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.

I don't think they should be changed, just not made into tv or film anymore.

Don’t change anything. It’s rather appalling and arrogant to have a piece of work that you made changed without your permission.

Sirfred I agree the HP books are good but I don't think my 6 yo is ready for them, they are too scary, which Famous Five is not.

Have no idea why they are reprinted at all. There are new authors who write in modern times or past times with pc language. It's not like EB wrote good literature, she had no wish to, they were just appealing to children. Even in the 60s my local libraries never stocked them.

Another reprinted series that is pointless is Ruby Ferguson's Jill books. Huge chunks cut out and Black Boy (a black pony for those who have never read them) is called something bizarre.

The UK is still extremely racist, sexist and classist, so I don't see much point in trying to pretend these things don't exist. Plus for most children, much of it will go right over their heads and they will just enjoy the story.
And as for changing half crowns and shillings, that's just silly.

The UK is still extremely racist, sexist and classist

I suspect you don’t get out much.

LiviniaBox Sure, but Famous Five is not written specifically for 6 year olds any more than Harry Potter is, it's written for older kids, and there's lots of similar length and complexity books for 8 year olds that are similarly non-scary.

I'd say David Walliams Mr Stink / Gangsta Granny type stuff are the sort of similar modern book that is pitched at the same age group as Famous Five was, it's just I think people have the idea that they're for much younger kids and compare them to books that five and six year olds read themselves, because we now have so many more kids books like that.

Remember that in Enid's day there wasn't much else to read that was specifically for children.
Really? Her first books were published in 1922, but her peak was in the 50s. There were plenty of books published over those times.
I collect children's books and there is no shortage of books over that time.

For me, I don't see them as sexist. Anne is a girl who likes playing house-as some children do, and is also the bravest as she realises how dangerous a situation that they're in, but goes ahead anyway. Julian is the leader because he is the oldest. George was for the time is quite forward thinking. Why did people always assume she was a boy, even though it's pointed out she doesn't really look like one? Because she did the things the boys did and wore boys clothes. Nowadays people wouldn't assume she was a boy because it wouldn't be that unusual.

They're clearly dated-housekeeper, tutors, boarding school, quarantine. So children are more than capable of realising that some of the things in it are dated.
I've just started reading ds a book set in Shakespeare's time (The Player's Boy, Antonia Forest). There's quite a lot of explaining going on at this point, but I doubt he's going to ask my neighbours tomorrow if they're worried about being arrested for being a Catholic.

However in Enid Blyton I do think some of the racism does need to be altered. Jo Jo is one of the cases in point. She uses her view on his race to make him sound bad. I wish though they would do it in a sensitive way and actually rewrite the passages rather than taking the sentences and altering them in a clumsy way, which is what I've seen.

Other things I don't think should be altered. Again £ s d gives the books the period feel. And Dame Slap to Dame Snap totally changes the story. My children when reading it thought she was meant to be a figure of fun rather than someone who was actually scary. And I don't think it phases children to come across it in writing either.

Don’t change it just don’t fucking buy it

£ s d gives the books the period feel

And saves the inconvenience of having to update the pocket money amounts! I have an old set of Naughiest Girl books which were seventies updates changed to decimal money. Even when I read them in the 80s it was a bit of a stretch how much Elizabeth bought for Joan’s birthday with £1.20

I think George in the famous 5 is the worse role model ever. She feels that in order to be adventurous she needs to pretend to be a boy, rather than she can be a girl and do what she wants as herself.
In the last TV adaptation I saw they made Anne younger than the others to justify her being left out of anything dangerous but I don't remember her being younger in the books.
As a child I read very little other than eb and it was old fashioned even then in the 70s. I think it affected my view of the world in a bad way.
I have read some to my children with discussion but I read them a variety of other books to and eb was never a favourite

"I think George in the famous 5 is the worse role model ever"

I agree!!!

I was just talking to DH about ordering 'The magic faraway tree' for my eldest DC to read as I loved it as a child. I mentioned that I remeber they had been banned from our school (90s) because the characters were called Dick and Fanny.(what we were told by a teacher, maybe there were other reasons I don't know).
Reading the comments on Amazon now, the names have been changed to Rick and Frannie. To be honest I'm glad for the change of Dick to Rick only because my DC had only heard it said as a swear word (heard from school not us!) and he would've giggled the entire time rather than concentrating on the story. Other than that I don't remember anything else in the book because I read it as a child, maybe I'll have to reread it!

I loved Enid blyton. I still do. I’ve read them with my children and explained the differences and how things have changed. They shouldn’t be censored, if we don’t learn about the past, how can we make sure it doesn’t happen again?
I honestly don’t remember much racism in them though. Sexist and classist yes.
I remember the gollywog in the Amelia Jayne books, but to me it was just another toy. My nan had one at the time.
Which were the racist books?

I remember devouring these books as a child. I remember the friendship between the children, but I honestly don't remember any of the racism or sexism you have all highlighted. I wonder if I ever knew it was there - there are for example many pop songs that are clearly about sex, but when I was younger, I didn't hear that at all in the lyrics. It seems so obvious listening now. I think we automatically tune out things we're not ready for....

Change nothing.
The offensive words can be used to educate in history and how times change and we evolve into (hopefully) better people.

Remember that in Enid's day there wasn't much else to read that was specifically for children. I devoured all of Enid Blytons books as a child in the 90s

I bought a modern set that had all the faraway tree and washing chair books in it. Was very surprised to discover that they had changed Dick, Fanny and Dame Slap but not Chinky!

NorthStarGrassman Bloody hell. Is that... actually a character in one of her stories?

I feel like Mumsnet has just ruined my childhood. I really enjoyed those books at the time.

They’re not meant to be informative historical period pieces though: they’re written to be accessible harmless fun for children to read on their own. The originals are clearly not suitable for that purpose any more. Either keep them as historical documents for older children to discuss with parents who’ve prevetted problematic aspects, or revamp the text to keep them as fun, accessible, unproblematic adventure stories for younger children to read without intervention. Or both. I don’t think anyone’s advocating a Ministry of Truth march on the British Library with flaming torches and placards reading “Gypsies were always a much appreciated diverse (if persecuted) presence within the Blyton books who committed crimes no more frequently than would be expected from their share of the U.K. population”.

The Doctor Doolittle book with the unfortunate Prince Bumpo plot has a forword from Lofting’s son saying (I paraphrase) “My DF was a lovely bloke whose heart would have been broken if it had occurred to him that his kindly-meant plot about the nice black sidekick wanting to bleach his skin to win the heart of the white girl could cause any offence. He’d have been happy to ditch it as per this new edition so that everybody could continue to enjoy the books as they were intended.” Blyton wasn’t a lovely bloke, but the rest stands.

It’s interesting how everyone who read the books as children didn’t realise the racism/sexism and yet as adults we want to protect our own children from it

The problem is that you can unconsciously absorb the racism/sexism while you are too young to analyse it. It becomes normal-part of your mental furniture. The fact that there are people on here talking about George as a good role model proves my point.

What about people for whom authoritarian political correctness and censorship has become part of their unthinking mental furniture? Perhaps we should bowdlerize their reading material too.

I doubt that’s an issue with Enid Blyton and more people’s opinions (which differ regardless of reading material!) everyone has a favourite character for whatever reason.