to think Roald Dahl's 'Revolting Rhymes' should be banned?

[SquareholeRoundpeg]

I know Dahl is a national treasure and children love a bit of gore and all that - but DH and I were shocked at some of the language used in some of the stories (it is not easy to shock DH!)

There is a line in the Cinderella story where the prince says of Cinderella, 'who is this dirty slut'. Had to pause on that part when reading to DS!

The language in the story shows how deeply engrained misogynistic attitudes are, and continue to be carried through in our children's literature.

How can this be allowed?!!!

Gin😱

Awesome poem, thank you for introducing me to it!

May I suggest you read Fahrenheit 451 OP? (not to DS obviously)

also Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Isn't the whole point of Dahl the gruesomeness of the characters? That's why kids love it. I mean the Witches are essentially elaborate child murderers but the gore and the gruesomeness is what kids love, they see it in a totally different light to adults.

This all smacks a bit of Pheobe's mum turning off the film when things got sad.

Oh here it is, a nice bedtime poem

Even better with the illustrations...

"Allowed"? By whom? By royal decree?

It's ridiculous to suggest banning or censoring books because you don't care for a particular word. If you don't like the book, don't read it. But the idea of banning a book based on your (delicate) sensibilities is quite OTT.

There seems to be so much judginess (the whole of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory feels like a series of bizarre humiliating punishments for types of children who have annoyed the author

YAAAAAASSSS to this - I thought that as a kid. The only Dahls I really liked were Matilda and Danny the Champion love the original film though, not the Burton remake which is disturbing and horrid

I had this book as a child and I don't remember it having the word slut, must have passed me by. DS has it now so I expect he will be similarly corrupted

I expect that I probably just completely disregarded it as an unfamiliar word and thought nothing of it. Certainly when I heard it later in the modern context I didn't think "Oh, that's what that Roald Dahl word that I didn't know meant!" I probably just assumed they were two different words which were spelt the same.

Also wondering what on Earth is wrong with Esio Trot?

I love the original CATCF. I am not a fan of the Burton remake but the fact it IS disturbing, is right and very true to Dahl and for that I think its worth commending Burton. Although I know it Burton's 'thing' it still would have been easy to make it 'safe'.

If anything the Burton version, is more faithful to the book.

Some great books that have been banned

www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica

everysongbirdsays me too - in fact only Danny for me. I always thought there was something kind of reckless and lord of the flies -ish about Roald Dahl's books (not that I'd read LOFT at that point, it was just that sense of an undercurrent of horrible chaos). I didn't like them as a kid at all.

Having said that, I wouldn't ever ban them!

Howbadisthis I love your post and agree too. Most of Dahl's books don't sit quite right with me either and have aspects of cruelty and disturbing behaviour that jars with the story (they're largely not necessary, or could be couched another way) - however as a child I just didn't register this at all so have quite a misplaced affection for them that's quite strange! I imagine Dahl to be quite a dark character!

I still stand by never banning, editing or 'claening up' though.

OP you said 'I just don't agree words like that should be allowed in children's literature.' - Why stop at Dahl? Would you have all literature children can potentially see cleansed too? I don't think that's healthy. As others have said, just explain the use of language as you go, or skip over it for now.

Do you all think gollywog should not have been banned too then? Honest question.

Re the Gollywog books - not banned no OP - just seen as something that was once seen as acceptable / unquestioned and now is not. No banning though. Why do you want things banned?

Gollywog no because it's a doll
Wog itself. Yes

were the EBs actually banned though - I thought it was the case that the later reprints had been edited to make the books more appropriate. There were no book burnings of the old editions.

The only book I remember censoring whilst reading aloud to our boys when they were small was Little House In the Big Woods. We were all experiencing it for the first time, and when Pa starting singing about 'Uncle Ned', I was caught a bit off guard and found myself turning him into an 'old donkey' almost instinctively. Absolutely of their time, all of the series - and often in the most horrendous way - but they still have so much to offer readers, I think. We just had lots of, erm, 'contextualising conversations'. It's history, innit?

Maybe you should have read the book first then if you aren't able to change a word in a sentence as you read?
My 6 and 3 yr old love revolting rhymes and dirty beasts but if need be I edit it.
The 6 yr old reads the other Roald dahl books on his own (not boy etc)

And Dahl's stories are supposed to speak to something in kids that adults find unsettling and vaguely threatening. They are very deliberately to be grown out of.

Gollywog's haven't been banned. Sensible people have realised that there are massive racist connotations attached to them and don't buy them.

Stupid people still buy them.

Wrt banning the books, how on earth would you enforce it? Would you have someone designated to collecting in all the previously sold copies?

YABU - it's one word in one poem in the book. You could edit that rhyme, or even remove the poem (although I still think that's excessive), but you shouldn't ban the whole book.

Besides, if that's the only context your DC has ever come across the word 'slut', does it really matter?

DD has recently discovered Enid Blyton, she has read some of the St Clarkes books and we're working through Famous Five as bedtime stories. She loves the stories and is sometimes in fits of giggles over the language.

The books are the editions I collected as a child so uncensored in terms of names like Dick, Nobby and good old Aunt Fanny. They are dated and dreadfully sexist, also racist when the children come across, gypsies and foreign (swarthy) types. We laugh at the books for being so silly but I've never considered banning them!

Her favourite book when she 4 was Strewelpeter. Now there's some inappropriate themes for you!

I disagree with banning books - it is a slippery slope.
Children generally like books that are a bit subversive.
As a child I really couldn't have cared about my mother's opinion of a book- we had different tastes.
There is no need for you to read it if you don't like it!

I think that my son had the right attitude with 'you don't have to take it so seriously, mum, it is just a story'.