Roald Dahl was a terrible person. (There’s a reason for the Rotten Roald nickname) And that’s even if we don’t delve into his personal life, his antisemitism or what he was doing in D.C. during WWII. As a children’s book writer, he specialized in appealing to children with images of grotesque adults while pretending to be on their side in ways that we now associate with ‘grooming’. Which is to say I’d never buy one of his books for a child, and I’m horrified that this is happening.
The Dr. Seuss censorship was bad enough, but instead of pulling books from sale, they’re rewriting them. The results feel like some sort of Orwellian parody. If Ray Bradbury were alive, he might have noted that instead of burning books, they’re destroying them in a more insidious digital fashion by taking a red pen to them and changing them over to be more politically correct.’
“Words matter,” begins the discreet notice, which sits at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books. “The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvellous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”
Regularly review the language.
As if a book is a handbook or a set of corporate slogans that are “regularly reviewed” to make sure that they’re in line with current standards.
Except that’s exactly how these sorts of people think. That’s what reducing every work to intellectual property unleashed. Now the DEI bureaucracy is going to review everything ever written and make sure that it meets current language standards. And if it doesn’t, out comes the red pen.
“Remember the Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach? They are now the Cloud-People. The Small Foxes in Fantastic Mr Fox are now female. In Matilda, a mention of Rudyard Kipling has been cut and Jane Austen added.”
I can’t imagine any writer who isn’t horrified by this.
“Chambermaid” becomes “cleaner”. “Great flock of ladies” becomes “great group of ladies”. “You must be mad, woman!” becomes “You must be out of your mind!” “The old hag” becomes “the old crow”.
Other alterations are about weight. “Fat little brown mouse” becomes “little brown mouse”. “‘Here’s your little boy,’ she said. ‘He needs to go on a diet’”, becomes “Here’s your little boy.”
Rather than “turning white,” a character turns “quite pale”. In James and the Giant Peach, the Cloud-Men have become Cloud-People, Miss Sponge is no longer “the fat one”, Miss Spider’s head is no longer “black” and the Earthworm no longer has “lovely pink” skin but “lovely smooth skin”.
Gender-neutral terms have been added in places – where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Oompa Loompas were “small men”, they are now “small people”.
In Fantastic Mr Fox a description of tractors, saying that “the machines were both black”, has been cut. In the new Dahl world, it seems, neither machines nor animals can be described with a colour. Nor can anything be fat. “Bunce, the little pot-bellied dwarf”, is now plain old Bunce. The Small Foxes, previously sons, are now daughters, while Badger’s son has become a “little one”.
Earlier editions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory include three sketches of Mike Teavee with 18 toy pistols “hanging from belts around his body”, but the guns have been scrubbed out by 2022, as well as a related sentence.
And there’s this masterpiece of political correctness.
In The Witches, a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.
There’s a whole lot that’s wrong here.
Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company made the changes in conjunction with Inclusive Minds, which its spokesperson describes as “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature”.
They’re passionate about destroying other people’s work.
But really it’s the same model that has been applied to Marvel and DC comics, remaking everything to be more “inclusive.” With everything reduced to IPs, why not rewrite the original books the same way?
To the executives and hacks doing this, there’s no fundamental difference between making Captain America black or going back and rewriting classic children’s books. And then books in general. And everything else.
But there’s a substantial difference between reworking succeeding materials, like sequels, and going back in time to eliminate the original, which is what they’re doing here.
I can’t wait until Inclusive Minds have gone over George Orwell’s 1984, reviewed the language and made it more inclusive.
Instead of a Big Brother, there can be a Big Sister.
Very bad. Thanks Daniel!
Almost all the books I like have become unavailable since I moved here 8 years ago. Strangely lucky that I had to start a new personal library back then, couldn’t get those books now. Some of the real old books are available in online form though not printed form. I hate reading them that way but better than nothing. The copyright on Baden-Powell’s books seems to have expired so I got those online for practically nothing.
I first noticed leftist revisionism creeping in during the 1980s, can’t stand that, I hardly like any books like that that have come out since then.
I bought “James and the Giant Peach” as a present for a kid once, thinking it would be a nice children’s book. The kid’s mom was horrified. Bad mistake on my part.
I have done the same thing – bought the old classic works that, like our monuments, history and people, are being destroyed. I have kept many of the beautiful works I read to my own children, also.
About 15 years ago, I found two copies of a classic illustrated fairy tale book with color plate illustrations of breathtaking beauty. The books were about 120 years old. One was is bad shape and the other was in great shape. I took the illustrations out of the one in bad shape and had them individually framed and I kept the one in good shape intact. The framed pictures will be bequeathed to grandchildren.
The stories themselves were more powerful, rendering the threat of evil in a more frank and menacing way. I am old-fashioned and believe this is good for young children.
Which fairy tales, if you don’t mind me asking?
I read them all when I was kid, everything from Aesops fables to the bothers Grimm and stuff like “The Three billy goats Gruff” and “The Gingerbread Man. I had “The Gingerbread Man” memorized, according to my mother.
Here is the book of which I bought two:
https://blackbaccaraoils.com/products/mother-goose
The illustrations are much prettier and detailed than they appear in the photos. Plus, my memory was faulty. It was printed in 1915 rather than 1900. This book can still be purchased, but a clean copy is increasingly expensive now. I have some very old editions of Grimm’s, also.
Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm have both been sanitized over the years. Life was much more brutal and dangerous for our ancestors. You can still buy editions that are older. Audible has the Complete First Edition of the Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Jack Zipes). It is magnificent for its unadorned, simple, brutal power, and it is not expensive.
You might find this interesting:
https://medium.com/weird-history/ring-around-the-rosie-a-song-for-the-plague-4647a45b01b1
Glad to see I’m not the only bibliophile collecting piles of beautiful and useful old books. I just hope that my kids appreciate my collection and prove to be as respectful curators of the past as I have been.
Thanks for that! Ring around the Rosie always seemed macabre to me, like a lot of other songs we sang as kids. I always hated “Jack and Jill went up the hill” and “The Streets of Laredo,” Although the Coen brothers made the Laredo song cool. Those guys can make anything cool.
And I did read “Mother Goose.” when I was a kid. I remember “Cinderalla” and especially Little Red Riding Hood.
I also remember “The Boy who Cried Wolf,’ or Peter and the Wolf, whatever it was called and even had a Disney Record of it. Back hen people played vinyl records, LOL. That wasn’t a Mother Goose story but it was good. Those old tales would teach kids lessons, even though though the brothers Grimm tended to be…..er…. grim.
Thanks KH … my neighbor had a collection of German fairy tale books dating from the 1800s or so … as you said they were “sanitized over the years. Life was much more brutal and dangerous for our ancestors. “
Your 120 year old versions probably don’t go as hard as the original stories. The actual story of Snow White ends with her wicked stop mother being forced by Snow White and her husband to dance in red hot shoes until she fell down dead.
Who gives a shit?
You do because you keep trotting over like an obedient dog every time I post a comment.
Is there no copyright involved?
Perhaps the idea of copyright, like competence and private property, is a western idea that just needs to go?
Copyright is the problem. It allows organizations to retain the right to works long after the death of the authors.
If you have a corporation holding the copyright it becomes eternal and whoever runs the company can do anything they want with it. if it went into public domain people could print the original text if wanted.
Still a big fan of capitalism now?
Roald Dahl was a terrible person? Really?
I used to read his books when I was a young kid. About eight or nine. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “The Great Glass Elevator” ( If I remember correctly) and “James and the Giant Peach.”
I liked that stuff, although I didn’t like when the vermicious Knids ate the American astronauts. That disturbed me.
Dahl had contempt for Americans, but lots of Brits did.
And he formulated stories for American children. That’s sad.
Orwell was prescient in his description of Winston Smith’s job at the Ministry of Truth. The next step is for the government, or Ray Bradbury’s firemen from Fahrenheit 451, to confiscate every original copy of these books and destroy them so that no trace of the urtexts remain in existence. This may well be in the planning stage.
I appreciate your reference to Winston Smith and the Ministry of Truth.
George Orwell’s futuristic predictions in 1984 as well as his sarcastic accounts in his book Animal Farm are often referenced in conservative sites and publications. I’m not sure anyone born after 1975 can relate to them, and forget about any twenty something students of “higher education” today. Of course there are exceptions, but that takes work and the younger generation, many times are too busy with “more important things”.
So, maybe these books won’t be destroyed, but just forgotten or at the very least labeled irrelevant.
I recently read C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. Book three, That Hideous Strength, was a better predictor of leftist destruction than 1984 or Brave New World.
Merlin, the magician, huh?
That reminds me of the short story, “The Last Defender of Camelot,” by Roger Zelazny, who is one of my favorite writers.
You should read it. There are plenty of online free libraries.
Merlin was the bad guy in that story, by way, and Lancelot was as noble as ever.
Thank you for the recommendation. It sounds like something I would enjoy! I have several medieval tapestry reproductions in my home by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones one of which is called “The Summons.” It depicts the mysterious maiden arriving at the round table to summon the knights to the quest for the Holy Grail. It is filled with magnificent details and is rich in symbolism. If you are curious, you can look here:
https://clasmerdin.blogspot.com/2008/11/grail-tapestries.html
Many books are being destroyed — shredded or burned — as libraries digitize their collections. Who knows which books are “forgotten” in the rush toward digitization and just destroyed without being copied online?
” I’m not sure anyone born after 1975 can relate to them, and forget about any twenty something students of “higher education” today. Of course there are exceptions, but that takes work and the younger generation, many times are too busy with “more important things”.”
Nah, most of them are actually quite a bit smarter than you. The ones your thinking of are the “groypers” who are stupid enough to think installing fascism in the US is a good idea.
How many bags of dicks did you suck today?
More than ten?
Nah, only you have such impressive skills.
Who are you kidding Dan? They can’t even make change, lol.
Not prescient, he was fictionalizing what he had seen done in the the Soviet Union and Spain. Also what he saw that his socialist friends in England wanted to do there.
Rewriting kids books they did with The Big Bad Pig and the Three Little Wolves then lets not forget Politicly Correct Bedtime Stories.
The originals will undoubtedly increase in value if anyone has them.
Possibly. But I do not look at my old books as investments; they are far too precious to be seen as commodities when they contain ideas, the foundation of our civilization.
“We regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all.”
That’s the problem right there – faulty thinking. No book can be expected to be “enjoyed by all,” for a variety of reasons: the varying ages of readers, the varying interests of readers, the varying intelligence of readers, the varying cultures of readers, the varying tastes of readers, and the varying moral beliefs of readers. Imagining that you can somehow tweak books to eliminate the influence of these factors is absurd.
We have all seen – over and over – how “politically correct” revisions to books, TV shows, and movies alienate many people who enjoyed the original product and that – even if some new faction is appeased by the changes – the overall audience shrinks rather than grows.
My goodness! What happened? Did I just wake up on another planet? I gave away all of my original children’s books to my youngest brother back in the day and, of course, being a millennial (huge age difference), he got rid of them and never let my nephew read any of them. Ugh! I so wish I had them all back now! In my old age (can I still say ‘old’ or is it chronologically-challenged now?), I have turned it into a quest to try and retrieve the original children’s books I used to have as well as any others that – for some reason or another – have been banned by the general population. I always thought a book was a book. There’s no such thing as rewriting what an author originally intended, is there? Personally, I think that it takes away from the story. I’ve read Orwell, Shakespeare, and numerous others. I actually sat and read “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” – which, I think, was more on the destruction and modernization of Paris than on Quasimodo – and then had to sit through Disney’s version wondering if Disney even read the book! I don’t know. It’s frustrating to me.
There’s still a good deal available in secondary markets and anything that isn’t under copyright can be found by independent publishers but watch for quality issues with new printings on Amazon, etc….
Churchill was apparently apoplectic after Roal Dahl reported that the US was planning to destroy British civil aviation after the war.
One of a small number of pilots in his squadron to survive the war he cut a dashing figure in his younger days and maybe he and FDR shared a few off colour sentiments. Maybe they even shared a few nasty jokes. Who knows? He had access to those circles.
I grew up with his stories but never knew anything about him.
Whatever men of his generation fought for is in question in this brave new world.
Thanks Una, very interesting!
Danny, the Champion of the World is still a great children’s story as well as James and the Giant peach. I never knew Matilda was written until the movie came out.
These are works that live in the imagination of children and childhood would be poorer without them.
There were statements from him which I found odd or unbalanced but I didn’t guess that he was a traditional anti-Semite. His antisemitic statements are ridiculous unless you view them in the context of extreme prejudice,
BBC programme commemorating his life made absolutely no mention of it either which isn’t surprising.
Everything is in question, Babe.