Enid Blyton - what changes are/are not OK?

[VictoriaOKeefe]

My example:
Jo-Jo in the Island of Adventure - i think Jo-Jo should have been kept as a black villain but with the "rolling eyes" and "nigra" speech removed. Changing him to a white man sends the dangerous message to children that a member of a marginalised group cannot be a nasty, small-minded jerk (as TPratchett put it). Women are marginalised but i wouldn't pee on my cruel abrasive mother if she was on fire.

Change nothing. Blyton isn’t ‘literature’ exactly, but changing texts is a bad precedent. Where they show racist/sexist views from the time they were written, we should have a discussion with children about why Blyton thought it was ok and why we now know better. Children need to know the attitudes which caused issues in the past to understand why they are wrong and to help them avoid the mistakes of the past.

Maybe a foreword in the books to explain this.

Changing him to a white man sends the dangerous message to children that a member of a marginalised group cannot be a nasty, small-minded jerk

No it doesn't, unless it's in comparitive sense because they've read both, so that's not a good reason at all.

Personally I think simply throwing away crap racist books and reading newer ones that even if they'll inevitably reflect the biases and prejudices of the current age are not as outright bad as the old ones, so none of it should be rewritten.

If it is rewritten though, it needs to be completely rewritten to bring it to the current norms not selectively changing the most out-moded language, whilst leaving the more subconcious throughts and themes in there, so yes, changing the race of villians is fine.

Absolutely btw talk to children about historical prejudice and it's about all Blyton is good for I'd say, it's chock full of it.

Send all books unapproved by the Party down the memory hole. Doubleplusgood!

No changes. It's up to parents to explain the context and reason for the racism and inform their children of it. History shouldn't be swept under the carpet and that includes literary history.

Guys sirfredfredgeorge has spoken - she doesn't like Enid Blyton so just burn it all!

Irrelevant of course that many generations of children have the warmest memories of reading Famous Five, Malory Towers et al and that those books were responsible for engendering a love of reading that translated into a new generation of writers (among other professions) most of whom have managed to avoid becoming racists.

No no no - someone is offended and thus it must all be burned.

Are we going to burn children's books with NPC (non political correct) content in our town squares? - It's only 13 weeks till bonfire night!!

As it's been pointed out (littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/2004/02/historical_rela.html) even most of the counter-opinions to the Blytons in their own era would not have been "ours" either so clinging to a modern-ish person from the past and judging the majority against them doesn't work.

Nothing should be changed. Not hard to explain to kids they were written in a different time.

Some of my fondest memories of childhood are escaping into Blyton books.

I would approach blyton with real caution tbh

I think keep the original text with footnotes and a decent foreword to place it into historical context.

Otherwise slippery slope to Fahrenheit 451/1984, innit.

Change almost nothing (words like n*gger perhaps) and use the texts to inspire conversation and demonstrate change. Use unchanged text to educate. They can help us to understand the attitudes of the past.

I spent most of my childhood reading Enid Blyton. I have a degree in English Literature and don't feel that my literacy skills were affected by my early exposure to EB.

Similarly, I have the intelligence to see her books in context, to discuss them with my and other DC, and to believe that although we have moved on they are still valid in many ways.

As Confessions says, many of us have fond memories of reading EB's books, and without them my childhood would have been a lot poorer.

If we were to start burning books which do not fit our current opinions there would be very few left.

MiddlingMum. As was pointed out about the Peter Capaldi Doctor Who episode set in Regency England: The Doctor would get a sore hand if he punched everyone in 1814 who shared Sutcliffe's racial views.

I read them in my childhood too, Middling

I see them in context now, but I wasn’t able to then and I do think some of the views expressed were very damaging.

Never, ever burn or get rid of a book due to its historical prejudices. Teach and educate about how the majority have evolved their thinking. It'll actually elicit some good discussions even from smaller people.

I loved all the Blyton books, hours of escapism, made me get out as a YP and explore, and be brave! I like the idea of an introduction to explain the context though.

Surely George(ina) is almost a role model?!

George is only a role model because Enid Blyton books are sexist.

No no no please do not burn any books. Talk about them , otherwise future generations will simply make the same huge mistakes. My DS never got into EB which hasn't done him any harm ( he loves reading) but I would not condone destroying any historical literature, it's just denial isn't it? Trying to pretend that we had racist views in the past is very creepy in my view.

Apologies to go back to the ops question!! Change nothing, discuss everything

Glad I kept all my old originals

Dd adores them.

Enid Blyton's books are, and always have been, hugely popular.If they reflect their times, then that is how it will inevitably be, and we should leave them be. Discuss with our children about how things have changed for the better now, but do not change the books.

Some of the newest books around do not have the appeal of her books, which latch on to the desire of children to have adventures and the freedom of adults. There are some good books around now for children, but also some seriously crap ones.

It's like watching some of the old comedy series on TV. Some appalling racist remarks, children will never have heard anything like it. A great opportunity for kids to learn thats how it used to be. I grew up on Enid Blyton, at the time i never thought anything of the awful racism, it's certainly not turned me into a racist now. We shouldn't whitewash history.

Nothing should be changed. It's well-intentioned but shortsighted whitewashing of history. It minimizes the truth of what really happened to marginalized peoples and gives denialists the ammunition to say 'look, they didn't have it so bad - if they did how come none of the books from the time say so?' Maybe publishers should add footnotes or an introduction explaining the historic and social context. You as a parent explain it to your children, talk about why these things are wrong and why at the time so many people didn't think they were wrong.

Nothing should be changed. They've got the new famous five books in my children's school and they're just not the same.

I grew up on Enid Blyton. Loved her books.