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

platinum87 said:
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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Forgive me if I’m wrong but isn’t the maid in the context of the witches simply a hotel cleaner? So I’m not sure what the implications are here?

Also do you want a sub ten year old Googling “a maid” - I’m sure they will love all of the maid outfits on sale :cry:
 
You have to admire the ambition of the publishers though. "We can "improve" the writing of one of the greatest childrens authors of all time".

You don't need the original form as the author intended we passed it through our Cultural Revolutionator 6000SUX and you can have the party approved version.

I need to buy original versions of every cultural artifact I hold dear I guess before the Year Zero idiots improve it.
 
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Not wanting to upset anyone or anything that considers itself/themselves/thems or theys offended I have decided to not reply.

I expect what I wrote above will be changed to something else in the 2030's.
 
BUDFORCE said:
I feel I've learned a lot from this thread, infact on Monday morning I am going to email the CEO of my organisation and say I would like to become the diversity champion.
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You should. I’m involved in my diversity team and I’ve recently made amends in our company to ensure our video guides are more accessible to those with hearing issues, made our offices more accessible for people with mobility issues and have frequent food events to highlight our diverse work force. It’s fantastic and highly valued by my colleagues. What’s not to like about championing these things?
 
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There's a lot of pearl clutching going on in this thread! :cry:

Language changes, attitudes change and with it so do cultural references. Always has happened, always will.

I remember the last lot of moral outrage when Enid Blyton got rinsed through the modern (at the time) lens of linguistic changes.

The words Gay (happy) and Queer (strange) were dropped, the characters Dick and Fanny had their names changed.

Her Gollywog books have all but disappeared, with the characters Golly, Woggy and ****** striding along singing their favourite song "Ten little ****** boys"

Not sure why Chris can't enjoy the dreams of his Bentley ownership if they stopped calling it 'Chinese eyed'

Edit : The irony being even one of those Enid Blyton names is starred out by OCUK's swear filter! :cry:
 
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ci_newman said:
The faux - rage at Dahls books being censored without realising the first releases were rewritten because they were inherently racist in the first place...

(Hint: the Oompas were originally black pygmy slaves from Africa).

Times change.
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Not only that chocolate was linked to slavery when the first cocoa plants were harvested, and there's proven links to slavery in the chocolate world today but I won't go down that rabbit hole.

:)
 
ci_newman said:
The faux - rage at Dahls books being censored without realising the first releases were rewritten because they were inherently racist in the first place...

(Hint: the Oompas were originally black pygmy slaves from Africa).

Times change.
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Well Ronald dahl made those changes himself because he sympathised with the concerns on how it resembled slavery.
 
ci_newman said:
The faux - rage at Dahls books being censored without realising the first releases were rewritten because they were inherently racist in the first place...

(Hint: the Oompas were originally black pygmy slaves from Africa).

Times change.
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No. That's a cop out non-explanation if ever there was one.

This revision can be criticised on its own merits or otherwise without implying that disagreeing would have slavery returned to the book.
 
What some see as pearl clutching fits of the vapours, others like me more open eyed see as the de-spurring and de-beaking of the over sized and over mixed population in an attempt at forced harmony and forced capitulation and apology.
 
LOOOOL "God damn multiculturalism!" :cry: :cry: Chris you're absolutely deluded, I just can't even :cry::cry::cry:



On topic: Money maketh the world spineth.

If they don't modernise, they don't stay in schools.

Inclusiveness and kindness is what I like to see in my kids junior school. They're for young kids remember.
 
NVP said:
On topic: Money maketh the world spineth.

If they don't modernise, they don't stay in schools.

Inclusiveness and kindness is what I like to see in my kids junior school. They're for young kids remember.
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Not sure if you recall but Roald Dahls stories for children are grotesque, contain brutality and cruelty and very frequently involve people being killed. (The ones for adults are basically the same but include sex)

And that's DESPITE these revisions so, you can for example still have the classic story of a boy poisoning and killing his grandmother with household chemicals. Or the one about trespassing and poaching. Or the one where kids get caned in front of an audience. Wait that's biographical.

The sensitivity censorship is quite selective about what they believe is a bad influence on children.
 
...oh, that doesn't sound kind at all :cry:

Edit: ah ok, they're for 7+ year olds - not sure why I thought they were for younger kids.
 
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Hotwired said:
Not sure if you recall but Roald Dahls stories for children are grotesque, contain brutality and cruelty and very frequently involve people being killed. (The ones for adults are basically the same but include sex)

And that's DESPITE these revisions so, you can for example still have the classic story of a boy poisoning and killing his grandmother with household chemicals. Or the one about trespassing and poaching. Or the one where kids get caned in front of an audience. Wait that's biographical.

The sensitivity censorship is quite selective about what they believe is a bad influence on children.
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No wonder kids love the stories! After reading one they can have some more death and destruction playing popular war games on their PC's... ;)
 
Chris Wilson said:
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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Couldn't they just have published a prologue in Dahl's books, Daniel defoe, .... charles dickens next - victorian workhouses never happened, no child exploitation,
we complain about chinese painting out Tienanmen square, or Stalin 'we never had it so good'
- those that don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

irony that with all the statue destruction .... maybe those people are destroying black history, juxtaposed to commemorating the holocaust, israelite slavery
 
Ahleckz said:
You should. I’m involved in my diversity team and I’ve recently made amends in our company to ensure our video guides are more accessible to those with hearing issues, made our offices more accessible for people with mobility issues and have frequent food events to highlight our diverse work force. It’s fantastic and highly valued by my colleagues. What’s not to like about championing these things?
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I cannot tell if this is parody or not. "Diversity Team" ? "Made amends"? Amends for what? "Championing", and food events to highlight a diverse workforce? Why would you need to highlight anything?
This is the language of somebody so far down the rabbithole, they are unable to be saved.

The retrospective changing of text to eliminate wrongthink/certain language, is EXACTLY the playbook of 1984, although it seems many are too low IQ to actually recognise what is going on here. I find it quite frightening people can be SO easily manipulated. Then again, just look at Russia, it's AMAZING what the government/powers that be can get regular people to think and believe. My god, people have literally given up thinking for themselves. I would be embarrassed to be using the buzzword salad highlighted above.

Those examples given further up the thread are frightening. THAT is not education, it is indoctrination. Education would be explaining and teaching why the words and phrases are and were the way they were, not simply whitewashing (GASP! yes I said that) everything and pretending history, language, or culture simply did not exist.

What comes next I wonder? History is already being somewhat rewritten, as well as literature as evidenced here.
 
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CS Lewis said:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive… those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
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I do feel this quote has really found new legs in recent years.
 
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