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LONDON — A decision to change hundreds of words from the late author Roald Dahl’s sprawling collection of children’s books has been condemned by author Salman Rushdie, who called it “absurd censorship”.
He is the latest prominent voice in the heated debate sparked after a report in Britain’s Telegraph on Friday detailed a litany of changes from Dahl’s publisher and the Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the works’ copyright and trademarks , aimed at making the famous books more inclusive and accessible to today’s readers.
“Roald Dahl was no angel, but that’s absurd censorship,” Rushdie, a Booker Prize-winning author, continued Twitter, calls the children’s book from the British publisher Penguin Books. “Puffin Books and the Dahl Estate should be ashamed of themselves.”
Rushdie is one of the most famous authors in the world – whose book “Satanic Verses” was called for in 1989 by the Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to assassinate him and everyone involved in the book. Rushdie was stabbed ten times at an event in New York last year but survived and his latest novel was published this month.
The changes to Dahl’s children’s books were made in collaboration with Inclusive Minds, a collective for people passionate about inclusion, diversity and accessibility in children’s literature, the Roald Dahl Story Company said.
Among the changes, according to the Telegraph: The character of Augustus Gloop from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ is no longer described as ‘fat’. Now he’s being labeled “enormous.” What was described as “a strange African language” in the book The Twits is no longer strange. In “The BFG”, a reference to the “Bloodbottler” character with “auburn” skin has been removed entirely.
Some characters are now gender neutral. The singing and dancing Oompa Loompas from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” were once referred to as “little men”; now they are “little people”. In James and the Giant Peach, the cloud people – mysterious figures who live in the sky – are now known as the cloud people.
Some new lines have been added. In The Witches, a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs has a new sentence: “There are many other reasons women might wear wigs, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.”
The Roald Dahl Story Company said Sunday in an emailed statement that reviewing Dahl’s writing began in 2020 — before the works were acquired by streaming giant Netflix — and that the changes were “small and carefully considered.” .
The company said it wanted to “ensure that Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today” and that the review was a routine process. “When releasing new editions of books written years ago, it’s not uncommon to review the language used while updating other details, including a book’s cover and page layout,” the statement said.
Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of PEN America, said the organization — a nonprofit dedicated to defending and celebrating free speech through the advancement of literature and human rights — was “alarmed by news” about the changes to Dahl’s works and called the move “an alleged attempt to clean the books of anything that might offend anyone.” In one series of tweetsNossel wrote that “literature is meant to be surprising and provocative” and that efforts to eliminate words that might cause offense only “dilute the power of storytelling”.
“If we go down the path of correcting perceived hurts, rather than allowing readers to receive and respond to books as written, we risk distorting the work of great authors and clouding the essential lens that literature offers society “, she said.
Nossel suggested that rather than revising literature and “playing around” with texts, publishers and editors might “offer introductory context that prepares people for what they are about to read and helps them understand the environment in which they are going to read.” whom it was written”.
Others on social media warned of setting a dangerous precedent. “They edit a few books with outdated attitudes, now there are only 400 years of literature left,” said a user in a tweet. “Where do you draw the line here?”
Critics say Dahl’s books are bigoted, racist, sexist and peppered with gratuitous violence. And some writers have found the reaction to the recent changes overdone.
“It’s good to evolve over time,” says Ashley Esqueda, author and pop culture expert. tweeted. “Very tired of the people demanding we stay locked up in their childhood.”
Good God, as I was already seeing the tasteless, performative outrage at Roald Dahl’s estate approving edits to his books, his estate approving this, no one’s forcing them. It’s good to evolve over time. That’s good. Very tired of people demanding we stay locked up in their childhood.
— Ashley Esqueda (@AshleyEsqueda) February 18, 2023
A social media user called They were “very glad to be able to read fuller versions to my little one…I was appalled at the content of some things I read as a child after revisiting them as an adult.”
While Dahl’s writings are world-renowned – with at least 300 million books sold in 58 languages, according to British magazine The Bookseller – Dahl himself is a polarizing figure who has left a complicated legacy. In 1990, months before his death, he described himself as an anti-Semite after years of publicly speaking hostile to Jews in interviews.
Roald Dahl is as disturbing as he is loved. Can’t he be both?
In 2020, Dahl’s family apologized for the writer’s anti-Semitic, “biased statements,” calling some of his phrases “unintelligible.” Relatives said Dahl’s insulting remarks were “in marked contrast to the man we knew”.
Ron Charles in Washington contributed reporting.