Roald Dahl books being censored by publisher

[hal2kilo]

Yes cultural norms change. That doesn't mean we change existing literature to go along with it. And it doesn't matter if Dahl was a shitty person. Should we edit/censor/remove the works of everyone who was a shitty person? Who gets to decide who was shitty enough?

There goes Hemingway.

 

[woolfe9998]

One point though - 'The Daily Telegraph' is basically a right-wing rag for those who think they're better than 'The Daily Mail' readers. Not quite so on-the-nose as TDM, but just as much BS and hate with (generally) better penmanship. I say 'generally' because Boris Johnson is (or maybe just was) a regular writer for them. Having said that, TDT has occasionally done some decent investigative journalism, AFAIK TDM never has.

That may be, but this story turns on easily verifiable facts that can be ascertained by anyone with current and past versions of the books. Given that this is reported by CNN, WaPo, NYT etc. I don't think anything about this story turns on the credibility of that particular publication.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Oh brother, it's the next "Dr. Suess" controversy. I'm sure we'll he hearing about this one on Fucker soon enough. He'll probably spend an entire week on it. And it's kind of bad.

Roald Dahl is the British novelist who wrote, among other things, Charlie and Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. He died in 1990. His publisher has decided to censor his books, by editing out or altering words like"fat"or "ugly." Also, edited out the use of the words black and white to describe...anything. And many other things.

Changes to Roald Dahl's classic children's books spark censorship spat

The news that changes have been made to the works of best-selling children's author Roald Dahl has been met with anger from leading writers, including Booker prizewinner Salman Rushdie, who branded the changes "absurd censorship."

www.cnn.com

Pretty horrid idea in my opinion, to stealth edit works of literature by authors who can't object because they're deceased. Fans of Dahl are pissed, for obvious reasons.

And it gives more fodder to the far right. This kind of shit needs to be squashed. The far right is using stuff like this to overturn democracy. Next to that, the petty concerns of these authoritarian do gooders with their "senstivity" to anything and everything are less than trivial.

Oh, and you can say this is more of a British story, but that doesn't matter to the far right. To them a liberal is a liberal anywhere you find them, and what one is doing in one place they expect the others to do elsewhere.

I was assigned a Roald Dahl story in high-school. I have to be perfectly clear about this: as a Caucasian American, I will throw someone out of my car in the middle of the freeway if they think I should be comfortable with the use of the word "N****r" among so-called white-people out of earshot from those it is most likely to offend. But I was outraged that people wanted Huckleberry Finn pulled off reading lists because it uses the same word in depicting a certain historical period and its culture.

This compels me to comment ever so briefly on Right-wing obsession with school-board meetings and insistence on removing books from libraries or reading lists like "To Catch A Mockingbird". Freedom? This is all about parents wanting to use "N****r" at the dinner table, and thwart public efforts to promote tolerance through education.

It's this simple. As long as young people are barred or discouraged from reading pornography -- the obvious kind -- they are only better for reading more and more books and literature. And Ron DeSantis can go to hell.

It was more than a couple decades ago that some woman in a neighboring school district wanted officials to pull the Merriam-Webster's (abridgement of the 3rd New International Webster's) from classroom bookshelves. She had, from intelligence gathered from her kids, discovered that it contained the phrase and definition for "oral sex".

I'm inclined to believe that people with common sense should impose their values on the colossally stupid. "More is better." Some people should be restricted by the facial application of duct-tape -- as long as they carry around flat-world thinking in the mush between their ears.

 

[Perknose]

And Ron DeSantis can go to hell.

Amen to that, brother!

 

[Perknose]

Amen to that, brother!

I mean, he's already in Florida, so he'll hardly notice the difference.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I mean, he's already in Florida, so he'll hardly notice the difference.

It's the only positive thing I can think of about climate change and sea levels, but there are enclaves of normal folks around Miami and other parts.

Pertaining to Florida wildlife, the latest news bulletin announces the capture of an Alligator in NYC. First thing I can think of is a quote from "Romancing the Stone": "LOOK-a those SNAP-pers!" I suppose I'm glad that the animals are mostly Floridian.

Well . . . . I'm going to look up "oral sex" in my 3rd New International Webster's so I can squeeze my lizard and slap my baloney . . .

 

[Perknose]

Flog that dolphin!

 

[Pens1566]

Well, there are things that I'll never understand, and this is one of them. Earlier today I read that there is a list of books which were banned in Oklahoma schools.
Banning books, changing books, and what is next?

Usually burning ...