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Original poster

To think if you find a book this bad, best just not to read it?

104 replies

DemiColon · 19/02/2023 01:19

I am just flummoxed by the changes Penguin publishing house have made to Roald Dhal's books.

I know not everyone likes them, and I really would very rarely change anything in a book, so that is my general approach, but I am shocked with what they have done with his stories:

"Mrs Twit’s “fearful ugliness” is cut to “ugliness”. The words “black” and “white” have been removed: characters no longer turn “white with fear” and the BFG cannot wear a black cloak.

The Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach have become Cloud-People. Matilda reads Jane Austen rather than Rudyard Kipling, and a witch posing as “a cashier in a supermarket” now works as “a top scientist”.

nationalpost.com/news/world/oompa-loompas-no-longer-tiny-sensitivity-readers-take-the-gnarl-out-of-dahl

OP posts:
FinGizz · 19/02/2023 11:36

Follow the money.

The publishers realise that sanitising these texts means they can be marketed to newer generation as they are more palatable.

These texts should be left as they were written and used to show how language and attitudes have changed.

Icanbetherubberband · 19/02/2023 11:37

So they are rewriting Dahl but still letting David walliams publish new books, filled with lazy sexist, racist and classist stereotypes, when he's alive to change them. What a world we live in!

Icanbetherubberband · 19/02/2023 11:37

@ArabellaScott

Don't! They'll be after Orwell next 😬

IClaudine · 19/02/2023 11:39

I can't get too worked up about this tbh. It is not the first time Dahl has been "updated". Some of the changes are somewhat overearnest and plain silly though and I am baffled by the BFG's cloak though. Why can't it be black?

Anyway, all the outrage is excellent free marketing for the publishers and Netflix!

IClaudine · 19/02/2023 11:39

Icanbetherubberband · 19/02/2023 11:37

So they are rewriting Dahl but still letting David walliams publish new books, filled with lazy sexist, racist and classist stereotypes, when he's alive to change them. What a world we live in!

That is a very good point.

IClaudine · 19/02/2023 11:42

Walliams os published by HarperCollins, which is owned by Murdoch...

Jenala · 19/02/2023 11:43

The jobs one really rankles me, the point is normal everyday jobs to get the children reading the book to think about it when they are out and about doing normal things. Imagine all the kids over the years side eyeing cashiers etc, wondering....

The sensitivity reader idiots can see things through one lens only, and it doesn't include wonderment

drspouse · 19/02/2023 11:45

DulcetTones · 19/02/2023 04:10

What in the world is wrong with describing a cloak as black? Did they simply run a search and delete every instance of the word, regardless of context?

I wouldn't make any of these changes, but that one is particularly befuddling!

I read Harry Potter in the US first and they had changed almost all the "mum" into "mom" but missed a few...

drspouse · 19/02/2023 11:48

MargaretThursday · 19/02/2023 09:16

It's interesting because Enid Blyton's books have been changed for years (certainly since the 90s) but many others haven't been.

Yes, there are some things that can be altered make sense and they don't change the story, but it seems like sometimes they get carried away and alter more.

The most stupid one I saw on EB was in the adventure books. The original says something along the lines of: (it's Jack thinking)
"Oh dear, it's just so frustrating. If I was Lucy Ann I would sit down and cry, but as I'm a boy I can't."

The altered version said.
"This is so frustrating. I'm glad I'm not Lucy Ann because girls have to be brave, but boys can sit down and cry if they need to."

Thing is, I can understand the altering of the original, but they could have either just dropped the line, or put "as I'm older" instead, which would make just as much sense.

I remember my dc's junior school made a list of five words that were "never to be used". They were something like "ugly" "stupid", "bad", "hate" and "black". I asked what they said if they wanted to borrow a "black crayon" and was seriously told they had to say something like "the dark crayon." I don't think it helped anyone/

Did they have "dark History Month"?

Original poster
DemiColon · 19/02/2023 11:50

WeWereInParis · 19/02/2023 10:30

To be fair, the full line is "whether she's working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman". I'm not saying it should be changed, but it is sexist stereotyping.

Show quote history

In a way, but it's also the case that at the time, very few women were able to go on to university and many worked in jobs that were seen as suitable for women.

There's an assumption behind changes like this that if children are exposed to how society used to be, they will somehow be unable to overcome this sexist thinking that was common in their great-grandparents day, and will not consider becoming top scientists themselves. Which is just incredibly silly.

OP posts:
WeWereInParis · 19/02/2023 12:01

@DemiColon oh I know, and don't think it should be changed. I just don't think it's correct to say that cashier was chosen as a job because they'd come into contact with children, when secretary was also used.

FrostyFifi · 19/02/2023 12:13

There's an assumption behind changes like this that if children are exposed to how society used to be, they will somehow be unable to overcome this sexist thinking that was common in their great-grandparents day, and will not consider becoming top scientists themselves. Which is just incredibly silly.

I think at worst it's dangerous. If girls and young women don't realise just how difficult and different things were for women, really quite recently, and how hard the fight was to change the world, they might become very complacent about their existing rights.

notprincehamlet · 19/02/2023 12:20

Wish they had the same enthusiasm for proofreading (cloud/could, sings/signs)

PegasusReturns · 19/02/2023 13:30

RD was an acknowledged anti-Semite - would people be as outraged if overtly anti-Semitic references in his books were now being changed? Or is it not viewed as comparable?

@Laquila
Are there anti- semitic references in his books?

CastlesByTheSea · 19/02/2023 13:50

All completely ridiculous changes.

ironic though that they have made the change from rudyard Kipling to Jane Austen when this author (Roald Dhal) is a racist, anti-Semitic wife beater himself. Pot, kettle, black?

tothelefttotheleft · 19/02/2023 14:22

Kitcaterpillar · 19/02/2023 10:30

I hate it all but I hate most of all that they added a dedication into George's Marvellous Medicine. You can't add a dedication, it's absolutely outrageous.

Who is it to and what does it say?

JoonT · 19/02/2023 15:10

This just makes me dig my heels in even deeper. We seem to be moving into Orwell’s 1984. But instead of Communists or fascists dictating what we can think and read, it’s liberals. Not even Orwell saw that coming (Harold Bloom did).

I can’t believe they’ve even edited the bit about Mathilda reading Kipling. I mean wtf! I happen to be reading Kipling’s Kim atm, and haven’t read a single offensive thing (I guess I need re-education by the thought police). Maybe it changes further on, but so far it has been nothing but a joyful celebration of India. His depiction of the people is immensely respectful and intelligent. The Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Lamas, etc, that he describes, are often kind, funny, charming and interesting. They are also tolerant of one another - something Kipling celebrates. And far from seeing them as a faceless brown mass (a complaint critics often make of ‘colonial writers’) he draws each character with care and respect. Frankly, the novel is a celebration of multiculturalism!! In many ways, he reminds me of Dickens. He writes about India as Dickens writes about Victorian England - a place filled with variety and colour and diversity.

This woke madness is being driven by a minority of bullies and fanatics who just have an urge to control people. I swear half of them couldn’t really care less. It’s the bullying and controlling they enjoy. Had they lived in Tudor England, they’d have been burning Protestants. Had they lived in Stalin’s Russia, they’d have been killing counter-revolutionaries. The cause wouldn’t have mattered. And as everybody remembers from school, bullies don’t stop until somebody stops them. Things just escalate. God knows where this will end. I suppose there will be laws on what books you can own. I have noticed that Waterstones constantly promote books with a left-wing, woke agenda - putting them on stands, turning them to face the customer, etc.

Laquila · 19/02/2023 16:45

PegasusReturns · 19/02/2023 13:30

RD was an acknowledged anti-Semite - would people be as outraged if overtly anti-Semitic references in his books were now being changed? Or is it not viewed as comparable?

@Laquila
Are there anti- semitic references in his books?

Hi @PegasusReturns, I don't know - I was just wondering if people viewed it as comparable. Tbh I don't know if "Yes but he never actually put his horrific anti-Semitic views into his writing" would be a good defence anyway 😳

This is a quite comprehensive article from TIME about Dahl and his life/views - time.com/5937507/roald-dahl-anti-semitism/

MillicentTrilbyHiggins · 19/02/2023 17:00

I'd assumed they'd changed Matilda to reading Austen for feminist reasons rather than because Kipling was problematic! Mind you I'm not overly well acquainted with Kipling.

Kitcaterpillar · 19/02/2023 17:29

@tothelefttotheleft

To think if you find a book this bad, best just not to read it?
WeWereInParis · 19/02/2023 18:30

Kitcaterpillar · 19/02/2023 17:29

@tothelefttotheleft

Maybe they changed the phrasing, or it didn't use to be printed but I'm sure it was dedicated to "doctors everywhere" by roald Dahl

mamabear715 · 19/02/2023 18:34

For Heaven's sake. Is nothing sacred? :-(

Justanotherlurker · 19/02/2023 18:42

That thing they told us would never happen, keeps happening.....

Someone on Reddit books had found all the changes

It's an image of it is here: https://imgur.com/a/vqM7wFx

But remember if it is happening, this is why it's a good thing, grasps at straws around something tangible..

jetadore · 19/02/2023 19:22

To be honest, have you tried reading some of those books? I know kids are supposed to love them, as did I as a kid but, having read them with my own, they’re actually a bit shit and outdated now. The ‘humour’ in Great Glass Elevator is so tedious and cringeworthy. Although personally I would leave them as is to highlight how things have changed the “Roald Dahl company” obvs want to keep flogging books so have updated them to keep them relevant. “Writing letters for a businessman” is ancient history on many levels.