Roald Dahl’s Books Are Rewritten to Cut Potentially Offensive Language
The backlash after Roald Dahl’s works were changed by its publisher. “New editions of the best-selling author’s children’s classics…have been altered to eliminate words deemed inappropriate. A backlash ensued.”
According to the Telegraph, “….Hundreds of words, including descriptions of characters’ appearances, races and genders, had been changed or removed in at least 10 of the author’s 19 children’s books.”
Words such as fat, mothers and fathers have been replaced by more “progressive” language. Among others including Salman Rushdie, Harvard alum and PEN America chief executive, Suzanne Nossel, “said on Twitter that the organization was ‘alarmed’ by the changes and that selective editing could ‘represent a dangerous new weapon… Those who might cheer specific edits to Dahl’s work should consider how the power to rewrite books might be used in the hands of those who do not share their values and sensibilities.”
Related:
Bowdlerizing Roald Dahl (City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple, 2/21/23);
The Rewriting of Roald Dahl Should Disturb Us All (Spiked, 2/19/23)
