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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

#891

Post by mansion7 »

tptacek wrote: post #100

I'd be interested in hearing the most credible/reputable sources speaking out in favor of these changes. I've exclusively seen commentators dunking on this (rightfully so), across the political spectrum. To be clear: I'm wondering if we can find specific people speaking up for this, not an analysis of whose side of the culture war is most culpable for it.

They are mostly dead and unable to argue on behalf of their works.

But they were just old white cisgender oppressors, so who cares what they would think?

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

#892

Post by erenyeager »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #889
erenyeager wrote: post #849

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Prejudice doesn't become non prejudice if you make it more verbose. Absolutely nobody is talking about excluding opposite sex relationships. The normalisation of homosexual relationships has no consequences on hetreosexual relationships. It is unclear how this leap of logic is being made and of course the obvious answer is hatred/prejudice

[flagged]

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

#893

Post by dang »

erenyeager wrote: post #849
double2helix wrote: post #606

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…

[flagged]

Please don't take HN threads into hellish flamewars like this. It's not what this site is for, it destroys what it is for, and we ban such accounts.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#894

Post by upsidesinclude »

cypress66 wrote: post #316
upsidesinclude wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Fat obviously refers to someone who has a lot of fat. It's not hard to understand. That a good diet includes some fat is orthogonal.

Most children dont think orthogonally.

"Fat" is an insult. It isnt hard to understand. Is it factually true that an obese person is 'fat', sure. It is still generally regarded as an insult.

Most of these replies are coming from idiots. This is both factual and an insult.

I havent made any remarks defending obesity or suggesting we need to curtail efforts of obese people to control their weight

Calling a character in a kids book "fat" doesnt help kids stay healthy and fit. Insulting and shaming kids doesnt help them stay healthy and fit. Their parents probably feed them garbage and have made poor lifestyle decisions.

It is really simple.

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

#895

Post by watwut »

everybodyknows wrote: post #210
watwut wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new one sounds more like people speak today.

"He who knows only his own time remains forever a child." -Cicero

These are not exactly historical books. They are the kind of books you have no reason to read if they don't sound pleasant to today's ears.

Which is okay, to me it is OK if these books are not read. There are enough other books. But, people selling them will want then to sound like people talk today.

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

#896

Post by watwut »

krona wrote: post #75
watwut wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a lot of them are using modern language instead of anachronisms: > Unsurprisingly given The Witches’ subject matter, many of the edits are to do with depictions of women. “Chambermaid” becomes “cleaner”. “Great flock of ladies” becomes “great group of ladies”. “You must be mad, woman!” becomes “You must be out of your mind!” “The old hag” becomes “the old crow” There is some removing of fat as insult. There is…

Replacing evaluative concepts with sterilized descriptive ones is Newspeak 101.

Not so much sterilized as replacing things that sound odd and archaic. No one, literally no one is using "old hag" as insult. It is not a thing, it sounds funny rather then insult.

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

#897

Post by d-z-m »

A (perhaps) well-intentioned effort, but absolutely counter-productive to the causes that the proponents of changes like this are ostensibly in support of, namely "inclusivity", "social justice" and the like.

I put them in quotes because nowadays, these words are often used as a way of smuggling in changes that are obviously ill-advised, such as revisionist editing of an author's words decades after they were published. This is a slippery slope, and pushback letting Puffin know that this kind of thing is unacceptable should be swift and immediate.

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

#898

Post by RickJWagner »

double2helix wrote: post #606

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…

Straight,conservative guy here. Thank you for offering your opinions. These days I frequently find myself in agreement with gay people offering exactly the same kinds of thoughts (which align with my own). Perhaps when a little more time passes we'll find new political alliances that can help us (and other like-minded people) win political issues together.

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

#899

Post by jamesash »

ominous wrote: post #670
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #632

Earlier 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…

If I understand correctly, you are saying that the parent comment is evidence that the core algorithm for self-selection and other-exclusion are similar regardless of what group the members identify as being a part of. No higher moral principle is in operation here. All that has changed is who/whom.

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

#900

Post by kortilla »

somewhat_drunk wrote: post #875
NoLinkToMe wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit conflicted on this. On the one hand there's an absolute overweight & obesity epidemic, roughly 80% of Americans males are Overweight (35%) or Obese (35% obese, 5% extremely obese)[0]. So obviously, it's not easy to maintain a regular weight as 80% fail. On the other hand these figures are wildly different among humans with similar genetic profiles in other countries, and among humans of the same country 1,…

Agreed. Every Sunday, I cook a large portion of something healthy, and store it in containers to eat throughout the week. This past week, it was chili with beans. The week before, chicken vegetable brown rice soup. The week before, chunky vegetable spaghetti sauce with whole wheat noodles. I've become pretty good at cooking, so it's always tasty, good food. I always get at least six large servings from what I cook, a…

I can’t stand to eat the same meal every day though. That’s the issue I’ve always had when trying meal prep. By Friday I’m ready to hang myself.
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