The Bowdlerized Roald Dahl

[Tuur]

It looks like the works of Roald Dahl are getting a make-over:

Roald Dahl rewritten: the hundreds of changes made to suit a new ‘sensitive’ generation

Quietly and systematically, the author’s entire catalogue has been reworked in a bid for ‘relevancy’

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[DaisyDay]

Buy the originals now, while you can.

 

[Pommer]

It looks like the works of Roald Dahl are getting a make-over:

Roald Dahl rewritten: the hundreds of changes made to suit a new ‘sensitive’ generation

Quietly and systematically, the author’s entire catalogue has been reworked in a bid for ‘relevancy’

www.telegraph.co.uk

Got a snippet for us paywalled-bound folk?

 

[Tuur]

Got a snippet for us paywalled-bound folk?

?
Pay wall?
Hmm...
Interesting. I pulled it up in the browser I'm using for the forum, and I'm seeing a pay wall. I had it pulled up in another that has a script blocker, and the pay wall didn't show up.

Let's see...

Here's another:

Roald Dahl books rewritten to remove language deemed offensive

Augustus Gloop now ‘enormous’ instead of ‘fat’, Mrs Twit no longer ‘ugly’ and Oompa Loompas are gender neutral

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tuur]

Buy the originals now, while you can.

Do you remember Charlie and the Glass Elevator? It was the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Have only read a lengthy excerpt when the book first came out, and it had satire elements that I recall to this day.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Dahl's Revolting Rhymes has been pulled from the shelves of some Florida schools, at least for the time being.

 

[Tuur]

Dahl's Revolting Rhymes has been pulled from the shelves of some Florida schools, at least for the time being.

And?

 

[Pommer]

Oh goodie, another “Oh noes!, they’re changing the language!” thread!?
How delightful!

 

[Goonie]

It looks like the works of Roald Dahl are getting a make-over:

Roald Dahl rewritten: the hundreds of changes made to suit a new ‘sensitive’ generation

Quietly and systematically, the author’s entire catalogue has been reworked in a bid for ‘relevancy’

www.telegraph.co.uk

Capitalism at work. The anti woke brigade will rush to buy the originals before the 'disappear', and the rest of us buys dahl if we want to entertain our children.

 

[Pommer]

Capitalism at work. The anti woke brigade will rush to buy the originals before the 'disappear', and the rest of us buys dahl if we want to entertain our children.

Which version will be allowed to live in the enclave of the end of Fahrenheit 451?

 

[Tuur]

Which version will be allowed to live in the enclave of the end of Fahrenheit 451?

Oddly, Fahrenheit 451 was Bradbury's take on television. Once, when he told this in a lecture to college students, they argued that he, the author, was wrong and it was about censorship.

My first thought on reading about this was "Han shot first." Except the changes in the first Star Wars film was by Lucas himself. These changes are after Dahl's death.

 

[Tuur]

Oh goodie, another “Oh noes!, they’re changing the language!” thread!?
How delightful!

Maybe this one is the bowdlerized version.

 

[Goonie]

Oddly, Fahrenheit 451 was Bradbury's take on television. Once, when he told this in a lecture to college students, they argued that he, the author, was wrong and it was about censorship.

My first thought on reading about this was "Han shot first." Except the changes in the first Star Wars film was by Lucas himself. These changes are after Dahl's death.

Its to go with the netflix roald dahl adaptations on streaming, where changes to the text are inevitable.

I wonder whether they wil be still publishing the original texts as well, i suspect so.

 

[Tuur]

Oh goodie, another “Oh noes!, they’re changing the language!” thread!?
How delightful!

Chandler's Uncle Remus stories also come to mind, When my children were young, I bought a collection of his stories as it looked like they would be lost. One of the things that makes the stories difficult for some is that Chandler recorded dialect as well as the stories. Have heard some objection to that, but I remember people who talked in these dialects. To "clean up" the dialect portions so that they're more acceptable is to lose something.

 

[essentialsaltes]

And?

If Roald Dahl is objectionable to one Florida parent, maybe this self-censorship of his entire works is the best way for Dahl's copyright holders to respond.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Dahl had been known to make some of these changes himself: Roald Dahl's books have been edited to stop calling people fat so much

In the first edition of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” published in 1964, the Oompa-Loompas helping Willy Wonka were originally described as African Pygmy people whom Wonka had “smuggled” out of Africa in crates to live and work in his factory. Facing pressure from Black actors and groups such as the NAACP after America’s Civil Rights era, the 1971 film made the Oompa-Loompas orange-skinned with green hair. In a 1973 revision of the book, Dahl recast the Oompa-Loompas as white and fantastical instead of Black and African.​

 

[DaisyDay]

Dahl had been known to make some of these changes himself: Roald Dahl's books have been edited to stop calling people fat so much

In the first edition of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” published in 1964, the Oompa-Loompas helping Willy Wonka were originally described as African Pygmy people whom Wonka had “smuggled” out of Africa in crates to live and work in his factory. Facing pressure from Black actors and groups such as the NAACP after America’s Civil Rights era, the 1971 film made the Oompa-Loompas orange-skinned with green hair. In a 1973 revision of the book, Dahl recast the Oompa-Loompas as white and fantastical instead of Black and African.​

And in the latest version, they are no longer Oompa-Loompa men, but Oompa-Loompa people. People are no longer "fat", merely "enormous".

 

[All Englands Skies]

Dahl had been known to make some of these changes himself: Roald Dahl's books have been edited to stop calling people fat so much

In the first edition of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” published in 1964, the Oompa-Loompas helping Willy Wonka were originally described as African Pygmy people whom Wonka had “smuggled” out of Africa in crates to live and work in his factory. Facing pressure from Black actors and groups such as the NAACP after America’s Civil Rights era, the 1971 film made the Oompa-Loompas orange-skinned with green hair. In a 1973 revision of the book, Dahl recast the Oompa-Loompas as white and fantastical instead of Black and African.​

Either way, Willy Wonka uses modern slavery.

I always knew his Chocolate factory was unethical.

 

[Landon Caeli]

It's a good thing, because I was just about to 'cancel' Dahl books.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Capitalism at work. The anti woke brigade will rush to buy the originals before the 'disappear', and the rest of us buys dahl if we want to entertain our children.

If I understand copyright law enough, the modified versions now have a new copyright clock running...