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

Post by jrm4 » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 3:17 AM UTC

lxm wrote: post #391

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…

This just seems to relate to school libraries, but the books presumably would be available through public libraries or Amazon? School libraries by design have a pretty limited selection, generally confined to the topics covered by the curriculum. Or am I wrong in understanding the nature of the ban?

Post by mjrpes » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 3:18 AM UTC

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…

Post by mensetmanusman » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 3:20 AM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #110

bko wrote: post #15

Here's a good list of changes. Most are about removing any references to ugly or fat. But also other strange things like changing the author's Matilda likes to read to include Jane Austin and John Steinbeck, not calling people crazy, swapping screeching to annoying, removing brothers and sisters to favor "siblings" and using "folks" instead of "ladies and gentlemen" https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1626860237104…

Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling wrote favorably about colonialism; they were replaced with more agreeable authors. Use of gendered language is marginalizing to nonbinary people. It's easy to figure out why these changes are being made in particular, once you take a position of empathy.

Post by anonreeeeplor » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 3:20 AM UTC

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #128

It turns out that Dahl was a real antisemite, to me that is more of an issue: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/06/roald-dahl-fam...

Post by claytongulick » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 3:22 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #418

pessimizer wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they are censorship by the rights owner of the author's work. Clearly and uncontroversially. edit: also, a "rights owner" is what we call someone who has a government-granted monopoly on the right to publish a work. Granting or transferring exclusive publishing rights to entities that would be willing to censor a work would be a government end-run around prior restraint.

> Yes, they are censorship by the rights owner of the author's work. Is that true when the rights owner (as is often the case) is the author? If it is not (or if it is but it is not problematic) in that case, why would it be if the rights owner is the author's heir, or an entity to whom the author or their heir has voluntarily, whether for value or other reasons, transferred the rights? > also, a “rights owner” is wh…