The books of famous British children’s author Roald Dahl will be edited to exclude any language that could be considered “offensive”. In the networks, we spoke of “annullatory delirium” and “absurd censorship”.

Books by a British novelist Roald Dahlauthor of childish, irreverent and hilarious classics such as Charlie and the chocolate factory, The witches oh Matildahave been rewritten with some language changes to be more inclusive – for example, a character description is no longer “big” but “huge” – but for many readers such interventions read as “Politically correctin fiction.

With more than 200 million copies sold worldwide and film adaptations, such as the one recently released on Netflix, the musical of Matilda, Dahl (1916-1990) is an author who has transcended his time, acclaimed and read by several generations of small and young readers. But he is also a writer controversial He has been following it for a long time with period rereadings that accuse his work of discriminantraw and even misogynist.

Political correctness or inclusion? Sensitivity, your UK editors might say. As reported by the Daily Telegraph and collected by The Guardian, publisher Puffin Books has hired “sensitive” readers so that certain fragments of Dahl’s texts intervene in the new edition with the intention that the language used by the writer don’t be offensive to today’s readers and their books can continue to be “appreciated by all”.

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For example, the Augustus Gloop of Charlie and the chocolate factory he is “huge” instead of big, while the Oompa Loompas are “little people” instead of “little men”. The adjustments that the editors have incorporated are those that have to do, above all, with the Physical appearances. The word “ugly” also disappears.

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(The books of Roald Dahl can be purchased in digital format from Bajalibros by clicking here)

But some scenes also have changes in favor of building more inclusive imagery with a gender perspective. For example, Mathilde no longer reads Joseph Conrad but to Jane Austenand bald women who are the most exact identification to discover a female witch – as told in The witches– incorporates a paragraph stating that there are “many other reasons” why women may wear wigs and “there is nothing wrong with that”.

A spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company, responsible for editing work with puffin books and the Inclusive Minds collective, said that this linguistic work is nothing new because each time they publish new series of books written many years ago, “it is not unusual to revise the language used while updating other details, such as the cover and text layout of a book.

In social networks, the circulation of information has its detractors who define it as a act of censorship and as the condemnation of political correctness at all costs. the writer himself Salman Rushdie took a stand on the question: “Roald Dahl was not an angel, but he is a absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl Estate they should be ashamed“, he tweeted.

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For her part, the actress Cate Blanchett He argues that it is useless to claim that censorship fixes everything if one does not take into account the reasons that led to the production of this type of discourse: “If we do not read old books that are offensive in their historical context, we will never be able to deal with the spirits of the times and we will be destined to repeat these things”.

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“Roald Dahl was no angel, but this is absurd censorship. Shame should Puffin Books and the Dahl estate be put to shame,” writer Salman Rushdie said of the changes that new editions of the famous author of children’s literature will have to adapt to the political correctness of the time.

Moreover, the Argentinian writer Marcela Giuffre He commented on his Twitter account: “I will hurry to buy the last copies of R. Dahl before the censorship takes effect (It’s censorship, things by name). I will not read doctored versions. when it happens cancellation deliriumwe will retrieve the originals from personal libraries”.

But this isn’t the first time Roald Dahl’s books have changed to reflect contemporary mores, market needs or Hollywood interest. In the first edition of Charlie and the chocolate factory (1964), the Oompa-Loompas were black pygmies, enslaved by Willy Wonka from “the deepest and darkest part of the African bush” and paid for in cocoa beans.

A few years later, Dahl rewrote the characters in the late 1960s to “de-blacken” them, in his own words. For the movie Mel Stuart from 1971 featuring Gene Wilderthe Oompas became green-haired, orange-skinned characters, and by the 1973 edition of the book they had become “fantastic little creatures”.

Many changes were made to his books even before they were published. In consensus with its publishers, Dahl used to accept edits to sketches of his novels conform to the customs of the time. The first draft of the super foxfor example, had to be changed due to its “glorification of flight“, which the editorial staff considered to be a harmful message for children.

“The wonderful words of Roald Dahl they can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most wonderful characters. This book was written many years ago, so we regularly revise the language so that everyone can continue to enjoy it today. words matter“, can we read, by way of clarification, in the new editions of his books.

Words matter, yes. Sometimes even more than the game.

Source: Telam SE

Continue reading:

If the author has done something wrong, what do we do with the work? censor it? hide it? throw it in a well?
The era of cancellation: more and more books are banned in the United States
An editorial terminated the contract with a writer after her declarations on gender identity: is it censorship?

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