indian people (well men) were quite a part of the administration on an equal basis.. Observation of what happened in the 13 colonies led them to change that policy and create the racists tropes that existed from the Company to the Raj and onto today.

 

[Pickman's model]

Wasn't really a song, its from the Modern Traveler book by Hilare Belloc.

(Whatever happens we have got, the Maxim gun, and they have not).But otherwise this.

People didn't hide from what was done in the name of Empire. The imperialists also weren't stupid (mostly). For example the generation of racism against people in what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was a deliberate policy post the American Revolution. Prior to that the EIC acknowledged that many of the societies in India were equals to Europe and Indian people (well men) were quite a part of the administration on an equal basis.. Observation of what happened in the 13 colonies led them to change that policy and create the racists tropes that existed from the Company to the Raj and onto today.

I was conflating this song "By Jingo": Macdermott's War Song (1878) with belloc

 

[chilango]

Fuss about nothing. Authors' words are edited all the time. Before, during and after publication.

Presumably the free speech warriors read their Bibles in the original Aramaic? Right?

 

[A380]

I was conflating this song "By Jingo": Macdermott's War Song (1878) with belloc

'

I was conflating this song "By Jingo": Macdermott's War Song (1878) with belloc

From a time we were standing on the brink of a war with Russia. So glad that things have changed so much in the subsequent 145 years...