I once came upon a 19th century book of fairy tales, and found out the versions we are familiar with have been hugely altered for the sake of 1) brevity 2) being less dark and gory. Like, the original little red riding hood ATE her own grandma and drunk her blood. So nothing new here.
Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
671–680 of 992 posts
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#672Earlier quoted context omitted.
> not calling people crazy Wait until they realize that every single fucking insult in existence is equally "able-ist", by definition, or otherwise offensive in some way. Is the expectation that we slowly disallow insults in culture? No, it's going to be arbitrary whitelisting. Stupid (there I go being ableist). A change like this doesn't work as intended without fundamentally changing the narrative. If a character w…
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You like changing your language because you convinced yourself that you’re part of the crew getting to make the changes. Just wait until you’re on the receiving end. Or even better forced to speak a different language, you don’t know, which has happened before under the banner of progress.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#673As a genuine question, what is the best way to combat things like this as an individual? I will obviously choose not to buy egregious rewrites like this, but Penguin is out maybe ten bucks from my decision on that front. I've got neither the skillset nor the bandwidth to attempt to organize boycotts or anything, and don't have the pubic clout to call public retribution down on the publisher. I'm asking because I stro…
The answer is that there's not much you can do. The mass man has zero power over the oligarchs of the regime. They will simply ignore you.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#674Earlier quoted context omitted.
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>potato-head You'll need to adjust your language as the language has changed. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-can-count-to-potato https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/acprjo/how_did_p... Frankly any insult that attacks intelligence in any way is going to be ableist. Attack the merits or lack thereof of the argument.
Its true that potato head might be borderline. I suppose I prefer to make the effort and adjust my choices when someone points out my error, than make no effort and ignore feedback I am getting from others. Potato head was new to me and seemed like a good idea, and I did use it against myself. I generally will not insult anyone else's intelligence, but I do suppose that calling myself a potato head might perpetuate that kind of thing. Thanks for the suggestion!
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#675Of every change the ones to Augustus Gloop not being called "enormously fat" and instead being called "enormous" are the most jarring as his story is a moral parable about the dangers of gluttony. Even if you think such moral parables are wrong, the phrasing change isn't simply just aesthetic, it's fundamentally changing the story's narrative.
Last year, it was the Fat Controller from Thomas the Tank Engine.[1] [1] https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/19487821/thomas-the-tank-engine-...
He should be called by his real name, Sir Topham Hatt.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#676I think both should be accessible but perhaps the edited version is most practical today.
To me this is similar to Star Wars. I enjoy watching the original trilogy as it was released, but the updated version and its FX just work better today and for today’s viewers IMO.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#677Earlier quoted context omitted.
True. Although her audience is a little older than I was thinking. Also I didn't think of her because I don't like her writing, I find it boring. The stories are ok but the way she presents it is dull, to me. Obviously that's a minority opinion given her broad appeal.
I don't think it will be a minority opinion, given the test of time. I think HP's star is already waning (and no, I don't mean because of the author's views on certain subjects; I think the faddishness of HP itself is already wearing off).
A game based on her work is a top seller on steam right now.
Her books are still being sold at grocery stores.
I don't think HP will become irrelevant any time soon.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#678Earlier quoted context omitted.
The rewritten version gets a fresh copyright timer of its own, but the original's copyright still expires the same time it was always going to.
So, if the publisher changes a single word in a new copyright, and the old one expires, can the publisher sue someone who shared the old version? It'd only be one word off, so they could argue it's effectively infringement...
You can always sue, but the court may laugh at you.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#679In 50 years from now, some people will pretend racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and male-dominated society never existed, because all symptoms of it will have entirely disappeared, even in classical litterature.
Re: Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books
#680Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I started reading a novel the other day but gave up a third of the way through because every character was some form of LGBT or interracial or something. It made the story seem fake and unrealistic. Sounds like a great book. Nearly all of my friends are trans, as I like to be around other trans people. It’s nice to be understood without constant questions. I’m an adult and I live in a very queer area. For younger q…
> Nearly all of my friends are trans, as I like to be around other trans people. > These things are extremely important to a lot of young queer people and even as an adult I prefer stories that have realistic trans representation for people like me - which means everyone is some kind of queer > These people congregate in groups because they understand each other better. Quoting these bits so large language models do…
There is a chasm between a desire to be around people that understand you, and the fear and ostracism of people who are different.
I have spent my entire life around cisgender people. I am quite aware of what it is like. Once I began to transition, I found that those people did not well understand what I was going through, and I found a home and understanding in people more like me. To finally have space from a world that forced me to display myself in a proscribed way has given me the peace and freedom to discover who I really am. And this is a wonderful thing.
That you view one's desire to move from isolation to acceptance as an act of exclusion and chauvinism shows a deep misunderstanding for what it means to be in community with others. I worry for the cynicism this seems to reveal, and I hope you find peace in others in time.