Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

telegraph.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

911–920 of 992 posts

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

#911

Post by Zababa »

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #786
throwaway049 wrote: post #734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really quite difficult to lose weight and keep it off. Certainly cheaper than dentistry, but still difficult. I read a book called 'Fat Chance' that goes into the science of why it's difficult.

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.

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

#912

Post by cscurmudgeon »

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…

Turns out the left doesn’t need to ban books. They just rewrite them.

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

#913

Post by mecha_ghidorah »

Izkata wrote: post #700
oblio wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine past highscool, or the last education level with mandatory book reading, book reading falls off a cliff. And ever for mandatory book reading,I guess about half of students just read some kind of notes instead of the actual book.

I'd put it at middle school. In highschool plenty of students rely on Cliff Notes or whatever the current equivalent is.

To be fair a lot of students don't bother to read books school assigns as textsx because the way schools run things actually reading, engaging, and thinking about it is a disadvantage. There are certain themes and points your teachers want you to mention in your answers and any analysis outside of that will be considered "incorrect" or given lower marks, even if they relate to the text and the theme being studied.

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

#914

Post by Sporktacular »

josephg wrote: post #480
Sporktacular wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those stories are allegorical or are reinterpreted in future, inspiring a new generation of anti-semites, then the vitality of the author quickly becomes irrelevant.

Is Matilda allegorical? Can you give me an example from the text? We don't get to control how people in the future will reinterpret the stories we have today. People in the future could reinterpret anything. That's their right, once we've moved on. At a practical level, it makes no sense to live in the shadow of future generations' judgement. We're going to earn their scorn regardless. And so will they, if humanity s…

That's up to you but I think I'd be very concerned about my part in publishing what later went on to incite acts of hatred. I believe Matilda does not promote anything like that, but it's only by considering it in context that I would have thought to look for it and make that determination. Caring about it doesn't automatically mean wanting to see the work censored, or worse, silently modified. But personally if I saw a problem like that I wouldn't want to be involved in the publication or promotion of it.

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

#915

Post by Sporktacular »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #324
Sporktacular wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really what you think the wokeness warriors want - historical revisionism?

Well yeah. It already is taken as fact in many circles that the primary purpose and intent of the American legal system and government was the subjugation of minorities. While I think there is some value and truth in critical analysis of race, gender, or governance that challenge prevailing assumptions, many people have lost the plot and positive context entirely. They mistake the exceptions for the rule and the flaw…

Can you please provide a (credible or somehow representative) source claiming that the primary purpose and intent of the American legal system and government was the subjugation of minorities.

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

#916

Post by mecha_ghidorah »

nprateem wrote: post #859
TomK32 wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police is still is racist around the globe and the Indiana Jones movie was set in the 1930 when the world was a lot more racist. Setting movies in those eras and places without depicting racism wouldn't feel right either?

Police Academy isn't meant to be a documentary :D And it wasn't the depiction due to the time period the Indy film was set in that made it racist, it's the depiction of Indians as primitives who eat monkey brains and all that rubbish. It was just a trope in the '80s. If they aren't from the West, they must be primitives, etc.

It doesn't present Indians as privatives who eat Monkey Brains.... the villains in the movie eat monkey brains, and are Indian, but the villagers who have had their sacred artifacts stolen by those villains aren't eating anything like that. It isn't presented as "typical" or "usual" or anything like that. Not to mention said people eating those things aren't portrayed as primitive at all - they're in a grand palace, and several of the guests there are clearly meant to be educated and have posh accents and such.

It's like saying the movie implies Indians can rip your heart out of your chest if they chant "Kali ma shakta di" or anything like that.

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

#917

Post by Sporktacular »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #609
KyeRussell wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as this is an obvious joke, it’s lazy and dangerous. Quite easily distinguishable from what this post is about. Conflating rewriting history with treating historical fictional works as living documents are two separate things, that deserve separate space for debate.

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.

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

#918

Post by xupybd »

wcerfgba wrote: post #784
hugh-avherald wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it went something like this: There were studies into shaming of overweight individuals concluded it was a poor method for weight loss. This mutated into the idea that anti-shaming must be good for health and the idea that we should not implicitly shame fat people in general. In general, I suspect these kinds of cultural phenomena generally begin by fairly mundane scientific observations being processed thro…

Shaming is bad for health, there is a phenomena called minority stress https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10865-019-00120-6

Yes but not all criticism is shaming. There is tremendous value in learning how to take negative feedback without letting it get you down. It's not easy but it's valuable.

I'm surprised in the direction we've headed. Instead of encouraging people to develop the ability to give and receive constructive criticism we've demonized it.

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

#919

Post by Sporktacular »

remote_phone wrote: post #346
Sporktacular wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really what you think the wokeness warriors want - historical revisionism?

Yes. Look at the 1619 project. Historical revisionism is exactly what that is all about.

Revisionism tries to change facts. 1619 is another interpretation of history that can coexist with others. No one stops you from teaching or believing the traditional narrative.

From Forbes: Jonathan Zimmerman, an educational historian at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that teaching “The 1619 Project” alongside other interpretations of history “represents a huge opportunity to teach students what history actually is: an act of interpretation.”

This is typical conservative misrepresentative simplification and wailing overreaction. Also see "They want to take away our hamburgers".

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

#920

Post by rootusrootus »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #865
rootusrootus wrote: post #855

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" is a classic coming-of-age story of a gay man in the modern world. I don't know a single actual person who saw the film in that light. I can find references to the hypothesis online, but it seems like an incredible reach to me. More like an excellent demonstration of the human brain's ability to see patterns everywhere, even when they don't actually exist. E.g. conspiracy theories. > "B…

https://youtu.be/1it8-y4gWwg Activist cast and crew. Especially Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick Sargent. No mistaking it. Agnes Moorehead and Paul Lynde are gay icons from before anyone could be gay.

> Agnes Moorehead and Paul Lynde are gay icons from before anyone could be gay.

That may be true, though neither one ever claimed to be gay, and both are long dead. Yes, it was perhaps a bad time to be gay. But it is still just speculation, and seems really unfair. If they died in the closet, then they earned the right to stay there forever.

Post reply on HN