In 2023, we will speak to adults as if they were children. “Gna gna gna, gna gna gna”.
And we talk to children as if they were fragile little things. “Gna gna gna, gna gna gna”.
It has become that even children’s books need to be cleaned and rewritten so as not to hurt their little eyes, hurt their little ears, not offend their little minds.
We learned this week that British author Roald Dahl’s books (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, etc.) have been rewritten without nasty words like ‘fat’, ‘man’, ‘black’. Help !
THE WORLD IS MADE “COMMERCIAL”.
The AFP report made me scream: “Offensive terms will be edited and replaced in reprints of several Roald Dahl books. References to weight, mental health, violence, or racial or gender issues are removed from reprints of the author’s various works.
Roald Dahl died in 1990, his books have sold 300 million copies and generations of children have developed their imaginations through reading his books.
Do you remember the character of Augustus Gloop? The gluttonous kid spends his time eating candy and falls into a chocolate river in the fabulous film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – whether you like the 1971 film starring Gene Wilder or the Tim Burton 2005 film starring Johnny Depp – based on Roald Dahl’s book.
This kid was clearly fat. Roald Dahl described him as fat in his book. But the well-meaning little priests are afraid it will hurt the little children of 2023. The word “fat” has been removed from ALL of Dahl’s books.
But that’s not the only absurd change. The Oompa-Loompas are no longer “little men” but “little people”. Wretchedly, these imaginary beings are now sexless?
The most ridiculous change in my opinion was made in the book Holy Witches. Added a phrase to wigs worn by witches: “There are many other reasons women might wear wigs, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”
Especially the fragile little children of 2023 should not associate wearing a wig with being a witch! It would be a way to stigmatize witches!
And in all the books we have replaced the word “crazy” with “weird”.
All because Dahl’s heirs have called on sensibility readers, ‘sensibility readers’, who dig through the books to dig up the smallest word that might shock, hurt, offend.
We will not stop overweight children from being laughed at in the schoolyard by removing the word “fat” from a book. We will not make the obesity pandemic among young people go away by removing the word fat.
All we do is overprotect children and underestimate their intelligence.
We had a narrow escape
The only good news in this whole file is that Gallimard, the French publisher of Roald Dahl’s books, has confirmed that he will keep his books intact without rewriting them.
It made me breathe out a big sigh of relief.
