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Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#371

Post by koolba »

boppo1 wrote: post #280
travisgriggs wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I liked Matilda. But Steinbeck? Seriously? To each his own I guess. How Matilda would have been a fan of Steinback is beyond me. Much less Austin. Matilda would have been a fan of, er, uh, Dahl. And maybe Oz, Baum, Seuss, and Carroll. And any other author whose general vibe was "I kinda like to mess with the world." Definitely Orwell as she got older.

I like Steinbeck and don't think that Matilda ought to be a Steinbeck fan. At least they didn't make her a fan of Plath.

The next revision will likely have her reading the 1619 Project.

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#372

Post by smaudet »

wyager wrote: post #340
consumer451 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Dahl situation seems ridiculous and deserving of derision. I would also like to bring your attention to the Florida school book ban which applies not just to new editions of one author, but to an entire state's education system. > Among the titles that have been removed and banned in the course of the vetting in her school district are Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye,’ ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini, ‘The…

Last time I looked at claims about Florida "book bans", they were actually just hysterical overreactions to removing books from the mandatory public school curriculum - is this more of the same? I don't really care that much about what's in school libraries, to be honest - almost no one actually gets books from there anymore. What's much more significant, at a societal level, is what publishers choose to (not) put ou…

> they were actually just hysterical overreactions to removing books from the mandatory public school curriculum

"Approved on March 25 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, HB 1467 gives parents and members of the public increased access to the process of selecting and removing school library books and instructional materials."

So you would be absolutely incorrect. This was absolutely about banning books from schools, not just the curriculum - an unashamed "you will not say these things in school", grab for power.

> I don't really care that much about what's in school libraries, to be honest

Yeah and I don't super care for schools either, but unfortunately they are a mandatory way to brain wash young people unable to completely think for themselves...

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#373

Post by neverrroot »

This is truly depressing. It’s 3AM here and I can’t fall asleep. Where is this all heading? Where are we gonna end?

The more “minor sensitivities” we take care of in such manner, the more “sensible” things we’re gonna do to “make it right for everyone”, the more they’re gonna be needed. Such a thin skin won’t be able to tolerate not even the wind.

Just the other day, they were writing about replacing female with “egg-producing”.

Let’s erase humanity, NOT.

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#374

Post by dragonwriter »

swatcoder wrote: post #181

Those of us who grew up near various religious communities in the second half of the twentieth century are familiar with the edited and abridged versions of media made to be more palatable to the morals of whichever community, as well as the scandals over media which were an affront to them for whatever reason. Obviously, a publisher committed to those communities and who can get the rights to do so will make a “clea…

> he only news here is in whose morals are behind expressed in the edits, because we had gotten used to it just being a religion thing

Who is “we”? Those of us who remember the stories of, say, every English edition of Mein Kampf (every one of which either deleted from or added to, often both, the German edition for propaganda purposes, whether it was making the Nazi program more palatable to the West or less), did not.

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#375

Post by Waterluvian »

wyager wrote: post #340
consumer451 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Dahl situation seems ridiculous and deserving of derision. I would also like to bring your attention to the Florida school book ban which applies not just to new editions of one author, but to an entire state's education system. > Among the titles that have been removed and banned in the course of the vetting in her school district are Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye,’ ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini, ‘The…

Last time I looked at claims about Florida "book bans", they were actually just hysterical overreactions to removing books from the mandatory public school curriculum - is this more of the same? I don't really care that much about what's in school libraries, to be honest - almost no one actually gets books from there anymore. What's much more significant, at a societal level, is what publishers choose to (not) put ou…

The law makes it a felony for a teacher to make books available that are not approved by a specially trained librarian.

This isn’t about what’s on a curriculum, it’s about what a teacher is allowed to have on their book shelf.

You can read the bill here if you have any questions. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1467/BillText/er/...

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#376

Post by pyinstallwoes »

gotoeleven wrote: post #247
krona wrote: post #231

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered... Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. - George Orwell

[flagged]

Well now that you've written it, it shall be hallucinated, at the very least.

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#377

Post by remote_phone »

consumer451 wrote: post #283
krona wrote: post #231

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered... Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. - George Orwell

This Dahl situation seems ridiculous and deserving of derision. I would also like to bring your attention to the Florida school book ban which applies not just to new editions of one author, but to an entire state's education system. > Among the titles that have been removed and banned in the course of the vetting in her school district are Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye,’ ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini, ‘The…

Any type of censorship is stupid. We, the regular people, are getting attacked by both sides and I’m getting so sick of it.

Before censorship used to be the bedrock of conservatives but now more and more it’s both sides that think it’s okay. To a GenX liberal, I’m sickened by the current state of politics these days.

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#378

Post by nonethewiser »

renewiltord wrote: post #274
DanHulton wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Screeching" in english (at least North American english) is typically a gendered derogative. You generally wouldn't say a man was "screeching", not unless you also wanted to imply he was effeminate. By avoiding the word, you avoid insinuating the target's gender is part of the issue, and/or avoid insinuating that the target is effeminate when they "should not" be, i.e. you avoid homophobia.

Haha, this is the classic example of answering a question which was merely a rhetorical whip. I love watching this stuff in action. I agree wholesale with you. Screeching is most definitely more commonly used for women. That doesn't make it a bad word to use. I mean, you won't catch me dead with these bowdlerized versions. The prose is atrocious and the motives for the changes are dubious. But screeching is high pitc…

[flagged]

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#379

Post by gameman144 »

upsidesinclude wrote: post #248
Ekaros wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't fat be normal descriptor of well fat people. Should we next ban thin? Or short and tall? Those also can also be derogatory.

You seem to have missed the point. So allow me to reiterate: fat is a derogatory term which lends itself to the idea that food fats are bad. Food fats aren't bad. So call them chubby or overweight or whatever you want. Using the word fat, when fat refers to a food product, gives dumb people the impression that fat is a bad thing. Do you get this concept? "Thin" isnt a food group. Short and tall, also not food groups.

> Food fats aren't bad. So call them chubby or overweight or whatever you want.

These are two completely different meanings of the word though? Are you arguing that they need to carry the same semantics?

Should we not call smart people "bright", because people might think light bulbs are intelligent too?

Also, if I call someone fat, that might be demeaning. But it also might just be a description.

Of course nobody wants a negative description applied to them, and it might make them sad, but it's not because of the word we're using: it's because we're ascribing that description to them.

Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books

#380

Post by NateEag »

jemmyw wrote: post #24
stuckinhell wrote: post #3

Censoring old children's books. Yikes. This is frightening in more ways than one. Besides the obvious censorship, and rewriting the past being a bad thing. I can't wait to see what they do to "Brave New World", "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984". It'll be ironic and sad if they burn the old unedited Roald Dahl books. But also have we reached cultural stagnation, that old media still out competes new ones by such orders of m…

> But also have we reached cultural stagnation, that old media still out competes new ones by such orders of magnitude Where is the next Dahl? Why is there no modern Beatrix Potter? Kids still love those stories and style of writing, which is less trite than most of the modern children's books. It does feel like stagnation, with lots of content being churned out but none of it with great staying power. Instead the ol…

As a father of young kids, I cannot recommend John Klassen's "Hat" picture books enough:

I Want My Hat Back

This Is Not My Hat

We Found A Hat

The Rock From The Sky

They're beautiful exercises in minimal, precision watercolor. They're written with delightful economy, and have a rather Dahlian sense of justice and consequences.

He wrote them all within the last twelve years, IIRC.

For older kids, Pax (illustrated by Mr. Klassen in the edition we picked up) is a lovely piece of writing, vaguely like a cross between My Side Of The Mountain and Old Yeller, but less tragic than Old Yeller, with a deftly-handled thread about emotional awareness and responsibility for one's own choices woven throughout.

Oh, and the How To Train Your Dragon books, by Cressida Cowell, are wonderful, hilarious pieces of work about self-discovery, loyalty, friendship, and the hard, slow struggle to achieve mastery and skill in a world where people expect you to be something rather different than you are. Vastly, vastly better than the popular movies loosely inspired by them, and quite different - closer to a child-friendly Hitchhiker's Guide than the Hero's Journey of the films.

Great new classics are still being written - it's just that the winnowing function of passing decades hasn't yet run its course, so they're harder to find.

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