Roald Dahl's books edited to be more 'inclusive'

Modulok

As someone who loved Roald Dahl's books when I was a child, and who has bought his collected works for my own children last year, I was saddened and I have to say creeped out by the revelation that Penguin worked with a diversity / equity / inclusion entity to re-write sentences throughout his stories.

How on earth anyone thought this was a good idea I don't know. Will some DEI major take the scalpel to Dickens and Austen next?

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058285211/roald-dahls-books-edited-to-be-more-inclusive

Utterly ridiculous and a form of sacrilege. Are they going to do this to the Bible? To Shakespeare?

anotherfinemess

Will these changes be made using AI? The Idiots In Charge won't be happy until they have stamped out any expressions of free thinking by real live humans.

Pauliedragon

The saddest thing about this is when I first read the story I wasn't a bit surprised.

mod this has been moved to Current Affairs/IMHO. Local Charter is now in force.

May as well just start burning books at this stage.

De Bhál

should be left alone, where does it stop?

In 100 more years the books would have little likeness to the original after multiple edits to keep everyone happy.

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120268391#Comment_120268391

To be fair, this has been done extensively with the bible and has also occurred with Shakespeare (not that I agree with what they have done with Dahl).

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120268404#Comment_120268404

Funnily enough, AI would be highly unlikely to make these changes and would probably make the books less "inclusive".

It's us humans that are the problem in this instance :)

If they don’t like what’s in the book why don’t they write a book they do like instead of ruining someone else’s creation.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120268391#Comment_120268391

The bible isn't suitable reading for kids - far too much gratuitous sex and violence 😉

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120269842#Comment_120269842

and not forgetting the incest.

SuperBowserWorld

All those old books, CDs ... will become very valuable until they come knocking looking for them to be burned.

Any subscription service or online connected digital media will be updated.

Also, wondering if publishers are doing this to generate free advertising and re sell old books.

Also, this always springs to mind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak

archfi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120269921#Comment_120269921

This sort of shyte is making me rethink keeping me Kindle tbh, nevermind the fact I could be shut out of it on a whim of Amazon.

I'll have to look into ripping my ebooks and making them available to any other device.

Overheal

This is ridiculous.

Next will there be a trans-inclusionary edit of the Harry Potter series?

An anti-semitism-free version of the Merchant of Venice?

And Dahl wrote - a lot. Many of them adapted into movies. Why does he of all people get the treatment?

Perhaps it’s just a stunt to get people to preserve older books instead of banning and burning them 🤣

Why do a miniscule minority get to decide what all of humanity can say, do, read?

HeidiHeidi

Will the originals still be available (maybe on the top shelf or something)?

Or are they to be just re-written out of history?

This kind of shytery would make me go out and buy the entire collection just to spite them.

I have to say all this revisionism makes me really sad and a bit angry - stuff is of its time, leave it be. Fair enough, he (or Enid Blyton, or whoever else) wouldn't get away with writing it now - but times have changed, it was a different world back then. Do we just want to wipe it from the record altogether?

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270578#Comment_120270578

Mr. Dahl was a pretty keen anti-Semite himself.

His works at this stage are incredibly dated - but are still a mega industry, more for nostalgia reasons than value I reckon.

I don't think removing the word "fatty" will make them better or worse TBH. But people love outrage.

There is some cracking works from Irish authors at the moment, best support them then to feed into the multiples of 100s of millions that Dahl empire makes.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270626#Comment_120270626

If his characters or narrators even are fat shamers, then they are.

cruizer101

Fcuking ridiculous, some of the changes I found in various articles.

References to “female” characters have disappeared. Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a “most formidable female”, is now a “most formidable woman” I wasn't aware female was more objectionable than woman and what about preserving the alliteration

The character Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer called "fat." Instead he is described as "enormous,"

Instead of being called "small men," Oompa-Loompas are now "small people," the article says

The Cloud Men in Roald Dahl’s book ‘James and the Giant Peach’ were changed to Cloud People 

Mrs Twit is no longer fearfully ugly

in “James and the Giant Peach,” Miss Spider’s head is no longer described as “black.”

Here is some more

https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1626860237104857089/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1626860237104857089%7Ctwgr%5Ea67354bfc2c3b775988bd0a3ceb0b062d29e6c49%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.deseret.com%2F2023%2F2%2F21%2F23608371%2Fauthors-react-to-changes-to-roald-dahls-childrens-books

A lot of them are minor enough changes but its the f**king principle, you can't just go changing what was written.

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270578#Comment_120270578

It's going to happen every book will eventually be rewritten to change characters to a scobby gang ,black , asian,gay ,trans ,black , Latino, Muslim,vegans ,

To show how inclusive we are ,

Wonder when they will want historical painted to cover everyone who's a minority,I'm sure mona Lisa will be considered for a retouch

Overheal

Some of the edits

The world is fcuked when you re write history and pretend things didn’t happen.

ArmaniJeanss

It's usually a commercial decision taken by the publishers to head off potential controversy, and keep the book on school lists and library lists.

Has happened to most of the Blython books as mentioned, Agatha Christie with literally the best-selling crime fiction book of all time (Ten Little Niggérs now known as And Then There Were None), Mark Twain and some of his more colorful language in the Huck Finn books. Plenty of others too, I'm sure. And more regularly there'll be less controversial changes to replace obsolete words/expressions.

One of the basic objections (that the original first edition is sacrosanct as it was exactly as desired by the author) is curious really. As if editors back then just verbatim went with the authors draft/manuscript.

archermoo

Wait. So does this mean that the copyright holders of books aren't allowed to make changes to them? Because the changes were made by Puffin and The Roald Dahl Story Company (who manages the copyrights for Dahl's books) to update the books for modern audiences. It seems to me that if the copyright holder wants to make changes to the works that they own they have every right to do so.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270668#Comment_120270668

That's really, really annoying.

It's not Isis destroying Palmyra levels of iconoclasm, but it definitely feels like someone chipping away at a temple with a chisel - do it for long enough and the whole thing eventually won't look the same.

Gatling

The French say No !

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0221/1357968-roald-dahl/

Furze99

Disgraceful and just how the publishing industry loses respect and customers.....

cruizer101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270707#Comment_120270707

Yes, just because you are the copyright holder that doesn't mean you should be allowed change the original content, copyright can be bought and sold. The owner of the copyright does not necessarily have the best intentions of the original author.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270697#Comment_120270697

There is a rather obvious and chasm-like difference between an author agreeing to a suggested change by an editor and changes made without the input of the author.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270707#Comment_120270707

Of course they are legally allowed - that is how they have managed to do it. This does not change whether or not it is a good, or desirable concept.

And though, in many ways irrelevant, it does not help that many of the changes are simply bad.

Larbre34

I really enjoyed the savagery with which other publishers, editors and authors have gone after Puffin and TRDSC (Netflix) over this decision. It is being treated with the opprobrium it truly deserves

The French language publisher came out today and said, 'we won't be editing the stories in this manner, now or in the future, as they would no longer be a book by Roald Dahl.'

Well said Monsieurs et Medames.

I wonder how long the U-turn will take and how much it will cost to pulp the early runs.

Probably less than the $1.5 Billion it will cost Adidas to scrap their Kanye trainers.

At least Puffin can console themselves with that.

Stick a warning on them or something. This is how messed up we used to be, this is no longer appropriate etc.

I don't agree with airbrushing our past, it should be left intact so that it can be remembered and learned from.

SuperBowserWorld

Every piece of digital media should give the consumer the following options:

- author's original work

- same as above, but consumer chooses to to be outraged while consuming

- version that the consumer can edit themselves and share among like minded people

- crayon option. Consumer can choose to digitally draw on the content with digital crayons

Podge_irl

It's also worth mentioning, that he is writing from the perspective of children in many of these quotes and children can be incredibly nasty and frank in their thoughts and descriptions. Probably part of what attracts/ed so many to Dahl in the first place.

Calahonda52

censor ship by the sensitivity readers, who are a minority, complete boXXol

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11769955/BEL-MOONEY-snooty-sensitivity-readers-censored-Roald-Dahl-robbing-children.html

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270953#Comment_120270953

But it isn't.

Take away the shyte Daily Mail journalism and the crux of it is absolutely correct.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270872#Comment_120270872

While I admire the effort at deep sarcasm, the point must be reiterated, that any changes made to any publication without the consent or after the death of the author, is no longer a work by that author and can no longer present the author's name on the front of the book.

It must say, e.g., 'Matilda, a work of the Roald Dahl Story Company, based on a previous work by Roald Dahl.'

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270626#Comment_120270626

Best people have the choice to enjoy, support and read what they want… the original texts without the rewriting and editing…

you can go into Easons or any other book retailer and legitimately buy a copy of Mein Kampf….

yet Roald Dahl, gets targeted and edited…

what else gets targeted and edited next ? History book ? Human history after all hasn’t been inclusive enough… what if the dam buster pilots were suddenly to become..

LGBT people, mental health sufferers, people from diverse international backgrounds….. that’s how utterly stupid this stuff is.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270855#Comment_120270855

You mean a 'Trigger Warning' as they are being called?

They are doing this with literature being studied by third level students, for fear that they won't have the emotional intelligence to cope with original works, contemporaneous with their time.

If people don't see the societal hazard of these steps, then perhaps their own emotional intelligence needs an introspective examination.

Third level students should be examining and debating and critiquing and learning from these original works, to enrich themselves as people.

When it comes to kids books, the whole point is for parents and teachers and guardians to read these with their kids and explain and teach them about whats right and wrong.

More lazy, abdicatory parenting on show here than anything else.

archermoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270772#Comment_120270772

So should the copyright holder get compensated for their loss of rights then?

Tony EH

Absolutely bloody absurd.

Who owns the rights to Dahl's books these days? Whoever it is needs to have it taken away from them as fast as possible.

archermoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270780#Comment_120270780

They are a company trying to sell children's books. If their research tells them that for the books to sell as well as possible they need to be updated, that's up to them. It isn't like these are important works of historical significance. They're children's books. The text in books gets modified all the time. People only noticed it this time because the copyright holder had a press release about it.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271073#Comment_120271073

I never said it wasn't "up to them"

Though they are now lying when they say they are books by Roald Dahl.

Larbre34

This is what happened folks, 18 months ago

This is between Netflix as the new rights holder and Puffin as the publisher.

If you wish to make purchasing choices, you know what to do.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271024#Comment_120271024

you can go into Easons or any other book retailer and legitimately buy a copy of Mein Kampf….

In the children's section?

yet Roald Dahl, gets targeted and edited…

what else gets targeted and edited next ? History book ? Human history after all hasn’t been inclusive enough… what if the dam buster pilots were suddenly to become..

Calm down. No one has targeted Roald Dahl. There are far bigger targets in that mans history if people wanted him airbrushed.

It's Rage Bait to sell more merch. You are falling hook line and sinker for it.

The target audience will not give 2 flying fúcks.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271062#Comment_120271062

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271101#Comment_120271101

Fuck sake.

Strumms

…p

TheValeyard

I cannunderstand updating language so children can understand it, making it contemporary as such, but this is just absolute tripe. It's completely agenda driven nonsense.

Propsposterous.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120270880#Comment_120270880

Maybe children would be less "incredibly nasty" if they weren't given books to read during their formative years that encourage nastiness?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271107#Comment_120271107

No, not in the children’s section 😉 but children can go anywhere in Easons.

Roald Dahl has had his books sold in the children’s section for decades, without incident or any issues. :) 

im perfectly calm dude. I don’t intend buying anything so I’m falling for what ? Exactly ? An odd response by you.

No other people should have a remit or opportunity to edit or rewrite the works of dead authors. It’s despicably disingenuous.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271158#Comment_120271158

Can you?

What would you do with Shakespeare, or Chaucer, or Verne, or Wells, or Kipling, or Dickens, or Hans Christian Andersen?

I'm not sure the Canterbury Tales would have the same impact as a study of ancient poetry or history of the 14th Century if you "updated" the language.

Do you not see the whole point of people's concerns here??