Even Augustus Gloop ain't safe (Dahl being censored)

The word "hole" is offensive against women, also, why do you need to bring colour into it at all? The only term you are allowed to use now is "nonspecific entity/non-entity"
 
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Haggisman said:
Is it though? Are there not new authors who are able to write new books which reflect current attitudes?

I don't think updating historic works of art is "fair enough" in all honesty. Do we need to redo the Mona Lisa as a transgender Mona Liam, change Romeo and Juliet to be above the current age of consent (and have an amicable separation instead of killing themselves), and rewrite "12 years a slave" as "12 years doing a difficult job I didn't like very much"?

They are products of their time and should be enjoyed (and treated) as such. I've found that is part of the charm, and certainly gives an insight into the thoughts and attitudes of society at the time.
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I was thinking children's books. I tend to agree that proper literature should be left unmolested.
 
cheesyboy said:
Updating books so they can still be enjoyed is fair enough.

I was reading Mrs Pepperpot to my son a few years ago, and there's this bit where she's trying to give a clue to a girl in school about the teacher's question. The answer is 'Chinese' or 'China' so Mrs Pepperpot, of course, uses the racist eye thing that used to be common. Would be good to not have that sort of thing in there really.

Some of this Dahl stuff seems heavy handed, though.
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So I can no longer dream of getting my Chinese eye Bentley Continental, a name the twin, slanted headlamp coupe has been known as for donkey's years? Are all comparisons to obvious human physical traits now "racist"? Do I need to rename the pot bellied stove in the workshop?
 
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Weirdly, when I used to read about vasco de gama and the like as a child, they were portrayed as kindly explorers. Now they have been rewritten as tremendously violent plunderers.

It's clearly one rule for fact, and another for fiction.
 
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Oh dear.

hmaq5v.jpg


:rolleyes:
 
This does make me uncomfortable but at the same time young kids aren’t capable of understanding context or how the books were a product of their time. Some of the changes are unnecessary and heavy handed though.
 
I dare say the hand wringing is considerably more about hiding any risks to milking the Roald Dahl library. Hilariously censoring the books for adults and giving the children what's left.

Also that you might be able to solve our energy problems by hooking up a generator to his grave. More adults screwing with his stories for children?

Also suspect some copyright buggering is in play, if it's revised can you not claim a new copyright.
 
Some of the changes like maids to cleaner I don’t mind per say, as we don’t call people maids. So a simple 1:1 modernisation to help give kids context is fine.

The rest I’m not a fan of. Dahl’s writing has always been about caricatures that evoke strong imaginary pictures in children.

Again it’s another dumb example of people trying to parent for others.

Personally if someone doesn’t like Dahl and won’t read him to their kids then it’s fine. But it should be a parental choice.
 
I have a feeling moving forward people are going to bring this political correctness up for a long time. There’s just no need to change the past, it should be left alone.

If people don’t like it then tough!! People are just taking the pea now just a bunch of full blown wingers.
 
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montymint said:
Some of the changes like maids to cleaner I don’t mind per say, as we don’t call people maids. So a simple 1:1 modernisation to help give kids context is fine.

The rest I’m not a fan of. Dahl’s writing has always been about caricatures that evoke strong imaginary pictures in children.

Again it’s another dumb example of people trying to parent for others.

Personally if someone doesn’t like Dahl and won’t read him to their kids then it’s fine. But it should be a parental choice.
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But a maid is entirely different from a cleaner and implies many things, maybe the kid might not know, but he can google it.

Once you change it, you can never google it, and you lost meaning.
 
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