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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

#801

Post by kgwgk »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #674
undersuit wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 t…

Fool, silly and goofball are even less subtle.

Useless seems the epitome of ableism, but what do I know - here it’s presented as a good alternative to ableist words:

https://web.augsburg.edu/english/writinglab/Avoiding_Ableist...

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

#802

Post by christkv »

morbia wrote: post #657
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…

Another gay man here. To me it seems like we have this paradoxical situation where the media want to simultaneously present inclusivity and diversity, but don't dare present any of the real diversity for fear of stereotyping. The end result is some token LGBTQ+ characters who are heteronormative, which is disingenuous. If it is a choice between no gay character and some gay character who is essentially 'straight acti…

I find the fact that so many so many gay characters have to be flamboyant. None of my gay friends are anything like that. You would not be able to tell because it’s not the core of their identity, they’ve got more going on.

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

#803

Post by bsaul »

defrost wrote: post #725
bsaul wrote: post #717

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't say you were rewriting it yourself. Only you didn't seem offended at all by that rewrite (which judging by your tone seems just about right).

You said: the educated left [...] what they're initiating with this trend of rewriting classic literature. ie. You literally stated that "the educated left" are "initiating [...] this trend of rewriting" I'd counter by pointing out the vast bulk of "the educated left" are either indifferent or opposed to silent rewrites and I'd also point out that the rewriting of classics goes back a lot further in history than any…

i don't think a majority is "silent or opposed". Otherwise those rewrites wouldn't happen. I think there's a strong push from the most extreme part (as always), but the rest is majoritarely complacent (it probably makes them feel like they're working toward world peace).

I am also not aware of rewrites that aimed at modifying the meaning of classical texts. I've only known of editor concerned about making the original text more understandable, and truthful to the author's intent.

This is widely different.

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

#804

Post by pg_1234 »

chaostheory wrote: post #758
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…

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?"

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

#805

Post by ominous »

DonHopkins wrote: post #783
ominous wrote: post #759

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

I did not admit it. You accused me of it.

And I do not want humanity wiped. I want "if framing cis as oppressors and so as ripe for being dehumanized is considered good, then humanity has nothing of value for the AI to learn from, and so it should wipe us".

I replied to this accusation elsewhere. Giving some time for you people to breathe.

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

#806

Post by frankluntzPOLLS »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #636
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…

[flagged]

hey, you illiterate racist dogshit mongrel https://www.irishpost.com/news/irish-potato-head-mum-asks-ir...

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

#808

Post by alexvoda »

I think the current conflict (as evidenced by how headed the discussion is on this thread) is an artifact of copyright law.

I do not believe anyone would have any issues with creating forked/adapted/refreshed versions of literary works. We do it all the time. No one reads the original Grimm tales to kids because the original versions were gruesome. Many would count as horror. We tell kids adapted versions. But since they are public domain anyone can fork these works and create new versions. There is nothing wrong with updating works to reflect current cultural mores. We always did it and will continue to do it.

The issue is that this is done by copyright holders and the new approved version replaces the old version on the bookshelves because copyright gives them a monopoly on distribution. Unless you find it used, you will no longer be able to buy the old version. Some people want the old version because it is the version they know, it is the version they grew up with and it is the version they want to pass forward and because being a authored work (instead of folk) they want the version the author wrote with all of its cultural artifacts preserved.

To make the conflict clearer, imagine that once Windows 11 (or 8, or Vista) was launched, everyone on Windows 10 (or 7 or XP) would have been force upgraded to the new version and the old version would be deauthorized. Or imagine if copyright was infinite in duration and Disney bought the rights to the Grimm tales and now only the Disney versions are authorized for commercial distribution. You would simply not be able to buy the older version.

To me this makes it even clearer that the length of copyright being longer than the life of the author is an absurdity. Culture does not belong to anyone, it belongs to all of humanity.

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

#809

Post by DonHopkins »

SaltyGoodness wrote: post #751
dang wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't cross into personal attack.

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.

I'd hardly call dang threatening, unless you're threatened by him politely asking you not to break the rules. And you were. If you find being politely asked to follow the rules threatening, you can politely leave.

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

#810

Post by Khaine »

This is a tragedy. Over time, these 'tweaks' will mean the Author's original words are lost to the world.

These changes are a form of censorship and completely make a mockery of literature being Art. Can you imagine someone changing the statue David to have a bigger dick as the small dick is offensive?

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