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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

#951

Post by knighthack »

pg_1234 wrote: post #804
chaostheory wrote: post #758

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the world of Fahrenheit 451, Captain Beatty explains to Montag why books were banned. He says that before books were banned, they caused many societal problems. Beatty claimed that because there were so many different types of people in society, almost any book could be seen as offensive to any particular group of people. For this reason, authors began to water down their content so it was innocuous, and offended…

It really ought to be illegal to rewrite a book and portray it as the original authors work. If you want to make your version ... assuming copyright allows ... sure ... just don't pretend it is the work of the original author. Imagine if people did this to laws: "we re-wrote it to suit our prejudices, but since we published it as if it was the original work ... thats all ok ... right?"

> It really ought to be illegal to rewrite a book and portray it as the original authors work.

They're already doing it with TV shows. Look at the Witcher TV series for instance - which has strayed quite far from the source material.

Even the author (Andrzej Sapkowski) has denounced his relationship to it, yet they're claiming it somehow to still have his blessing, and still be be 'The Witcher'.

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

#952

Post by bazoom42 »

fennecfoxy wrote: post #940
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…

Also a gay man & I disagree that we have "normalised" gay in current pop culture. We really haven't. It used to be that gay characters were written as overly feminine, by straight writers bc we were being used as a joke. Actual gay writers in the industry now also write...exactly the same femmy characters into stuff (as someone working on theatre/media industry is quite likely to be a more fem gay). What I want to se…

> It used to be that gay characters were written as overly feminine, by straight writers

Are you sure this was always straight writers? It might also be gay creators using certain tropes to sneak in gay-coded characters without stating it outright.

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

#953

Post by bazoom42 »

Aeolun wrote: post #722
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…

> 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.

Surely that depends on the setting? In any case, nobody complains that fiction contains too many policemen, detectives or cowboys compared to the average distribution in society.

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

#954

Post by bazoom42 »

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…

I started watching a tv-show, but turned it off since almost all of the characters were policemen. I found this very fake and unrealistic sine policemen are only a small fraction of the population.

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

#955

Post by oblio »

Animats wrote: post #932
oblio wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-repressiv...

Have You been Really Useful today? Awdry and Dahl were from the days when men were men, women were women, and the sun never set on the British Empire. That's going to upset some people.

> and the sun never set on the British Empire

"because God doesn't trust Brits in the dark".

See, I can play the witty quotes game, too.

Not that I added much of value with this comment.

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

#956

Post by stuckinhell »

ajross wrote: post #926
nhchris wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

If you didn't care, you wouldn't be commenting here, and you also insult another Hackernews User over "caring".

Do you actually understand your own emotional reaction or are you trying to use a gross rhetorical trick here ?

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

#957

Post by red-iron-pine »

josephg wrote: post #563
SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing with hogwarts legacy is that the minorities who are affected are like 1% of the population. Even if 100% of them loudly proclaimed anything anywhere on any social media platform, it would barely affect anything simply because they’re so small compared to the rest of the population. This is in the same sense that only a minority of the population are severely immunocompromised to the point where Covid is sti…

I think I disagree with both of your points: > There’s simply no possible way for a minority of such a small size to make any waves happen anywhere, not even on anything as small as a popular video game. There's an old quote - "Never assume a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. Its the only thing that ever has." The radical left - for all that they're championing the rights of a small group o…

> - Authors like Roald Dahl are having their work retroactively edited to "meet modern norms".

This was done by his estate, as a way to sell more books and/or to get it made as a netflix series. Capitalism drove this decision, not 'wokeness'

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

#958

Post by jahnu »

Aeolun wrote: post #927
jahnu wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I disagree because history has shown this is the way it goes. For example, it did happen for gay men to a large extent in the western world. This is a gross generalisation for the sake of discussion on here, but until recent decades almost all gay men had to hide and needed spaces where they could just be themselves with like minded and mostly gay people. The outside world eventually changed and then these spaces became more open to non gay people. Not everyone in those communities was happy with that but many felt it was the price to pay for general acceptance and improved equality. See what happened to the Castro area gay bars in S.F. and the debates about the fact that they became popular with straight people once being gay became accepted in general society.

The idea isn’t that marginalised groups should hide and not mingle at all but that they should have a refuge they can retreat to because the outside world is too harsh right now.

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

#959

Post by robjan »

bla3 wrote: post #431
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.

I'm neither credible nor reputable, but I'm in favor of a weak version of this. When reading older books to my young child, I replace language that suggests that women are supposed to stay at home and men are supposed to go to work. One day soon he'll be able to read, and at that point I'll wish that books that were a product of their time would have been updated for the current time, so that he could just read the b…

Wouldn't a preface achieve a similar outcome without changing the original work? The conversation about things having changed is valuable as it demonstrates how society is progressing.

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

#960

Post by slothtrop »

soheil wrote: post #949
slothtrop wrote: post #276

Earlier 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…

If you're right then "able-ist" itself would be an insult and won't be allowed, thus it won't be possible to disallow insults. qed

Able-ist is a criticism.
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