The Great Switcheroo is a great tale. I read it in my teens and it didn’t Dawn on me that it’s basically about rape but the above posters are correct it basically is. It has a turn of events for the protagonist which is what I remember it for.
Roald Dahl's Books Being Altered
- Thread starter dshl
- Start date
Raheem
Well-Known Member
European publishers refuse to change Roald Dahl’s books
The author’s Dutch and French publishers said his stories ‘lose their power’ if language is toned down and rewrites ‘only concerns Britain’
www.telegraph.co.uk
This story is absolute bollocks. I checked the French version of Fantastic Mister Fox and almost every single word is different from the original.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
'Roald Dahl ‘Classic Collection’ to be released ‘to keep original works in print’ in wake of language row'
of course.
of course.
surreybrowncap
“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand"
Roald Dahl: Original books to be kept in print following criticism
His original books will now be printed unaltered, after the decision to update them was criticised.
www.bbc.co.uk
jannerboyuk
...just kids gone wild.
“Principles for sale! Principles for sale! Gertcha principles here, if you don’t like these we have more out the back!”
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Shocked. This was most unexpected.Roald Dahl: Original books to be kept in print following criticism
His original books will now be printed unaltered, after the decision to update them was criticised.www.bbc.co.uk
Enid Blyton's Famous Five get 21st-century makeover
No more 'jolly japes' and 'lashings of pop' as dated language is revamped for new generation of readers
I wish people would stop losing their shit over things that have been happening their entire lives without them noticing.
The more I think about it the more I think it's right to change incidental elements of children's literature even if it isn't offensive. It's a weird and historically peculiar thing to treat the written word (or art in general) as sacrosanct. I don't think writers themselves think this way about their work and if they do they're surely terrible writers.
With Dahl in particular it seems very easy to edit the racist stuff in particular. The bits where children kill teachers and carers should be kept because that's fucking based. I love the aspect of Dahl that he's genuinely on the side of the children and was against eg. corporal punishment. And also I think there's an anti-animal cruelty aspect in there. And these aspects are front and centre whereas the dubious bits are tangential.
With Dahl in particular it seems very easy to edit the racist stuff in particular. The bits where children kill teachers and carers should be kept because that's fucking based. I love the aspect of Dahl that he's genuinely on the side of the children and was against eg. corporal punishment. And also I think there's an anti-animal cruelty aspect in there. And these aspects are front and centre whereas the dubious bits are tangential.
The problem with changing literature is who is doing the changing? For sure, changing it for progressive reasons will prove popular on here but that doesn’t mean trends in the future wont start retrospectively editing books for regressive purposes. For that reason I think they should be left alone and judged on what is right or wrong rather than editing them.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
We have a site full of posters who have had their own way for over two decades on this issue.
According to the ACLU, attempts at censorship, amendment, book-banning etc. by the right wing are now at about 40% of the total (of what is visible to them, obv), so I think things may be changing a little in the next decade or so.
Not sure whether that counts as a good sign or not, seeing how the left has pissed all moral authority up against the wall on this.
I wonder what books Trump would like to see edited. I bet he’d love to start with The Handmaid’s Tale.
Yossarian
⏭️
I think the publisher of the Hardy Boys series in the US showed how it shouldn't be done - the publisher edited out racist stereotypes in a project that started in 1959 but cut out a lot of other stuff, including content seen as anti-establishment.
But as part of the revisions, the books were shortened considerably and many literary allusions and picturesque descriptions were removed. Also new: Authority figures, especially policemen, were portrayed as people to be respected and admired at all times. This is particularly evident in the case of Hardy Boys characters Collig and Smuff, bumbling detectives who in the original were routinely outwitted by Frank and Joe when it came to solving cases. In the revisions, the cops were respectable, helpful and competent, a change that rattled McFarlane, who was particularly proud of the silly Keystone Kops-like figures he created. He believed that most of his readers enjoyed irreverence and humor.
....It is one thing to eliminate offensive or crude content that might instill offensive views in children. But all changes should be made with a light hand and after much thought. McFarlane wrote his last Hardy Boys book in 1947, but his understanding of his audience holds: Readers are a logical and perceptive group who know when they are being condescended to.
www.wsj.com
But as part of the revisions, the books were shortened considerably and many literary allusions and picturesque descriptions were removed. Also new: Authority figures, especially policemen, were portrayed as people to be respected and admired at all times. This is particularly evident in the case of Hardy Boys characters Collig and Smuff, bumbling detectives who in the original were routinely outwitted by Frank and Joe when it came to solving cases. In the revisions, the cops were respectable, helpful and competent, a change that rattled McFarlane, who was particularly proud of the silly Keystone Kops-like figures he created. He believed that most of his readers enjoyed irreverence and humor.
....It is one thing to eliminate offensive or crude content that might instill offensive views in children. But all changes should be made with a light hand and after much thought. McFarlane wrote his last Hardy Boys book in 1947, but his understanding of his audience holds: Readers are a logical and perceptive group who know when they are being condescended to.
Opinion | Dr. Seuss, Meet the Sanitized Sleuths Known as the Hardy Boys
The detective novels got a rewrite in 1959. Was it a needed scrubbing or a sign of cancel culture?
www.wsj.com
For example Huckleberry Finn is terribly racist. But removing the racism would be to defeat the whole point of the story.
Enid Blighton was shockingly racist but I don’t think she deserves to be cleansed of that to bring her stories to new audiences. Surely that’s the job of progressive authors of today to come up with new ideas?
Enid Blighton was shockingly racist but I don’t think she deserves to be cleansed of that to bring her stories to new audiences. Surely that’s the job of progressive authors of today to come up with new ideas?
8ball
Decolonise colons!
I’d sooner we just had good children’s authors rather than “progressive authors”. Though it might be good to push the “progressive” angle so that everyone can look back in 30 years time and see how the fault lines of cringe have moved.
I meant in the context of those wanting to retrospectively adapt earlier works to fit progressive trends rather than something I personally desire for all books to be progressive, which I don’t.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Don't think there is all that much text in colouring books tbh
I would see it more as an issue closely related to free speech. The consequence of free speech is that people are free to say regressive things. But I think we have to live with that. I don't think the freedom to edit is similar to censorship because the originals are not permanently deleted.
Are you on drugs?
But it is an author’s completed work and what they wanted to say. If history looks dimly upon it then so be it. I just can’t support it being edited for reasons I laid out in my previous posts.
I don't believe the original should be done away with and replaced by edited versions. Is anybody suggesting that?
Not sure. I think it should be left alone though. It forms part of our history.
I watched some early James Bond films recently. The sexism was clearly accepted at the time but it’s totally cringe making nowadays. But it stands as a document of how attitudes were.
As somebody who has seen the unedited version of Cannibal Holocaust, I'm quite happy there are edited versions out there! Seriously fuck that shit (animal cruelty).
Fair point (I haven’t heard of it) but does it carry that James Bond should be edited merely to protect a franchise to rid itself of phrases like:
Don’t worry your pretty head about it, dear
I think it’s useful to have things we can all point to in history rather than simply glossing it over.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
i think you'll find he'd start with all the ones which say nasty things about him
Well as I say, nobody is saying destroy the originals. Edit out that bit in Goldfinger where he blackmails the nurse into sex (as I remember it), and it won't hurt the story. It's pretty typical for different edits of movies to exist anyway. Like with the argument over statues, aren't these edits provoking a discussion on historical attitudes rather than concealing them?
He’ll probably have his work cut out then.
Scrubbing the text?
A new edition of Huckleberry Finn is planned that will rewrite the words Mark Twain wrote. Specifically, two racial epitats are being traded for less offensive words. Is this move good for education or bad for society?
www.sheknows.com
Say I’m a successful author (not happening, have neither the talent or stamina) with fiction containing leftist ideas. I’d be horrified that at a later date fascists edited out the bits they found problematic. But this is what you’re essentially in favour of.
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