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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

#921

Post by josephg »

jquery wrote: post #905
josephg wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard a new banger quote from John Stuart Mill the other day: > He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. There's an easy test to see if you understand someone's position in a disagreement. Just summarize their position back to them. They'll tell you if you got it right. > a modicum of sensitivity towards historically disadvantaged minorities is the end of civilization. This absolutely isn't…

I wasn't talking to you, so it's awfully uncharitable of you to assume everyone else disagrees for such "noble" reasons such as yours. When people tell you who they are, believe them.

I do believe people when they tell me who they are. That’s why I find this claim quite uncharitable, and quite unbelievable:

> [HN believes] a modicum of sensitivity towards historically disadvantaged minorities is the end of civilization.

Do you have any evidence? Can you show me the comments where people “tell you who they are”, and say that having “a modicum of sensitivity toward minorities” will be the end of civilisation?

Your comment just reads as a bitter, low effort ad homenim attack.

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

#922

Post by TaylorAlexander »

aflag wrote: post #769
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Doesn't fool fall in the same category?

I think of a fool as someone who makes a bad choice, but this isn’t the same as intelligence. Someone can be very smart and very foolish.

Also a typo made me realize that “tool” is perhaps a good non ableist insult.

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

#923

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#924

Post by SaltyGoodness »

dang wrote: post #888
SaltyGoodness wrote: post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't. In fact, tptacek is right above you making a thinly veiled personal attack at me and others here. What is your relationship to tptacek dang? Every time I see him winding people up, you're there behind him, threatening anyone who stands up.

"Come on guy" and "people have been pointing it out to you for hours now" are rude and personal. Please make your substantive points without swipes. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . I didn't see personal attacks from tptacek. Some of his comments in this thread were edgier than I would like but I didn't see any that broke the site guidelines badly enough to warrant a…

"Come on guy" is "rude and personal"? A "swipe"? Shit. I bumped that down about three levels of rudeness before posting. That's my max.

And people were pointing out tptacek's errors in understanding. How is that rude or personal to state?

Tptacek wouldn't take any of it in, or respond to any of the points made. Instead he threw around actually rude and personal attacks.

> The active ingredient there is "I see".

I'm not "passionate" about tptacek, or HN, or yourself.

However, in your "years of moderation", you've seen plenty of people take issue with tptacek's habit of twisting of people's comments. I know you have. It's a regular sight.

The complaints are generally about issues quite a few steps above "Come on guy." Twisting people's words, personal attacks, wilful ignorance, etc.

So I'm left with the same question as before - what's your relationship exactly? Because it's pretty off-putting to see such bias. It makes me wonder.

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

#925

Post by aikinai »

Zababa wrote: post #911
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,…

It's easier than ever to eat healthy, yet 80% of Americans males are overweight. Something is not right here, either of those statements have to be false.

They can both be true, and they are. It’s easier than ever to eat healthy, but thanks to the same abundance, it’s also easier than ever to eat too much, and most Americans choose the latter.

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

#926

Post by ajross »

nhchris wrote: post #97
ajross wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh. I still think you're just inventing Political Enemies Propagating Horrific Injustice when the simpler explanation is a publisher trying to sell more books. The kinds of edits here simply aren't consistent with the ideas you're trying to ascribe to them. It's just updating stuff like "jobs women do" to match modern standards. It's routine, and it doesn't change the art, and you know that. It's just dumb. It doesn…

> you're just inventing Political Enemies Propagating Horrific Injustice when the simpler explanation is a publisher trying to sell more books. I only described their actions. You're talking about motivation. Though the publisher's motivation matters little when it's the "sensitivity readers" doing all the changes.

FWIW: the "sensitive" people seem to be your cohort, no? Most of us just Don't Care. It's a dumb thing, but it's not a genuine affront to real fans of the art either. I mean, be real: have you actually read Matilda or The BFG to an actual child?

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

#927

Post by Aeolun »

jahnu wrote: post #776
Aeolun wrote: post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it strikes me as totally realistic to have a book with primarily or only queer characters It doesn’t strike me as realistic at all. Queer people need to be able to deal with heteronormative people as much as the reverse. Otherwise you’re just self selecting into ghettos. I don’t think it can really be avoided, but to present it as desirable strikes me as wrong.

There is a massive difference between a ghetto that a group is forced to be in, excluded from the outside world, and a community built where one feels accepted and safe which one can enter and leave at will (free association). As long as outside this community is not properly welcoming and accepting its need to exist will be there. It’s the outside world that needs to change first. Discouraging such communities is ba…

> It’s the outside world that needs to change first.

That is never going to happen if you’re not part of that outside world. Queer people should be normalized, not hidden. Though it’s absolutely true it’ll suck for the ones alive now, it might make it better for the ones born three generations from now.

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

#928

Post by unmole »

pronik wrote: post #884
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.

Forget Steinbeck: what's wrong with Kipling all of the sudden? Or have I missed a big round of canceling?

> what's wrong with Kipling all of the sudden?

You're kidding me, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden

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

#929

Post by s1artibartfast »

Sporktacular wrote: post #917
s1artibartfast wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dangerous in what way? Honest question

So you think editing out offensive wording in fiction is equivalent to changing who the protagonists were in a historical event? That is both silly and a hyperbolic attempt to shutdown a fair discussion that reasonable people might form differing conclusions from. Censorship isn't the only tool against free speech.

That still doesn't explain how the hyperbole is dangerous.

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

#930

Post by prepend »

foldr wrote: post #906
prepend wrote: post #903

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, I don’t object to an author mentioning that a character is gay. And there’s many reasons why an author will describe an internal characteristic and it’s usually either omniscient narrator or first person describing the assumptions that the narrator makes. I’m not referring to that at all as those are natural and not weird at all. For example “I thought Hernando was gay because I’ve always just had a hunch.” Is…

I guess it would be helpful to have a real example of the kind of thing you object to (in the case of gay characters). I'm having trouble understanding what it would look like in the context of an actual narrative, as I don't think I've ever come across anything like it myself.

I don’t remember a specific example of gay, but I gave the example from Lost so that might help you understand the context of an actual narrative.
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