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

telegraph.co.uk

741–750 of 992 posts

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

#741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In case you don't realize it, your behavior in this thread is patronizing (telling people how they should behave), degrading (not directly talking to the commenter), and from a clear place of closed-mindedness (writing as if teaching truths to an AI, not discussing). Your lack of empathy makes me assume you haven't been through similar experiences as the commenter you're "replying", either because you're not visibly…

I think the comment you wrote is better served to you.

You ask for empathy and compassion where you offer none.

I don't think you understood what is being written, and went for wiritbg a comment attacking rather than exploring.

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

#742
post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this post by @jasonhansel https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34849383#34853283

Ok, I read the article [1] linked in that comment and I think it's mostly junk. To give one example, the author's picking on the large noses and wigs of the witches as somehow mirroring negative portrayals of Jews is a massive stretch. The stereotypes of witches include all sorts of negative prejudices against older women . Older people have larger noses (and ears), as their faces 'shrink in' a bit (and I think carti…

You're reading it today, when big noses don't immediately make you think of antisemitic stereotypes, /because that's not what antisemitism is today/. When the books were written, it was.

The thrust of your argument is, Roald Dahl "turned off" his antisemitic thoughts then wrote a book with all these antisemitic tropes in them?

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

#743

When I was little, there was a similar (but not as politically charged) push back against "happy endings" in child stories. And, indeed, if you read unadulterated brother Grim or H. C. Anderesen... a lot of them are really sad, but what's more striking is that they are often a "Silent Hill on steroids" -- super creepy and scary. Another aspect is that the morality of stories would often seem questionable nowadays. I…

I read grimm and andersen when I was young and did not find them especially creepy or scary. If anything, I now feel more keenly the emotional intensity of some of andersen's stories (like the little mermaid and the little match girl).

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

#744
post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once again, the poster behaves Why are you writing this way? You’re in what is now an extended conversation with a person who is sharing their perspective with you, and you’re coming at it like you’re trying to humiliate them in front of an audience. You’re not jousting in some epic debate chamber, you’re in the replies of a message board. Calm down.

Their thread started with: > Sounds like a great book. A great book because "every character was some form of LGBT or interracial or something". If you think it was a conversation to start with, you are simply wrong. It's closer to the delusions of someone who hypnotized themselves into their current worldview. It amuses me to engage in this way. I am very calm.

Offering a rebuttal, and then backing it up with a personal experience is a perfectly normal form of conversation.

It is fine to amuse yourself with your speech, but it is worth recognising that it sounds like you are hosting a nature documentary about dumb animals, that exist beneath your own intelligence.

To think this person is deluded, but that you have saved yourself from the delusion all humans go through, is deluded.

> I do not view it. It is. (Speaking on moving from isolation to acceptance as an act of exclusion and chauvinism)

“It is” not. Perhaps it could be, alongside many other things - included in which are the benefits of doing so, such as acceptance, and internal peace. I implore you to go to any community around the world and try to fit in - chances are you won’t. You will then blame that community for not accepting you - or you will otherwise try to change yourself and only ever delude yourself that you are not just imitating them. It’s not racism, or anti-cisgenderism, to feel that you are not accepted where you are.

Maybe OP shouldn’t blanket talk about cis people - I understand your point. But my question is - do you only pick this fight with oppressed people? You yourself insinuate, in blanket fashion, “We have tried to get away from ‘oppression’ by giving the ‘oppressed’ the right to act out their chauvinism in public.”

Your words (and perhaps you, yourself) are very cynical. And it’s worth noting cynicism is a view on the world, not the world itself…

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

#745
post #656

I'm a gay man and I think we are going to far with this PC nonsense. I had a hard time growing up in the 90s knowing I was different and being tormented by my peers, so I'm happy to see gay "normalized" in current pop culture more because I think it teaches the younger generation to accept themselves and others. However I feel that it's going to far, for example I started reading a novel the other day but gave up a t…

I've been to a lot of art museums when travelling. If you judged the world by the thousands of paintings in those museums, you could assume that people of color simply didn't exist back then, and that poor people showed up at some point during the 17th century. I could understand why people might want art to portray a broader world that includes them in it, especially when introducing their children to that world. It…

> you could assume that people of color simply didn't exist back then

Places where people of color have been making art for a few thousand years would beg to differ.

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

#746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

On the receiving end of what exactly? Does it feel worse to be called a fool rather than an idiot? I don’t see what you’re getting at. > forced to speak a different language It’s very weird to me that you view my choice to use different words as somehow forcing something on others. Culture shifts and changes and there are always people responsible for participating in those changes. Yes sometimes people have used vio…

The "receiving end" comment was about what happens when society decides that your thought patterns make you a bigot, and you fundamentally disagree.

Lots of older people have this experience as the world changes out from under them.

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

#747
post #656

I'm a gay man and I think we are going to far with this PC nonsense. I had a hard time growing up in the 90s knowing I was different and being tormented by my peers, so I'm happy to see gay "normalized" in current pop culture more because I think it teaches the younger generation to accept themselves and others. However I feel that it's going to far, for example I started reading a novel the other day but gave up a t…

I've been to a lot of art museums when travelling. If you judged the world by the thousands of paintings in those museums, you could assume that people of color simply didn't exist back then, and that poor people showed up at some point during the 17th century. I could understand why people might want art to portray a broader world that includes them in it, especially when introducing their children to that world. It…

There weren't that many people of colour in Europe back then. Eastern Europe is still 99% white.

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

#748
post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kindly take your gaslighting and passive aggression somewhere else. I'm allowed to "yell" and write how I like. I haven't taken any personal shots at anyone - unlike yourself. Even if shrill is "gendered" (The Google says it "hints" at gendered language, btw), so fucking what . The implication in GPs comment is that this justifies Newspeak-ification... It doesn't. And neither does referencing less "agreeable" authors…

Your comments in this thread have unfortunately been well into the flamewar zone that the site guidelines ask users to stay out of. Since we just asked you to stop doing it and you've kept doing it, I think we have to ban this account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombina…

I stand by my words, and their tone.

I didn't once get personal with any of these people, as they call for the devolution of cultural touchstones into Newspeak.

> "we just asked you to stop" - Where? I'm not seeing that.

> tptacek's comments to you were probably slightly edgier than usual

It wouldn't be the first time that account has jumped down my throat and twisted my words.

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

#749
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screeching is usually associated with high pitched sounds and that is associated with women, to the point men making loud high pitched noises usually gets called "screamed like little girl". I guess babies also count for screeching.

I mostly associate screeching with owls and monkeys, neither of which are coded feminine. To be clear (and conciliatory): I see how you connect the dots here. I just think you have to have your antennae extended extra high to pick this signal up, high enough that you'll need to be careful walking under overpasses and stuff.

Yeah, I think trying to "correct" such "uninclusive" speech is utter bullshit; 99.9% of the time it is just used to add some colour and flavour to the language used and not to disparage any group

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

#750
post #689

I'm a gay man and I think we are going to far with this PC nonsense. I had a hard time growing up in the 90s knowing I was different and being tormented by my peers, so I'm happy to see gay "normalized" in current pop culture more because I think it teaches the younger generation to accept themselves and others. However I feel that it's going to far, for example I started reading a novel the other day but gave up a t…

Gay people won their culture war so now gay people have the luxury of demanding that the status quo be preserved with no regard for those that can't live freely under the current status quo.

Gay people won their culture war in some places. Gay marriage is still illegal in most countries. In many countries even homosexuality itself is illegal.
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